Teacher & Parent Workshop: The Power of Reading (03/05/2011)
| Venue | ： | Exhibition Hall, Tsimshatsui Book Centre, Shops B1007-1010, B1/F., Miramar Shopping Centre, 132 Nathan Road, Tsimshatsui |
| Speaker | ： | Dr. Stephen Krashen |
| Host | ： | Christa Tam |
| Organiser | ： | Blooming Club |
Review
"Reading for pleasure is the source of our reading ability," said Dr. Stephen Krashen shortly after his workshop "The Power of Reading" began on 3 May 2011. This was exciting news for Blooming Club since it came from the expert in the field of linguistics, specializing in theories of language acquisition; it is because we have been trying to help children to discover the pleasure of reading.
What Dr. Krashen was saying was an answer to parents and teachers who wonder if reading merely for pleasure does children any good! How is that going to help them pass their test? That's the main concern for most parents in Hong Kong. Dr. Stephen Krashen, Professor Emeritus of Learning and Instruction at the University of Southern California, shared his findings from his studies and case histories with about 70 attendees most of whom were teachers, students and parents passionate about reading.
Dr. Krashen started off by saying it's Free Voluntary Reading (FVR) that is the source of reading ability, writing style, vocabulary size, much of spelling and complex grammar. To put it simply, it's the kind of reading that we do all the time, including our bedtime reading which we enjoy and are almost addicted to that really counts. Isn't it great news that for language and literacy development, the path to success with reading is all about pleasure?
A very important study by Elley & Mangubhai in 1983 on grades 4 & 5 students of English as second language in Fiji on the differences between Audio Lingual Method (i.e. traditional method focusing on grammar and spelling) Sustained Silence Reading and Shared Reading showed that Shared Reading's improvement (in reading age) of 15 months was much bigger than Sustained Silent Reading's 9 months and Audio Lingual Method of 2.5 months in a period of two years. Students were better in writing, listening and grammar. The reason is that if one reads a lot, there is no choice but to become a good and coherent writer because the language is subconsciously absorbed and one begins to write like a reader.
He cited several famous people who credited different sources as the inspiration to their personal love of reading e.g. Bishop Desmond Tutu who once said: "one of the things that I am most grateful to "my father" for is that, contrary to educational principles, he allowed me to read comics. I think that's how I developed my love for English and for reading." Dr. Krashen, a lover of comics himself, gave his seal of approval to reading comics as it will pave the way for further reading.
If FVR is so important to language acquisition, how are we going to get children to read? Reading aloud materials which are slightly more complicated than their actual reading level to children is a good way to turn them into readers. Dr. Krashen emphasized that the focus should be on enjoying the stories and the language will come naturally later. Studies also showed that children who are read to outperform in any tests.
According to Jim Trelease, there are "home run books" which will trigger off some children to read. Once they have found the ones they enjoy they will become readers. In America, for a lot of children a winning title is Charlotte's Web, in Korea in the past few years for learners of English as foreign language it's Twilight. So it's a matter of finding one's own "home run books".
However, not all children are able to have access to books. Studies by Smith, Constantino and Krashen showed that the number of books available to children in Beverley Hills at home were 200, while it is 0.4 in a poor area called Watts; and in the classroom libraries there were 400 new books in the former and only 50 old books in the latter. Luckily, according to a study by Keith Curry Lance, the better the libraries the higher reading scores. The presence of public libraries makes up for the lack of books in poor homes. The encouraging news is that in a study by Dr. Krashen, SY Lee and J. McQuillan in 2010 libraries are better than ever for readers to use.
Much to our audience's delight, the benefits of reading for pleasure go even beyond language acquisition and academic success. Tests show that older people who read more do better on tests of mental agility. The great thing is that it can be combined with two other ways of preventing or delaying the onset of dementia: bilingualism and coffee which very likely make it even more effective (and pleasurable!).
We thank Dr. Krashen for his interesting and insightful talk and Bring-Me-A-Book for co-organizing the workshop. To learn more about Dr. Krashen's work, visit www.sdkrashen.com; to find out more about Bring Me a Book Hong Kong, go to www.bringmeabook.org.hk.
