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[restrict]The new style of inlingua language training involves integrating reading and listening (and sometimes writing) into a lesson.
Many trainers will instinctively ask one of the learners to read a text aloud while the others listen. This is derived from the underlying feeling that there should be some audible activity present in the classroom (after all speaking is still the main skill we focus on) and an ingrained disposition to keep TTT to a minimum. However let’s examine exactly what skills the learners are acquiring here.

The learner reading is practicing reading aloud and the other learners are practicing reading whilst listening. Are these useful everyday skills? Well unless you have a class full of would-be TV or radio news presenters or are exemplifying pronunciation of particular words or phrases, then probably not. So, what do we mean by ‘reading skills’ and how can the learners acquire them? The most useful reading skills are reading for general understanding, reading for specific information and, for our purposes, reading for detail. Let’s take a closer look.

Reading for general understanding

It is important here that the learners know why they are reading, so make sure you give them a task in advance. It is a good policy to create interest first and check the understanding of some of the more difficult words or expressions before you begin the reading. Do not over do this, however, as one of the abilities learners need to nurture is understanding meaning in context. Typical questions for general understanding might be ‘where is Jan living at the moment’ ‘where is she planning to move to’ ‘what will she take with her’. Learners should read the text or part of the text quickly. It is a good idea to give a time limit for the activity so they do not labor over lexical items, but rather read through the text simply to understand what it is about. Once you have established the answers to the general questions, you could ask the learners to read the text again, this time focusing on specific information.

Reading for specific information

Encourage the learners to extract some factual information like ‘what is the cost of a one-way ticket’ or ‘how long is she planning to live abroad’.
Like this, learners learn to practice the reading skills we use for everyday purposes like reading a news article (general understanding) or looking for the price of heating oil (specific information).

Reading for detail

Sometimes we want to focus on a particular feature of a text. This may be looking for common collocations, focusing on sentence construction or simply to determine for whom the article was written.
Usually, these ‘micro skills’ are done in the order as discussed, but it is also possible to experiment by focusing on details in the text before it has been read or asking the learners to extract specific information before reading for general understanding. Try it out!

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