Welcome to our guide for reading in English! This guide for reading in English is designed to help teachers of English or language teacher trainees achieve a deeper understanding of the process of reading in a foreign language and to become good reading teachers. It provides a wide variety of resources - from theoretical articles about various aspects of reading in English to practical ideas for use in the classroom, all written by authors who are leading experts in their fields or who have a great interest in the topic.
Our point of departure has been the LK06 and what is stated about reading in English as a basic skill: "Being able to read English is part of the practical language competence and means being able to read and understand, to explore and reflect upon increasingly more demanding texts and thus gain insight across cultures and disciplines. Developing reading skills in English also improves general reading skills" (LK06).
The guide is divided into three major sections: first, a theoretical section, second, examples of lesson plans and third, suggested literature for the different age groups. The table of contents is shown in the menu to the left. The guide is mostly written in English, but there are also some articles in Norwegian. Notice that even though most practical ideas are in the lesson plans, articles also contain good ideas for classroom practise.
This is the first edition of the guide. However, being an electronic document, it will be continuously supplemented with articles and resources.
We hope that the guide will be a valuable resource for all language teachers!
Where is the children's section?
Reading is like an infectious disease: it is caught not taught. (And you can't catch it from someone who hasn't got it...) - Christine Nuttall (1983:192)
Thanks to all researchers, teacher educators, teachers and others who have contributed to the guide!
We encourage everybody to contribute to our guide in reading; this can be a lesson plan, a book you have used or come across, a link to a good website or an article about reading, etc.. Contact details
Editors: Johanne Ostad and Karin Dahlberg Pettersen, Fremmedspråksenteret Web design and publishing: Karin Dahlberg Pettersen. August 2009.