HOME READING: PROBLEMS AND WAYS OF SOLUTION

Valerii Bohdan, Berdiansk, Ukraine

The analysis of belles-lettres, scientific and special texts revealed that it is fiction that has significant linguistic and methodical potential for teaching grammatical phenomena, enriching vocabulary, developing oral communication skills and forming sociocultural competence of students. However, despite its considerable importance, far too little attention has been paid to home reading both by researchers and methodologists. So its potential has not been realised fully yet [3, 4], which lead to the insufficiency and unsystematic character of the existing methodological support and conducting home reading classes according to outdated patterns. Recently, however, the attempts have been made to adopt a different approach to this academic discipline, which would allow to optimize the use of time in class and improve its efficiency [1, 3, 4, 6].

Teachers of foreign languages are very much aware of the problem of shortage of coursebooks for reading modern literature. The existing materials by both domestic and foreign authors are mainly based on the classic stories and novellas. A few methodological works based on the contemporary Anglo-American literature are far from satisfactory for a number of reasons. They are often limited to a brief methodological text support that is insufficient for a comprehensive study of a text.

The suggested home reading coursebook [1] is designed for upper-intermediate or advanced college students in the third, fourth or fifth year of study at Foreign Languages Departments or Philological Faculties who have chosen English as a major. It can also be used in parallel with the existing textbooks as supplementary class material or as independent reading.

The development of reading and speaking skills as well as expansion and development of active vocabulary of students as well as their intercultural competence is the main purpose of this coursebook. The coursebook contains the system of wide variety of practice exercises to the original text of the novel The Pelican Brief by John Grisham, a famous master in the genre of a legal thriller.

The coursebook comprises 13 units which provide practice in reading, use of English, speaking and writing. Each unit includes 2 – 4 chapters of the novel. A typical sequence begins with Comments on the text of the unit (providing interesting factual information of country-specific character), Comprehension Check exercises (testing how well the learners understand the course of the story, Active Vocabulary and Grammar Work exercises (giving the targeted vocabulary special emphasis, including both individual words and common phrases. There is also a deliberate focus on word building) and Additional Activities (offering more challenging and contrastive practice in speaking or guided writing).

Among the ten rather big exercises of the units there are open and closed task formats, namely:

Comprehension check

For each statement (1 to 15) the learners must choose one correct answer (true, false, or doesn’t say. In addition, students must correct the wrong statements; to give answers to the questions on the text.

Active vocabulary and grammar work

To find correspondence, to remember the situations in which certain lexis from the active vocabulary was used and give their own examples with it, to fill the gaps, to find English or Ukrainian equivalent phrases, to find in the text certain nouns, adjectives or adverbs relating to the to the given word with a common root, and to do a crossword puzzle. The latter task is dedicated to the mastery of legal terminology.

Additional activities

Those are tasks to develop speaking skills and teach students the basics of literary text analysis. Here the main emphasis is put on tasks, the aim of which is individual work. They stimulate thinking process and, therefore, develop communication skills of students while expressing their personal attitude to a text and its characters orally or in writing. That is each unit ends with a creative activity task (to talk about a certain event on behalf of a certain character, to hold a press conference, to tell a sensational news story (to write a news ticker or a short reportage, etc.). Based on the content of the Comprehension Check section, it appeals to students’ personal experience and opinions, invites to discuss polemical topics. Many questions require the search for additional country-specific information, expanding reader’s cultural horizons.

The originality of the coursebook resides in the presence in the exercises of colloquial words and expressions that are common in modern English. This layer of vocabulary is largely absent in classic university textbooks, but it is commonly used in everyday life, literature, films, the Internet, etc.

Of course, the range of tasks can be expanded, taking into account the level of language proficiency of each separate group of students (see, for example, a great variety of practice exercises, interesting ideas and useful tips for working with home reading coursebooks in the materials of the British Council, Macmillan Publishers, Penguin Readers and many others [7; 10; 11; 12; 13].

Part one of the coursebook ends with A Short Glossary of Legal Terms Used in the Novel that can be really useful for law majors or those who has been actively interested in law problems.

Part two of the coursebook [2] contains tests and answers keys to all the exercises with a direct reference to the relevant pages of the novel, which greatly facilitates the work on the educational material.

References

1. Богдан В. В. Практикум з домашнього читання за романом Дж. Грішема «Справа про пеліканів» : [навч. посіб.] / В. В. Богдан. – Ч. 1. – Бердянськ : ФО-П Ткачук О.В., 2014. – 152 с.

2. Богдан В. В. Практикум з домашнього читання за романом Дж. Грішема «Справа про пеліканів» : [навч. посіб.] / В. В. Богдан. – Ч. 2. – Бердянськ : ФО-П Ткачук О.В., 2015. – 148 с.

3. Євченко В.В. Використання домашнього читання як засобу формування комунікативної компетенції студентів / В.В. Євченко, Сидоренко С.І. – Режим доступу : http://studentam.net.ua/content/view/8392/97/ .

4. Кульчицька О. Домашнє читання як інтегративний компонент навчання іноземній мові у вищій педагогічній школі / Кульчицька О., Лисенко О., Глазиріна В. // Нові підходи до створення учбово-методичних комплексів для викладання другої іноземної мови // Філологічні студії. – Луцьк : Волинський державний університет ім. Лесі Українки, 2004 р. – Вип. 3. – С. 68-73.

5. Персональний сайт Джона Грішема [Електронний ресурс]. – Режим доступу http://www.jgrisham.com/bio/ .

6. Рябих М.В. Оптимізація проведення занять з домашнього читання студентів молодших курсів / М.В. Рябих, М.О. Князєва. – Режим доступу : http://dspace.univer.kharkov.ua/bitstream/123456789/6478/2/10rmvsmk.pdf .

7. Clandfield L. Using Readers in the ESL, EFL Classroom / [Електронний ресурс] / Lindsay Clandfield, Jo Budden. – Режим доступу : http://www.onestopenglish.com/section.asp?docid=146513 .

8. Falla T. Solutions Upper-Intermediate. Student's Book / Tim Falla, Paul A. Davies – Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2009. – 144 p.

9. Grisham J. The Pelican Brief / John Grisham – N.Y. : Dell Publishing, 1993 – 436 p.

10. Houltby J. Reading aloud / [Електронний ресурс] / James Houltby [Електронний ресурс]. – Режим доступу : http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles/reading-out-loud .

11. Stanley G. Extensive reading / [Електронний ресурс] / Graham Stanley [Електронний ресурс]. – Режим доступу : http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles/extensive-reading .

12. Using Graded Readers / Teaching English // BRITISH COUNCIL BBC [Електронний ресурс]. – Режим доступу : http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/language-assistant/teaching-tips/using-graded-readers-0 .

13. Using Graded Readers in the Classroom / Macmillan Readers [Електронний ресурс]. – Режим доступу : http:// www.macmillanenglish.com