PREFACE
Foundations: Reading Skills is a four-level-reading textbook for students of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) who have a basic knowledge of English. It is designed primarily to help students prepare for studying in English–medium academic courses.
Foundations: Reading Skills is made up of ten thematically-based units, each of which contains two readings. Skill-building and vocabulary-building activities accompany each reading.
An important goal of Foundations: Reading Skills is to help students become confident readers by increasing their vocabulary base and improving their word-comprehension skills. It engages them in the process of reading thoughtfully and encourages them to move beyond merely passive reading. To accomplish this, the BOOK addresses the reading process in a direct manner, and various reading and vocabulary skills are presented as part of that process. The instruction and practice with reading skills help students increase their reading fluency, and equip them with skills they need for academic achievement. Focus on vocabulary-building promotes their language acquisition and academic advancement. Also, the lexical and syntactic content of the readings has been controlled.
The tasks are varied, accessible, and engaging, and they provide stimuli for frequent student-teacher and student-student interaction. Student awareness of reading and thinking processes is further encouraged in many parts of the BOOK by exercises which require students to WORK in pairs or small groups. In discussions with others, students formulate and articulate their ideas more precisely, and so they acquire new ways of talking and thinking about a text. These activities present OPPORTUNITIES for real-world contact and real-world use of language. Students are asked to write, and then to read each other’s WORK so they can experience the connection between reading and writing.
Traditionally reading classes are based on one of two approaches: in one approach, class time is primarily spent with students doing individual reading and exercise-completion; in the other, class time is devoted to group discussions of the reading and exercise-completion. Because both approaches are important, this BOOK integrates them by alternating reading activities with speaking and/or writing activities.
Within each unit, students will not only practice reading, but they will also receive instruction in various skills and strategies incorporated into the reading process.
The basic format of each unit in Foundations: Reading Skills is as follows:
Before Reading
These pre-reading questions serve to introduce the topic of the reading and get students thinking about that topic. Activating prior knowledge allows students to tap into what they already know and then build on that knowledge, and stirs curiosity. The questions allow students to interact with each other.
Vocabulary Preview
A number of key words which are common in everyday and academic English are explained in simple English. These are followed by a fill-in-the-blanks exercise to make sure that students understand the words and can use them in context. Understanding is crucial to language acquisition.
Scanning and Skimming
In this section students are asked to scan the reading for specific information, or to skim it for main ideas and other general information.
After Reading
In this section a variety of skill-building and vocabulary-building exercises is introduced: determining the main idea; understanding reading structure; guessing meaning from context; recognizing contextual reference; finding topics and topic sentences; understanding signal terms; making an outline; understanding cause and effect; comparison and contrast; exemplification; classification; understanding parts of speech;
understanding antonyms and synonyms, etc. These dynamic skill and vocabulary acquisition exercises ensure that students will develop and acquire the important reading skills and vocabulary needed to make them good readers.
Each unit concludes with discussion questions designed to encourage students to think about, distill, and exchange views about the information they have been presented with throughout the unit. Following the discussion, the students are sometimes requested to write down answers to the discussion questions, a place for students to reflect in writing on the learning in the unit.
Contents
Unit 1: How the Library Became Public page 1
Reading Selections: Part 1: The Carnegie Libraries page 1
Part 2: Library Science page 10
Reading Skills and Strategies: identifying paragraph topics and main ideas, recognizing supporting details, understanding reference
Critical Thinking Skills: summarizing paragraphs
Building Vocabulary: previewing vocabulary, filling in the blanks, guessing meaning from context, focusing on high-frequency words
Language Skills: discussing uses and functions of libraries and relating the readings to
personal situations
Unit 2: Electronic Multimedia and Teenagers page 16
Reading Selections: Part 1: Cell phones page 16
Part 2: The Media Generation page 26
Reading Skills / Strategies: predicting, identifying reading structure, identifying paragraph topics and main ideas, identifying supporting details, understanding the reading, skimming for paragraph topics and main ideas, summarizing paragraphs
Critical Thinking Skills: understanding cause and effect
Building Vocabulary: previewing vocabulary, filling in the blanks, recognizing synonyms, guessing meaning from context, focusing on high-frequency words
Language Skills: discussing cell phones and the media generation and relating the readings to a broader view
Unit 3: How Can I remember? page 34
Reading Selections: Part 1: How Memory WORKS page 34
Part 2: Memory Strategies page 43
Reading Skills / Strategies: scanning for specific information, identifying main ideas, identifying the main idea of the reading, identifying supporting details, understanding
reference, choosing a topic for the reading, identifying paragraph topics,
understanding the reading
Critical Thinking Skills: understanding exemplification, making an outline,
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Contents
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Vocabulary Building: previewing vocabulary, filling in the blanks, guessing meaning from context, identifying nouns and verbs, recognizing vocabulary categories,
focusing on high-frequency words, identifying antonyms
Language Skills: discussing memory and relating the reading to personal situations and
wider views
Unit 4: Sleep Is Not a Luxury page 53
Reading Selections: Part 1: The Importance of Sleep page 53
Part 2: Sleep Disorders page 61
Reading Skills / Strategies: identifying the main idea, correcting false statements, skimming for paragraph topics and main ideas, paraphrasing
Critical Thinking Skills: understanding definitions
Vocabulary Building: previewing vocabulary, filling in the blanks, guessing meaning from context, identifying synonyms and antonyms, recognizing nouns and
verbs
Language Skills: discussing sleep and its disorders and relating the readings to a wider
view
Unit 5: Revision of Unit 1 to 4 page 70
Reading Selection: The Silk Road page 74
Reading Skills / Strategies: scanning for specific information, identifying the main idea of the reading, understanding the reading
Critical Thinking Skills: understanding chronological order
Vocabulary Building: vocabulary preview, high frequency words list, filling in the blanks, noun and verb pairs, matching synonyms and antonyms, making a sentence, guessing meaning from context, focusing on high-frequency words
Language Skills: discussing the silk road
Unit 6: The Brain Exchange page 83
Reading Selections: Part 1: Brain Drain page 83
Part 2: The Brain Gain page 95
Reading Skills / Strategies: predicting, understanding the reading structure, understanding the writer’s intention, understanding the writer’s method, understanding
key points in the reading, understanding the reading, understanding reference, making inferences, skimming for main ideas
Critical Thinking Skills making an outline, summarizing paragraphs
Vocabulary Building: previewing vocabulary, filling in the blanks, guessing meaning from context, focusing on high-frequency words, understanding collocations, identifying synonyms and antonyms
Language Skills: discussing brain drain and relating the reading to a wider view
Unit 7: The Nobel Prizes page 107
Reading Selections: Part 1: Albert Nobel page 107
Part 2: Emil Adolf von Behring page 117
Reading Skills / Strategies: identifying the main idea of the reading, understanding the reading, identifying literal meaning and inferences, scanning for specific information
Critical Thinking Skills: understanding chronological order, making an outline
Vocabulary Building: previewing vocabulary, filling in the blanks, guessing meaning from context, understanding synonyms and antonyms, focusing on high-frequency words, understanding collocation
Language Skills: discussing Nobel prizes and relating the reading to personal situations
Unit 8: How Values Influence Us page 125
Reading Selections: Part 1: What are Values? page 125
Part 2: Conflict and Values page 135
Reading Skills / Strategies: identifying main ideas of paragraphs, identifying supporting details, skimming for topics of paragraphs and topic sentences, understanding the reading
Critical Thinking Skills: summarizing paragraphs
Vocabulary Building: previewing vocabulary, filling in the blanks, recognizing synonyms, understanding idioms, focusing on high-frequency words, identifying adjectives and adverbs, understanding and creating compound words
Language Skills: discussing values and conflict and values and relating the readings to
personal situations
Unit 9: Natural Disasters page 144
Reading Selection: Part 1: Natural Hazards and Natural Disasters page 144
Part 2: Effects of Natural Disasters page 154
Reading Skills / Strategies: understanding reading structure, understanding the writer’s intention, understanding the writer’s method, understanding reference, scanning
for specific information, identifying problems and solutions, understanding the reading
Critical Thinking Skills: understanding contrast, understanding exemplification, organizing cause and effect using graphic organizers
Vocabulary Building: previewing vocabulary, filling in the blanks, guessing meaning from context, focusing on high-frequency words, putting words into categories
Language Skills: discussing natural disasters and their effects on the environment and communities and relating the readings to a wider view
Unit 10: Revision of Units 6 to 9 page 162
Reading Selection: Oral Hygiene page 167
Reading Skills / Strategies: skimming for the main idea of the reading, skimming for main ideas of paragraphs and topic sentences, understanding the reading
Critical Thinking Skills: understanding listing using a graphic organizer
Vocabulary Building: vocabulary preview list, high-frequency words list, filling in the blanks, adjectives and adverbs, matching synonyms and antonyms, making sentences, understanding and creating compound words, guessing meaning from context, focusing on high-frequency words
Language Skills: discussing oral hygiene and relating the reading to a wider view
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