Long time ... no post: Language Symposium

At the Symposium on Language Teaching and Learning, an event of the Year of Language at the University of Toronto, Victoria College, Dr. Jim Cummins mentioned several ideas that we need to be taken into consideration when helping our students to read in EFL:

1) Conversational fluency and academic language proficiency are two different aspects in L1 and L2 as well.

2) The language of everyday oral communication is made up of high frequency words which are not usually found in written texts. On the other hand, academic language uses low frequency words, complex syntax and abstract expressions seldom used in conversations.

3) Academic language, then, is primarily found in written text and reading extensively both in L1 and L2 is a crucial way of learning it.

4) Second language learners cannot read texts at their grade or age group, the ones that would probably be at their cognitive or interest level. They might find them difficult, time-consuming and frustrating to read.

5) On the importance of reading and written texts: a child storybook has more sophisticated vocabulary than any regular adult TV program. Popular magazines have more complex vocabulary than everyday conversation.

6) Students should select the texts they would like to read. Interest is key in successful reading: they need to WANT to read and find pleasure in it.

7) Engaged reading can overcome barriers to reading achievement, including gender, parental education and income.

8) It takes around 5 years for an ESL learner to catch up academically in the ESL environment.

9) Instead of having speaking and listening first, how about reading as a source of input to build vocabulary and sensitize learners to grammatical and discourse conventions.