The materials described in this documentation are divided into two parts. Part Two acts as a framework for students to organise their own reading journal. They select an on-line text then choose and carry out pre-, while- and post-reading tasks they feel are most appropriate. Part Two will be carried out by students independently. Part One introduces the skills and strategies students need to be able to carry out part two independently, but is intended to be taught in class with a teacher monitoring and guiding where necessary.
The materials are designed to be used with a multi-lingual class of 16 international students aged 18-25. They will be taking part in one ten-week term of 20 hours EAP per week, due to run from January to April 2012. The students will join the class at INTO Newcastle with entry scores in the range IELTS 4.5-5.0, with the intention of progressing to a diploma, graduate diploma, foundation course or post graduate study at Newcastle University in the following term. The aim of the course is to develop students' academic reading, writing, listening and speaking skills in addition to helping them, "adjust to the demands, challenges and expectations of UK higher education" (INTO Brochure, 2011).
The materials are designed to be used in class (preferably a computer cluster) and aim to introduce students to a range of skills needed to guide their reading outside class in the form of a reading journal. By the end of this lesson learners will be better able to manage their own reading journal in their own time. This will be done by demonstrating a number of strategies for:
Research suggests a number of reasons for encouraging extended reading. It will clearly help students practise and improve their reading skills and will be a move in the direction of learner independence (Hedge, 2000). With careful selection of texts, it can provide comprehensible input (Krashen, 1982), although one cannot go so far as to say this will result in intake (Hedge, 2000). It does, however, seem safe to say that extended reading may help certain students develop an awareness of features of written texts (Hedge, 2000) and develop their understanding of the appropriate vocabulary for certain contexts (Wilkins, 1972)