Selecting
What are selecting problems?
Many students find that there are so many reading materials and lack confidence and skills in
1. Deciding what to read
2. Which part to read
3. What to read first
Suggestions to address these questions:
1. Look first at the core texts and reading lists provided by tutors.
2. Look at titles, subtitles and comments on the back of book.
3. Read the preface which should indicate the author's purpose and intentions.
4. Know the scope. scan the table of contents.
5. Use the contents page or index to look up those sections which deal with your topic.
6. Judge how the parts fit into the whole. Skim through the book. Read a paragraph or two in each chapter and the headings, and the chapter abstracts or summaries. Look at the diagrams and tables. Read especially the last few pages.
7. Look at other materials before deciding which are likely to be of most use to you.
8. The same principles apply to journal articles. However, these are much shorter and you will find an abstract rather than preface or table of contents.
Example 1
This is a back cover of a book.
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REBECCA L. OXFORD L A N G U A G E
L E A R N I N G
S T R A T E G I E S WHAT EVERY TEACHER SHOULD KNOW Based on current research, this text provides ESL and Foreign Language teachers with practical recommendations for developing their students' second language learning strategies. Detailed suggestions for strategy use in each of the four language skills are includes, as well as case studies and models for setting up similar programs.
LANGUAGE LEARNING STRATEGIES also offers:
Heinle & Heinle Publishers A Division of Wadsworth, Inc. Boston,
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This back cover of a book indicates the book's aims and intentions. It is about ESL/EFL (English as a Second Language/English as a Foreign Language) and about learning strategies for the four language skills. It provides case studies and models as well. Through reading the back cover, the reader could make decisions whether the book was useful for their study.
Example 2
This is an abstract from a paper by Levine, Ferenz and Reves (2000) in the Journal TESL-EJ.
Title: EFL Academic Reading and Modern Technology: How Can We Turn our Students into Independent Critical Readers.
Abstract
The study investigated the issue of the development of EFL critical reading skills in a computer-networked environment. The computer-networked environment was seen as a means to combine the security and support of the language learning classroom and exposure to authentic reading material. The subjects of the study were four groups of students participating in EFL academic reading courses at Bar-Ilan University (Israel). The findings of the study suggest that the computerized learning environment contributed to the development of EFL critical literacy skills to a greater extent than the conventional learning environment did. The advantages of the networked computer environment were evident mainly for EFL students at the higher level of language proficiency. The computer environment created a different teacher-student relationship and changed the nature of the EFL teacher's as well as the EFL student's role in the academic reading class
Key words: EFL reading skills, computer-networked environment
By reading the title and abstract, the reader would be aware that the article deals with EFL (English as a Foreign Language) and computer based learning. It is a small scale case study. It argues that the computer environment can impact positively on language learning.
Please click on Selecting Exercise and go to the next section.