Encouraging ESL Students To Read

        

When reading the article Encouraging ESL Students To Read, one thing caught my attention: "[Children's books] are not acceptable and are therefore rejected because of social pressures" (CN 2.5). I wonder, when reading this, to what extent they consider children's books to be in fact for children. This question has been brought-up before by my Children's Literature teacher and to this she explains that children's literature can be everything it should be: beautiful, dreamy, adequate for most audiences, and more than anything, easy to attach to. Shouldn't literature of the such be seen as a wise choice for readers? Especially those who haven't had much reading experience? I believe that it should. The best way to get someone to appreciate literature is — as mentioned in the text — ensuring that their first experience is good experience for them, therefore allowing them to read something they can relate to and to stay interested.

             

 Another aspect that was of interest to me was that of the second suggestion: "[...] ask ESL students to record on audiotape easy books for younger students in the school". I believe this is an interesting type of technique to get the students involved and make sure they feel as if their reading is very important for others' comprehension. Making students feel useful is a key to success in most levels of education however, making other students benefit from the others' learning is even more of a triumph over trying to get them to understand "why" they must do such a task as reading.