While reading the article Encouraging ESL Students to Read, by Roger w. Gee, I learned about the Matthew effect. According to this theory, the more students read, the better they will become, and the less students read, the worst they will be. As a future ESL teacher, I fear that I will have students who are not interested in reading, because it is hard to motivate them. If a student already has a slight interest in reading, he will become better with time, however, if the student really does not enjoy it, my job is to get him interested in reading. There will be students who will come from families who do not read. There are parents who do not like to read, or who simply cannot read. It is their children that I am anxious to have as students. As mentioned in the article, reading a very effective way to increase the students language proficiency, but does the frequency of ESL classes allow us to give reading the importance it deserves? Classes are short, especially at the primary level, and so teachers might not have the time to introduce frequent reading activities. The ideal situation, I think, would be to have a free reading period at the beginning of each class, to establish a reading routine. I know however, that this is not likely to happen if I ever teach in a primary school. I will need to figure out a way to have my students read on their own.
The author of the article introduced to concept of the six C’s. These six features are used to create an open reading task. Open tasks give students control over the task’s product and process, and by having control, the students are more likely to become engaged in the task. The six features that should ideal be included in all tasks are the following: choices, challenges, control, collaboration, construct and consequences. However, as Gee writes: ' obviously, [he is] not able to meet all of the criteria with all of the content-area tasks [he sets] for [his] students'. The two features that I find the most important are choices and challenges. I believe that the best way to motivate a student to read is to let him read whatever he wishes, as long as it is appropriate. If a student prefers to read a book that has illustrations because it helps him understand, I would let him choose that book. I also think that challenges are important when they are tasks in which 'errors are not seen as failure but as an opportunity to diagnose and learn.' If students feel the need to perform and to be perfect, they are less likely to choose challenging books. They will stay in their reading comfort zone and not learn as much as if they had chosen a book that was more difficult. I understand that all six of the criteria are important to create a near perfect open task, but if I ever had to choose only two criteria, I would focus on giving the students choices and creating challenges.
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