Topical news stories are a great source of teaching material. This article presents different ways to exploit news reports in the classroom and focuses on raising the level of involvement and participation that the students have in the lesson.

In this, the first of two articles for TeachingEnglish, Alan Maley considers the benefits extensive reading can bring to English language learners and teachers.

There are many ways of revising and consolidating grammar, but I've found it's often useful to give students short passages containing grammar mistakes which are characteristic of the student's level, nationality, and what the teacher may have identified as areas of particular strength or weakness.

You may well ask me “How useful is the question in this title?” After all to check what a student has understood after listening to or reading an L2 text seems plain common sense. If it were not felt to be a sensible procedure why would course book writers supply comprehension questions in large quantities?

The four stage cycle
In my earlier articles Reading for information, Form focus and recycling, and Techniques for Priming and recycling, I set out a four stage cycle for teaching reading:

A four stage methodology for reading
In Reading for Information, and Form focus and recycling, I have proposed a four stage methodology for teaching reading:

In my last article, Reading for Information: Motivating learners to read efficiently, I referred to four stages in a task-based reading lesson

This is the first in a series of four-articles which propose a four stage methodology for teaching reading.

If telling my students "And now we're going to practise listening," elicits looks of dread and fear, announcing reading practice can often elicit yawns, heads descending to desks, or eyes ascending heavenwards.

This article is the second of two parts. The first part looked at some of the shifts and trends in theories relating to reading. This second part will examine tips and guidelines for implementing a theory of reading which will help to develop our learner's abilities.