Reading Aloud as Storytelling (How to Learn to Read Aloud (3))

This is an English version of my previous post, 音読学習のあり方③.

Students struggling with reading comprehension

When I teach junior and senior high school students, I often see students who struggle with reading comprehension after entering high school. Some of them are those who had excellent grades in English in junior high school, have no problems with grammar or vocabulary, and can write almost error-free sentences when asked to write a passage, but even these "good" students have a hard time when it comes to reading comprehension.

These students often struggle with reading comprehension in their Japanese classes as well. So it's not just English; they have difficulty with "reading comprehension" in general.

Students who are not good at reading comprehension say things like, "I don't understand what I am reading," "I can't get into my head what I'm reading," or "My eyes just wander over the words."

I think students like these are unable to engage in a "dialogue" with the text, whether it's in English or Japanese.

Reading comprehension is a dialogue with the text

It is often said that speaking and writing are productive skills and listening and reading are receptive skills, but this is incorrect. Listening and reading are also interactive skills, as it is necessary to construct meaning while interacting with the speaker/author, rather than just listening/reading one-sidedly.

In particular, in reading comprehension, students are expected to be aware of the interaction with the text (i.e., the author) while reading. As they read the English text, they should be able to give some responses such as, "Hmm," "I see," "Why?" "That makes sense," "So what?" and the like. I tell my students that I want them to get into the habit of reading English sentences while making aizuchi and tsukkomi as they read. On the other hand, if they cannot make aizuchi and tsukkomi, it is a sign that they are not being able to read the passage. In this regard, reading comprehension is the ability to interact with a text, and I try to make my students aware of this in my reading instruction.

Let the text speak to you

When reading a text, even if it is a silent reading, one is reading the text aloud in one's brain, which is called subvocalization. In teaching speed reading in one's native language, there can be a conscious effort to not subvocalize, but in English learning for junior and senior high school students, "speed reading" to such an extent is basically not required. Instead of skim-reading or skipping words, in order to promote accurate understanding, it's better to read the text properly in your mind while subvocalizing.

When reading a text for the first time, how well you can read aloud in your head directly affects your understanding of the text. The above-mentioned comments of students who have difficulty with reading comprehension, "The contents do not seem to enter my head" and "My eyes just wander over the letters," can be considered to be indicative of not being able to read aloud well in the brain.

In order to interact with the text while reading aloud in the brain, it is necessary to "have the text speak to you." By making aizuchi and tsukkomi to the other person (i.e., the text), a two-way dialogue can be established.

You can think of this as "storytelling" to yourself in your head. Imagine a small child and his or her parents reading a picture book. The parent reads to the child and the child reacts with questions like "Why?" and "So what happened?" Storytelling to the child is an interactive activity between the reader and the listener.

Thus, if you read a text as if someone is reading it to you, the act of reading becomes interactive and comprehension becomes easier. And for better understanding, it is necessary to have someone read to you well.

Getting a good storytelling

In order to have a good read-aloud, the storytelling in your brain must be good. If the reading aloud that is playing in your head is halting, it will not lead to successful comprehension. On the other hand, if the text is read aloud in the brain with appropriate intonation and pauses, comprehension will proceed smoothly.

I believe this is one of the purposes of teaching reading aloud. In my previous post, I wrote that reading aloud is aimed at improving processing speed and vocabulary retention. But in addition to its role as a review, if you accumulate read-aloud practices using the model voice, you will be able to read well when you read new texts as well.

In order to be able to successfully read aloud a new text (and, eventually, to successfully subvocalize it in your mind), you need to experience reading aloud using model voices and have built up a database in your head of appropriate tone, intonation, pauses, and so on. If you repeatedly practice reading aloud in your own style without using a model voice, your brain will also read aloud in such a sluggish manner when you read a text for the first time.

Conclusion

In order to understand a text correctly, it is important to read well to oneself while reading, and to do so, one should practice reading aloud on a regular basis using a model voice that serves as an example of effective reading aloud.

For junior and senior high school students learning English as a foreign language, it is not an easy task to learn the appropriate pauses, tone, and intonation while reading aloud. That is why it is important to use the model sounds in their daily oral reading and to build the knowledge for correct oral reading in their minds.