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Date Posted: 20:12:23 11/30/04 Tue
Author: Maria tereza
Subject: Re: Final Paper
In reply to: Ângela Vitorino 's message, "Re: Final Paper" on 15:53:31 11/28/04 Sun

>FINAL PAPER
>
>TEACHING READING SKILLS – COHESIVE DEVICES
>
>
>
>Reading is an active skill, which involves ideas
>transmitted through language. In this process of
>understanding a written text, a reader interacts with
>the text and the writer, using two processes. The
>top-down process occurs when the reader used(I THINK YOU SHOUL USE PRESENT HERE) his
>background knowledge related to the content(WHAT ABOUT A COMMA HERE) and when
>the written symbols are decoded and the reader
>recognizes words, phrases and sentences the process is
>called bottom-up.
>
>Through the bottom-up approach, the readers need to
>use their linguistic knowledge and reading skills in
>order to decode the written text (CELCE/OLSHTAN, ….).
>For that, they should recognize the cohesive devices,
>that are words and phrases within a sentence that
>unite the paragraph. As stated in the Collins/Cobuild
>English Grammar, l990, they are used “to show what
>sort of connection there is between one sentence and
>another”. Because of this, when working with cohesive
>devices, teachers should teach the function words,
>which include the pronouns and their referents,
>showing their importance. Besides that, they should
>encourage the students to recognize and use them.
>
>Among the cohesive devices, pronouns are the most used
>ones. Classified by Halliday and Hasan (l976, ibid) as
>a referential cohesion, pronouns and determiners
>“serve to identify individuals and objects that are he
>named (HE NAMED SEEMS TO ME MISPLACED IN THIS SENTENCE) at some other point the text”. (NUNAN, l999). In
>the following example, the pronoun he refers to the
>name Mikhail Gorbachev:
> ‘Mikhail Gorbachev didn’t have to change the world.
>He could have chosen
> to rule much as his predecessors did”
>First at(FIRST OF ALL) all, teachers should remark that, although
>the pronouns are short words, they have an important
>role in reading. By using pronouns, a new sentence
>becomes dependant on the previous one, helping to
>unite the paragraph (REID, l982). They are of vital
>importance to an accurate understanding of the text.
>After that, teachers should teach the pronouns, going
>beyond their grammatical nature, with a
>“meaningful-context” (MICKULECK, …) Many students of a
>foreign language can be confused working with them,
>because pronouns present different levels of meaning,
>According to CELCE/OLSHTAN, …., “English often creates
>ambiguity in terms of such referential ties since
>redundant elements such as case and gender are not
>always available, or if available, still allow for
>multiple possible antecedents”. Considering their
>example “Bob talked to Hans and then drove his car to
>Berlin”, students can be in doubt if the word refers
>to Bob or Hans.
>After the pronouns have been presented, the students
>can be given a task in which they have to recognize
>each pronoun and its referent. This is a very
>important step in understanding a text and linking its
>parts. Beginners should be asked to choose a text,
>like a song or and(AN AD) ad and underline the pronouns (
>DIAS, R.). A good idea could be to ask the advanced
>learners to apply their knowledge to a longer text. As
>a suggestion, students could write a list of the
>pronouns they found and their referents and compare
>their lists with other students’. Consider the
>paragraph of the text “Habit” (ALVES, ibid)
>“An action that is lavishly rewarded as soon it is
>performed is well on its way to becoming a habit. Once
>a habit is firmly entrenched, it can be sustained by
>cues different from those that originally created it,
>and it need not be rewarded so regularly or well.
>Indeed, habit may become its own reward.”
>In this sample, students will find:
>a) it (subjective pronoun) – referent : action
>b) its (possessive adjective) – referent: action
>c) it (subjective pronoun) – referent: habit
>d) those –(demonstrative pronoun) – referent: cues
>e) it ( objective pronoun ) – referent: habit
>f) it (subjective pronoun) – referent: habit
>g) its (possessive adjective ) – referent : habit
>
>In the last stage, students should be able to use the
>pronouns in an adequate way. A sample exercise could
>be to present them with a cloze in which the pronouns
>are the missing words, so that they can complete the
>text with the suitable pronoun. See the paragraph text
>about Madonna below (ALVES, ibid)
> “____ created a provocative image of ___________.
>_____ dresses _______ in an unconventional way. _____
>first album Madonna (l983) was a great success. The
>MTV channel had an important role in _____ career.
>______ showed her music videos.”
>
>In conclusion, while reading it is important to
>teach and work with the recognition and adequate use
>of cohesive devices, in which the function words,
>such as the pronouns and their referents, represent a
>vital role for understanding a text and linking its
>parts. Learners should be encouraged by teachers to
>follow these steps, in order to avoid difficulties in
>the interpretation process and to acquire linguistic
>competence
>
>
>
>
>REFERENCES:
>
>CELCE, Murcia, OLSHTEIN, M., Discourse and context in
>language teaching, Chapter 7, Cambridge, l990
>COLLINS COBUILD English Grammar. London & Glasgow:
>Collins, 1990
>DIAS, Reinildes, Reading Critically in English,
>Editora UFMG, 2002
>MICKULECK, B.S., A Short Course in teaching reading
>skills
>NUNAN, David, Introducing Discourse Analysis,
>Penguin, l993
>NUNAN, David, Second Language Teaching and Learning,
>Heinle and Heinle, l999
>OLIVEIRA, Nadia A., Para Ler em Inglęs, O Lutador, 2000
>OSHIMA, Alice, HOGUE, Ann , Writing academic English,
>2nd edition, Longman

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