Cambridge English Readers

Series editor: Philip Prowse

Teachers Guide

The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge, CB2 2RU, UK 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 100114211, USA 10 Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne 3166, Australia Ruiz de Alarcn 13, 28014, Madrid, Spain Cambridge University Press 1999 Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge

http://www.cup.cam.ac.uk http://www.cup.org

Cambridge English Readers

Teachers Guide

Contents 1 2 3 4 5
About Cambridge English Readers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Level chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Grammatical grading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

What is the secret of extensive reading?

..........

89

Success with reading how to organise a reading programme

Intensive reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Extensive reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1011

Activities

..............................................

1214

Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Teachers Guide

Cambridge English Readers

About Cambridge English Readers

What is the Cambridge English Readers series?
Fiction for learners of English at six levels from elementary to advanced. I by making reading a pleasure through positive language control and information control Learners can read Cambridge English Readers easily without a dictionary and understanding is enhanced by careful contextualisation and recycling of new words. The vocabulary at each level is established by reference to recent corpus-based lexical research, analysis of commonly-occurring words in course materials and readers, and the Council of Europes Waystage and Threshold levels. The grammatical grading reflects that of most Cambridge University Press courses. I by offering titles which look like real books Illustrations are only used at the two lowest levels of the series. Many titles feature international rather than UK settings with stories set in northern and southern Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America and Australasia. I by providing a comprehensive range of supporting materials Cassette recordings of the full text and photocopiable worksheets are available for all titles. I by catering for learners at all levels, from elementary to advanced The highest level provides the much requested bridge to authentic reading materials which is missing from most other graded readers series. It achieves this by having a considerably larger vocabulary and no formal grammatical controls.

What is special about Cambridge English Readers?

This series, specially written for adult and young adult learners, combines the highest quality of writing and storytelling with great sensitivity to learners linguistic needs. This combination ensures a successful, enjoyable reading experience with learners eager to finish one book and start another.

Why are Cambridge English Readers so successful?

The series offers new adult fiction written around contemporary themes from authors who can create believable characters and gripping plots, and make these accessible to the learner.

How is this done?

I by writing within a genre known to the reader The series contains thrillers, romance, comedy, adventure, science fiction, murder mystery, ghost stories and human interest. Comprehension and speed of reading is increased because the reader has less new information to process and is placed in a familiar landscape. I by treating the reader as an adult The series deals with themes and topics of contemporary relevance and does not fall into the traps of treating the learner as a child, equating low language level with low intellectual level or limited experience of life, or of offering watered-down versions of the classics. Instead, the series offers original, exciting fiction at the right language level.

Cambridge English Readers

Teachers Guide

What are the Cambridge English Readers levels?

Level chart
A guide to show how levels in the Cambridge English Readers series relate to Cambridge examinations and Cambridge University Press coursebooks.

UCLES level LEVEL 1 400 headwords Length: approx. 4,000 words Starter LEVEL 2 800 headwords Length: approx. 10,000 words Elementary KET

Coursebooks True to Life Starter Changes Intro New Interchange Intro True to Life Elementary New Cambridge English Course / Cambridge English Course 1 Language in Use Beginner Changes New Interchange 1 True to Life Pre-intermediate New Cambridge English Course / Cambridge English Course 2 Language in Use Pre-intermediate Changes 2 Activate your English Pre-intermediate New Interchange 2 True to Life Intermediate New Cambridge English Course / Cambridge English Course 3 Language in Use Intermediate Changes 3 Activate your English Intermediate New Interchange 3

LEVEL 3 1300 headwords Length: approx. 15,000 words Pre-intermediate

PET

LEVEL 4 1900 headwords Length: approx. 20,000 words Intermediate

LEVEL 5 2800 headwords Length: approx. 25,000 words Upper-intermediate LEVEL 6 3800 headwords Length: approx. 30,000 words Advanced

FCE

True to Life Upper-intermediate New Cambridge English Course / Cambridge English Course 4 Language in Use Upper-intermediate New Advanced Cambridge English English Panorama 1 Passages 1 English Panorama 2 Passages 2

CAE

CPE

Teachers Guide

Cambridge English Readers

What is the grammatical grading?

A guide to the grammatical structures available at each level of the series.

Level 1
Present simple I write books. Im not an artist. Present continuous Im waiting for the bus. Present continuous (with future reference) Im leaving tomorrow. going to future Youre going to be a rich man. Past simple (regular and common irregular) I closed my eyes and went to sleep. Modals: must and can It must stop. You can send letters by computer. Verb + adverb Mel said quickly. Noun + 2 adjectives beautiful, rich people Two clause sentences with and, but, or I took a bus and walked to the Waldorf. Open questions Can I call you Frank? wh-questions Where was it? Indirect speech (no tense change) He said he lives in London. The TV said its going to rain. Impersonal it Its a long way from here. Short answers Yes, it is. No, you cant. Yes, they have. There is/There are Theres a lot to do.

Level 2
will future Hell come tomorrow. Past continuous She was saying goodbye. Present perfect They have just left. Modals: have to, could I have to go. I couldnt see anything. Main clause + 1 subordinate clause When I got near to the house I saw lots of people. Verb + 2 adverbs They drove away very slowly in the dark. Tag questions You will help me, wont you? Comparison: comparative and superlative of adjectives This room is bigger. It was the smallest. Relative clauses: who, that, which He is the man who lives next door. Conjunctions: so, because, before, after, when, then ask/tell + infinitive They told me to drive slowly. love etc. + gerund Steve loved surfing. Infinitive of purpose They went to the shop to get some milk. Gerund as subject Writing was hard. Simple indirect speech (with tense changes) He asked what I meant. Open conditional If you eat too much you put on weight.

Cambridge English Readers

Teachers Guide

Level 3
Present perfect continuous What have you been doing? Past perfect She had driven from London. used to They used to go to Greece. Simple passive The bag was found three days later. Modals: need, should, may, ought, might Main clause + 2 subordinate clauses The bullet cut through the coat but didnt hit Chapman, who shot at the same time. Noun + 3 adjectives a lovely blue silk scarf 1st conditional If I go this morning, Ill come back straight after the meeting. 2nd conditional I would come if you wanted. Indirect speech (more complex including wh-questions and if) I asked him what he thought he was doing.

Level 4
Past perfect continuous They had been driving for six hours. was/were going to I was going to tell you. Passive: modals It couldnt have been taken away. Passive: continuous The match is being played today. Present perfect passive It has been eaten. Past perfect passive It had been eaten. 3rd conditional I wouldnt have told him if Id known. Main clause + 3 subordinate clauses She lay there for a while thinking about him and wondering how much today would change their lives. Non-defining relative clauses Gary, who worked with Tristan, was waiting by the boat. Causative have Ill have that fixed. Indirect speech with past perfect I asked him what he had said.

Level 5
Future perfect I will have finished by then. Future continuous Ill be waiting by the bar. Passive: future It will be done. Passive + infinitive It is yet to be proved. Passive + -ing form It is being done. Modals and perfect: should, would, must, could, may, might etc. You should have told me. It must have been raining.

Level 6
There are no grammatical restrictions at this level.

Teachers Guide

Cambridge English Readers

What is the secret of extensive reading?

Reading for pleasure
Would you like to know a way for your learners to improve their English enjoyably and effectively without you having to do any work? How about a way for learners to learn on their own, in their own time, at their own pace, without teachers or schools? How about a way of autonomous learning that is more effective than being taught? It sounds subversive, doesnt it? Or too good to be true. Yet there is now a substantial body of research which supports these claims for extensive reading. The benefits of encouraging our learners to read for pleasure are now a matter of fact, not belief. Pleasure is the key word here. We are not talking about having a class reader, useful as that may be in its own right. We are talking about students reading books on their own, books that they have chosen to read for enjoyment, in or out of class. Certainly a class reader can be the springboard for many useful language activities, but in this short survey of current classroom research we will focus on reading for pleasure. read. Contrast the vicious circle of reading failure where lack of success (often associated with forced reading) leads to lack of interest in reading. So what about the second language classroom? Warwick Elley has reported on book floods in the primary classroom in Fiji and Singapore (Elley 1991). In Fiji in 1980/81 the research involved 500 nine to eleven year olds in twelve schools (eight experimental and four control). The control schools followed their normal audiolingual classes while the experimental schools used 250 largely illustrated story books with students either reading for pleasure for 2030 minutes a day or having a shared book experience with their teacher who read aloud and discussed the books with them. After two years there were extensive tests and in Krashens words the experimental groups were far superior in tests of reading comprehension, writing and grammar. In 1985 in Singapore a similar study of 3000 six to nine year olds was carried out by Elley over three years and Krashen summarises his results thus: children in the experimental classes outperformed traditionally taught students on tests of reading comprehension, vocabulary, oral language, grammar, listening comprehension and writing. Elley himself says:

The research
A good starting point for looking at research into extensive reading is Stephen Krashens book The Power of Reading. Krashen reviews research studies worldwide and comes up with this typically understated conclusion:

When [second language learners] read for pleasure, they can continue to improve in their second language without classes, without teachers, without study and even without people to converse with. (Krashen 1993 p. 84)
So where is the evidence? Krashen summarises studies comparing the achievements of students learning their first language (not an L2), who received traditional reading comprehension classes with those who simply read on their own. His conclusion is that in 38 out of 41 comparisons (93%) those students who just read did better than those who were taught reading. What Krashen shows here is what Christine Nuttall in Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language calls the virtuous circle of reading. Successful reading makes successful readers: the more students read the better they get at it. And the better they are at it the more they
8

In contrast to students learning by means of structured audiolingual programs, those children who are exposed to an extensive range of high-interest illustrated story books, and encouraged to read and share them, are consistently found to learn the target language more quickly. (Elley 1991 p. 375) Perhaps the most striking finding is the spread of the effect from reading competence to other language skills writing, speaking and control over syntax. (Elley 1991 p. 404)
The two significant points here are that reading improved all the language skills and that these experiments contrasted using a textbook with reading programmes. However conclusive these results may be at primary level, what about at secondary level? Can we do away with the secondary textbook, or were the primary results something to do with child development? We stay in Singapore and look at a project called PASSES reported by Colin Davis in ELT Journal in 1995. The project was very straightforward and involved 40 of the weakest secondary schools in

Cambridge English Readers

Teachers Guide

the country. PASSES included a number of components of which extensive reading was the most significant. In each school students read silently for 20 minutes a day and had an extensive reading lesson a week for more reading and talking about the books (which could also be borrowed for home reading). After five years (198590) the project was assessed by checking the schools English Language examination pass rate and it was found that these weakest schools now had results above the national average. Colin Davis concluded:

Pupils developed a wider active and passive vocabulary. They used more varied sentence structure, and were better at spotting and correcting grammatical mistakes in their writing and speaking. They showed an overall improvement in writing skills and increased confidence and fluency in speaking. (Davis 1995 p. 330)
So here is very convincing evidence and note that here, reading supplemented the textbook rather than replaced it. But what about adults? Is there any evidence there? Inevitably there is less because adults are often outside formal education and are therefore less likely to be experimented on. However, there is one fascinating, and controversial, study into vocabulary acquisition for us to look at. This is the famous Clockwork Orange Study of 1978 by Saragi, Nation and Meister. Briefly the experimenters gave a group of American adults copies of Anthony Burgesss novel A Clockwork Orange and asked them to read it in their own time and return a few days later for a comprehension test and a literary discussion. The key thing about the novel is that Burgesss teenage characters use an invented (although heavily Russian based) slang called nadsat. There are 241 nadsat words in the book, repeated on average 15 times. This extract gives the flavour:

The latest challenge comes from Horst, Cobb and Meara (1998). They report an experiment where 34 university low-intermediate students in Oman were read aloud to by their teachers as they followed the printed text of a simplified version of Thomas Hardys The Mayor of Casterbridge. On conclusion, the students were given a 45 item multiple choice test and a 13 item word-association test which showed that from the 21,232 words in the book the students had learnt on average only five words which were new to them. They therefore conclude that extensive reading is not a time-efficient way for learners to acquire vocabulary. It is my view, however, that the methodology of the experiment may have influenced the result. Being read to aloud in class is not the same as reading in your own time at home and more significantly there is a massive cultural gulf between the students and the background of nineteenth century English society. Contrast the gripping nature of A Clockwork Orange and its modern relevance. You must draw your own conclusions. One further study is worth mentioning as it links extensive reading with successful examination results. Gradman and Hanania (1991) report that extensive reading was a strong predictor of TOEFL scores. This is something that teachers preparing students for FCE and CPE have always known intuitively but it is nice to see it proved through research. And that is where we started. Research shows that extensive reading works. But how are we going to get this keyboard obsessed, video-game playing generation to start reading? As a teacher commented to me They dont read in their own language. How on earth can I get them to read in English? In the following sections we will look at how to organise a reading programme and share ideas from successful teachers around the world for activities to enable our students to benefit from the secret of reading.

I opened the door of 10-8 with my own little klootch, and inside our malenky quarters all was quiet, the pee and em both being in sleepland, and mum had laid out on the table a malenky bit of supper
However, when the readers returned they were given a multiple choice vocabulary test on the nadsat words rather than comprehension questions and literary discussion. The results were stunning with scores of between 50% and 96% and an average of 76%. These adults had learnt the new words from context, without trying to, just by reading. There have been attempts subsequently by Krashen and others to replicate these results in an L2 context with limited success. Others have criticised the relevance of the Clockwork Orange Study by pointing out that the nadsat words are set in English syntax.
9

Teachers Guide

Cambridge English Readers

Success with reading how to organise a reading programme

Intensive reading
We have just looked at the benefits of extensive reading but many teachers also like to use readers intensively. So we will start here with a look at how to use a class reader, when all the students in the class read the same book.

Cassettes
The full text of every title in the Cambridge English Readers series is available on cassette. The recordings of each book are an invaluable resource which can be exploited in a number of ways: I You can play the class the beginning of a chapter to make them want to continue. I You can play extracts from chapters and ask students who is speaking and when. I You can turn the reader into a talking book and play the class a chapter a week. I You can encourage the students to buy or borrow the cassettes to listen to at home, on a Walkman, or in the car. I You can also play the recording while they read in class. This has the double benefit of increasing reading speed and helping with pronunciation.

Worksheets
A photocopiable worksheet is available for every title in the series. The worksheets contain three sections: Before reading, Check your reading and After reading. These may be used in class or by students working alone. This teachers guide also contains an Activities section, providing a wide range of before and after reading activities which can be used with any title. I Motivating students to read Our first aim must be to motivate the students to read. Cambridge English Readers do this in two ways: through specific Before reading activities on the worksheets for each reader, and in the general Before reading activities section of this guide (see pp. 1213) which features universal pre-reading tasks. You can use the Before reading activities on the worksheet to get students interested in the book and to stimulate a desire to read. I Supporting students while they read Secondly, we need to support students while they are reading. The worksheets offer chapter by chapter tasks in the Check your reading section to help students reflect on what they have read, and think about what is going to happen in the story. I Follow up work Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, the worksheets give you a wide range of post-reading activities to foster creative language use. The general After reading activities section in the teachers guide (pp. 1314) offers an even wider range of universal post-reading activities.

Extensive reading
The aim of an extensive reading programme is simple: to get the learners to read as many books as possible. Any activities we suggest must support this aim and not stand in the way of it. I Try to make time each week for reading in class. This is not easy if you only have two or three hours a week but a 20 minute session once a week can make all the difference. This is because by doing this you show that reading is important. Start by discussing the benefits of extensive reading (as outlined above) with your students and, where relevant, their parents and, ideally, your colleagues and superiors. It is important to get across the idea that time spent reading in class is not time wasted. At the same time you want to encourage students to take books home to read. I What is your role while the students read in class? Read a reader yourself by doing this you give value to the books by showing that you also like them. And by reading them you will be able to talk to the students about them. Take time to talk to students individually about their reading. If students ask you and want to read aloud, listen to them individually.

10

Cambridge English Readers

Teachers Guide

I How do you choose the books for your students to read? Ideally you dont! Let the students choose what to read themselves. If you are lucky and your school buys the books, involve the students by letting them choose from the catalogue or by going to the bookshop. If you already have class or school libraries to work with make sure that the students choose what they read. If there is no class library then consider creating one! You can do this by getting each student to buy one (different) book and after reading to exchange them. Train your students to choose the books they like by getting them to identify level and genre from the cover. Practise looking at the title, front cover picture and blurb to work out what kind of book it is. I What about levels? Dont worry too much. Every class is mixed ability and any class library will probably have at least three levels. As important as level is content and genre. Someone who likes science fiction will happily read a science fiction book at a level above or below their ability rather than struggle through a (hated) romance at the right level. I How to organise a class library? Dont! Let the students do it. Give two students responsibility for looking after the books, lending them and getting them back. If you are lucky to have a classroom of your own then you can display the books on shelves. But most probably the class library will be a cardboard box or plastic bag of books that you bring to the class. Spread the books out carefully on a table, with their covers facing up, so that the students can see clearly what to choose from. I Get students to recommend books to each other. A good way of doing this is to have a card inside each reader for students to put one-word comments on. Teachers can use the Cambridge English Readers evaluation wallchart to show who has read which books. Dont be afraid to give students prizes for the one who has read the most books in a certain period. Sweets, a free book, or even freedom from doing the homework, all work! I Be positive about reading and show it to be a pleasure. An idea borrowed from the USA is called DEAR time. This stands for Drop Everything And Read. Students need to have a reader with them in class for this to work. Quite simply when the lesson is dragging or its a hot Friday afternoon just clap your hands and say DEAR time. Everyone,

including you, takes out their reader and reads for a few minutes. Then you can all return refreshed to the lesson topic.

What not to do
And now a few donts! These are activities which I know dont encourage students to read I know it because Ive done them myself! I Dont let students read with a dictionary. Dictionaries are fine for intensive reading and teaching dictionary use is a valuable part of learning to become a better learner. But when students are reading on their own for pleasure, dictionaries get in the way. Cambridge English Readers are written within a carefully controlled vocabulary and all new words are contextualised and repeated. By letting students stop to look up the meaning of every new word we are preventing them from using the valuable skill of guessing. Its better to approximate the meaning of a word and then have that guess verified on the words next occurrence. I Dont test students. Notice that Cambridge English Readers dont have questions at the back. The aim is for them to be read as real books. The Check your reading activities on the worksheet can be done by students working on their own who want to, but it is a mistake to require it. That gets in the way of reading. We want out learners to turn the page and read the next chapter. Similarly, testing students on books they have read is counter-productive. It is not likely to make them want to read another. Would you ever go to a bookshop if you had to complete a test on the book you had just read before you could buy another? I Dont ask students to write summaries. Similarly, writing summaries or book reviews gets in the way of reading. A simple recommendation is a good idea but the time spent painstakingly summarising a plot is better spent on reading another book! I Dont ask students to read aloud around the class. As noted above some students may wish to read individually to the teacher. But reading around the class is something most students hate; no-one listens to the reader; everyone is preparing the next bit they have to read and the poor students who are reading suffer agonies. On the other hand, for you the teacher to read to the students can only be good news!
11

Teachers Guide

Cambridge English Readers

Activities
This section contains lots more ideas about stimulating learners to choose books, and things that they can do after reading, based on the books that they have read. But remember, the best after reading activity is to read another book! So, in a way, the best advice we can give is to let the students get on with the reading and the key to that is books that they want to read, Cambridge English Readers. And what other lesson in the week is guaranteed to improve the students English and which you do not have to prepare, mark or teach?

Using the chapter headings

Write the chapter headings on the board and ask students to make up a suitable title or choose the best title. You can also jumble the chapter headings and then ask students to put them in the right order. Having done so they predict what the book is about and then check the cover and blurb to see if they are right. Mix up the chapter headings of two books and see if the class can sort them out. Which chapter heading looks most interesting? is a good question.

Using the title

Before reading activities

My students dont read in their own language. How on earth can I get them to read in English? The best pre-reading activity is when a student picks up a book, looks at the cover, flips through the book and then settles down to read. But how can we get to that point? The tried and tested activities presented here are all aimed at stimulating that desire to read. They can be used to foster individual reading or to introduce a class reader. They are described here largely as whole class activities but are well suited for use on pre-reading workcards. The advantage of keeping the activities on workcards is that individuals can do them when they are choosing what to read next. Remember that you dont have to prepare these activities yourself. Nearly all of them are ones that the students can prepare themselves.

Teachers have always read aloud to their students to interest them in books. Try reading the first paragraphs (or pages or chapters) of three books aloud (or playing the cassette) and asking the students to make up a suitable title for each, or guess which title goes with which extract. A written version of this is to match titles of books with extracts from them (and not necessarily the first paragraphs). Another way is to ask students to copy titles and blurbs on to separate pieces of card. They then mingle to match title and blurb.

Using the pictures

Levels 1 and 2 have pictures and these can be used to stimulate interest. Ask students to look through a book to find particular things, people or events (for example someone who looks happy or sad). Match descriptions of the main characters and pictures of them or tick adjectives which could describe a picture of one of the main characters. Some students enjoy writing captions for pictures. All will enjoy putting pictures in the right order and then making up the story. As with all these prediction activities it doesnt matter if the predictions are wrong! The aim is to engage the students with the book so that you can say Now read the book and find out if you were right!.

Using the cover

Ask students to predict what the book is about from the title and cover picture. What genre is it, a thriller or a love story? What does the blurb (the short description on the back of the cover) say? You can do this by holding up the book yourself or by letting students choose one or more books and then asking them to introduce their book(s) to the others. Ask students to look at the cover or blurb and make up five questions about the book, or put three incomplete sentences about the book on the board and ask the class to complete them. You can photocopy covers with the titles covered up and then ask students to match the pictures from the covers with the titles.

Using the text

A fun way to introduce half a dozen books is to ask students to copy the first and last paragraphs on to pieces of card or paper. Then mix them all up and ask the students to match the beginnings and endings. Lower level students can show each other their papers while higher level ones can ask questions. When a pair think they have matched ask them to sit down and make up the story that

12

Cambridge English Readers

Teachers Guide

connects beginning and ending. When you have a number of matches ask everyone to sit down and listen to the pairs telling their stories. Then get out the books: Now read and see what really happens!. You can do the same with the first and last lines or paragraphs of the first chapter. Another fun activity is to read the book in two minutes: cover, blurb, pictures, first paragraph, last paragraph. Students then tell each other what they think the book is about. This is a useful way into a book because it breaks down that feeling that they have to start on page one and read every word. In this way they can sample lots of books and choose one they really want to read. Chain stories are always popular. Read out the first sentence of a book and ask the students one by one to add a sentence continuing the story. This can be difficult so tell students they can always say Pass if they cant think of anything to say. To avoid predictability and students working out when its their turn tell each speaker to point to the next one rather than going around the class or up and down rows. Once students have made up their story invite them to read the book and compare it. In a large class try organising chain stories in groups and then comparing the results. Another variation is to pass around a small tape recorder, record the chain story and then play it back. You can, of course, also jumble sentences from the first paragraph and ask students to sort them out. A good variation is to jumble the sentences from the first paragraphs of two books and ask the class to separate them.

read the book having heard it and all of them will discover the enjoyment to be had. Its also very good listening comprehension of course!

After reading activities

As always our aim is for the students to have fun and enjoy reading because it is through enjoyment that learning comes. Thus effective after reading activities use the book as a springboard into active language use rather than try and wring every drop of meaning out of it. Time spent reading another book is better spent than time dissecting the last one!

Imagining
These activities ask students to use their imaginations. Ask them to guess what the main characters have in their pockets, handbags, or desk drawers. Play Hollywood and choose which film stars would play which characters. Why not ask them to flesh out the characters by making up a lot more personal details about them? Ask students to imagine that they are in the story as an extra character: what happens? Choose events in the story which are mentioned but not fully described and ask students to fill in all the details. Ask students to imagine that the characters are all animals, or trees, or fruit. What kind of animal, fruit or tree would they be and why? Ask students to think of a popular song, film or TV programme which would make a good title for the book. A great activity is when groups of students mime episodes from the book, perhaps while you (or a student) read the relevant section out. Students could try making up a sequel to the story using some of the same characters or imagine what happens to the characters in five years time.

Other ways to stimulate reading

Talk to your students about reading, about the great value it has, so that they understand that reading is an important part of their language education. Share their worries and fears with them before they start reading. One of the most common problems is worrying about having to finish the book. There is no point in a student struggling with a book they are not enjoying. In real life if we find were not getting on with a book we stop reading it. You can help students get into books by relating them to their own experience and by setting the scene through description of geographical, cultural or historical features. It may be possible to link readers to textbook topics or to popular TV programmes. Some classes may enjoy role playing a situation from the start of a book before reading and different groups can role play the start of different books. A good way to get students interested in stories in English is to use the cassette of a book and play the class a chapter a week (perhaps on a Friday afternoon) over a term. Some students will want to

Changing
Here are three ways in which students can take control over the book by changing it. The first is an old favourite: making up a new ending for the story. The second is giving the story a new title, new chapter headings or new names for the characters. The third is always fun: designing a new cover or choosing a new cover picture from magazine pictures.

Writing
All kinds of writing can spring from reading. Here are some ideas for letters: a letter of advice to a character suggesting what he or she could do, a letter to the author of the book addressed to the publisher (authors usually reply!) or a letter from one character to another. Students can keep a diary for a
13

Teachers Guide

Cambridge English Readers

character, make a wanted poster for a character or a character poster, or a word puzzle from the characters name. They can try writing captions for pictures (Levels 1 and 2 only), an introduction to the book for other students, or a new blurb.

them, or create a time chart with days and times down one side and events from the story written in against them, or create a character adjective grid (characters from the story down one side and adjectives across the top) and tick which adjective applies to which character. Students can have fun guessing which characters are being described from clues (e.g. clothes, possessions), matching characters and descriptions, or putting events in the right order. You can draw a series of clocks showing significant times and ask students what happens at these times, or ask them to match beginnings and endings of sentences describing events and the days they happened on. Visual clues are useful. For example, draw the face of a character in an empty bubble surrounded by statements and quotations and ask who it is. Artistically talented students can draw the story or make a collage telling the story, while others can use copies of the pictures from the book to tell the story.

Speaking
Role plays make good after reading speaking activities: interviews with the characters (three questions each), press conferences where students take the role of characters and answer questions from journalists, a game where one student pretends to be a character and the others have to guess who it is (yes/no questions), an interview with the author or full dramatisation of part of the story. Students can make a photofilm of all or part of the story. A photofilm is really a large poster showing the main scenes of the story. A camera is brought to class, students mime the scenes (in costume if possible) and are photographed. The developed photographs are stuck on the poster and captions written underneath. Try a balloon debate, where students role play being the characters stuck in a hot air balloon which is sinking to earth. Each character has to justify her or his existence. The class then votes on which character has to jump out of the balloon to save the others! How about making up a version of the card game Snap with cards with characters names and things they have said on them. Players each put down one card at a time and when a character on one pile and a quotation on the other match the first student to shout Snap! takes all the cards. Finally, why not try a discussion relating events in the book to personal experience: has anything like this happened to you?

Recording
There are lots of ways in which you and the students can keep track of what they have read and enjoyed without it seeming that you are spying on them! Students can keep a reading diary showing their reactions as they read. Play Find someone who: who liked or didnt like a particular book, has read two books by the same author, has read six thrillers, likes science fiction etc. While book reviews can be a turn-off, opinion forms in the book are popular; they are just a slip of paper on which students write a grade for the book (1-5) and a one-sentence comment anonymously. Finally a reading fair at the end of term or year where students display posters they have made to persuade other students to read their favourite books is always a success.

Listening
Weve already looked at listening activities before and during reading. Here are two after reading ones: a listening cloze test where students listen to the cassette and fill in missing words, and character bingo: write characters names on the bingo cards and the students cross off the squares when you read out information about the characters on their card.

Conclusion
The above ideas have been contributed by teachers at seminars around the world and I am most grateful to them and those authors mentioned in the bibliography. I am sure that there are many more activities yet to be invented and discovered, and would urge you to write to me (c/o ELT Group, Cambridge University Press, The Edinburgh Building, Shaftesbury Road, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK) with your own favourite activity. It can then be included in the next edition of this guide and shared with everyone. Happy reading and learning! Philip Prowse, Series editor

Remembering
There are lots of different ways of talking about what was in the book without resorting to comprehension questions! Many of these can be prepared by the students themselves good practice for them and a welcome relief for you. Try some of these: get students to match pictures of characters (Levels 1 and 2 only) and quotations from
14

Cambridge English Readers

Teachers Guide

Select bibliography
Davis C. 1995 Extensive reading: an expensive extravagance? ELT Journal 49/4: 32935 Day R. and J. Bamford 1998 Extensive Reading in the Second Language Classroom Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Elley W. 1991 Acquiring literacy in a second language: The effect of book-based programs Language Learning 41: 375411 Krashen S. 1993 The Power of Reading Englewood, Colorado: Libraries Unlimited Gradman H. and E. Hanania 1991 Language learning background factors and ESL proficiency Modern Language Journal 75: 3951 Horst M., T. Cobb and P. Meara 1998 Beyond A Clockwork Orange: acquiring second language vocabulary through reading Reading in a Foreign Language 11 (2) Nuttall C. 1996 Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language Oxford: Heinemann ELT Saragi Y., P. Nation and G. Meister 1978 Vocabulary learning and reading System 6: 7078

15

Cambridge English Readers

Teachers Registration Form
Please fill in the form below if you would like to receive: I regular information and news about Cambridge English Readers I free copies of all future worksheets

Mr/Mrs/Miss/Ms/Dr/Prof Surname School/Institute Name School/Institute Address Postcode Tel Main coursebooks used at present Dictionary(ies) you recommend Number of students of English in your institute Number of teachers of English in your institute I also teach at Fax Town/City E mail First Name

Visit the Cambridge English Readers website at www.cup.cam.ac.uk/elt/readers

Please return your completed form to your local Cambridge University Press office, or write to: ELT Marketing Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK

Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge