Reading is one of the skills included in the domains of "Language Arts Instruction" and through this skill, English language understanding can be improved being beneficial for students' acquisition of spelling, vocabulary, grammar, and punctuation.
When it comes to introducing texts in the classroom to promote English acquisition, it is important to be aware of the capabilities and interests of our students to promote them to read with love and interest. Texts can be modified or adapted considering leaner's levels of understanding. Subsequently, reading an article or a piece of writing can promote instances to discuss and express opinions orally. Hazaea & Alzubi (2016) consider that: "the use of the Internet for reading to improve the general ability for student comprehension of texts can be directly related to students’ personal needs and interests, thus promoting a more autonomous student role and sense of control over their own work that might result in a higher degree of motivation" (p. 78).
Newsela and Readlang are both useful ICT tools to develop scan and skim abilities. The options that are presented in Newsela as choosing the number of words and complexity of vocabulary are suitable for skimming to find general ideas on paragraphs without misguiding attention to unnecessary information. For scanning, as well as in Newsela, Readlang offers texts adapted to each level of proficiency in which students can focus on searching for specific and detailed information, avoiding reading long texts, and adapting the text for the learner's English dominance, language, and vocabulary. These options, allow us as teachers to provide a variety of texts responding to our students' needs without forcing them to read texts that they would not be able to understand.
These tools are also quite useful to employ in the classroom for language learning. Newsela points out to be a good place for students to search for articles, research, papers, etc. So, as a teacher, we could implement this tool in 9th to 12th graders to read in class, and for research information when a work has been given. On the other hand, Readlang is an app that we could use to practice language, especially for 5th to 8th graders, the material that is offered in this tool such as vocabulary cards are perfect for class activities and to correct common mistakes among kids that are just learning English.
The limitations that can we can find while using these tools are the followings:
- Employing Readlang, the excessive use of translation can lead students to stop acquiring language and vocabulary as they should to advance on the L2, in addition to this, the translations can be inaccurate sometimes, so teachers must bring up this tool for autonomous and truly responsible students.
- Even though Newsella can be a very good tool for students to enrich vocabulary, it is mostly used for native speakers, so it is mainly focused on improving L1 reading skills more than on students learning L2 reading skills.
-Provided that students get used to easily translating extended texts and intelligent computers checking their wrong answers, the more they become lazy with reading actively to comprehend by their own words what is being read.
Giròn Garcia (2015) mentioned, "This means that reading is a thinking process through which readers must relate the written symbols they perceive to their knowledge of the language, of texts, of content areas, and of the world, in order to bring meaning to a text." (p. 78). What this cites points to, is the imperative need for active thinking in EFL and the reading process, we seek to comprehend and understand literacy, and students inserted in a technological environment are conducted to simplify every task given. To avoid this, teachers and educators should be careful with the repetitive use of Readlang and Newsela in EFL teaching.
References.
Giron-Garcia, Carolina. (2015). Literacy and technologies in EFL settings: Fostering reading comprehension on the internet.
Hazaea, AAlzubi. (2016). The Effectiveness of Using Mobile on EFL Learners Reading Practices in Najran University. a
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