TEACHING WRITTEN SKLLS COMMUNICATIVELY | Page 14

While reading activities These should aim at helping the students practice different approaches to texts such as to read for gist (skimming), to read for detail (scanning) or to read for a fuller understanding according to the purpose and to develop lower order skills such as cultivation of vocabulary, and linguistic structures. Post reading activities These should help the reader retrieve and apply the new information by relating it to her personal experience. It is also a good opportunity for students to read extensively. According to Nuttall (1982:127) extensive reading is the easiest and most effective way of improving reading skills. Moreover, it increases reading rate and helps the reader approach topics from another point of view which is a necessary process towards critical reading. 1.3.2. Feedback Teachers should always provide students with positive feedback about their progress so that they are encouraged to read more and evaluation should aim not to test but to praise strong points and spot weaknesses. Thus, questions should not focus on the product but on the process of reading .As Nuttall (1982:127) puts it “Questioning in the reading class is not an attempt to test. The purpose is to make the student aware of the way language is used to convey meaning, and of the strategies he can use to recover the meaning from the text”. 14