Approaches to teaching reading in academic contexts

When considering teaching reading in academic contexts, Bloor (1985) distinguishes at least four different methods in which it can be approached; through a psychological, linguistic, content-orientated or pedagogically-orientated approach.
When referring to the psychological approach, Bloor (1985) argues that students should practise the processes involved in reading. A real-life example could be to ask students to do a word recognition exercise with words from the text.
Taking into account the linguistic approach, Bloor (1985) states that the aim is to focus on the words and sentences of a text. He sustains that students’ reading skills will improve if they understand the linguistic features in the text. A real-life example could be to match phrases from the text to their definitions.
In a content-orientated approach, Bloor (1985) maintains that we need to give students a specific purpose for reading and; in this way, their reading skills will improve. An example could be to ask students to extract some specific information from the text by answering pre-reading questions.
Finally, considering the pedagogically-orientated approach, Bloor (985) claims that learning theories play an important role in motivating reading. Therefore, a real-life example could be to give students freedom to choose whatever they want to read. Reading will improve as a consequence of reading something they are interested in.
To conclude, teaching reading in academic contexts is of great importance. Therefore, it is essential to take into account different approaches to it so that students can get the greatest benefits from it.

Reference

Bloor, M. (1985). Some approaches to the design of reading courses in English as a foreign language. Aston University and University of Warwick. Retrieved September, 2009, from http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/rfl/PastIssues/rfl31bloor.pdf