Reading Aloud

An activity that we often use during our immersion course is reading aloud.
If you have seen the ‘Reading for pleasure’ blog, January 2019, you will know that we encourage our students to read our ‘readers’, and why it’s so important.

When we practise reading aloud, I choose a text, usually from a book that the student has already read, and I read the first paragraph. They then read the same paragraph, after which I may make some comments, both positive and negative, sometimes encouraging them not to speak too quickly, faster is rarely better, and often explaining and practising the differences between the intonation in French and English.

Because we are using the words that we can see on the page, there is less pressure involved; we don’t have to choose words, put them in the right form and the right order, or consider punctuation.
I read a second paragraph which is then repeated by the student. This time I may record us, which makes it easier to compare the way we speak.

Finally, we read the rest of the text without repetition; I read a little, at a signal from me the student reads, until I signal again and I read, then signal again, and so on, to the end  This way, we hear each other, use the same speed, the same intonation.

The idea is that not only do they become clearer and more confident when they read aloud, but they apply the same style when speaking. In addition, there is all that sub-conscious revision that comes with reading (see ‘Reading for pleasure’).