What this unit is about

Encouraging students to enjoy reading is beneficial to them because it can stimulate and excite their imagination and curiosity. There is a wealth of literature available in English and being able to read in English allows your students to access this. Reading in English can teach your students new skills and ideas, and bring them to understand more about the world and different cultures.

When students read in English, they see examples of words and grammatical structures being used in many different ways. This helps them to improve their own vocabulary and grammar use. The more students read, the better they become at reading in any language: ‘reading is a transferable skill. Improving it in one language improves it in others’ (National Curriculum Framework, 2005, p. 39). However, many students don’t enjoy reading in English, and they don’t read much English beyond the passages in the textbooks or supplementary readers.

This unit describes how you can design classroom activities that create opportunities for students to engage in more sustained reading in English using both the supplementary reader and other texts.