Приёмы работы с текстом

Многие специалисты полагают, что чтение, как совершенно самостоятельный вид речевой деятельности, помогает лучшему усвоению языкового и речевого материала.
Работая в школе, я анализирую различные методы и методики преподавания английского языка как у нас, так и за рубежом.
Вот уже несколько лет мне удается осуществлять обучение иностранному языку по зарубежному пособию Enterprise, в котором огромное значение придается чтению текста как реальной основе для всех видов речи. Грамотно используя лексико-грамматический материал в рамках прочитанного, учащиеся могут овладеть различными по сложности речевыми структурами и моделями.
В этой связи мне хотелось бы представить вам обучение различным приёмам работы с текстом на предтекстовом, текстовом и послетекстовом этапах.

Пример работы с текстом
Stars

Over millions of years, hot clouds of gas called nebulae grow until they explode and form huge, blazing balls of fire. This is how stars are born. Our own sun is a star. Eventually, like all stars, it will run out of fuel and die. Don’t worry though – this won’t happen for another 4 billion years!
Stars are sources of light. This is the reason they shine so brightly in the sky. The moon, planets and comets also shine, but they don’t give out their own light. They just reflect it from the sun.
Stars are very, very far away. In fact, when their light reaches our eyes, we sometimes see them as they were thousands of years ago. Our sun is the nearest star to Earth, but it is still about 150 million km away! It is part of the Milky Way galaxy, a white band of stars that stretches across the night sky. There are more than 100 billion stars in the Milky Way and many of them, like our sun, have planets that orbit around them.
Constellations are groups of stars. If you draw lines between them (and use lots of imagination) they sometimes look like objects, animals or people. The ancient Greeks thought that Orion looked like a giant hunter with a sword attached to his belt.
As the earth moves around the sun, we see the constellations in different positions in the sky at different times of the year. In the same way, the whole sky seems to move towards the west as the earth rotates on its axis throughout the night.

Предтекстовый этап
1. Improve your reading skills.
a) Read the words from left to right as quickly as you can.

cloud	how	about	around	throughout
sun	run	gun	done
light	bright	sight	night
though	show	snow	row
way	say	day	lay
worry	sorry	lorry	gory
star	bar	far	jar
moon	soon	spoon	groom
sky	die	shy	spy

b) Here is a list of two expressions in pairs. They are different. Go through the list and compare their meanings.
blazing balls of fire – blazing stars
run out of fuel – run out of patience
source of light – source of thoughts
give out the light – give out the books
reflect light from the sun – reflect on the article
stretch across the sky – stretch the legs
band of stars – band of people

c) Find the synonyms in each line.

huge	take	large	free
sun	cloud	million	luminary
reason	star	cause	orbit
group	imagination	night	band
earth	year	sword	planet
ancient	across	old	light
sometimes	object	occasionally	galaxy
way	hunter	moon	route

2. Find English equivalents for the following words and expressions in the text.
• сверкающие огненные шары;
• истощать запасы топлива;
• источники света;
• излучать свет;
• отражать свет с помощью солнца;
• галактика;
• группа звезд;
• простираться по ночному небу;
• вращаться вокруг (планеты, звезды);
• выглядеть как гигантский охотник со шпагой на ремне;
• вращаться вокруг своей оси.

3. Read the two following passages and select the appropriate link-words from the list given below:

and; but; this is the reason; in fact

Stars are very, very far away. _________, when their light reaches our eyes, we sometimes see them as they were thousands of years ago. Our sun is the nearest star to Earth, __________ it is still about 150 million km away! It is part of the Milky Way galaxy, a white band of stars that stretches across the night sky. There are more than 100 billion stars in the Milky Way __________ many of them, like our sun, have planets that orbit them.
Stars are sources of light. __________ they shine so brightly in the sky. The moon, planets __________ comets also shine, ___________ they don’t give out their own light. They just reflect it from the sun.

4. The title, the first sentence and the first words of each paragraph of an article are given below. Pick the points that you think are mentioned in the article.

Stars

Over millions of years, hot clouds of gas called nebulae grow until they explode and form huge, blazing balls of fire.
Constellations.
The Earth.

The article tells us:
• about the stars;
• about various constellations;
• that people can see stars as they were thousands of years ago;
• how groups of stars look.

5. Work in pairs. Look at the following word combinations and think of a story that might combine them all. You may reorder them in any way you want using any form of the verb.
• grow until they explode
• blazing balls of fire
• run out of fuel
• to be source of light
• to give out its own light
• reflect the light from the sun
• part of the galaxy
• band of stars
• stretch across the night sky
• to orbit the stars
• like a giant hunter with a sword attached to his belt
• the Earth rotates on its axis

Текстовый этап
1. Read the text “Stars” and underline the sentences that best sum up the main idea of each paragraph and reorder the words according to what happens in the passage. Then discuss the order you decided on with other groups.

2. Could you mark the position of the Milky Way on a map? (Даётся звездная карта.)

Послетекстовый этап
1. Complete the following statements.
a) Stars shine so brightly in the sky because ... (they reflect light from the sun, they are sources of light, they have planets that orbit around them).
b) Stars are born when ... (hot clouds of gas grow until they explode, nebulae form huge, blazing balls of fire).
c) Constellations sometimes look like objects, animals or people because ... (we can draw lines between stars, we use lots of imagination).
d) We see the constellations in different positions in the sky because ... (the Earth moves around the sun, the Earth rotates on its axis).

2. Answer the following questions.
a) What is this text about?
b) What are constellations?
c) Why do stars shine so brightly?
d) Why do constellations appear to change position?
e) Which star is closest to the Earth?
f) What is the aim of the text? (informing, teaching, entertaining)
g) Do you think the article fulfils its aim? Why? (yes; no; probably; perhaps)