Are you wondering what to do as reading activities for ESL? I can help you with that! Reading a lot helps any student of a new language, and so reading is a crucial part of my lessons. I do a variety of reading activities in my lessons, and they are all fun. Let me tell you about all the options you can choose from!
It’s a myth that you should only use textbook type exercises to practice reading with your students. And I believe reading activities should be as authentic as possible, as fun as possible, and as on level for each individual student. I love getting my hands on authentic texts and I love getting my students to read books!
Want to know how I structure the perfect reading lesson? Grab my free Rad Reading Lesson Checklist by clicking here!
Fun reading activities for ESL students
So what are some reading activities for ESL students that are really fun? I split mine up into two types of activities. One is free reading, usually done with books. And the second one is discovery of text types. I will first talk about the first one and then about the second one.
Free reading
Research shows that when students read for fun for longer periods of time, and they do it a lot, their fluency of reading becomes much better. It also shows that reading helps students understand things like sentence structure, and reading helps build vocabulary. And all by doing something rather passively, because reading it’s just that, instead of getting taught a concept. Getting students to read for fun will help them understand the target language better.
At the beginning of the school year I get all of my students to pick a book from the library and I will give them lots of time throughout the year during my lessons to just sit and read. I always tell my students to pick a book that they like, first and foremost. They have to enjoy reading it. And I also tell them the book they choose must be easy enough to read. If it’s too hard they’re not going to enjoy it. If it’s too easy they won’t either. And if they don’t like their choice after all, they are allowed to switch. My students really enjoy their reading time!
Non-book reading activities ESL students love
The other type of reading activity I do with my students is discovery of different text types. I love showing my students different text types to read, because that will help them understand different text types in general. But it’s also because of the authenticity that I use these texts. What is more fun than learning something that is actually meaningful in the real world? And to actually see the target language appear in the real world and see what you can do with that target language in the real world is all the more fun.
Undertaking reading comprehension for ESL is hugely beneficial to the students. It’s good to have them read a text and check with questions about that text whether they have understood what’s in it. Reading comprehension exercises ESL students could benefit from include questions about lay-out, headings, and images; true/false questions about the content; vocabulary fill-in exercises; multiple choice questions about the content; and open discussion questions.
Reading comprehension for ESL students
And then I always like to end with a transfer exercise. This will be a production exercise in which my students show that they have understood the text they just read. Examples can be: they ask questions about a menu to a pretend waiter; they write a letter to the writer of a magazine article; they create a podcast episode out of an item in a news article; or they write a news article about what happened in an amusement park they just read the brochure from. Lots of creativity is involved.
If you want to know how I structure a great reading lesson with text types, click here to grab my free Rad Reading Lesson Checklist!
Reading exercises for ESL students
Are you looking for a set of exercises to give to your students that they can complete about any written text possible? So a set that you can use for any text type in your lessons? Or that your students can do as homework? This set is just that. It includes pre-reading, while reading, and after reading tasks that will help students check their understanding of a text they have read. It’s applicable to any written text possible. Click here to check it out in my store!
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