Stage 2 guidelines for reading: Appropriate varieties

Here are some objectives for learning appropriate varieties when reading in Stage 2:

• To notice, when reading dialogue, how people talk to family, friends, strangers, merchants, employees, and people of different ages and social status
• To recognize grammatical forms and vocabulary that only occur in writing
• To recognize when regional dialects or speech representative of different social classes is being reflected in dialogue
• To recognize grammatical forms and usage appropriate to personal letters versus business letters

Here are some strategies for learning appropriate varieties when reading in Stage 2:

• Analysis

  Use the Text Portfolio technique to collect examples of different texts of the same genre and compare stylistic and regional variations.

  Tip:	Ask a librarian or a friend to recommend books or stories that have fairly typical dialogue, not something bizarre.

• Comparison with observed situations

  Look at what you have recorded about the varieties of speech in social situations you have observed and participated in. Look to see if these same varieties are reflected in the texts you read.

• Exposure

  Read lots of material you can understand to help you subconsciously recognize the varieties used by the writers.

Here are some techniques for learning appropriate varieties when reading in Stage 2:

• The Familiar Stories technique
• The Bilingual Reading technique
• The Text Portfolio technique
• The Text Analysis technique
• The Script Analysis technique

Here is an activity for learning appropriate varieties when reading in Stage 2:

When reading for pleasure, note unfamiliar varieties of speech.

• Generic module: Stage 2 guidelines for reading: Appropriate variet...
• In overview module: Stage 2: Reading modules
• In modular book: Guidelines for a Language and Culture Learning Program, by Carol J. Orwig
• In document collection: Other Resources
• In bookshelf: Language Learning

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 3.5, published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 1999. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 8 December 1998

© 1999 SIL International