Reading Aloud content area subject matter L2 vocabulary...

Three, when I read to the students, I in effect show them what a well-read piece
of writing is all about, complete with the proper stress, intonation, and quite
often the physiological signs (body language) that goes along with them. When
reading silently, people need to decode words to help them understand. L2
students often also resort to translation into L1 and back. Reading aloud adds
the sound dimension (which is critical to listening and speaking) to silent reading,
thus bridging the gap between the eyes (sight) and the ears (hearing and
listening). Reading aloud also connects the eyes and ears to the tongue as well as
to the entire body, which is involved in body language.

Four, when the students read aloud, they do at least two things: they listen to
themselves and they improve their reading skills. When reading aloud, you
cannot skip words the way you do when reading silently. Every word, particularly
the collocations, must be spoken. The students learn to correct themselves
because they can hear the way they say things aloud and can compare that to the
way a native speaker reads. I think that fluent reading goes along with and, in the
case of the Chinese students I'm talking about here, is a precursor to fluent
talking. If you can read fluently, this can be transferred to speaking fluently.

Five, when students listen to what I read out loud, then practice reading aloud
themselves, then must talk about what they have read, this forces the student to
"think" aloud, which is a critical step in learning to "think" in English. By
moving from reading aloud to talking aloud in the third part of each lesson,
students learn to think aloud--in L2. The next objective could be to have them
"write" aloud, though I haven't tried that yet.
One student who has endured this method with me has become a fluent English
speaker who is able to converse fluently and intel igently on just about any subject
under the sun, from food to travel to Linux to the Big Bang--and any subject that a
typical graduate student or polymath could converse about. Other students are also
much improved; another few months and they should be just as fluent--I hope.

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