1. Argumentative Essay
Through this essay you will find some relevant aspects related to teach reading skills
to the students. Reading is a fluent process of readers combining information from a text
and their own background knowledge to build meaning. Even though reading is considered
a receptive skills it does not mean that students do not experience any reaction when they
are reading. In fact, reading is one of the abilities that must be taught in schools, because
reading helps students to build up their vocabulary, transform strategies into skills and
increase reading rate.
As we know reading skill is the best way to acquire new vocabulary; it is the major
reason why ESL students must be taught to guess the meaning of less frequency words by
context. Moreover, due to the students’ background along with the bottom-up process,
students will be able to increase gradually and productively their vocabulary in order to
understand the context of a text.
Furthermore, the distinction between strategies and skills has been an important fact
for students. It is essential to comprehend that strategy is a conscious action in order to help
readers to increase the ability of guessing unknown vocabulary, whereas skill is becoming
an automatic strategy, because students move from conscious strategies to unconscious
skills guessing the meaning through the context.
Finally, reading skills are useful to increase reading rate in order to students
acquire fluency, for instance they could read 200 words-per-minute with at least 70 percent
comprehension; this idea refers that students will be able to enjoy reading and comprehend
a text.
To conclude, these arguments support the idea of the relevance to teach how to read
at elementary levels for students’ benefits at secondary and university; it is even more
important if they are ESL students. Besides, reading is a process in which students develop
comprehension and vocabulary.
By: Rosa González – Jerisza Cáceres – Tamara Farías