International TEFL InstituteReading Syllabus for Progress
A TEFL reading syllabus for each proficiency level should be designed to incorporate all the skills necessary to provide a sense of moving forward; of growing achievement and progress.
ELEMENTARY LEVEL
In the Elementary TEFL Reading programme, students should aim to:
- demonstrate recognition of words and sentence patterns in English;
- understand the conventions (punctuation and layout) of English;
- respond to questions about a written text;
- reinforce and apply their vocabulary skills through shared and guided reading appropriate to their level;
- use contextual knowledge to predict the meaning of unfamiliar words;
- develop skills to enable them to determine meanings of unfamiliar words
INTERMEDIATE LEVEL
In the Intermediate TEFL Reading programme, students should aim to:
- explore narrative order: identify and map out the main stages of the story: introductions, build-ups, climaxes or conflicts and resolutions;
- compare and contrast poems and stories on similar themes, particularly their form and language, discuss personal responses and preferences;
- reading for gist and general understanding;
- reading for specific information;
- use and understand spelling patterns (identifying phonemes);
- understand longer and more difficult texts, some of which will be subject related;
- using context to identify the meaning of new vocabulary;
- identify different types of text, e.g. their content, structure, vocabulary, style, layout and purpose;
- identify features of newspapers, articles, headlines and advertisements;
- predict newspaper stories from the evidence of headlines;
- identify features of instructional texts including noting the intended outcome at the beginning, clearly setting out sequential stages, the language of commands, e.g. imperative verbs;
- identify the key features of explanatory texts including purpose, structure, use of connectives of time and cause and effect, use of passive voice, presentation.
ADVANCED LEVEL
On completion of the Advanced TEFL Reading programme the student should be able to:
- comment critically on the language, style of periodicals, reviews, reports and leaflets;
- secure the skills of skimming, scanning and efficient reading so that research is fast and effective;
- appraise a text quickly and effectively; retrieve information from it; find information quickly and evaluate its value.
- summarise effectively;
- infer ideas not stated implicitly;
- draw reasonable conclusions from written texts;
- distinguish between fact, opinion and fiction;
- identify the features of balanced written arguments, e.g. summarise different sides of an argument; clarify the strengths and weaknesses of different positions; signal personal opinion clearly.
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