This pertains to the discussion on Anthea Tillyer's remark that =
"teaching reading is hard"

Yes it is hard but interesting. I'd like to share my experience with an
=
advanced level reading class
with students from various countries representing various cultures: =
erstwhile Soviet states, Africa,
West Asia, S.E.Asia and Central America etc., here in India.
It was interesting because as *** readers, these students always got
=
down to discussing the issues raised
by the reading texts which were also drawn from across cultures. The =
reading went beyond the literal,
and the discussion veered around cultural perspectives and the =
figurative levels of meaning.=20
I used texts from the Oxford Advanced Master Class which has a variety
=
of themes from various cultures.
While we were dealing with the contextual use of words, I also =
highlighted the other contexts in which a word could occur. Or
sometimes =
when there was a misinterpretation we discussed why that was not the =
sense iimplied in the text under study.
These texts also had catchy titles with layers of meaning. That made
for =
a good start into inferential
understanding, for example, Playing with Fire, describing a Japanese =
ritual or Peak Performance=20
a text on a mountain climbing record.

Malathy Krishnan
CIEFL, Hyderabad, India.
makan@satyam.net.in