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is always preferable to start with the overall meaning of the text, its function and aim, rather than working on vocabulary and morę specific ideas” (1981:6). This approach to a text is important for:

•    it builds up students’ eonfidence when dealing with authentic texts often containing complex voeabulary and structures,

•    it helps in developing an awareness of the way texts are organised,

•    due to beginning with the larger units and observing the arrangement of the text, the aceompanying visual clues, its photograph structure, etc., readers / learners could get encouraged to predict what they might expect to find in the text thus developing in them “... skills of inference, anticipation and deduction”.

Reading is a process of endless guessing, and the students background knowledge is often morę important than information they find in it. For that reason “the students should be taught to use what they know to understand unknown elements, whether these are ideas or single words” (1981:7) which is achieved best through a global approach to the text.

Study of the layout: title, length, pictures, typeface of the text

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Making hypotheses about the context and function

anticipation of where to look for confirmation of these hypotheses according to what one knows of such text types

Skimming through the passage

Confirmation or revision of one’s guesses

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Further prediction

Second reading for morę detail

12.3.5.1. Reading and other language skills

Reading comprehension should not be separated from the other skills (Grellet, 1981:8), it is important to link the different skills through the reading activities chosen:

—    reading and writing - summarising, mentioning what you have read in a letter, note-taking, etc.,

—    reading and listening - comparing an article and a news-bulletin,

using recorded information to solve a written problem, matching opinions and texts, etc.,

—    reading and speaking - discussions, debates, appreciation, etc.

Reading, additionally, is seen as an active skill sińce “it constantly involves guessing, predicting, checking and asking oneself ąuestions”. It is possible to develop students’ abilities to infer meaning through regular practice, or by asking ąuestions which enable readers to predict text content from its title and visual input or how the story might end from the paragraphs coming before the finał one.

Reading as an active skill has its communicative function, hence exercises need to be meaningful and correspond to what the reader is expected to do with the text. After reading a text readers rareły answer ąuestions, but they may have to:

—    write an answer to a letter,

—- use the text to do something (e.g. follow directions, make a choice, solve a problem, etc.),

—    compare the information given to some prior knowledge (Grellet,

1981:9).

12.3.6. Text selection

Gough (the lecture on Reading Skills: 08.01.1994) claims the most important factor that ought to be considered by teachers is what they want the students to leam or practise, that is the teachlng aim. There are two kinds of texts:

a) presentation texts -used to present a structure; the best thing would be to use non-authentię texts - which are short, simple, repeating the target structure or item, not confusing, texts which allow 100% comprehension without too much diffieully,

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