Thais are weak in English. This has become a national issue in Thailand. This is a major problem that has been building up for a long time and is still there.
Learning English is very important and necessary in daily life because it is an important tool for communication, for studying, for working or for entertainment.
Especially in the matter of English reading skills because reading skills are skills that stay with us the longest. They can be used all the time as long as we can still read books. And importantly, reading is a part of learning. Which will help stimulate conversation and express opinions, including using imagination, giving knowledge and skills for career advancement, helping to develop ourselves, making us more confident.
“Thai people’s reading skills are at a low level.”
This is because teachers use inappropriate teaching methods and teaching does not allow students to truly develop their reading skills. This is because teachers focus on translation, vocabulary memorization, and grammar rules, which do not promote thinking skills.
The result is that learners will not understand. While reading, they will not be able to summarize the understanding from that topic into words or writing. With this teaching method, the English reading skills of Thais fail or Thais are weak in English.
What is the solution?
KWL Plus is a teaching method developed by two researchers, Ogle and Carr in 1987. They stated that KWL Plus is a teaching method used to solve problems and develop students’ reading comprehension abilities.
Because KWL Plus is a reading teaching method that helps stimulate learners to be thinkers and think systematically while reading, which has the following steps:
K – KNOW:
It is a step where learners check the topic to see how much they know about the subject they are going to read. They use their prior knowledge or experience to connect it to new knowledge before they start reading the given subject.
To put it simply, it is a process of checking with yourself first to see what prior knowledge you have that is related to the subject you are going to read. Because if you already have some knowledge, practicing your English reading skills will be much easier.
W – WANT TO KNOW:
This is the step where learners must ask themselves what they want to know in the text they read. The questions that learners create before reading are a way to set goals for reading and to anticipate what they will find in the text.
Simply put, it is a process of identifying topics, things that interest us, and expectations that we want to get from reading, etc. If we really read things that interest us, practicing English reading skills will be easier and reading will be more fun.
L – LEARNESS:
This is the step where learners explore what they have learned from the reading. Learners will find answers to the questions they asked in step 2 and record what they have learned.
To put it simply, it is a process of summarizing what knowledge we have gained from the books or articles we have read, whether it is as we expected, or whether we have gained anything additional, etc. In practicing English reading skills in this section, in addition to developing English skills, we also gain knowledge and understanding from what we have read.
Plus:
It is an activity to add a reading chart or a meaning relationship chart to summarize the main idea after reading. This is to help learners understand what they read and be able to transfer their learning more.
Simply put, it is a process of summarizing, plus documenting for review, making diagrams, connecting understandings and relationships, which will make us remember easily, for a long time, and understand the content more deeply.
The KWL Plus technique is old but can still be used to great effect.
We don’t have to wait for teachers or professors to teach us English using this method. We can also apply this method to ourselves, teach ourselves, and train ourselves.
Developing English reading skills, if you want it to be effective and easy, I would like to add some important techniques for you to try as follows:
Read and pronounce
This method will help develop English reading and listening skills at the same time because every time we pronounce, it will be a review of the vocabulary. We can find the translation of the word and listen to the correct pronunciation at https://dict.longdo.com/ which will help us pronounce the word correctly.
Have a vocabulary notebook
Read first. If you come across any words, write them down first. But also try to guess what the word means. Then, when you finish reading the paragraph, look up the meaning of the word from https://dict.longdo.com/.
Write down the translation in a notebook and recite this word 2-3 times, then go back and understand the content of that paragraph again. Do this repeatedly and I guarantee that you will read faster and understand more.
The issue of being weak in English can actually be solved by practicing regularly through the KWL Plus method, which can be applied to our daily lives by making the story of English a part of our lives through daily activities.
Whether it is listening to music, watching movies, listening to or watching news, or reading books that have foreign sources and are presented in English, doing this often will create behavior and habits that will make us more confident in using English.
Read more at: Problems with writing English for use at work. Don’t know where to start?
