Stage 3 guidelines for reading: Functions

Here are some functions objectives for Stage 3 for reading:

• To be able to read almost anything written in the language easily for pleasure
• To read to learn about unfamiliar subject matter

• To be able to read material including:

  • Hypotheses
  • Argumentation
  • Supported opinions

Here are some functions strategies for Stage 3 guidelines for reading:

• Analysis

  Look for ways that written language varies from spoken language in the purposes for which it is used. Is it more formal? What are the functions of written language? Are they different from the functions of spoken language?

  In a society that has been preliterate, and where the written form is beginning to develop, pay attention to what functions are and are not expressed in written language. Is it reserved for specific topics, or is it acceptable to write on every topic?

• Inference

  Use what you know about the situation and the culture to infer the writer's purposes, sometimes reading between the lines (top-down processing).

• Synthesis

  Use what you know about forms to piece together what the author is trying to express.

Here is a functions activity for Stage 3 guidelines for reading:

Read for pleasure about as many topics as possible, and ask yourself what the author's purpose was in writing.

• Generic module: Stage 3 guidelines for reading: Functions
• In overview module: Stage 3: Reading modules
• In modular book: Guidelines for a Language and Culture Learning Program, by Carol J. Orwig
• In document collection: Other Resources
• In bookshelf: Language Learning

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 3.5, published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 1999. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 8 December 1998

© 1999 SIL International