The reading process

During my intensive training, I became interested in the reading skill and I read some books related to it such as: From Reader to Reading Teacher: Issues and strategies for second language classrooms by Aebersold ; Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language by Nuttall and The transactional theory of reading and writing by Rosenblatt. Here´s a brief outline of what I´ve learnt in those books.

The study of the reading skill in the Teaching of English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) has undergone significant changes over the last century. In fact, the conceptual history of the reading skill can be traced back from its early role in the Grammar-Translation method to its current position in the latest approaches to TEFL. While in the past, the reading process was taken as a passive one, nowadays reading is considered to be inherently interactive.

Researchers in an attempt to describe the interaction between the reader and the text,have created models that account for what happens when people read. Three main models have been proposed: the bottom-up, the top-down and the interactive approach.

The bottom-up theory argues that the reader constructs the text from the smallest units i.e. from letters to words, from words to phrases. The top-down theory states that readers fit the text into the knowledge they already possess and that they check back when new or unexpected information appears. Finally, the interactive theory claims that both top-down and bottom-up processes occur, depending on the type of text as well as on the reader’s background knowledge, motivation and strategy used.

Not only did researchers create different models on reading comprehension, but they also attempted to identify the mental activities that readers use in order to construct meaning from a text. These activities are generally referred to as reading strategies.

Making sense of a text is facilitated not only by activating relevant schemata, but also by employing cognitive reading strategies which are determined by the type of text, the purpose for reading and the information that we need to obtain from the text.

From the teacher’s and learner’s point of view, the reading strategies proposed by
Harmer (1983) seem to be the most useful since he classifies them into two categories according to the students’ familiarity with a text.

Harmer classifies L2 comprehension skills into two types: Type 1 skills and Type 2 skills. Harmer stated that: “Type 1 skills are those operations that students perform when they tackle a text for the first time”. They include: predictive skills, skimming and scanning.

Type 2 skills imply detailed comprehension of a text and are used after students have performed Type 1 skills. They include extracting detailed information, recognizing functions and discourse patterns and deducing meaning from context.

“Yet it is in our idleness, in our dreams, that the submerged truth sometimes comes to the to top” Virginia Woolf

Some time ago I realized that almost every night I have a different dream and that the dreams I have during the night always influenced the following the day in some way. So, I started thinking that dreams may have an importance in our daily life and it would be really necessary to learn to “read” them. As a result, I began finding out about the meanings of dreams and the implications they can have in our life.

Each dream is a mixture of our biological instincts, our cultural assumptions and our own personal experience. As we dream, our brains create stories from these ingredients. These stories are occasionally laced with complicated plots, and sometimes populated with elaborate visual images that help us unlock their meaning.

But, do you remember your dreams? It is said that five minutes after the end of a dream, we have forgotten fifty percent of the dream's content. Ten minutes later, we've forgotten ninety percent of its content. Why is that? We don't forget our daily actions that quickly. As they are very hard to remember and recall we sometimes do not give them much importance. However, as Virginia Wolf stated dreams can help us discover hidden feelings and emotions.

Here are some common dreams with their interpretation:

* You fail a test or perform poorly: you feel unprepared for something.

* You fall, fall and then wake up: it symbolizes insecurities and anxiety.

*You are being chased : you are running away from your problems.

*You teeth fall out: you are going to be set back financially.

*You lose your hair: you may be worried about your self-image

* You find a treasure: you are rediscovering a part of yourself.

* You are lost:it symbolises the beginning of a new phase of life and expresses the anxiety of leaving behind the familiar.

British pubs

The pub is a place to for a convivial night out. You can meet people, enjoy good food and drink and even join in a game of darts or snooker, a game similar to billiards.

The word “pub” is a shortened of public house; at one time ale houses were private homes where the occupant brewed ale and sold it at the front door. Poles were topped with evergreen branches were hung outside public houses so customers could easily find them. These were the earliest pub signs. Today there is an amazing selection of pub names depicted on colorful signs. Some of them refer to historical events or local landmarks while others include references to animals, many with their origins in heraldry, such as the “White Hart” and the “Red Lion”.

Another popular pub name: “The Coach and Horses” reminds us that many pubs were once coaching inns where travelers would stop for refreshments, a night´s sleep and to rest or change the horses pulling their stage coach. There were many coaching inns in London, with stage coach services to villages and towns.

Although it is possible to buy most drinks in a pub, beer is the mainstay of the trade. Until the sixteenth century, the UK´s favourite drink was ale made with fermented malt from barley. Then hops, were introduced. Their dried flowers were used to flavor and preserve the ale and ale became beer, although the two names are used interchangeably today.

Over twenty seven million of pints of beer are sold in the UK every day. Although breweries are mainly run by big national groups, there are many microbreweries serving a smaller area and a few publicans still brew their beers.

Tourism: blessing or curse?

Tourism is a profitable business that contributes to the economic development and wealth of a country and its people. Although various negative effects regarding tourism have to be acknowledged, the positive aspects cannot be left out.

Two of the main disadvantages of the tourist industry are the damage that excursionists cause to the natural environment and the threat they pose to the culture of local people. Excessive urbanisations as well as the construction of infrastructure are the root causes of many environmental problems such as the destruction of natural areas to build holiday resorts. As for the cultural aspect, it has been proved that local residents suffer greatly from tourism as their cultures and historical heritage are being destroyed by visitors.

However, it cannot be denied that tourism generates major financial benefits. The tourist industry is an important source of revenue to different regions as travellers spend their money not only on hotels and meals, but also on entertainment and recreational facilities. Furthermore, tourism stimulates employment. Owing to the fact that jobs in the tourist industry often do not require advanced training, local residents with few skills can readily work as food servers, retail clerks and hospitality workers. Tourism not only offers business opportunities to local residents, but it can also serve as a vehicle for marketing a place to potential residents and firms, as today’s tourists may retire or start a business in the place they are visiting in the future.

To conclude, tourism has some negative aspects such as the environmental damage to natural areas and the destruction of the local culture. However, it also has the significant advantage of promoting economic growth in an area.