14 - Seeing what they mean: helping L2 readers to visualise

Summary

Introduction

There is currently much concern about the apparent mismatch between what learners are asked to do in published textbooks and the reality of language use; see, for example, Masuhara et al . ( 2008 ), Tomlinson ( 2008 ) and ( 2009 ), and Tomlinson et al . ( 2001 ), as well as the chapters in Part A of this book by Jane Willis and by Ronald Carter, Rebecca Hughes and Michael McCarthy. Many think that there is also a mismatch between some of the pedagogic procedures of current textbooks and what second language acquisition researchers have discovered about the process of learning a second or foreign language (see, for example, Chapter 1 of this book by Brian Tomlinson and Chapter 8 by Andrew Littlejohn). One type of textbook which seems to be largely exempt from such criticisms of mismatch is that which focuses on helping learners to develop reading skills in an L2.

It seems to be accepted that current textbook activities designed to develop reading skills do to a large extent mirror the actual pro - cess of reading authentic texts. These activities are based on generally accepted models of the reading process which stress the active role of the reader in relating world knowledge to information in the text, the parallel interaction between low-level decoding of words and high-level processing of concepts and the way in which effective readers vary their reading techniques according to their purposes for reading. However, it is arguable that there is one significant reading strategy which has been almost entirely neglected by both general EFL coursebooks and by EFL reading skills books too. That is the strategy of visualisation, the converting of words on the page into pictures in the mind. In an analysis of EFL textbooks published in the 1990s I found no evidence at all of any systematic attempt to help L2 learners to develop visualisation skills except in Openings (Tomlinson 1994 ) and Use Your English (Tomlinson and Masuhara 1994 ). And when reviewing EFL textbooks in the last ten years (e.g. Masuhara et al . 2008 ; Tomlinson et al . 2001 ) I still have not found any attempt to help L2 readers to achieve visual imaging of reading texts.