School reading. A reflection on our students' concerns and towards the formation of a lifelong habit.

Every academic year, when I tell my students they have to read a specific number of readers per term, I always encounter the same bad reaction: eye rolling.

Another variety of that reaction is the one I get when I include READING in the class planning on the board. The younger the students, the harder it is to break through that initial refusal. When that wall seems unbreakable -more often than not- I like to ask them about that opposition and what causes it. They can be very argumentative, but I honestly get their point.

Take the first picture, for instance. The facility looks impressive and appealing from an adult’s point of view. However, most of my younger students would disagree and argue that they’d rather spend their free time outdoors or playing computer games. Touché. 

Then, after some discussion and negotiation we usually compromise. This involves me taking notes of issues that are a cause for concern or, on the contrary, seem alluring to them. Having done some research, I usually introduce them to some options and they always have the final say. From my experience, I find this very helpful to raise the students’ commitment to the activity and, what’s more, I rarely encounter any opposition having reached this point. 

I obviously can’t do this with every single text we read in class. I only implement this method at the beginning of the first term. If I’m lucky, all this process leads us to a situation pretty similar to the picture in which all the students are eagerly reading. In those groups with younger students this is usually achieved with texts that are appealing and attractive to the students. Sometimes their interest emerges from the topic itself, some others derives from the format (i.e. comic books).

As for my personal experience as a reader, I must confess that I’m a book worm: I read as a pastime and pleasure. Hence, I’ve never thought of reading as an arduous task. Although I must admit that my reading habit in L2 has changed over time. At the beginning, it consisted on short texts usually introduced by the teachers. It wasn’t neither easy nor cheap to put my hands on an adapted text or reader. Nowadays, the amount of texts written in L2 available on the internet is immeasurable and all you have to do is help yourself.

Regarding the different reading habits depending on the chosen language, I guess I don’t follow a specific pattern or have a favourite genre. I’m an eclectic reader who tends to read the books in the language they were published. As regards the format, I mostly read online or use the e-book, although I love the paper format when facing one of the classics -the smell of paper is irreplaceable.

So, in short, as former L2 learners –still in progress- it should be easy to put ourselves in our students’ place. Been there, done that; right? Now, as teachers we must figure out the main problems our students might encounter when facing their reading tasks and try to provide them with tools to overcome their fears and enjoy the pleasure of reading.