Seleccionar un texto adecuado

Como el nuevo currículo de inglés avanzado está estructurado en torno a diferentes tipos de texto, muchas veces nos veremos en la necesidad de seleccionar textos apropiados para nuestros alumnos. Pero ¿qué es un texto apropiado? ¿Qué criterios podemos utilizar para seleccionar los textos (de audio, audiovisuales o escritos) para trabajar en clase?

Aquí os dejo una lista de criterios que he elaborado para un curso online que vamos a impartir como parte de un proyecto Erasmus+. Espero que os resulten útiles:

1.       Texts should be as authentic as possible

There is nothing wrong with using simplified texts, but we should avoid texts that are written with the purpose of exemplifying the use of a grammatical structure or a set of vocabulary, because they don’t exemplify authentic language use.

2.       Readability

The reading passages selected should not only be linguistically and culturally accessible but also within the students’ reach in terms of content, topic familiarity, and conceptual difficulty. However, over-explicit texts are to be avoided because they do not allow for adequate training in the different sub-skills and strategies especially inferencing. As a matter of fact, in many classrooms, texts are made increasingly easy for students in the mistaken belief that this supports struggling students who encounter problems in reading. However, oversimplification results in texts that lack any challenge, interest or are not exemplars of good writing or speaking.

3.       Length/Size:

The texts that the students have to handle must be of reasonable length so as to allow productive work on them. This is especially true for audio-recorded texts. 

4.       Suitability of content:

Here texts appealing to students’ interest and chiming with their age, maturation, level, and knowledge of the world, etc., are highly recommended. Since students’ level of English is still developing, there is a danger that we use materials that have been created for younger children and would thus not appeal to our students.

5.       Cognitively challenging and emotionally engaging

Texts need to contain elements that attract students’ attention either because they are cognitively challenging, present new, interesting information, or because students can engage with them at an emotional level. This may be because students feel strongly about the topic of the text, or because they can identify with the problems of the main character, for example. In any case, the text needs to make students want to carry on listening / viewing / reading.

6.       Exploitability:

Exploitability is also a very important criterion that should be considered in text selection. Texts that do not lend themselves well to different forms of exploitation are useless for teaching literacy and ought to be discarded. They also should be good models of a certain text type, whether spoken or written.

7.       Variety:

This criterion has to do with text types. The reason for exposing students to a variety of text types can be amply substantiated. First and foremost students are allowed exposure to and training in different types of text, such as narrative descriptive, argumentative, expository, etc.  By the same token, the use of different text types makes different demands on the readers, requires different procedures and approaches, calls for different reading strategies, and serve as models for different text types.

(adapted from https://moroccoenglish.com/reading-text-selection/)