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Empowering Students
As often is the case, many students in Taiwan spend much time memorizing vocabulary and grammatical rules, and yet they do not read well enough or quickly enough to ensure comprehension. It is a problem that has been hiding in plain sight for decades. When Taiwanese students were measured against international benchmarks, they were often not on par with their counterparts in neighboring countries. This should be a wake-up call. It seems obvious that English education in Taiwan has been stuck in neutral for years, students’ reading efficiency being a case in point. Reading at a satisfactory rate remains a major challenge for most students in Taiwan. This is particularly evident when they read within the limited time frame on a test. Quite simply put, they read way too slow and should not settle for less.
Picking up speed alone, however, will not lead to better comprehension. It is the other way around. Comprehension comes before speed and greater comprehension depends on an ability to identify meaningful units of text. It is in this light that this book adopts a meaning-based approach to connecting language forms with meaning in contexts of use, a radical departure from the traditional form-focused pedagogy. This book demonstrates how new skills come into play in the act of reading. Readers will walk away with increased attention to meaning-making in texts and a deeper understanding of how texts unfold in written genres.
Y.S.J.
Ph.D., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor