Reading Method

The Reading Method (or Reading Approach) was a language teaching approach prominent in the United States from the 1930s to the 1940s, advocated by the Coleman Report (1929). It emerged as a practical compromise between the ambitious oral goals of the Direct Method and the reality that most American students would never travel abroad or use the foreign language for spoken communication.

Rationale

The Coleman Committee, surveying foreign language education in the US, concluded that given the limited time available (typically two years of high school study), the only realistic goal was reading ability. Oral fluency was unattainable in the time available, so programmes should focus on what could actually be achieved.

Core Features

• Reading as the primary skill. The goal is to develop the ability to read the target language with comprehension. Other skills are subordinated.
• Vocabulary control. Reading materials are carefully graded by vocabulary level, with frequency lists determining which words are introduced and when.
• Grammar in service of reading. Only grammar necessary for reading comprehension is taught, and it is taught as needed rather than as a complete system.
• Graded readers. Simplified texts (the forerunners of modern graded readers) provide accessible reading material at each level.
• L1 is permitted. Unlike the Direct Method, the Reading Method allows use of the L1 for explanations and discussion.

Legacy

The Reading Method did not survive as a named method beyond the mid-20th century, but its core insight — that Extensive Reading with graded materials develops language proficiency — has been thoroughly validated by modern research (Day & Bamford, 1998; Nation, 2009). The global graded reader industry (Oxford Bookworms, Cambridge English Readers, Penguin Readers) is a direct descendant of the Reading Method's materials philosophy.

Key References

• Coleman, A. (1929). The Teaching of Modern Foreign Languages in the United States. American and Canadian Committees on Modern Languages.
• West, M. (1953). A General Service List of English Words. Longman.
• Day, R. & Bamford, J. (1998). Extensive Reading in the Second Language Classroom. Cambridge University Press.