How does IST teach reading in English and how much outside reading is required?

Children learn the skills of reading in the Pre-School programme and these skills are directly transferable between English and French / German / Spanish. The Foundation year learning target is for each student to be able to read by sounding out the syllables of the texts; some students will become independent readers while in this group.

However, whereas these languages have a fairly direct relationship between spelling and pronunciation, such a link in English can appear to be arbitrary, especially to a learner. Many IST students teach themselves to read in English by applying these skills, although like most native speakers they do have trouble pronouncing unfamiliar words when reading aloud. A special emphasis is placed on decoding and the common spelling / pronunciation groups in the first semester of J1, and the learning target is for all students to be independent readers while in this group.

For students in the Chinese programme, some reading skills are not as easily transferable to English; research shows that in fact different areas of the brain are used. However, these students do acquire the concepts and habits of reading, and the J1 approaches ensure that they reach the same level as their peers during J1.

The Junior School reading programme has three thrusts - close reading, wider reading and personal reading, Close reading is where the teacher sets a text which all students read - closely. Close reading is preparation for Middle School literary study and analysis, and JS students are introduced to these skills. Wider reading is where the teacher produces a number of books, as much as possible related to the current Unit, from which the students choose a specified number to read and which have a number of tasks to be completed. Personal reading is exactly that and students complete simple book reviews to show what they have read. Thus, students read both depth and breadth, quality and quantity, prescribed texts and free choice. They develop the reading skills of "reading with a purpose" and the reading habit of "reading for pleasure".

Outside reading ("wider" and "personal") in both languages A is strongly encouraged, and IST's Library is used for this purpose.