Marcel Van Amelsvoort
（Kanagawa Prefectural College of Foreign　Studies）
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Hi and welcome to another issue of the Treasure Hunt. As promised, we
will continue with our look at using web sites for building individual
English skills. Last month we looked at listening, and this month we’ll
take a look at reading. To be very honest with you, I feel that great
care needs to be taken when using the Internet as a means to teach
reading. Using materials taken from the Internet can be highly
motivational: a teacher can find authentic examples of language for any
area of interest. And this combination of interesting topics and
authenticity is very powerful and very important for learners to be
exposed to, especially as learners start to gain proficiency. However,
the vast majority of web sites are made for a specific function, and
that function is not teaching EFL students to read. Lower level readers
need support and language control if they are to learn, and no matter
what their level, no learner benefits from being overloaded with
incomprehensible language. For most learners, the intensive reading
textbooks they have already are challenging enough. A good intensive
reading textbook, along with an organized program of graded readers for
extensive reading, is the best approach to teaching reading usually.
Short examples of language taken from the Internet can then be used to
increase motivation and interest.

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