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parenthesis and reading aloud

Posted by mesmark · May 1, 2007 · 3 replies

There is a passage in a JHS text book here and in part of the passage there is a sentence something like this:

"Braille is a system made of up six dots (see figure 1), but it's a little different in Japan."

I'm asked to read the paragraph aloud and students repeat.

I skipped the '(see figure 1)' part when reading aloud, but on the students' CD, the narrator reads that portion.

I know they forced that in to cover the language and they want the students to remember it, but should we read it when we read aloud?

3 Replies

STCrowley

If it's just 'see figure one' I think you don't have to read it when you read aloud. If it's actual information "John grew up in Roswell, New Mexico (the location of the supposed UFO crash) and always believed that his English teacher was an alien." Then I'd read in the information in the parenthesis with a little bit more pause before and after than if it were set of by commas.

You posted this in 2005. What did you wind up deciding? Do you read this stuff out loud now, or don't you?

mesmark OP

STCrowley wrote:You posted this in 2005. What did you wind up deciding?

I just decided to do whatever I want

that's what I usually do 😂

Actually, I don't remember. I got email notification of your reply and I had to check to see if it was me that posted this. lol (since I have a couple posts here I sometimes get pings on thread that I didn't start.)

I probably wouldn't read what was in the OP but in your example, I'd do like you suggested, just space it out with pauses to show the break.

teachingenglishmadeeasy

mesmark wrote:I just decided to do whatever I want

that's what I usually do 😂

Actually, I don't remember. I got email notification of your reply and I had to check to see if it was me that posted this. lol (since I have a couple posts here I sometimes get pings on thread that I didn't start.)

I probably wouldn't read what was in the OP but in your example, I'd do like you suggested, just space it out with pauses to show the break.

Smart man. We all know that information in parentheses is just that, extra information that isn't necessarily part of the sentence in terms of structure. Normally, in North American English, we just do not read it aloud. In my classes, I don't bother unless there is something really important in there, in which case I will go ahead and read it AFTER I or my students have read their sentence/s.