Why on earth should reading be a silent activity? I fully encourage and actively believe in the power of reading activities as a lead in to lessons-reading aloud.
Reading shapes us- moulds the imagination and helps us retrieve prior knowledge( words we have seen before/grammar structures we may have studied previously.) it may even awaken vocabulary that has long since lain dormant ( fallen asleep for a time...vocabulary we know and just have not used in a while.)
To distinguish sounds that differ from those of your native language, reading aloud with guided instruction is essential.
(most of the short vowel sounds of English don't exist in Spanish, for example), or sounds that are different in English - like the w and v that cause a tumult( a problem.) at times for speakers of German.
Step one in becoming familiar with the melody, the rhythmic staccato of English, is to listen and to read!
''Once phonological awareness has developed in any language, it transfers to other languages that are learned.''
learn to discriminate sounds that are different between your native language and English.
