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Is reading on screens changing our brains?
B275 minsNew. New: checked automatically for level, grammar, facts and originality; a teacher's review is still to come. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.readingbookstechnologyeducation
Video: What does reading on screens do to our brains? – BBC Ideas
About this lesson
A B2 lesson on reading habits, built on a BBC Ideas video in which writers and researchers talk about what reading does for us and what happens when we read on screens. Students learn phrases for describing how we read, predict the benefits of reading, then check what the researchers found about paper and screens.
- Learn eight phrases for talking about how and why we read.
- Predict what the speakers say about the benefits of reading, then correct the false statements.
- Complete notes on what the research found about reading on screens and check them in the video.
- Discuss paper, screens and shorter attention spans from both sides.
- Give someone advice about their reading habits and sum up the lesson.
Target vocabulary
read for pleasureget lost in somethinggrippingskim through somethingtake something inattention spanin depthwind down
Lesson activities
Let's get started with a warm-up
1
What do you read?
Rank the kinds of reading below from the one that needs the most concentration to the one that needs the least. Then, compare your ranking with a partner and say whether you usually read each one on paper or on a screen.
a novel
a short news update
a chapter of a textbook
a message from a friend
a recipe
a contract or terms and conditions
a long article about science
a social media post
- Is there anything you prefer to read on paper? Why?
- How much of your reading each day happens on a phone?
Let's learn some vocabulary!
2
How we read
Read the sentences and match the phrases in bold with the correct meanings below.
a)I hardly ever read for pleasure during term time because I'm too busy with my coursework.
b)I got lost in the novel and completely missed my stop on the bus.
c)The new thriller is so gripping that I finished it in two nights.
d)I only had five minutes, so I skimmed through the report on the way to the meeting.
e)There was so much information on the website that I couldn't take it all in.
f)Some teachers believe that children's attention span is getting shorter.
g)In the seminar, we studied the poem in depth, line by line.
h)Reading a few pages in bed helps me wind down after a busy day.
MEANINGS:
- in a detailed and careful way
- relax after a period of work or activity
- read something quickly to get the main idea, without reading every word
- so exciting that you can't stop watching or reading
- the length of time that you can concentrate on something
- read because you enjoy it, not for work or study
- understand and remember information that you read or hear
- become so involved in something that you forget what is around you
3
Your reading habits
Complete the gaps with the phrases from ex. 2. Then, choose four questions to ask your partner.
You may need to change the form of the verb.
a)How often do you , and what do you usually choose?
b)When did you last a book so completely that you forgot the time?
c)What's the last book you read that was really ? What made it so hard to put down?
d)Do you read long emails and articles carefully, or do you just them?
e)Do you find it easier to information on paper or on a screen?
f)Do you think your has changed since you got a smartphone?
g)Is there a subject you would love to study if you had the time?
h)How do you in the evening? Does reading help?
Now, we'll put it into practice!
4
Ways of reading
Look at the four photos of people reading. Then, discuss the questions, using the phrases in the box.
A
B
C
Dread for pleasureget lost in somethinggrippingskim through somethingtake something inattention spanin depthwind down
- Which person do you think is reading for pleasure, and who might be reading for work or study?
- Who looks most likely to get lost in what they're reading? Why?
- Which person do you think is just skimming through something? What makes you think so?
- Which way of reading is closest to how you wind down at the end of the day?
- Choose one photo and describe what the person might be reading, using at least two of the phrases.
5
What reading does for us
Watch 01:35–03:04
Read the statements about what the speakers say about reading and decide if they are true or false. Then, watch the first part of a video [https://youtu.be/zyyuGYiPwUs] (from 01:35 to 03:04) and check your answers. Correct the false ones.
a)One speaker suggests particular novels as a cure for everyday problems like anger and tiredness.
b)According to one speaker, reading gives us three powers: creativity, intelligence and confidence.
c)One speaker says that reading for pleasure is one of two key factors in how well children do financially later in life.
d)Reading makes your heart beat faster and gives you more energy.
e)When we read in depth, we use much more of the brain than when we just get the information.
f)Deep reading helps us remember facts, but it doesn't change how we understand other people.
6
Paper or screen?
Watch from 03:50
Complete the notes with what you think the researchers found about reading on screens. Then, watch the second part of the video (from 03:50) and check your answers.
a)The research brought together experts from more than countries.
b)Short texts, such as , can be read just as well on a phone.
c)With texts that are difficult or emotionally challenging, people who read on a screen than people who read on paper.
d)Because there is so much to read, we tend to it.
e)If we don't train our deep reading skills, we may lose the ability to .
f)One writer has changed the way they write because children's has got shorter.
g)In the same way that people can speak two or three languages, one speaker hopes we will learn to .
7
Have you changed your mind?
Look at the questions in ex. 3 again and discuss the points below with a new partner.
- Would you now answer any of the questions differently? Which ones?
- Do you think you skim through difficult texts on a screen more than you realised?
- After the video, would you choose paper or a screen for a text you need to take in properly?
Let's talk!
8
Paper, screens and you
Discuss the questions.
- Which idea from the video surprised you most? Why?
- One researcher says that we understand difficult texts less well on a screen. Does that match your own experience?
- Do you skim through more than you used to? Is that always a bad thing?
- Should schools use printed books or tablets for most lessons? What are the pros and cons for students and for teachers?
- Some people say that shorter books suit shorter attention spans. Others say we should train ourselves to read in depth. Which view do you find more convincing?
- Some speakers see phones as a new chance for writers who can't get published. Is that a good thing for readers too?
- Will people still read printed books for pleasure in fifty years' time?
9
Better reading habits
Choose two people below. Then, give them advice about their reading, using the phrases in the box.
A student who reads all their course books on a laptop and can't take much of it in.
A friend who used to read for pleasure but now only scrolls on their phone at night.
A teenager who says that books are boring and that they can't concentrate for long.
A colleague who skims through every long email and keeps missing important details.
Someone who wants to read more but never gets past the first few pages of a book.
A parent who wants their children to get lost in stories the way they did as a child.
read for pleasureget lost in somethinggrippingskim through somethingtake something inattention spanin depthwind down
- What is the real problem: the text, the screen or the reader's habits?
- Should they read on paper, on a screen, or both? Why?
- What kind of book might help them get lost in a story again?
- What is one small habit they could start this week?
10
Sum it up
Summarise what you took from the lesson using some of the points below and the phrases in the box.
read for pleasureget lost in somethinggrippingskim through somethingtake something inattention spanin depthwind down
- the benefits of reading that the speakers mention
- what the researchers found about reading difficult texts on screens
- whether you agree that we skim through more than we should
- one change you would like to make to your own reading habits
Spotted a mistake in this lesson?· tell us the exercise and item
Glossary
The 8 words and phrases this lesson teaches, in one set.
Phrases for talking about reading
- read for pleasure
- read because you enjoy it, not for work or study
- I read for pleasure much more in the summer holidays.
- get lost in something
- become so involved in something that you forget what is around you
- She got lost in the story and didn't hear the doorbell.
- gripping
- so exciting that you can't stop watching or reading
- Everyone in my book club agreed the ending was gripping.
- skim through something
- read something quickly to get the main idea, without reading every word
- He skimmed through the emails to see if anything was urgent.
- take something in
- understand and remember information that you read or hear
- The instructions were so long that I couldn't take them in.
- attention span
- the length of time that you can concentrate on something
- Short videos are designed for people with a short attention span.
- in depth
- in a detailed and careful way
- We don't have time to discuss the report in depth today.
- wind down
- relax after a period of work or activity
- Many people wind down with a book before they go to sleep.
Also in the video
Other words and phrases you'll hear, to help you follow the video. The lesson doesn't practise them.
- an acquired set of skills
- skills that you have to learn, rather than ones you are born with
- literacy
- the ability to read and write
- the blink of an eye
- a very short time
- a brand new circuit
- a completely new set of connections (here, in the brain)
- therapeutic benefits
- good effects on your health or how you feel
- bibliotherapy
- using books, especially novels, to help people with personal problems
- life's ailments
- the everyday problems and difficulties of life (an ailment is a minor illness)
- a meditative state
- a calm, quiet state of mind, like the one people reach when they meditate
- the cerebral cortex
- the outer layer of the brain, used for thinking, language and memory
- make inferences
- work out something that is not said directly
- empathic
- able to understand other people's feelings
- a delivery mechanism
- the way something reaches people (here, a book is one way a story reaches readers)
- a bottleneck
- a narrow point that slows things down (here, the few people who decide what gets published)
- digitisation
- the change from paper and print to digital forms
- screen inferiority
- the research finding that people understand some texts less well on a screen than on paper
- cognitively challenging
- difficult to think about and understand
- a propensity towards something
- a natural tendency to do something
- plastic circuitry
- connections in the brain that can change and adapt
- a biliterate brain
- a brain that can read well in two ways (here, on paper and on screens)