This book is divided into three parts. It begins with fundamental principles about reading, texts, and teaching which underlie the way the book approaches its subject; the second part looks more closely at some of the theoretical issues and how they affect reading teaching. The third focuses on the importance of exensive reading, the choice of materials, and the way courses and lessons are planned, taught, and assessed. The book examines the skills required to read effectively; focuses on getting the message from the text; suggests classroom strategies for developing reading skills; and looks at both linguistic and non-linguistic features of texts. Chapters in the book are (1) What Is Reading?; (2) Text and Discourse; (3) Approaching Reading in the Foreign Language Classroom; (4) Efficient Reading; (5) Word Attack Skills; (6) Reading for Plain Sense; (7) Understanding Discourse; (8) An Extensive Reading Programme; (9) Planning Reading Lessons; (10) Selecting Texts; (11) Questioning; (12) Other Kinds of Reading Task; (13) The Testing of Reading (by J. Charles Alderson); and (14) The Teacher as Reader. Appendixes present texts, extracts from reading courses, lesson plans, and useful addresses, a key to activities, and a 273-item select bibliography. (RS)