This thesis attempts to arrive at a personal approach to teaching reading in English as a second language to functionally illiterate adults in a multilingual ESL classroom. There is a brief review of some of the research on teaching reading and on the reading process, as well as a review of the major teaching reading methodologies. Two approaches to teaching reading, the Language Experience Approach and Words in Color, are then focused on. The author suggests ways in which these two approaches can be adapted to the adult ESL classroom and integrated with other approaches. Finally, a series of concrete activities are described which combine learning to read in ESL and developing life coping skills in a new culture
