To became proficient in a language four skills have to be acquired. These are the skills of reading, speaking, writing, and listening. Here are some points to help you develop you reading skill.
Is it important to concentrate on reading skill?
Definitely listening and reading are basic language skills and when these are developed you will be able to speak and write without mistakes.
Is it easy to acquire this skill?
Yes. Reading is a skill that can be acquired. Anyone can learn to read better and faster and thereby comprehend in lesser time.
Is it important to concentrate on words while reading?
No. It is the thread of ideas that you should try to follow. Look for the main ideas rather than concentrate on words. You needn’t worry even if you may miss the full meaning of certain words. Reading more and more is the trick.
What can we read?
Newspapers and magazines (headlines, articles, editorials, letters to the editor, classified ads etc.)
Text books, guidebooks etc
Novels, short stories, tales, other literary text and passages.
Plays
Poems
Recipes
Puzzles, Problems, Cross words etc
Letters, Post Cards, Telegrams etc
Instructions (eg. warning), directions (eg. How to use), notices
Rules, Posters, Forms, Graffiti, etc
Why do we read?
For pleasure
For information
How do we Read?
- Skimming : quickly going over a text to get the gist of it.
- Scanning : quickly going through a text to find a particular piece of information.
- Extensive reading: Reading longer texts mainly for one’s own pleasure.
Intensive reading: Reading shorter texts to extract specific information
Continuous Practice – better reading comprehension
Golden rules for quicker comprehension
*Read more
Develop the habit of reading not only newspapers and light magazines but also books. You should read at a continuous stretch of one hour everyday.
*Look for main ideas and themes
You should not waste time on details, examples and illustrations. Train yourself to become efficient in recognising the main ideas and thoughts that the writer wants to put across, rather than getting lost or side-tracked by minor details.
*Read difficult and challenging material
Fast readers are good readers. This is because they read a lot of different kind of texts and discourse your thinking skills and intellectual growth can be tapped and sharpened only if you make a deliberate and conscious attempt to read through difficult, information, challenging texts also.
Concentrate
Slow reading indicates lack of concentration. When the mind wanders nothing will register on the brain. Reading then becomes mere waste of time. Decide to concentrate by sticking to a fast pace and purposefully looking for main ideas and broad themes.
Time management
Whatever your reading speed is at present, you can always improve, upon it by slotting time for material that you propose to read. Whether it is a matter of minutes, hours or days the moment you time yourself to finish and get through a certain reading text, you will get through it. You will read faster and concentrate more.
Skimming
Skimming is the process of rapid reading in which you extract the important parts – that is, the main points and the significant details. It is the process of getting the essence of material without reading all of it – it involves selective skipping of less important matter. One step is to ignore linking words like the, a, for, with, to , on, it, and, is, was, etc
Extensive reading will finally help in attempting questions based on Intensive Reading
