Basic Reading Skill Components Using in the Class

 

Reading

Reading means identifying of written or printed words: the identifying of combinations of written or printed letters or characters as words in a language and understanding their meaning.

The main purpose of reading is to get the writer’s message, given to the readers by words, joining with the help of grammatical constructions. The students learn English through written text-paragraphs, cut from the literary texts written by great authors.

To understand reading the students have to face the problem of phonetics, grammar and grammatical construction understanding. The message of the text is hidden behind the grammatical-constructions.

To understand the printed material the readers must have the knowledge about the topic about which they are reading; otherwise it will be difficult to understand the printed material message. It is understood by knowing grammatical constructions and vocabulary; these are two most important tools of understanding English language.

When the readers read the text, he passes five stages mentally; 1, recognition, 2. prediction, 3. confirmation, 4. correction and termination. To know fully these five steps the students must have knowledge about the topic.

Reading main function is to get information from the printed book. There are used five steps in this process; skimming, scanning, SQ3R, locating Main Ideas and critical reading.

 

Critical Reading

It means giving comments or judgments: containing or involving comments and opinions that analyze or judge something, especially in a detailed way;

Example: a critical analysis of modern economic theory.

 

There are two main parts of critical reading; skimming and scanning.

• Skimming

It means glancing through a book or paper: to read something very quickly looking only at occasional lines or words and to get a general idea of its contents. It is to understand what the book tells the readers and it readable or not.

According to Oxford Learner Dictionary, it means to read or consider something quickly in order to understand the main points, without studying it in detail. If

someone reads any paragraph leaving difficult words on one side and try to understand the main point-based information. It is called skimming. To have a bird eye view of any newspaper is called skimming. To read the preface of any book and to guess what is in it, is called skimming.

Example: I’ve only skimmed (through/over) his letter; I haven’t read it carefully yet.

We’ve only skimmed the surface of (= considered a small part of) the problem.

 

• Scanning

It means to look at something carefully, with the eyes or with a machine, in order to obtain important information.

Example: She anxiously scanned the faces of the men leaving the train.

Aisha scanned the horizon for any sign of the boat.

Scanning is used on reading the newspapers, magazines, schedules, meeting plans…just to find information for personal interest. Ignore what you do not understand just get the idea of words to follow the main points where lie information in the paragraph.

In the newspaper is given Watch TV is scanned in the newspaper for the readers’ convenience, all trailers of films and plays are scanned for publicity, all meeting schedule are scanned in the booklet shape, all university prospectuses are scanned for the readers and parents.

 

SQ3R

It is an abbreviation of (S) stands for Skim or Survey, (Q) stands for Question, (3) means the words starts with R. R. R. First (R) means Read, Second (R) means Recite, Third (R) means Review; it is called SQ3R in English language.

The main purpose of SQ3R is to study the book systematically; first the students start reading the book (survey), and while reading the text different questions appear on the mind screen (question), looking for the answers to the question (1R), after this the students recite the answers (2R), then the students try to recall the whole questions (3R).

There are many benefits of SQ3R as it draws out the students hidden abilities and sets for them a destination for what purpose they reading the text and thus the students judge their abilities in written words. Good performance enhances the students’ courage in a good atmosphere.

 

Division of SQ3R Timing

1. Survey Time 2 Minutes: before reading the have a bird eye view the chapter concluding headlines and sub headlines so that you could get most important ideas from the chapter.
2. Question Time 30 Seconds: check what type of questions your mind raise while reading the book and what their answers are. Re peat this process for each main headlines and sub headlines.

3. Read Time 1 Minute: read carefully one section to trace out the answers to the questions. It must be read with full concentration.

4. Recite Time 1 Minute: sup up all major answers to the questions written in your own words and the teachers’ written materials enhances the students knowledge in a better way in the class forever.

5. Review Time Less than 5 Minutes: in this section the teacher provides the list of key phrases plus headlines of each phrase so that the students could understand the chapter fully.

To sum up, it is the best method for college an elementary level. Its results are better in teaching English. Through this method the teachers and students both gain knowledge; because both have to read carefully the text and the chapter. The students must practice it.