What are Reading Skills in Communication?
Reading is a matter of making sense of written language rather than decoding print to sound. It is the process by which we make sense of a text.
It is a dialogue between the reader and the text. Reading is a completely individual activity and people read at very different levels and speed.
In learning, it is
reading that leads to perfection because books are the storehouse of knowledge.
Francis Bacon says, “Reading
maketh a full man.”
According to Addison “Reading is to the mind, what
exercise is to the body.”
The end product of
reading is comprehension.
Reading Comprehension
By comprehension, it is
meant, the degree to which the reading able to extract relevant information
from a text.
During the process of reading, an encoder and a
decoder get involved in the sending and reception of the message respectively.
The encoder is the
writer who acts as the sender of the message, and the decoder is the reader who
acts as a recipient. Reading requires the reconstruction of the message.
It demands thinking and planning on the part of the reader. The
reader has to distinguish the core of the text from the supporting ideas and at
the same time, he has to recognize the hidden meanings.
The total act of reading is a “decision-making” process as the
reader attempts to discover meaning according to his own sense.
Principles
of Reading
While reading a reader
has to keep in mind the following points:
First of all, preview
the title, contents and preface to get the general idea about the text.
1.
Read
the passage at the normal speed.
2.
Try
to guess the meaning of the unfamiliar words through the context.
3.
Skip
over unnecessary information.
4.
Scan
the text to get specific information as quickly as possible.
5.
Skim
the text to get the gist of the material.
6.
Distinguish
between the writer’s opinion and statement of facts.
7.
Infer
the mood of the writer.
8.
Read
silently
9. Locate the topic sentence for a paragraph.
Following are the kinds of reading.
i – Intensive Reading
Intensive reading is the close reading of a short text. It is a kind of reading that aims at accuracy of comprehension. It involves the reader in great attention to detail. Here, the reader has to learn the meaning of each and every word. It is considered a useful tool of learning a foreign language.”
ii – Extensive Reading
This kind of reading emphasis less on accuracy and more on gaining fluency. It is done out of the classroom and meant for reader’s own pleasure.
iii - Skimming means to go through the text quickly to grasp the overall meaning or gist of it. It is to extract the main theme or the core of the text by a quick reading process. The reader does not pronounce each and every word of the text, rather he focuses his attention on the subject matter, an overall view of the text, and prepares himself to answer such questions: 1. Summarize the given text. 2. Give main points of the text. 3. Rewrite the subject matter in your own words. 4. Give a suitable title to the given passage.5. Extract the central idea of the text. Such questions indicate that skimming is like global listening.
How Skimming takes place
1.
Be
attentive to the clues and indicators like titles, headings, subheadings and
typographical indicators (words in italics or bold letters) of important ideas.
2.
In
an essay, read the first and the last paragraph to grasp the subject matter
with clarity of concept.
3.
Read
the first sentence of each paragraph, as a thesis statement or a topic sentence
that means the sentence containing the stand-point or main idea.
4.
Look
at picture and diagrams with captions or words written below them.
5.
Note
numbers, date and words that seem important.
iv – Scanning
The sub-skill of
reading by which the reader collects a particular information from the given
text is known as scanning. The technique of scanning involves the ability to
reject or ignore irrelevant information. In order to locate a specific piece
of information, the reader has to go through the text quickly and focus his
attention on the relevant part of the text. For example:
1.
Look up a word in the dictionary for meanings.
2.
Search
out a telephone number in the directory.
3.
Find
out result of a candidate from the Gazette.
4.
Locate
weather conditions or functions in town in the newspaper.
5.
Extract
the list of works from the biographical sketch of a writer.
Procedure for
Scanning
1.
The
required information has to kept in the mind of the reader.
2.
Decide
which clues will be helpful in finding out the specific information.
3.
A
brisk eye movement on the pages of the text.
4.
Read
the part of the text which contains the clues leading to the required
information.
The clues which help the reader to find out a particular piece of information may be a full sentence some words, a single word, a punctuation mark, alphabetical order, or numbers etc.
The
development of scanning skill needs training of eyes to move quickly, looking
for the clues related to the required information. Scanning is useful to answer
the questions such as:
1.
Fill
in the blanks.
2.
Mark
True or False.
3. Multiple Choice Items
4. Short answer/question
Reading
Speed
By adopting following
important points about reading we can develop a foundational work to enhance
reading speed;
Reading is:
- An active as
well as a receptive skill.
- Decoding a message.
- Extracting information from a text.
- Getting specific questions answered.
- Making sense of the text an interactive
process.
- Predicting and interpreting.
- Referring to and inferring information
from a text
- A constant process of guessing
- Constant making and remaking of hypothesis
The following principles
of learning to read may also be considered as pre-requisite for developing
appropriate speed in reading:
1.
The
reader must develop the basic sense of what print looks like and how it works.
2.
The
learner needs to develop the basic sense of what print looks like and how it
works.
3.
He
has to develop the ability to think about words as a sequence of phonemes or
building blocks of spoken language. He should understand that sentences are
made up of strings of separate words.
4.
Awareness
of spelling patterns that recur across words hastens progress in reading.
5. Although the ability to sound out words is important for learning to read, it is not enough. Written language is not just speech written down. Instead text brings new vocabulary new language patterns new thoughts etc. The reader must also learn to take the time to reflect on these aspects
Strategies to Enhance Reading Speed
Reading in Chunks
In this technique our
eyes take the view of group of letters and words. The reader should develop the
ability to read in chunks to take in four or five words in a single eye glance.
Inferring the
Meanings
There is no need to
stop at difficult words just to look up their meaning in a dictionary. The
difficulty can be faced by guessing the meanings of the words, keeping in view
the context of their use. If the reader develops the skill to use clues,
structure and context to guess the meaning, the interest can be maintained
alongwith improvement of reading speed.
Pre-viewing
The reader should make himself conscious of the layout, headings, sub-headings, paragraph indentations and various type-faces or fond of composing the text. Paying attention to the printed format can speed up reading comprehension.
Anticipation
If the reader prepares
himself to guess what is likely to occur next in the text, he can improve the
speed of reading. This is some sort of anticipation while reading the text. He
can use certain clues like the title and sub-titles etc, that may give him an
idea about the chapter or contents of the book.
Silent Reading
Loud reading reduces
the speed of reading as each word has to be pronounced according to stress and
intonation patterns. Silent reading recommended to save time by establishing a
direct link between visual impact and comprehension. It will certainly enhance
the speed of reading.
SQ3R
SQ3R
is a systematic process of reading by which reading speed as well as
comprehension (understanding) can be enhanced.
- S stands for survey
- Q stands for question
- First R stands for read
- Second R stands for recall
- Third R stands for review
Faulty
Reading Habits
Most of the students do
not enjoy reading books, rather they take them for examination purpose as a
burden. Moreover, when they start reading they face many problems due to their
faulty reading habits. If they set-aside their faulty reading habits they will
feel comfortable with the textual material and enjoy reading.
Here, we try to
identify some faulty reading habits which are creating problems for the
students.
1.
Finger Movement
2.
Head
Movement
3.
Vocalization
4.
Lips
Movement
5.
Reading
without understanding
6.
Reading
without awareness of objectives
7.
Word
by word Reading
8.
Reading
without guessing meaning
Strategies
to Enhance Reading Skills
Good readers have a
wide range of effective approaches to texts and they can choose a strategy
suitable to a given text. One of the goals of foreign language reading
instruction is to provide students with as many strategies as possible.
1. Use previous knowledge to predict what is presented in the following text.
2.
Skip
some difficult parts of the text but get the outline of the text.
3.
Guess
unknown words and phrases by using the clues or context.
4.
Realize
what are important parts in a text and leave out automatically the unimportant
ones.
5.
Do
not dependent on text information through bottom-up processing but utilize
actively top-down processing. The imagination of the reader is very important
during reading, and his vicarious reading is an effective strategy.
6.
Change
reading strategies according to the nature of text. There are different kinds
of text and strategies of reading should differ according to the kinds of text.
7.
Take
the reading of text actively. Activating schemata is especially useful for
foreign language learners. According to Schema theory, readers acquire
information from text not passively but actively. Inference, generalization and
personal-involvement make good readers.
8. SQ3R formula (described earlier) is also a good strategy to enhance reading skills.
There are many ways to improve your reading
fluency skills. Here are some tips to help you get started:
1) Read more often. The more you read,
the more fluent you will become. Try to include reading in your daily life as
much as possible.
2) Practice reading aloud or reading
with expression to increase your fluency and make it easier for others to
understand what you are saying (and vice versa).
3) A good reader is someone who reads in a relaxed manner. A
good reader doesn’t try too hard or anxiously worry about getting every word
right. Instead, he or she just reads naturally and easily with an alert mind and
relaxed body.
