Table of Contents
Reading is a process by which we make sense of the text. Receptive skills have two important aspects.
Comprehension means the degree to which the reader is able to extract relevant information from a text. During the process of reading, an encoder gets involved in the sending and receiving of the message respectively. The encoder is the writer who acts as the sender of the message and decoder is the reader who acts as a recipient.
Reading requires reconstruction of the message. It demands thinking and planning on the part of the reader. The reader has to distinguish 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.
As reading requires an understanding on the part of the reader, the sub-skills of reading– skimming and scanning help the reader comprehend the text with the appropriate reading.
Skimming is a method of rapid reading which will help you to understand the overall theme or general meaning of the text. It is a fast reading technique that helps readers to quickly identify the main idea of a text. The skimming technique is used to obtain the gist or overall sense of a text. 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:
Scanning means looking for a specific piece of information in a text. The purpose of scanning is to locate specific or precise or exact details that a reader is looking for. The sub-skill of reading by which the reader collects a piece of particular information from the given text is known as scanning that 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:
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 question such as:
If we keep in our mind the following important points about the reading we can develop a foundational work to enhance reading speed:
Reading is:
The following principles of learning to read may also be considered as pre-requisites for developing appropriate speed in reading:
Finally, we shall consider some practicable suggestions and techniques to enhance reading speed.
In this technique our eyes take the view of a group of letters and words. The reader should develop the ability to read in chunks to take in four-five words in a single eye glance.
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 meaning of the words. Keeping in view the context of their use. If the reader develops the skills to use clues, structure, and context to guess the meaning, the interest in reading can be maintained along with the improvement of reading speed.
The reader should make himself conscious of the layout, heading, subheading, paragraph indentations, and various typeface or fonts of composing the text. Paying attention to the printed format can speed up reading comprehension.
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 next. He can use certain clues like the title and sub-title etc, that may give him an idea about the chapter or contents of the book.
Loud reading reduces the speed of reading as each word has to be pronounced according to stress and intonation patterns. Silent reading is recommended to save time by establishing a direct link between visual impact and comprehension. It will enhance the speed of reading.
By skimming the speed of reading can be increased. It is to go through the text quickly to get a general understanding. One of the easiest ways to skim-read is to look at the center section of a text and then to run the eyes down the center area. It is not reading every word but reading very quickly to get general ideas about a text.
Reading quickly for a specific piece of information also increases the speed of reading. The unnecessary parts of the text are not paid attention, therefore reading speed gets enhanced.
“SQ3R” is a systematic process of reading by which reading speed, as well as comprehension (understanding), can be enhanced.
In the first stage, the reader collects general information through a survey of the text. It is some sort of skimming in its nature. The reader looks at the layout, titles, sub-titles, tab of contents, and illustration, etc to get a general impression of the text.
In the second stage, the reader makes questions (in his mind) related to the text. It is to make sure that he is going to involve in a purposeful study and will try to find out answers to the questions arising in his mind.
In the third stage, the reader begins reading the text. This reading is an intensive reading in which the reader concentrates on the script, punctuation marks, variation in type (or composing), the way paragraphs are formed, etc.
In the fourth stage, the reader stops actual reading and recalls to his mind whatever he has read so far. He tries to bring back to mind what he has extracted from the text.
In the fifth stage, the reader gets indulged in the process of “review”. The is a repetition of the steps:
This last stage ensures an understanding of the text and also enhances the speed of purposeful reading.
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.
Some students move their fingers along the line of the text. This finger-movement habit is not good for reading. The students should keep in their mind that reading is linked with eye movement, not finger movement.
During reading some students are found moving their heads and this movement increases when they try to learn something by heart. The head movement is to be avoided as it inhibits reading speed. Moreover, the vision gets disturbed as the eyes are denied natural fixations.
Reading is not some sort of developing speaking skill. It is concerned with the comprehension of the text after identifying the written symbols. Therefore, reading aloud or vocalizing the written text is a bad habit and this habit retards reading speed to a great extent.
Many readers do not produce the words in any audible way, even then they move their lips and mouth. This may be called sub-vocalization and such habit is also a faulty reading habit. Reading should be the eye contact and activation of faulty of mind to associate the symbolics with meanings. It demands an understanding of the reader in the shortest way.
Some students are in the habit of reading without making a conscious effort to understand the text. They read just for the sake of going through the pages but they do not gather any information or knowledge from the written material. Their minds remain blank. If they develop the habit of skimming and scanning they can utilize the time and energy in a better way.
Some readers get involved in actual reading, without knowing the purpose and objective of reading. Therefore, they remain unable to form questions in their mind. It is necessary to set aside the habit of reading without awareness of its objectives.
The habit of word by word reading instead of taking words in chunks is also a faulty habit of reading. Word by word reading is a time-consuming process and it retards the reading speed too. Reading in chunks, the recommended style of reading is to be developed by the students or readers.
Most of the students use dictionaries frequently during reading when they face difficult words and phrases. This exercise interrupts the reading and sometimes the students feel the text as a burden. They lose interest in reading and eventually stop reading the text.
It is just because of their habit of not using an inferring technique that is almost essential for developing the reading skill. These are some of the faulty reading habits that the student should discard for developing reading skills.
The term “strategy” is used to describe what is involved when we try to solve any problematic situation. For example, when a student faces the problem of difficult words and phrases, he is suggested to use the strategy of making guesses from the context. It is an effective strategy for reading. Good readers have a wide range of effective approaches to text 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.
60* total No. of Words / The time in seconds = Words per minute
The scale of Speed in Word per minute:
170-200 = Slow
200-250 = Average
250-300 = Above average
300-400 = Fast
400-above = Very Fast
NGINX Server Nginx, a popular open-source web server, excels at handling high traffic websites efficiently.… Read More
In the realm of web hosting, choosing the right web server is paramount. It acts… Read More
Are indispensable for ensuring smooth, precise linear motion in many industrial applications. Whether in robotics,… Read More
Cyber attacks are becoming more frequent, complex, and damaging. They can disrupt critical operations and… Read More
With the rise of new threats and the increasing complexity of IT environments, organizations need… Read More
1. Introduction In software design, managing complex systems can be challenging. The Facade Design Pattern… Read More