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Reading

Reading is an interactive and active process where readers derive meaning from text by engaging their experiences and emotions. It involves various stages such as perception, comprehension, evaluation, and application, and can be categorized into types like intensive, extensive, loud, and silent reading. To develop reading skills, techniques like SQ3R, skimming, and scanning are recommended for effective understanding and retention of material.

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7 views17 pages

Reading

Reading is an interactive and active process where readers derive meaning from text by engaging their experiences and emotions. It involves various stages such as perception, comprehension, evaluation, and application, and can be categorized into types like intensive, extensive, loud, and silent reading. To develop reading skills, techniques like SQ3R, skimming, and scanning are recommended for effective understanding and retention of material.

Uploaded by

mwembwasara
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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READING SKILLS

What is reading?
Reading is a process whereby a reader brings
meaning to and gets meaning from print.
This implies that readers bring their
experiences as well as their emotions into
play in order to derive meaning from text.
Reading for meaning is the activity we
normally engage in when we read books,
journals, newspapers etc. It involves looking
at sentences in a text and understanding the
message they convey, in other words,
making pause of a written text.
Reading is thus an active process. Thus
reading may be defined as a multifaceted
and layered process in which a reader by
actively interacting with the text, tries to
decide what has been encoded by the
writer/author.
In this process the learner establishes a
meaningful communication with the writer.
Thus reading is an interactive process. It is
purposeful, selective and text based. The
reading speed varies according to one’s
purpose in reading and the content of the
text.
It involves complex cognitive skills. Someone
has called it a ‘psycholinguistic guessing
game’ as it involves guessing, inferring and
predicting the coming events based on the
given situation.
TYPES OF READING
 Intensive reading: reading to get deep

understanding of a text
 Extensive reading: reading for enjoyment

 Loud reading: reading by using loud voice.

For example, reading a poem


 Silent reading: reading without a voice.

For example, in an examination room.


STAGES OF READING
In the process of reading, the learner passes
systematically through the following stages:
i. Perception and word recognition

ii. Comprehension

iii. Evaluation and reaction

iv. Application
Perception and Word Recognition
This stage of reading is also known as mechanical
aspect of reading or ‘reading on the lines’. While
going through this stage, the reader first perceives
the right word (structure) and its pronunciation
The image or the concept of the word is formed in
his/her mind with the association of form, sound
and meaning of the word altogether. This
recognition of word is based on our past
experience.
A skilled reader recognizes the word as a whole
instead going through each syllable like the
beginner reader. Sometimes the advanced reader
comprehends the meaning of a phrase/sentence
without going through each word separately.
Comprehension
In the second stage of reading we go deeper into
literal meaning of the material read. Thus
comprehension requires the abilities of critical
thinking and reading.
Besides literal comprehension, interpretations are
essential for higher order of reading. Interpretation
takes the reader beyond the printed page by
requiring him/her to put together ideas which the
author has not explicitly related to one another in
the text.
As an outcome of this process, the reader is able to
process information and draw conclusions. At
critical level of comprehension the reader considers
the relevance, authenticity and utility of a factual
material.
Evaluation and Reaction
While comprehending the text, the reader
goes on determining the utility,
appropriateness and reliability of the
information and ideas
A good reader should always go on
evaluating the events, ideas, characters or
intentions of the author. At the same time
he/she goes on reacting ideally to the
material read.
Higher level of comprehension must always
lead to the development of evaluative
capacity and appropriate reaction, among
the reader, towards, the material read.
Application
The final stage of any reading activity should
evolve in the application of acquired
knowledge, ideas, experience, skill, attitude
and values in one’s own life. Whatever
positive reactions a person has formed while
reading the material must become the part
and parcel of his/her personality.
DEVELOPING READING SKILLS
For developing creative reading skills, the
skills to be employed may be: finding the
central idea, generalization, drawing
inference, prediction on the basis of given
facts, analysis and synthesis, critical
evaluation of the material read, etc. Besides
these, the following techniques and skills
may also be employed for successful
readings:
i. SQ3R Technique of Reading
ii. Skimming and Scanning

iii. Intensive and Extensive Reading


SQ3R Technique of Reading
 The implication is that the strategy should be

flexible in tackling text materials. The one strategy


that gained wide acceptance is the SQ3R technique.
 SQ3R stands for the initial letters of five steps that

should be taken in studying a text. The five steps


are: Survey, question, read, recall and review.

Survey
 It refers to a quick glance through the preface,

chapter headings, summary of the text. Surveying a


text helps the readers grasp the main ideas. The
preface helps to decide whether or not the book
deserves his/her attention.
Questioning
 After surveying the preface and contents you may

ask questions like:


 How far can I depend on this book?
 Will the book be helpful to me as its preface
suggests?
 Whether the book deals with the topics that I want
to go through in detail?
 Since questions are generally more helpful if given

at the beginning or and of a chapter by the author


himself, it is always better to note them during the
survey.
Read
 Reading text material demands critical and creative

skills. Unless we read actively and intensively the


intended textual material, the questions which have
Recall
 What has been read needs to be recalled for

retention. Regular attempts to recall will help


improve your learning in three ways;
improving concentration, giving you a chance
to clarify your doubts and remedy your
misinterpretations and developing your ability
to evaluate, react and apply what you have
read.
Review
 The purpose of reviewing is to check the

validity of our recall. We must review the


material read periodically. The best way to do
this is to do a quick repeat of the four steps
discussed earlier i.e. survey, question, read
and recall.
Skimming and Scanning
 By Skimming we mean glancing rapidly through a

text to find out its general content, central idea or


gist.
 We do this, for example, when we want to find out

whether a certain article is relevant to our own area


of study or research, or when we glance over a
page of newspaper to see if there is anything worth
reading in detail, or when we go through a book to
find out its subject matter.
Steps of skimming
i. Read the title
ii. Read the introduction or the first paragraph
iii. Read the every sentence of each paragraphs

iv. Read any headings and subheadings

v. Read the summary of the last paragraph


 By scanning on the other hand, we mean
darting over much of a text to search for a
specific item or piece of information that we
wish to discover. This skill also involves the
ability to reject or pass over irrelevant
information.
Steps of scanning
 State the specific information you are looking

for
 Try to anticipate how the answer will appear

 Use the headings to predict where the

information may be located


 Selectively, read and skip through sections of

the passage
Intensive and Extensive Reading
 The aim of intensive reading is to

arrive at a detailed and thorough


understanding of the text. It involves
the learners working through the short
passage and examining it closely and
in detail.
 The material for intensive reading is

chosen with a view to developing the


student’s power of judgment and
discriminative reading of interpretation
and appreciation. Students learn to
 Extensive reading, on the other hand,
involves reading in quantity for one’s
own enjoyment. It provides the
students an excellent opportunity to
increase reading speed, developing
reading interests and reading habits.
 Extensive reading is normally carried

out by the students on their own,


outside the classroom, for example,
reading a newspaper.

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