BAYERO UNIVERSITY, KANO

First Semester 2020/2021 Session

GSP1201/2201 USE OF ENGLISH
Module 3
Group A2: Comp. Sci.; Software Eng.; Cyber Security &
Info. Tech.

Facilitator: Farouk Abdullahi

READING COMPREHENSION AND
SUMMARY

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 WHAT IS READING?
Reading, as one of the four essential and interrelated skills
in language learning, namely; listening, speaking, reading
and writing, plays a significant role in language
acquisition. It denotes the reader’s capability to decipher
or interpret a written document. While writing and
speaking are expressive language skills since they help
our ability to produce print and speech, reading and
listening are receptive language skills because they permit
us understand print and speech respectively.

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 Introduction

Comprehension means understanding. Therefore, reading

comprehension means read to understand what the
passage is all about and respond accurately to the
questions that follow.

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 Intensive Reading: - Reading shorter texts to extract
specific information and other textual details.

 Extensive Reading: - Means wide reading, it involves

reading longer texts to have global understanding and
may be done for pleasure.

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 to grasp the sense of the passage
 to generalise from, and apply simple logic to the
passage
 to get the meaning of part and whole of the passage
 to understand the passage’s essential features
 to identify the key words and their grammatical
functions
 to appreciate facts from opinions
 to identify sentence types and figurative expressions

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 Introduction
To remember a reading, three essential steps are presented
to you. Let's take a look at what you should do before,
during, and after reading to get the most out of your
reading.

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 To fully understand the text, one must first look at how
it is structured. We need to carefully observe the
elements of the text in order to identify the structure
(title, subtitles, illustrations, captions, boxes, words in
bold type, etc.).

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 Here again, certain attitudes facilitate understanding
and memorisation.
 Locate the frame
 Locate the key idea

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 To rephrase does not mean paraphrasing, let alone
copying all the key ideas to the chain on a piece of
paper. No, rephrase is to explain what you have
retained from the text, in your own words.

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 A summary is a brief statement/restatement, in your
own words, of the main idea of a passage. When you
write a summary, you condense the writer’s ideas into a
few concise sentences.
 A summary is always shorter than the larger text
because it omits the examples, asides, analogies, and
rhetorical strategies that writers use to add emphasis
and interest (kirszner & Mandell 2008).

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 1. Understand the text:
Take time to understand the text, some people prefer first reading
without taking notes to make sure they understand the main ideas
and the structure of the text.
 2. Create a plan:
In these early readings, take a half sheet of draft and write down
the plan chosen by the author of the text. Find the original
structure, the ideas that drive each of the main lines of the text,
and make sure everything is well integrated.

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  3. Write:
The length of paragraphs should not depend on the length of the idea in the
text, but on its importance. Spend a little more time on fundamental concepts,
less (or much less, to the point of completely obscure an illustrative paragraph
of a concept just explained before or after)
 4. Proofread:

Once the writing is complete, read everything. Check that you have:
 nothing forgotten

 nothing added

 nothing supposed

 5. And make sure that your text is:

 clear

 well written, with a good writing style

 understandable by a reader who has not read the original text

 rigorous for a reader who read it

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 STEP 1: LIST the main ideas for each paragraph in
the text.
 STEP 2: UNDERLINE the main idea statements that
include the most important ideas from the text.
 STEP 3: COMBINE any ideas that could go into one
sentence.
 STEP 4: NUMBER the ideas in logical order.
 STEP 5: WRITE your summary in one paragraph.
 STEP 6: EDIT your summary.
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 Thisis the end of this lecture. Our
next lecture will be on module 4

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