THE READING SKILL

Introduction
Four Skills
1. Listening
2.Speaking
3.Reading
4.Writing
Speaking and Writing are
Active/ Productive Skills.(Sender is
communicating their ideas)

Listening and Reading are Passive

Receptive Skills.(Receiver is
`interpreting the message)
 Four Language Skills
An Over-View
According to a leading linguistic H.G.
Widdowson, we use
Listening and Speaking in Oral Listening}
• Speaking}
Communication • Reading}
 Reading and Writing in Written • Writing}
Communication.
The sender of the message uses the spoken or
written form in order to communicate his
ideas.
The receiver of the message utilizes the
Widdowson believes that
these four skills are
integrated and can never
exist in isolation.
They all are of equal
consideration.
Definition of
Reading
1) One very basic definition of Reading is the
ability to recognize the letters of the
alphabets.
This ability allows the reader to differentiate
the letters of a particular language from non-
linguistic marks.
In English e.g
a small circle is the letter ‘o’ and if we put a
square , this tells us that it is a non –letter.
T P R S
2) Another definition of
Reading is the ability to say or
pronounce written words.
E.g bat , rat, boy, girl,
school
Uttering the written symbols of a
language cannot be called reading
It is a step in the process of reading.
Recognition of letters and words, coupled
with the ability to say them is the starting
point in the whole reading process,
The process remains incomplete if we
confine our selves to just shapes and
sounds ,and ignore meaning.
3) The third and perhaps the most
acceptable definition of reading is the
process by which we make sense of
text , namely Comprehension.

What kind of reading is taught in our

schools?
Which definition does it follows?
When the writers write, they begin writing with
some purposes, therefore they choose and use their
words, sentences and paragraphs to fulfill the
purposes. The main purposes in the writer’s mind
are:
1. To present information
2. To interpret information
3. To interpret human experience
4. To move the emotions
5. To stir the senses
6. To provide entertainment
 Goal of the Reader
The readers goal is to understand and absorb
writers broad purposes.
Reading is essentially a private and social
activity , not a class one.
Understanding a written text means extracting
the required information from it as efficiently as
possible.
E.g apply different strategies for reading science
journal or a notice broad
Reject irrelevant information and find what
 What do we read?
In our everyday life, we come across many types of
reading material :
Novels, short stories, plays, poems ,letters,
telegrams, notes, articles classified ads weather
forecasts, radio/tv programmes,
Summaries, precise, reports reviews, business
correspondence, handbooks , guide book, recipes,
catalogues, travel brochures, puzzles,
instructions ,directions, poster, signs , menus,
notices, rules and regulations, price lists, tickets,
cartoons , maps, diagrams, timetables, dictionaries
etc.
 Why do we read?
We read all these things :
a) For pleasure
b) For information
How do we read?
o casually
o Seriously
Kinds of Reading Skill
Two Kinds of Reading
1.The Intensive reading
2.The Extensive reading
 Intensive Reading
Reading shorter text to extract specific
information.
Done in the classroom
Students comprehension level increases
Gain mastery over structures and
vocabulary.
Done in presence of a teacher
It needs close guidance of teacher.
Aim to arrive at a profound and a detailed
 Extensive Reading
Reading longer texts for information
Usually for one’s own pleasure
Primary object is general comprehension
not language study.
It increases fluency.
It is a sort of outside reading, not done in
classroom.
It improves the speed of reading.
It is possible without the teacher.
Skimming technique is used in extensive
reading, inferring_ getting the information
written in the text and adding our
background knowledge to make the sense.
The reader reads in bulks. For example he
reads novels, news paper, short stories,
biographies, long narrations and research
papers etc.
He is not bound to read any specific text
while doing extensive reading.
Extensive reader is at liberty to:
Pick up a book of his own interest,
Read the book at his own pace,
Whenever he feels and gain as much
exposure as he wants in a language
 Some books are to be tasted,
Some are to be swallowed,
Some are to be chewed and digested.
(Francis Bacon)

Every book is not read with the same

intensity.
Techniques of
Reading Skill
Techniques of Reading Skill
1) Skimming
2) Scanning
3) Previewing
4) Predicting
5) Anticipation
6) Silent reading
7) Reading in chunks
8) Guessing the meaning of unfamiliar
words
 Skimming
Reading a text quickly in order to get the
gist of the text.
Reader is concerned with the main ideas and
leaves the other minor or supporting details.
It is used in extensive reading , reader does
not have much time to read the whole text in
detail
So skimming helps to just read the relevant
parts which might interest him.
 Scanning
It means reading a text quickly in order to
look for specific piece of information.
Very useful in our daily life.
E.g looking for a telephone number in a
telephone directory
Or searching for the meaning of some unfamiliar
word in a dictionary.
Instead of going through the whole directory or
dictionary we just settle for the specific area
where we can find the particular information.
 Previewing
This gives us the first impression about a
book.
By looking at
i. The title
ii. The back titles
iii. Reviews
iv. The forward or preface
v. The content page
vi. The index
 Predicting
This is a kind of a guessing game.
The reader is utilizing his
previous knowledge of language
and subject.
And is looking for reading what
he predicts will be in the book
 It is on sentence or paragraph
 Anticipation
Anticipation in reading means guessing about
the text in a global level or at an overall level.
Anticipation means the reader is constantly
anticipating what the page would bring.
The difference between the anticipation and
prediction is that
Anticipation is at the global at the entire book
level
While prediction is local or at a sentence level
 Silent Reading
Reading is a cognitive activity.
The imagination of the reader is all the
time playing an active role where he is
thinking, rethinking, giving pauses,
referring back, sometimes even skipping
certain lines or pages.
We don’t know what is going on in
readers mind
Without moving lips the activity goes on
 Reading in Chunks
This reading technique enables
us to avoid unnecessary concern
about individual letter or word
which can slow down our reading
speed
Instead we look for the general
idea or message of the book or the
writer
 Guessing the meaning of
unfamiliar words
A competent reader is the one
who does not stop over a
particular word and look for
the meaning in the dictionary
but is able to guess the
meaning of that unfamiliar
word with the help of the
context
THE END