DEVELOPING READING

SKILLS

Dr. Muhammad Shahbaz

What is reading?
Reading is a conscious and unconscious thinking
process. The reader applies many strategies to
reconstruct the meaning that the author is assumed
to have intended. The reader does this by comparing
information in the text to his or her background
knowledge and prior experience.

All reading is culture conditioned, constructed by the

reader. The teacher must never forget the different
cultural background when using English texts.
In order to read well in English students need to
do the following:
1. Develop a schema of the reading process that includes the idea that reading is
more than translating—reading is thinking.
2. Talk about their reading, and explain how they make sense of a text.
3.Read extensively for pleasure in English, and discuss their reading with someone
who can model the literate behaviors expected in an English-language context.
4. Break the habit of reading every word by reading faster.
5. Learn to vary their reading rate to suit their purpose in reading.
6. Employ top-down processes effectively by learning to make connections between
what they already know and what they are reading.
7. Learn reading and thinking skills that fluent readers of English employ
unconsciously to strengthen both top-down and bottom-up processing abilities.
8. Enhance bottom-up processing by acquiring the most useful vocabulary and by
learning strategies for guessing meaning in context.
9. Master the basic 2,000 words that constitute approximately 80 percent of texts in
English.
10. Acquire specific reading comprehension skills they can apply strategically
Students need
 Substantial amounts of extensive reading for pleasure,
with opportunities for talking about their books
 Focused, interactive lessons on specific reading skills,
with opportunities for students to explain their thinking,
and direct instruction on applying the skills strategically
to a variety of texts.
 Training and practice in fluency development
(skimming, scanning, previewing) and reading rate
improvement.
 Vocabulary activities that include direct instruction in
high-frequency words, multiple opportunities for
exposure to and manipulation of the target words, and
plenty of extensive reading.
Basic principles of extensive reading

 The reading material is easy

 texts must be well within the learners' reading
competence in the foreign language
 reading comfort zone (for beginners no more than one
or two unknown words, for intermediate about five
unknown words in the text, i.e. all but advanced
learners probably require texts written or adapted with
the linguistic and knowledge constraints of language
learners in mind)
 but  real-world reading, real-world texts?
Principle 2
 A variety of reading material on a wide range of topics
must be available
 texts made available should ideally be as varied as the
learners who read them and the purposes for which they
want to read. Books, magazines, newspapers, fiction, non-
fiction, texts that inform, texts that entertain, general,
specialized, light, serious
 Varied reading material not only encourages reading, it also
encourages a flexible approach to reading (e.g.,
entertainment; information; passing the time) and,
consequently, in different ways (e.g., skimming; scanning;
more careful reading)
Principle 3 and 4
 Learners read as much as possible.
 a book a week is probably the minimum amount of
reading necessary to achieve the benefits of extensive
reading and to establish a reading habit. This is a
realistic target for learners of all proficiency levels, as
books written for beginners and low-intermediate
learners are very short
 Learners choose what they want to read
  freedom of choice means that learners can select texts
as they do in their own language
Principle 5
 The purpose of reading is usually related to
pleasure, information and general understanding
 learners are encouraged to read for the same kinds of
reasons and in the same ways as the general population
of first-language readers
 Reading not for comprehension, not for academic
purposes but for pleasure, personal experience
Principle 6
 Reading is its own reward
 is not usually followed by comprehension questions
 follow-up activities possible
 to find out what the student understood and experienced from
the reading
 to monitor students' attitudes toward reading
 to keep track of what and how much students read
 to make reading a shared experience
 to link reading to other aspects of the curriculum
 students may be asked to do such things as write about their
favorite characters, write about the best or worst book they
have read, or do a dramatic reading of an exciting part of a
novel
Principle 7
 Reading speed is usually faster rather than slower
 incentive to reading fluency
 works against the vicious circle of the weak reader:
Reads slowly; Doesn't enjoy reading; Doesn't read
much; Doesn't understand; Reads slowly
 The virtuous circle of the good reader: Reads faster;
Reads more; Understands better; Enjoys reading;
Reads faster. . .
 discourage students from using dictionaries, encourage
them to keep reading
Principle 8
 Reading is individual and silent
 reading is a personal interaction with the text, and an
experience that they have responsibility for (vs.
traditional use of text in lessons: vehicles for teaching
language or reading strategies or translated or read
aloud)
Principle 9
 Teachers orient and guide their students
 students choosing what to read is an essential part of the
approach.
 reassure students that a general, less than 100%, understanding
of what they read is appropriate for most reading purposes.
 emphasise that there will be no test after reading but say you will
be interested in the student's own personal experience of what
was read -- for example, was it enjoyable or interesting, and
why?
 Introduce students to the library of reading materials and how it
is divided into difficulty levels
 keep track of what and how much each student reads, and their
students' reactions to what was read
Principle 10
 The teacher is a role model of a reader
 Students do not just (or even) learn the subject matter
we teach them; they learn their teachers. Teacher
attitude, more than technical expertise, is what they
will recall when they leave us
 Selling reading to students, setting good example, read
the texts they read
Reading skills
1. Automatic decoding. Being able to recognize a word at a glance.
2. Previewing and predicting. Giving the text a quick once-over to be able to guess
what is to come.
3. Specifying purpose. Knowing why a text is being read.
4. Identifying genre. Knowing the nature of the text in order to predict the form and
content.
5. Questioning. Asking questions in an inner dialog with the author.
6. Scanning. Looking through a text very rapidly for specific information.
7. Recognizing topics. Finding out what the text is about.
8. Classification of ideas into main topics and details. Categorizing words and ideas on
the basis of their relationships; distinguishing general and specific.
9. Locating topic sentences. Identifying the general statement in a paragraph.
10. Stating the main idea (or thesis) of a sentence, paragraph or passage. Knowing
what the author’s point is about the topic.
11. Recognizing patterns of relationships. Identifying the relationships between ideas;
the overall structure of the text
Reading skills
12. Identifying and using words that signal the patterns of relationships
between ideas. Being able to see connections between ideas by the use of
words such as first, then, later.
13. Inferring the main idea, using patterns and other clues.
14. Recognizing and using pronouns, referents, and other lexical equivalents
as clues to cohesion.
15. Guessing the meaning of unknown words from the context. Using such
clues as knowledge of word parts, syntax, and relationship patterns.
16. Skimming. Quickly getting the gist or overview of a passage or book.
17. Paraphrasing. Re-stating texts in the reader’s own words in order to
monitor one’s own comprehension.
18. Summarizing. Shortening material by retaining and re-stating main ideas
and leaving out details
Reading skills
19. Drawing conclusions. Putting together information from parts of
the text and inducing new or additional ideas.
20. Drawing inferences and using evidence. Using evidence in the text
to know things that are unstated.
21. Visualizing. Picturing, or actually drawing a picture or diagram, of
what is described in the text.
22. Reading critically. Judging the accuracy of a passage with respect
to what the reader already knows; distinguishing fact from opinion.
23. Reading faster. Reading fast enough to allow the brain to process
the input as ideas rather than single words.
24. Adjusting reading rate according to materials and purpose. Being
able to choose the speed and strategies needed for the level of
comprehension desired by the reader
 Pre-reading strategies

•Develop a positive attitude toward reading

•Advanced preparation (previewing the reading
materials)
•Predicting (content, vocabulary…)
•Structured overview
•Question
•Brainstorming (Structured overview)
•Relating new knowledge to prior knowledge
 While-reading strategies

•Identify important ideas

•Identify the organizational pattern of the text
•Identify indicators in discourse
•Identify sequence of events
•Note-taking
•Skimming
•Scanning
•Draw inferences
•Make use of logic/common sense
•Deduce the meaning of unfamiliar lexical items
•Skipping unknown/unimportant words
•Imagery
•Monitor understanding
 Post-reading strategies

• Grouping
• Summarize
• Paraphrase
• Reread
• Question (ask for clarification)
• Cooperation
• Self-evaluation
Teaching reading skills
1. Focus on one skill at a time.
2. Explain the purpose of working on this skill, and convince the students of its
importance in reading effectively.
3. Work on an example of using the skill with the whole class. Explain your thinking
aloud as you do the exercise.
4. Assign students to work in pairs on an exercise where they practice using the same
skill. Require them to explain their thinking to each other as they work.
5. Discuss students’ answers with the whole class. Ask them to explain how they got
their answers. Encourage polite disagreement, and require explanations of any
differences in their answers.
6. In the same class, and also in the next few classes, assign individuals to work on
more exercises that focus on the same skill with increasing complexity. Instruct
students to work in pairs whenever feasible.
7. Ask individual students to complete an exercise using the skill to check their own
ability and confidence in using it.
8. In future lessons, lead the students to apply the skill, as well as previously mastered
skills, to a variety of texts.
Vocabulary development
 In classroom situations, not during extensive reading, ask students e.g. to
find 3 unknown words, elicit, write them on the whiteboard
 Prepare definitions, ask students to match them to words
 Pre-teaching needed vocabulary
 Students on their own may
 Choose new words they want to learn.
 Use a dictionary.
 Keep a vocabulary notebook—with sentences, syllable break-downs, and
definitions.
 Make and use word study cards.
 Review their word study cards—alone, with a partner, and in class
 Use Web pages to find out more about words and collocation from
concordances.
 Should vocabulary be taught in families or anything students come across?
Reading fluency
 Reading fast with good comprehension and adjusting the
reading rate to suit the purpose for reading (silent
reading)
 Should constitute about 25 percent of instructional time
 Principles
 Practice with timed reading passages followed by
comprehension questions.
 Lessons in such skills as scanning and skimming that help
students learn how to move their eyes quickly and
purposefully over a text.
 Opportunities for large quantities of extensive reading.