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Reading Strategies
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One of the best ways to learn anything is to read. You can gain both knowledge
and understanding of our world by reading books, magazines, newspapers and
Internet websites. I tell my students "the more you read, the more you succeed".
I also believe that reading can lead to a big change in your life, if you read
often. So, I tell my students that "reading is magic". I really believe that, so
I have come up with some ideas to help my students read better. Try these ideas
and see if they help you, too.
One idea is the "Twice Over" strategy. Instead of reading something one time very
carefully, try reading it once very quickly. Just get the main ideas the first time.
Then, if you think it is interesting or useful, you can read it a second time. You might
find that you understand much more the second time, even if you don't use a dictionary
or have a teacher to help you. Just reading something two times can help you. Another
benefit is that you can save time. Many things that you read are not so important. After
you read something once, you may decide that you do not need to read it again. Instead,
you can spend your time reading something new.
Sometimes, when you are very busy, you can save even more time by using the "sandwich
technique". Using this strategy, you only read the first and last paragraphs of an
article or story (the bread), then decide if you want to read the "meat" in between.
Very often, the first paragraph gives you most necessary background information and
the last paragraph gives you the most important results. That is often all that you
need.
My students often struggle with new words when they read. Sometimes it is good to
get out a dictionary and look up every single word. If you have a good memory, then
this technique can help you build your vocabulary quickly. If you are like most
students, and like me, looking up every word leads to forgetting most of them! Another
way to learn, then, is to try to understand the words by using the story to help
you. For example, my students recently read an article about the desert. Students
easily understood words such as "mirage" or "oasis" simply because they are related
to the desert.
In order to read sentences and paragraphs faster, students need to practice reading
word groups instead of reading each individual word. As an example, read the sentence
below:
The Prime Minister arrived in the capital city yesterday afternoon.
Did you read all 10 words separately? A good reader would read that sentences as only
three groups, like this:
1) The Prime Minister 2) arrived in the capital city 3) yesterday
afternoon.
If you can train yourself to read this way, in groups, you will read much faster.
One last strategy for faster reading is to try "turning off your inner voice". Many
people read while silently pronouncing each word, as if they are speaking. When you
are first learning a language, this is very useful, because you then learn to
say every word you read. However, as your English becomes more advanced, you should
try to read without "sounding out" each word. That is not easy to do. As with
reading words groups, it takes practice, but it is worth it, as you read faster
and more fluently.
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