ON READING

Some people haven’t got a good attitude when they read. Reading becomes an obligation and a boring task. Another case is people who look for all the words they do not understand when they are reading. That neither helps. Reading in a foreign language is a hard task at the beginning because learners haven’t got confidence. The best way to enjoy reading is choosing a topic we like and not looking for all unknown words. 

Before starting to read we should know our language level in order not to fail reading. How do we know our level? When you are at your appropriate level, you understand 80 per cent (or more) words in a page. 

Good or bad reader?

Good readers are the ones who do not stop and look up every single word. They read by series of quick short jumps and they read word chunks at a time. Good readers are more efficient in reading, they do less mental and physical work and they understand the text better. Being a slow reader is a problem and reducing the number of stops would be very helpful. Reading aloud or inner voice or with your finger are problems which slow the reading process. It is also important not to want to understand every word of the text. Do not be anxious and use your logical and common sense because they are usually better than dictionaries.

Reading strategies 
Think about that: you do not read equally a letter from the bank and a magazine or the shopping list and your notes.  Why is that? There are three reading strategies that a reader uses depending on the reading’s purpose.

-          Skimming consists in a quick reading just to focus on the main ideas.

-          We are scanning a text when we look for a specific point.

-          Reading for detail is the carefully reading of a whole text.

Imagine you are in a restaurant for the first time. You are completely sure that you want pasta to eat, but you do not know what type. So, the strategy you will use is scanning the menu until you get the pasta section. Then you will skim the pasta section to get the main ideas. Finally to make the final decision you should read the dishes in detail in case that you are allergic to an ingredient.

Predicting and guessing

On the one hand, predicting consists in seeing ahead of the words and it makes a text easier to understand. Actually, we know more than we think when we read. If we find a full stop we know that is the end of the sentence. If we find a connector like in addition, we know that some information will be added. Besides, if we are familiarized with a topic, it would be easier to make predictions and understand the text, as well.

On the other hand, guessing the meaning of words is important to be fluent in reading. There are words that are not important to understand a text; then just ignore them. But if a word looks important, it is useful to guess its meaning. To guess it, first we should realize what the word looks like. Prefixes, suffixes and its compounding will help our intuition. Nevertheless, it is not the same guessing in context that out of context because we do not have the help of the setting. Sometimes we do not understand the text, but we are able to answer the questions due to the knowledge of syntax and we know how English works.

To conclude, reading is an important input skill since we receive external information and it is a way to learn a lot. If you are a slow reader in English do not worry because all you need is practicing. So, choose your level and enjoy reading!