Reading Skills

1 Objectives

At the end of the video, participants will be able to understand 4 types ofreading.

2 Keywords

1. Intensive reading - to teach and practice specific reading strategies andskills to cover in the course.

2. Extensive reading - to carry out a general understanding of text

3. Skimming - is a quick reading, to know the general meaning of a passage

4. Scanning - is a quick reading, focusing on locating specific informationsuch as a name, date, symbol, formula, or phrase.

3 Intensive Reading

• to teach and practice specific reading strategies and skills to cover in thecourse.

• usually very short texts - not more than 500 words in length.

• reader is intensely involved in looking inside the text.

• reader gathers the main idea and hidden meaning of the text

• assessed by reading tests and quizzes

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4 Intensive Reading Strategies

• word attack strategy - Word-attack strategies help students decode, pro-nounce, and understand unfamiliar words. They help students attackwords piece by piece or from a different angle. Model and instruct stu-dents:

– Use picture clues - Look at the picture. Are there people, objects, oractions in the picture that might make sense in the sentence?

– Sound out the word - Start with the first letter, and say each letter-sound out loud. Blend the sounds together and try to say the word.Does the word make sense in the sentence?

– Look for chunks in the words you know - Look for familiar letterchunks. They may be sound/symbols, prefixes, suffixes, endings,whole words, or base words. Read each chunk by itself. Then blendthe chunks together and sound out the word. Does that word makesense in the sentence?

– Re-read the sentence - Read the sentence more than once. Thinkabout what word might make sense in the sentence. Try the wordand see if the sentence makes sense.

– Use prior knowledge -Think about what you know about the subjectof the book, paragraph, or sentence. Do you know anything thatmight make sense in the sentence? Read the sentence with the wordto see if it makes sense.

• Make Predictions - Predictions encourage active reading and keep stu-dents interested, whether or not the predictions are correct. Incorrectpredictions can signal a misunderstanding that needs to be revisited.

• Retell and Summarize (Gather) - Relating the text in students’ own wordsclears up language issues. Retelling challenges them to aim for completeretention. Summarization allows students to discriminate between mainideas and minor details.

• Ask and Answer Questions - Having students form their own questionshelps them recognize confusion and encourages active learning.

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• Visualize - Many students think visually, using shapes, spatial relation-ships, movement, and colors, and can benefit greatly from this strategy.

• Connect to prior knowledge

5 Extensive Reading

• to carry out a general understanding of text

• to read large out of material, usually out of class,

• to build confidence and for enjoyment

• no formal assessments for Extensive Reading

6 Skimming

Skimming is a quick reading to get:

• to know the general meaning of a passage

• to know how the passage is organized, that is, the structure of the text

• to get an idea of the intention of the writer

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7 Scanning

• Scanning ia a quick reading, focusing on locating specific information suchas a name, date, symbol, formula, or phrase.

• involves quick eye movements, not necessarily linear in fashion, in whichthe eyes wander until the piece of information is found.

8 Skimming and Scanning Together

• skim first to see if it is worth reading, then scan for a specific piece ofinformation to note.

• read and select specific information without focussing on information thatis not important for meaning.

9 Previous Year Questions

1. The Gathering skill while reading is

(a) note-taking

(b) note-making

(c) puzzling out

(d) analysis

2. Reading between the lines as a sub-skill of reading mainly involves

(a) giving sufficient space between lines

(b) inferring the unstated using the contextual and verbal clues

(c) identifying the grammatical item

(d) understanding the stated facts

3. Extensive reading is

(a) reading to extrapolate and critique

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(b) reading for information

(c) reading the text for pleasure

(d) reading to know the meaning of every word

4. What is the skill among the ones given below that cannot be tested in aformal written examination?

(a) Reading for information

(b) Meaning of words and phrases

(c) Extensive reading for pleasure

(d) Analysing texts

5. When young learners are asked to read a text silently, they should beinstructed

(a) to read fast even if they don’t comprehend the meaning

(b) to stop reading whenever they encounter a difficult word or phrase

(c) to infer the meaning of new words from the context and read withcomprehension

(d) to special attention to grammar items used in the passage

6. Intensive reading stands for ....................

(a) reading for enrichment of vocabulary

(b) reading for developing literary sensitivity

(c) reading the text in parts for details

(d) reading for pleasure

7. Which one of the following is most important in developing reading skillat primacy level?

(a) Ability to read phrases correctly

(b) Ability to comprehend the text already read

(c) Only knowing the correct order of alphabet

(d) Ability to read words correctly

8. Scanning is a reading activity which helps the learners to ............... from/ofthe text.

(a) draw out information

(b) develop competence in the linguistic items

(c) know the meanings of the words

(d) enrich the vocabulary

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10 Summary

Intensive Reading - to teach and practice specific reading strategies and skillsto cover in the course.

Extensive Reading - to carry out a general understanding of text and to readlarge material, usually out of class.

Skimming - Skimming is a quick reading to get to know the general meaningof a passage.

Scanning - Scanning ia a quick reading, focusing on locating specific informa-tion such as a name, date, symbol, formula, or phrase.

11 Check For Understanding

11.1 Fill In The Blanks

• ................... reading is used for reading small text for a specific purpose.

• ................ reading is used for general purpose and out of interests.

• Word-attack strategy is used while you are doing .................... reading.

• ......................... is a quick reading to get to know the general meaning ofa passage.

• .................. is a quick reading, focusing on locating specific informationsuch as a name, date, symbold etc.

11.2 True or False

• Skimming and scanning are used for quick reading.

• Skimming focuses on locating specific information.

• Scanning focuses on a quick reading to get a general sense of a passage.

• Extensive reading is carried out to read large material usually out of class.

12 Answers

12.1 Previous Year Questions

1. b2. b3. c4. c5. b

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6. c7. b8. a

12.2 Fill In The Blanks

1. Intensive2. Extensive3. Intensive4. Skimming5. Scanning

12.3 True or False

1. True2. False3. False4. True

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