LESSON 4: LEARNING HOW TO READ

Good afternoon, English Learners!!

Today let's talk about reading strategies and learning how to read. Reading is not only a skill that requires attention but also is knowledge of the world. We can succeed in understanding a text written in a language we don't know. We compare that language to English or our mother tongue, pictures that appear in the text can help you a lot to work out the general ideas as well as the layout. It's just comparing and contrasting with other languages. It will be impossible for you to understand the whole text, but short pieces of it. Besides, we can even understand and read a word correctly if the first and last letter remain in the same place. It is curious, isn't it?

English learners tend to stop quite often when they are reading because they don't want to miss any important information and want to understand every single word. Even if you read word by word, you can lose concentration. If you point at a word, your brain slows down and your reading speed becomes slower. Experts say that if you read below 100 words per minute, you won't understand the text and won't be able to develop reading skills correctly.

So, if you want to be a good English reader try to read in chunks of three or four words. This will make you reduce the time of stops. In this way, you will be a faster reader and therefore you'll understand the meaning of the text quicker, your eyes muscles won't get so tired and you will do less mental work. 

Reading strategies depend on the reason  of reading. I'll explain you some of them

- Skimming. It consists of reading the text quickly just to understand the main ideas and to get an overview of the content. 

- Scanning. You have a specific point in mind and look for it in a text, for example  a specific name or date. This is a useful way of locating answers in a reading exam. 

- Reading for detail. You read the text carefully in order to look for additional and important information.

- Predicting. Before you start reading a text, you can imagine what it will be about by looking at  headings, pictures or some key words. The layout of a text may help you, too. (article, letter, story,etc) 

- Inferencing involves using what you know so that you guess what you don't know. It is an important skill to understand and to make conclusions while you are reading the text. 

- Don't look up every word you don't understand in a dictionary. You will forget about the content of the text. What's more, this word may not be important to understand the text. But if a word  appears many times it contains information you should know.

- If a text has long paragraphs, write down the main ideas of each of them. 

- If you don't understand most words of the text and you think that is too difficult for you, choose something easier and that adapts to your level.

- Read something you like. If not, you will get bored and you will give up reading, Most of the times we read because we have to. There must be a little bit of reading for entertainment. 

- The most important tip for reading is attitude. A person with positive feelings and enthusiasm will improve much more their reading skills. 

Remember, understanding of 80% of the text means you are a good English reader!!