Before
discussing the best ways in which to increase level of competence in reading,
it is necessary to draw attention to two facts concerning reading material
itself:
The First Fact: Types of Reading
There are
two different kinds of reading exercise which need to progress in unison if
increased proficiency in reading is desired. These are intensive reading and extensive reading.
The former is much more tightly controlled; there are time limits, texts are of
a limited length, there are questions, vocabulary exercises and the like. The
latter, on the other hand, involves much longer texts, there are no time
limits, questions or exercises. The purpose of the former is comprehension and
strengthening of the knowledge base while that of the latter is consolidation.
Neglect this dual approach, and the likelihood of failure looms large.
The Second Fact: The Reading Material
There are
two general categories of reading material available to student of English: classroom material and self study
material. The former constitutes 99% of what is available on the
market while the latter is scarse. In the case of the former, there is a
student’s book with texts and a selection of exercises, a teacher’s book with
answer keys to the same and notes to the teacher concerning methods of further
exploitation of the material and then of cource there is the teacher, an expert
in the field, and all he/she brings to the lesson as a professional. Use this
material for self study and the benefits derived will be far less than if it
were covered in class under the watchful eye and with the careful guidance of a
professional. What the student requires when no such guidance is available is
self study material whose purpose is three fold: to teach, to explain and
clarify and to test. The only intensive reading material mentioned in this post
will involve self study material. One interesting point here is that classroom
material is far more benefitial when covered in the right setting, in the right
way while self study material can be used in class with equal measure of success;
the only thing is that it leaves the teacher very little to do as it is self
explanatory.
Extensive Reading
It is suggested that you make extensive reading and related writing in
the form of book reports, reactions or summaries part of your regular study
routine. Naturally, these are not, by any means, the only sites of their kind;
there are many others. Access to the three sites listed below is free.
Short Stories and Novels
1.
classicshorts.com
: this is a wonderful website which is absolutely free and is very easy to
navigate. It includes collections of short stories by some of the best known
authors in the world.
2.
pagebypagebooks.com:
unlike the previous site, this one includes novels by famous writers as well.
3.
americanliterature.com:
this wonderful website provides access to both novels and short stories by
American and foreign writers contrary to what the name suggests.
Newspapers, Magazines and News
Websites
It is suggested that you make keeping up with the news and reading
magazines that appeal to you part of your regular study routine. Writing about
the news and the articles you read is a wonderful reading and writing activity.
Naturally, the links provided below are just a few examples of what is
available.
1.
British
Papers: theguardian.co.uk, theobserver.co.uk
2.
American
Papers: wsj.com, nytimes.com
3.
News
Channells: bbc.co.uk/news, cnn.com
4.
Magazines:
scientificamerican.com, nature.com,wired.com, theatlantic.com,
psychologytoday.com, times.com, economist.com
Intensive Reading: Self Study Material
As previously indicated, self study
reading material is very rare indeed, which is surprising considering how many
people are trying to improve their reading skills in English. The rapid spread
of online education and the current trend towards individual work via the
internet will, most certainly, change these circumstances but for the present
we are going to focus on my blog (the link to which is: http://theproproom.blogspot.com),
which fits the bill admirably. It is suggested that
you make intensive reading of the kind described part of your daily routine. It
is also suggested that you never, ever skip the reading into writing activities.
Lastly, always get a printout of the text and questions; never read on the
computer. You will find that you make far more mistakes if you don’t work with a
hard copy.
1.
Level One (*) Reading Tasks: the reading tasks in this file are
intermediate in level. They are suited to intermediate students at the
beginning of an intensive course and pre intermediate students a month or so
into the course. The reading passages the
tasks are based on fall under various headings – science and technology, the
environment, education, history and politics, psychology and the like – the
complete list can be found in the file titled “Level two reading tasks by theme”.
The tasks are based on original texts suited to this level and the answers to
the questions will provide a summary of the text. It
is suggested that you read the first question and then start reading the text.
Otherwise, the text may seem too difficult and off putting. Remember; the
purpose of the questions is to explain, clarify and test.
2.
Level Two (**)Reading Tasks: the reading tasks in this file are
upper intermediate in level and are suited to advanced students right at the
start of the course and intermediate students soon after. Pre intermediate
students should be able to tackle them half way through the first term. All that has been said for level one is also valid here.
3.
Level Three (***) Reading Tasks: the reading tasks in this file are
advanced in level and are suited to advanced students a month or so at the most
into the course and intermediate students near the end of the first term at the
earliest. Pre intermediate students in an intensive language course should be
able to tackle these tasks a third of the way into the second term. All that has been said for level one is also valid here.
4.
Level Four (****) Reading
Activities: the
reading tasks in this file are harder than level three as evidenced by the preponderance
of politics, history and serious science texts. They are suited to advanced
students a month into the second term and intermediate students in the second
half of the second term of an intensive English course. Pre intermediate
students should, ideally, be able to tackle them well into the second half of
the second term. This is is also the level of
reading sections on most English proficiency exams. All that has been said for
level one is also valid here.
5.
Level Five (*****) Reading
Activities: the
reading tasks in this file are more difficult than most English proficiency
exams. The file is here to prove to students that a proficiency exam is a cutoff
point and there is really much more learning to do.
Reading Activities that Resemble the Proficiency To Be
Taken:
It is assumed, quite wrongly, that
doing test after test is the best way to prepare for a reading test but this is
a very common mistake. The purpose of a test is just that, to test, while the
purpose during the period of preparation is to build the knowledge base and
increase competence. Different purposes require different methods. A couple of
trial runs to become familiar with the test shortly before the date is fine but
not absolutely necessary. Research has shown that the effects of
familiarity with the test on success rates drops as the level of the student
increases; the maximum effect being in the vicinity of 10%. If you are
proficient and you decide, on a whim, to take the IELTS the following day, you
can walk in and take it and pass with flying colors. All this does not mean you
should brush practice tests aside but don’t cling to them; just do one or two
before the actual test if you wish. Instead, spend your time more profitably by
following the advice provided in this post.
How to Tackle Vocabulary:
One unavoidable issue
that always crops up while tackling a reading task is what to do about the new
vocabulary. There is a simple rule of thumb:
1.
Look
up the key words in a monolingual dictionary
2.
Guess
the meaning of words whenever you can. For instance, you come across the word
‘loath’ and you guess that it means something like ‘dislike’; that is fine; you
move on. Loath in fact means absolutely hate but that doesn’t matter; you are
in the same ball park so no dictionaries.
3.
There
is a third group of words: those that are not essential in order to understand
the sentence and are not key words either. You just leave them.
In short, consider
reading like rock climbing and you will be fine. Remember: the forest comes
first and then the trees; not the other way around.
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