Table of Content Abstract..............................................................................................I Acknowledgements...........................................................................II
1. Introduction..................................................................................II
2. The characteristics of college students.......................................II
3. Effective English reading strategies............................................IV 3.2 Improving your English reading strategies........................................IV 3.2.1 Choice reading.......................................................................................IV 3.2.2 How to select English sources...............................................................IV 3.3 The process of English reading..........................................................VI 3.3.1 Planning for English reading..................................................................VI 3 .3.2 English reading.....................................................................................VI
3.3.3 Reflection..........................................................................................,..VII
4. Ways of reading English texts..................................................VIII 4.1 Skim reading & Scanning reading.................................................VIII 4.2 In-depth English reading................................................................X 4.2.1 Active English reading......................................................................X
4.2.2 Critical English reading.....................................................................XI
5. Making notes in the process of reading...................................XII
6. Fostering the English reading habits.......................................XIII
7. Conclusion..................................................................................XV
南京师范大学自学考试毕业论文
English Teaching in Reading Skills
陈艳
Abstract
English reading skills is important and necessary for learning English, , reading ability is one about language comprehension. In today?s English language learning and using English reading has an important position which is reflected in the reading skills development and training so that students have a truly comprehensive reading skills and ability which include the level of understanding and reading speed. As follows are my views about improving the English reading ability：
First, based on books, to carry out the overall teaching;
Second, through inspection, prediction, word-guessing methods and techniques; Third, through extensive reading, timing reading to enhance students reading speed and ability. Key words: English reading , culture and training, the overall teaching, reading speed and ability
摘要
英语阅读技能，是学习英语的一项必备的重要条件，阅读能力是一项语言综合运用能力。在当今的英语学习、用应中占据举足轻重的地位。体现在阅读技能的的培养和训练，使学生具有真正全面的阅读理解能力，其主要包括理解程度和阅读速度，本文就提高阅读能力浅谈几点看法：
一、课本，开展整体教学；
二、通过查阅，预测，猜词等方法和技巧；
三、泛读，定时定量阅读提高学生阅读速度和能力。
关键词：阅读能力;培养和训练;整体教学;阅读速度和能力
Acknowledgements
First and foremost, I appreciate my country who give me a comfortable learning atmosphere. Second, I would like to show my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Prof. Li Yuexiang, who has walked me through all the stages of the writing of this thesis. Without her illuminating instruction and patience, this thesis could not have reached its present form. I am also greatly indebted to all my teachers who have helped me to develop the fundamental and essential academic competence. My sincere appreciation also goes to all my classmates, who are my proud of my life. Last but not least, I want to thank all my friends, especially my three lovely roommates, for their encouragement and support.
1. Introduction
As reading is a part of academic literacy, English teachers usually have high expectations of a student's ability to cope with the demands of reading in English. Most college students wish to read more books. Reading is a way for college students to be more knowledgeable and successful. However, it is also an activity that many college students don?t enjoy very much. To succeed at schools, students need to possess a range of strategies and skills that support self-directed learning. Traditionally, many of these strategies and skills, some of which are highly generic, are not explicitly taught to students in the expectation that students either already have these skills, or will naturally acquire and develop these skills in their course of study. In order to improve the college students? ability of English readin g, we should answer the following questions: What are the English reading habits of students? How to become an effective reader? How to foster the English reading habits?
2. The characteristics of college students
With the development of society, science and technology develop at high speed and the competition in the society become sharp. Studies in the past have shown that the exam-oriented educational system promotes rote learning, and so that there needs to be a
paradigm shift in how the college students view education and about the way they learn. Most college students read English materials only to pass exams and do not read for pleasure. However, the situation changes now. In order to become well-learnt people that the society needs, most college students long for extensive English reading, hoping to do preparation for the future job by this way. At the same time, the purposes of college students are to complete the studies and to obtain good results. In order to adapt to the demands of society and school, college students treat seeking knowledge as the first duty. They relate themselves to the society closely, hoping to enrich themselves through reading and become the learned persons who can face the challenges of the society. Therefore, the motivation of the majority of college students is definite. It is also obvious that the English reading materials gradually change from the paper materials to the electronic reading materials. The Internet that opens another window for the college students becomes the most convenient tool for college students to get information. Now the serious problem is that college students can read on some level, but many do not read effectively. In other words, many college students take it for granted that they could understand concepts or lessons by memorizing the English words and information rather than understanding the ideas that are expressed by the words. Consequently, information is retained mainly for the purpose of passing an exam; memorization is mistaken for learning.
3. Effective English reading strategies
Because a large portion of time at schools is spent on working with written sources, and because there are lots of English materials to be covered in a short amount of time, it is essential that reading behaviors of English majors should be both purposeful and efficient. Reading is talking and discussing with the reader himself, with the author and others. So as the readers, the first thing for the readers do is to accumulate information before reading. To ensure the good results of reading, the college students also need to develop effective reading strategies. Knowing how to read effectively involves accumulating background information before reading, selecting the English materials, understanding the structure of texts, how to read for different purposes, and how to reflect on your reading.
3.1 Accumulating background information before reading
……Reading is a receptive language process. It is a psycholinguistic process in that it starts with a linguistic surface representation encoded by a writer and ends with meanings that the reader constructs. There is thus an essential interaction between language and thought in reading. The writer encodes thoughts as language and the reader encodes the language to thought.?? Reading is not passive but active, and in fact an interactive process that has been recognized for some time in first or native language reading. In the English reading, it is a process that needs not only the college students? active participation, pre dication and information processing, but also their prior experience and background knowledge.
The cultural factors play an important role in the process of English reading. Some cultural factors cause problems in reading directly so as to confuse college students and hinder their understanding. Other culture misunderstandings may dangle in their mind and prevent them from grasping the real meaning. Culture and language are closely related to each other. As one way of communication, reading English materials reflect cultural differences through the language in written form. The readers should aware the cultural differences and try their best to accumulate background knowledge of all sorts. So the first piece of advice that will be given here is to do as much reading as the students can.
College students in the school can make use of the library resources to support their study and self-learning. The kinds of resources include English books, English journal articles, English magazines, etc., as well as a wide range of library services. Now thousands of books, magazines, journal articles and newspapers have electrical versions. It is no doubt that the college students? task will be much easier if they know some websites they really want to find online.
3.2 Improving your English reading strategies
3.2.1 Choice reading
Choice reading is very important. Actually it is a process of selecting English materials. The reader should clearly recognize the classification of the English books and should certainly know which type of English book he is reading. It is best if the reader know his
purpose of reading before reading starts. It means that the reader should turn his attention to practical goals. To receive the information, the reader can read not only the book title, the subtitle, the table of contents, but also the author's preface, the abstract introduction and the index. These are all the information that authors want to transmit to the reader. According to these clues, the college students can choose different types of English reading materials with the different demands. The college students should also be aware that different reading skills should be adopted when the English reading material are different.
3.2.2 How to select English sources
In order to get useful information, the college students had better answer the following two questions: How well those English sources meet the purpose of reading? How reliably the author presents those ideas and information in the book? The college students have better read things they are interested in so that the hard work required for comprehension will seem much more pleasurable．Also，the college students will be much more eager to understand what they are reading，not only as a means to improve their reading comprehension，but also as a means to better understand the interesting subject-matter. The process of selecting an English source includes examining its publisher, its reference and its author(s). Depending on the reader?s purpose of reading, it can also inv olve assessing timeliness. Some ways of selecting English sources are follows:
(i) Pay more attention to the timeliness
When a book is published, it always has a special social background. For example, if a reader wants to find some information about com puters, he?d better check the materials published after 1940s.
(ii) Evaluating the publisher of an English book
Experienced readers may have some information about a book?s publisher. He may know the book that is published by an individual, an organization or government agency. Generally speaking, authors and publishers usually have a bias about a particular topic or issue. When the publisher is a scholarly or professional journal, the reader can often gain an understanding of what kinds of articles it publishes by looking over the contents of several issues of the journal or by reading a few of the articles found within it. It is very important for the English
majors to know some famous publishers of the English-speaking countries.
（iii）Evaluating the relevance of an English book
If a reader reads with a definite purpose, such as for a research project, he should have a look at the relevance firstly. Relevance is the extent to which a source provides information that person can use in evaluating the materials. There are several ways to determine whether the information presented in a scholarly or professional journal article is likely to be relevant to the reader?s reading purpose. There are two main strategies to help the reader to determine whether the article is relevant to readers? needs and interests. An abstract—a brief description of the article and its results—often appears at the beginning of the article. When an abstract is not used, an article's introduction often provides similar information.
（iv）Evaluating the author(s) of an English book
In order to get a better understanding of a book, the reader had better know the author(s) as much as possible. No matter what kind of book the reader chooses to read, it's important to know its author or authors.
3.3 The process of English reading
If the readers face with a difficult and complex English text, or if they do not read effectively under normal circumstances, the readers can improve the way of reading by being more purposeful in the approach to reading.
Think of reading as a three-stage process that consists of:
(1) Plan for English reading
(2) English reading
(3) Reflection
3.3.1 Planning for English reading
Planning for English reading will help the reader to give the reading a focus. The reader can do preparation of reading by asking the following questions:
What does the reader wants to get out of reading this English text?
Are there any ideas that should be taken into English reading?
Why has this particular English text been selected?
Can the English text be subdivided into sections to read?
What has skim reading told the reader about the English text?
3.3.2 English reading
When a reader reads, the reader is looking at the communication of some kind of meaning in a structure. Since writers choose to organize material in a particular way, the reader needs to be able to see this structure in the text. Understanding the structure of an English text will help the college students to know how to read it.
There are two main aspects of structure.
(1) The development of ideas in sentences and paragraphs; (eg, some authors show their main viewpoints in the first or last sentence)
(2) The development of the argument.
Once a focus has been developed for reading, how the college students read a particular English text depending on the nature and structure of the English text. The following are some useful guiding principles that the student had better keep in mind.
(1) Identify the starting point of the writer?s argument - usually this will be found in the first or second paragraph.
(2) Remember that English follow rules of grammar. By understanding the rules that govern speech，the reader can eliminate some false conclusions and gain a better understanding of what is being said.
(3) See if the reader can detect any assumptions the writer has made, or the start of a particular method of argument.
(4) Identify important, or central, ideas (or any stated principles) in paragraphs as the reader reads them. (If there is more than one, try to work out which is the most important or central);
(5) Evaluate the evidence that has been presented in support of ideas or principles, and decide whether the evidence is relevant, persuasive, and convincing;
(6) Assess whether the conclusions are justified on the basis of the evidence that has been presented.
After the reader has read carefully through the English text in full, as suggested above, make some brief notes on:
(1) the understanding of the English text;
(2) the preliminary response to the ideas and arguments that have been presented.
In the process of reading an English essay, the college students should try to read without stopping when meeting unfamiliar words and phrases. The college students can underline the new words and look them up in a dictionary after finishing. If reading is often interrupted, the college students will find that it is very difficult to create an understanding of a whole text. Generally speaking, reading interruption has the opposite effect and even causes the reading to be fragmented. If the college students keep stopping, it might be difficult to create an overview of an article and to remember what they have read. The meaning guessing strategy has been proved more effective than stopping the reader?s reading to look u p individual words. When the college students try to figure out a word's meaning from the context, they can answer the following questions. What does the close meaning of the word? What is the function of the word in the sentence? Is the word nonsensical in the sentence? By decoding the meaning of words in context, the college students are more likely to increase their reading speed, comprehension, and vocabulary. The college students can also guess the meaning of words through the cause and effect relation. During the process of reading, the college students may find some symbol words for the relation, such as because, as, since, therefore, as a result, etc. These words will help the college students to grasp the whole idea of the essay.
3.3.3 Reflection
Interacting with a piece of English reading material includes responding to the content of what the reader is reading. So while reading, the college students should not accept passively what an author says. Instead, they should ask questions, argue, comment, and match their experience and what they know against what the author is talking about. They should think about what they have read for a few minutes, and then consider the following:
(1) Are there any unanswered questions about the meaning of the English text? If so, they should go back and skim read and/or read specific sections again.
(2) Have they failed to recognize any assumption?
(3) Have they understood the section of the English text related?
(4) Have they made connections between the English text and other English materials they have read?
(5) What?s their opinion on the conclusion of the English book?
The questions above can help college students to work out what an English essay or story means to them. And the answers are also important here because a piece of English material never means precisely the same thing for every reader. The reader shapes his own comprehension by joining what he knows and what the author tells him and becomes a unique reader.
4. Ways of reading English texts
4.1 Skim reading & Scanning reading
What is skimming? Skimming is a reading technique that can help one to:
(1) read more quickly
(2) decide if the English text is interesting and whether the reader should read it in more details.
When college students should use skimming? This is the strategy that college students employ when they want to obtain a quick overview of a English text. The term skimming is often confused with scanning. Remember that skimming is used to obtain the gist (the overall sense) of a piece of text. Scanning is a reading skill to find a particular point of information quickly in a text. It is very useful for the readers to scan the text for particular bits of information they are searching for.
E.g. Use skimming to get the gist of a page of an English textbook to decide whether it is useful and should therefore be read more slowly and in more detail.
E.g. Use scanning to find a particular number in a telephone directory. Scanning is used to obtain specific information from a piece of English text.
Sometimes the college students can use both reading methods. They can skim a piece of English text to find out something interesting; they may wish to use scanning techniques to locate specific information. When the college students use skim reading method, they shouldn?t read the whole text word-for-word. The college students should use as many clues
as possible to get some background information: eg pictures or images related to the topic; an eye-catching title, etc. With the eyes skim over the surface of the text, the college students must try their best to find out any clues that can help them to understand the main idea of the text, and then look out some key words. The strategies always employ when they want to obtain a quick overview of an English text can be listed below:
(1) reading the title, subtitle and subheading to find out what the English text is about.
(2) reading the first and last sentence of each paragraph.
(3) looking the illustration that may give the reader further information about the topic.
(4) skimming over the English text to take in key words.
(5) using the marker pen to mark out any items that the reader wants to re-read, or refer to later.
Take reading English magazines and English newspapers for example.
When reading an English newspaper, people typically only concentrate on the most interesting and glamorous parts of the newspaper. So the presses always use the eye-catching tile to attract the attention of the public. They will often ignore less interesting information that may be essential to a full understanding of a subject. It is typical that areas of useful information are padded out with large amounts of irrelevant waffle or with advertising. Newspapers tend to be arranged in sections. If one reads an English paper often, one can learn quickly which sections are useful and which ones one can skip altogether.
The most effective way of getting information from English magazines is to scan the contents tables or indexes and turn directly to interesting articles. If the reader finds an article useful, he may cut it out and file it in a folder specifically covering that sort of information. The reader builds up sets of related articles that may begin to explain the subject in this way.
4.2 In-depth English reading
This is the most essential of all reading skills. It involves reading an English text thoroughly in order to comprehend the ideas and arguments it contains. In-depth reading is consequently much slower than skim reading, and the college students may find that they needs to read certain sections of a difficult English text more than once. When reading in-depth it is useful to read the opening paragraphs and conclusion first. This will help the
college students to digest the intention and conclusion of the writer prior to a closer reading of the text. It is useful to go back to the beginning, and read through the whole text and at the same time mark out some key words and phrases. Therefore, In-depth reading requires the college students to be attentive to the important ideas, facts, and data. By in-depth reading, the college students can understand the writer?s main ideas and arguments, and the overall message of the text well. The attitude of the college students should be active and critical. 4.2.1 Active English reading
When the college students are reading an English document in detail, it is helpful if they highlight, underline and annotate the important information on the materials. This action will help them to memorize the information and to review important points later. It also helps to keep their mind focused on the English material and stop it from wandering. The college students should be active in connecting what they have already known to what they encounter as readers. If the college students find that active reading helps, then it may be worth photocopying some rare English information. They can then read and mark the photocopies. If the college students are worried about destroying the English material, they can ask themselves how much their investment of time is worth. If the benefit they get by active reading reasonably exceeds the value of the book, then the book is disposable. It means that the college students can take notes on the English book arbitrarily.
4.2.2 Critical English reading
Reading an English text critically means that the college students do not accept the whole value of what they are reading. This does not necessarily mean that the college students should find fault with a text, but rather that they should question and judge the merit and worth of the information it contains. The college students should remember that the purpose of r English reading is to analyze and solve problems and make a valuable comment of the English text by absorbing information or using received information. Thus, critical English reading proves to be quite helpful. Critical English reading involves a number of inter-related processes. They are interpretation, analysis and evaluation.
（i）Interpretation
When the college students read critically for interpretation, they read to determine what conclusions could be drawn about the various messages the English text contains. Sometimes, there is more than one possible interpretation, and in such cases it is possible that the reading may be directed at the best or close meaning. Interpreting an English text will also frequently involve the process of meaning guessing.
（ii）Analysis
This is the process by which the reader examines the way the ideas and messages in an English text fit together to create the overall meaning while English reading. The college students should focus on the following points:
(1) identifying assumptions (the hidden values that underlie what a writer is saying )
(2) the structure of the argument (the development and sequence of ideas, the relationship between ideas, whether the argument is inductive or deductive);
(3) the relationship between evidence/data and argument ( whether the evidence supports and illustrates the argument, and whether it supports any conclusions that are drawn).
（iii）Evaluation
This is a process by which the reader establishes the worth or merit of an English text. Evaluation is a higher order process that involves all of the other processes described above. When the college students evaluate an English text, they should attempt to look at the ideas and messages in a broader context. The college students might say that this is a good argument, but is it worth anything, or does it has any merits? The college students would then use their knowledge of the subject or field, or of competing arguments, to establish the merit or worth of the argument of analysis.
5. Making notes in the process of reading
Purchasing an English book means having an English book, but it doesn?t mean that the English book really belongs to the buyer. The best way of making a book become a part of a student is to take notes. Taking notes is one of the main activities of being a good reader. A good reader can work in his own personal ways to make the core of an English book become
a part of himself. Making notes is hard work, but it serves all these purposes:
(1) Focusing the reader?s attention. Making notes stops the reader?s mind from wandering
as the reader reads.
(2) Making sense. Writing notes forces the reader to seek out some sense in the words in the English text. It also helps the reader to formulate ideas from the English text in ways that make sense to the reader.
(3) Forming an external memory. The reader?s notes act as a kind of extension to the memory capacity of the rea der?s mind. They give the reader rapid access back to the knowledge he has been accumulating.
(4) Focusing on the conjunction. A conjunction signals the way the writer wants the reader to relate what is about to be said to what has been said before.
(5) P ulling the course together. As the reader studies a course, the reader?s mind becomes cluttered with disconnected bits and pieces.
Therefore, the college students should know how to take notes while they are reading an English material. Take notes only on English material that is worthwhile and reliable, and make sure that notes are accurate. That does not mean that everything should be taken down everything from the source word for word, although sometimes an especially well-worded or stimulating quotation will be recorded. It is usually best to paraphrase as much as possible, in order to reduce college students? dependence on the source and to encourage their own analysis of the English reading material. However, even when paraphrasing, make sure to pr eserve the original intent of the reader?s source, and record page numbers, since the college students may wish to cite the source later, even if they do not quote directly. Notes that are the summary of a section of the English course help the college students to create order. These notes also make the college students? new ideas less confused and more useable. It is found that college students at different proficiency have different preference for taking notes. And there are several ways of taking notes:
(1) drawing lines;
(2) marking the most important statement and the paragraph of an English book with asterisks.
(3) writing down other page numbers in the blank, and emphasizing the same opinion that the author has mentioned in other parts .
(4) circling the key words or the sentence;
(5) using a small notebook for each essay;
(6) using file cards and allowing one note per card;
(7) keeping reader?s notes on separate cards from relying too heavily on one source; note cards are also a flexible way of recording information because they can be easily sorted. (8) identifying the source by a short name, and noting the page number on each card.
6. Fostering the English reading habits
When seeking to improve any skill，it is important to have a positive attitude，to set clear goals，and to practice regularly. These elements are also important for the college students to foster their ability of English reading. There are some useful principles for the college students to promote their ability of English reading. To foster personal English reading habits, it is better use the following ways:
(1) Having an English book around oneself. Don?t go anywhere without English reading materials. Keep English magazines or short English stories in one?s bathroom. Always have s omething in one?s bags to read. Keep an English book by one?s bed. Arrange the books on the shelf that are easy to reach. Having things available makes it easier for one to steal otherwise lost moments.
(2) Setting an English reading goal. Determine how much time one wants to spend on English reading, or how many English books one wants to read over time. The reader?s goal might be an English book per month, several English articles per week, or to read 30 minutes per day. When setting a goal or a target English book，it is important to choose something that will challenge the reader but will not be so difficult as to discourage him．The reader had better read English books within their comprehension level at the beginning. This will give the reader a solid foundation to build his confidence upon.
(3) Keeping a list. Make a list of English books one want to read in the future. Ask one?s friends and colleagues about what they are reading. Watch for recommendations in the English newspaper and English magazines. Once one starts looking for good English books, he will find them everywhere. By knowing what great stuff one want to read, one will reinforce one?s English reading habit.
(4) Listening when one can?t read. There are great English audio versions of all sor ts of books. Listening to radio also gives one the experience, ideas, and imagination that reading an English book do.
(5) Visiting the library or bookstore often. If the reader has his own list, he will have some ideas of what he is looking for when he walk in. If not, he can browse in the library or bookstore. It is also a great way for the reader to find something interesting or new English books.
(6) Turning off the television. Many people say they just don?t have enough time. Television is one of the m ajor time consumers. Make one?s television watching more conscious and less habitual. There is nothing wrong with one who watches his favorite TV program s. Actually, the time gets lost when one turns the TV on and scans to find “something to watch.”
(7) Keeping a log. Keep a list of the English books one have read, or keep track of how much time one read each day.
Practice makes perfect. The differences between the skilled and unskilled college students are their ability of English reading and their speed of English reading. There is no shortcut to foster the English reading habits except practicing again and again. It will be meaningless if college students don?t put theory into practice.
7. Conclusion
The college students have the expectation of im proving their English reading ability, so it?s helpful for them to know some English reading skills. These skills can assist in the promotion of self-study and make college students more resourceful. Improving one?s English reading skill will not be easy, but it is possible. The college students had better keep a positive attitude, set realistic goals, and not have the expectation of improving greatly overnight. Altogether, knowing some English reading strategies, the college students may change their attitude towards the English reading materials and really enjoy the pleasures of English reading. Bibliography
[1] 钟启泉《外语课程与教学论》。浙江教育出版社，2002，P148
[2] 张曼. Some Remarks on Reading and the Teaching of Reading [J]. 池州师专学报, 1997,2. P94
[3] 王振亚. 语言与文化[M]. 高等教育出版社，1999,10. P21
[4] 吕文玲. Improving reading Skills [J] 牡丹江教育学院学报, 2004,1. P67
[5] 王力王霞. On A Few reading Skills [J] 阴山学刊, 2005,3. P120
[6] 郭才锋. Conjunction and Teaching Reading skills in English [J]. 福州高等中学, 2005,4. P47