English Reading

• Importance of learning English Reading
• Improve English Reading Skills
• Reading Faster

Reading is the psychological process of understanding a written linguistic message. In simple terms, reading is the ability to examine words and absorb the information within. Reading is the 3rd of the 4th language skills. However, the above mentioned definition is a limited one. Reading is a complex process of problem solving, it is because when a reader is looking at word, he is trying to not only make a sense of a text from the words and sentences on the page but he is also probing the ideas, memories, and knowledge evoked by those words and sentences. Therefore Reading serves two purposes – acquiring information and understanding it. Reading might look like passive, solitary and simple, but it is active in it’s true sense as it a rich mix of voices and views—those of the author, of the reader, and of others, the reader has heard, read about, and otherwise encountered throughout life. English Reading material comes in various formats such as books, magazines, newspapers, leaflets, notebooks and electronic displays, such as computer displays, television, mobile phones or e-readers.

Why is learning English Reading, important?

To learn English language, apart from Listening and Speaking - Writing is also important to have a proper know-how of using English language. Written words are grammatically correct and by reading you see and learn grammatical English.

Reading lays the foundation for Writing. When you read, it gives you a good idea for Writing on any subject. Texts that you read show you structures and expressions that you can use when you write.

Reading is a favourite pass time for many and it can be done at any time and at one’s own leisure. It doesn’t require a certain environment as compared to other activities. All one needs is a text material and good pair of eyes.

Reading is a good knowledge contributor. The more we read the more we acquire information. Based upon the information gathered by us we can help others and be good humanitarians.

How to improve English Reading Skills?

1.  English Reading for Beginners – To learn English Reading, beginners should follow the below given tips:

• Read what you like – There is no hard and fast rule as to what one should read. It’s up to the reader as to what he wants to read. Reading to what interests you is better than reading what others tell you to. It can be a magazine, book, website etc.
• Easy Grammar – Make sure that what you have chosen to read is in simple language, something which you can easily understand. It can be children’s comics, books etc. Whatever you choose to read shouldn’t be loaded with heavy grammar. If you need to stop every three words to look in a dictionary, it is not interesting for you and you will soon be discouraged.
• Read Regularly - Try to read regularly. It is better to read for a short time once a day rather than spending long hours on a fixed day. Fifteen minutes every day are better than two hours every Sunday. Fix a time to read and keep to it. For example, you could read for fifteen minutes when you go to bed, or when you get up, or at lunchtime.
• Organised Reading - Be organized whenever reading. That implies that you have everything that you require i.e. something to read, a marker to highlight difficult words, a dictionary, a pen to write down the new words.
• Understand the comprehension - Do not try to understand every word you read. Reading exposes you to new language, but it is not a 'vocabulary' activity. Focus on developing reading comprehension - understanding the main ideas in the text, and searching for key information.
• Understanding Unknown Words – It is always advisable to try and understand the unknown words by reading the information 'around' the word, and then read the sentences before and after this. This will give you an idea about what that the words might mean. If you are unable to do so then you can search the dictionary. Do not look up every word as these stops the flow of thinking. Search the key words only, like nouns and verbs which are essential for getting a proper sense.

2.  New Words – As you read you will encounter new words which should be written down in your vocabulary book. It is not necessary to write down the new words that you encounter whilst reading. These can be guessed upon and underlined or highlighted with pen or pencil. When you have finished reading to check in a dictionary you can add their meaning in your vocabulary book. This will not only increase your vocabulary but you will learn to use them naturally as well.

3.  Read Again – We often read a book and then forget about it, however we should - try to analyse it by reading it again. You can read something and then read it again within as span of a few weeks or months. This enables a better understanding of the material we have read. You will find that your understanding has improved.

4.  Reading Exercises – The internet is full of English Reading Material in the form of exercises. Some the reading activities and tests on the internet are free while others are paid. These are arranged according to the levels: easy, intermediate and advanced. These are in the form of stories, poems, paragraphs, essays etc. After completing these you can also appear for aptitude tests etc. to find out how good you are. These exercises are good for improving reading skills especially for those appearing in English language exams such as IELTS, TOEFL, Cambridge PET, FCE, CAE etc.

5.  Eye-Mind Connection – Eyes are our windows to the world. What we see our mind perceives it. Therefore Eyes and Mind both need to be at their optimum level to gain from Reading. If you have an eye problem, get it corrected first. Healthy eyes translate into better reading and hence better understanding.  

Here are some suggestions on taking care of the eyes:

a)  Don’t read in the dark or dim light as this will stress out your eyes.
b)  If your eyes are tired then take a break of few minutes to give them some rest. Look outside the window or anything which doesn’t put stress on the eyes.

Simple Eye Exercise

1.  Rub your hands together until your palms are quite warm.
2.  Cup your hands over your closed eyes...rest lightly.
3.  Think of darkness.
4.  Rest like this for at least a minute.
5.  Open your eyes and feel refreshed.

c)  You can improve your eye-mind connection by following the below mentioned steps:

1. Hold up the thumb on your right hand out in front of you.
2. Draw an infinity symbol (horizontal 8) as large as you can.
3. Follow your thumb with your eyes without moving your head.
4. Do this 5 times with your eyes open and then for 5 times with your eyes closed.
5. Swap hands and complete the exercise with your left hand.
6. Now place both thumbs together and draw the infinity symbol for 5 times with your eyes open then with your eyes closed.
7. Practice this daily for the next 30 days.

6.  Reading in Thought Groups – Thought Groups refers to reading in phrases of three or four words. By doing this one can internalize a phrase as if the whole phrase is like one big meaning-rich word. Our eyes make small stops along the line and having too many stops, disturb the thought process. Therefore reading in Thought Groups benefits as it is easier to pull from groups of words rather than from individual words or even single letters.

7.  Reading Techniques – Generally there are 3 types of Reading Techniques which should be employed towards effective Reading. These are:

• Scanning – This technique should be used when you're looking up a name in the phone book or looking for a particular words or phrases that are relevant to the task you're doing.  To enable proper scanning one can look for the ‘introduction’, ‘preface of a book’, ‘first’ or ‘last paragraphs of chapters’ and or the ‘concluding chapter of a book’.
• Skimming – This technique is used when you're going through a newspaper or magazine. It is useful in times when deciding if a book in the library or bookshop is right for you. Here one reads quickly to get the main points, and skip over the detail. To put into effect this technique, one can preview a passage before reading it in detail and refresh your understanding of the passage after you've read it in detail.
• Detailed Reading - This technique is used for extracting information accurately. To utilize this technique one reads every word and works to learn from the text. In this careful reading, you may skim first, to get a general idea, but then you should go back to read in detail. A dictionary can be used to make sure you understand all the words used.

8.  Get a Better Dictionary - When you have shifted from basic reading to intermediate or advanced reading it is time to move onto a better understanding. A better dictionary is the one which is big enough to define words clearly and helpfully (around 1,500 pages is a good size). Forget ‘compact' or ‘concise' dictionaries as you have moved from beginner to intermediate or advanced level. There are over 600,000 words in the Oxford English Dictionary; most of them have different meanings, (only a small proportion are synonyms). A large dictionary will also improve your vocabulary.

9.  Become a Library Member – Enrol yourself for good library and visit it often.  A Library has a variety and abundance of reading material which one can explore. The Library atmosphere is also congenial for good reading experience. The reading material also keeps getting updated. Libraries also conduct some activities to enrich their members with literary activities which in turn also make you proficient in reading.

10.  Reading Faster – The World runs on a Fast Lane. Most of our activities at work, home and school, require us to read and absorb greater and greater amounts of information. This information is important on day to day basis for our survival and our success. The main barrier to our evolution is the amount of information we can absorb. To overcome this handicap we can learn to read fast, by following these tips:

a)  SQ3R - SQ3R stands for Survey, Question, Read, Recall and Review.

• Survey – Survey here refers to glancing through a chapter in order to identify headings, sub-headings and other outstanding features in the text instead of starting to read the book. It enables collection of information you need to focus on. For this you can read the introduction or summary to see what the author thinks are the key points. Notice any maps, graphs or charts. They are there for a purpose. Observe the information at the end of the chapter. They are all there to help you understand and remember.
• Question – Engage and concentrate on seeking answers to questions regarding a text material. Your mind is engaged in learning when it is actively looking for answers to questions. Questions like "What question is this chapter trying to answer?" or "How does this information help me? Are some of the questions one should ask himself/herself to enable faster reading.
• Read - Read the first section with your questions in mind. Look for the answers, and make up new questions if necessary.
• Recall - After each section, stop and think back to your questions. See if you can answer them from memory. If not, take a look back at the text. Do this as often as you need to.
• Review - Once you have finished the whole chapter, go back over all the questions from all the headings. See you if can still answer them. If not, look back and refresh your memory.

 b) Stop Self –talking while Reading – Generally people talk to themselves in 2 ways, by - vocalizing, which is the actual moving of your lips as you read, and sub-vocalizing, which is talking to yourself in your head as you silently read. Speech is a relatively slow activity. Both types of vocalizing will slow you down to the point in which you find that you can't read any faster than you can speak. Reading should be an activity which involves only the eyes and the brain. Vocalization ties reading to actual speaking. You should try to think of reading as if you were looking at a landscape, a panorama of ideas, rather than looking at the rocks at your feet.

c)  Smooth Pursuit and Saccadic Jumps – Both these activities enhance our reading speed. Our eyes are attracted by movement and can continuously follow a moving target in a series of very fast tiny movements, micro-saccades. This is known as Smooth Pursuit. When you look at something standing still, the focus point of your eyes moves from detail to detail in a motion called Saccadic Jumps. At each stop, eyes take a snap shot called a fixation.

When we make a saccadic jump there is no blurring as our eyes move between fixations. This is because during a saccadic jump, our eyes stop Saccadic Suppression: We stop sending visual information to the brain during a saccadic jump. This stops any perception of blurring from the movement of the eyes.  We make many saccadic jumps every second, so our eyes only send information to the brain for a fraction of each second. Current theory is that saccadic suppression starts about 50ms (milliseconds) before a jump and lasts for at least 125ms, possibly more, suggestions have been made as high as 400ms on occasions. Even at 125ms minimum, we can only make a maximum of 420 jumps per minute or eight per second, although the average is nearer four or 240 per minute.

d)  Avoid Flicking – Flicking back-wards over words already read, reduces speed by 20%

e)  Practice Reading - If you wish to speed up your Reading speed you should first measure your reading speed. Set up a timer and see how much you read in one minute, and in five minutes. When you know your speed, try to beat yourself at this over and over again, until you start to feel that you have moved up one level. Experiment with different texts, and try to find books with text that has some questions about what you just read so you can apprise your understanding. Reading faster sometimes means that you will make more mistakes on understanding the subject, you should start making “mental notes” while reading so you will not fail answering the questions. Train yourself to read more quickly by forced timing. Set a timer and conduct a reading race every day for two to four weeks. You should not spend more than five minutes on this exercise. You may become frustrated, at first, by the fact that you cannot read as fast or remember as much as you would like. Practice will however make you perfect and increase your reading speed.