[Abstract] Reading is a basic ability in learning English. No matter what purposes the reader have, such as finding materials, getting information or chatting on line, the reader will have to connect with English compositions more frequently in all aspects of the daily life. A lot of specialists have studied how to improve reading skills in many aspects. This paper analyzes three aspects of it. In the course of reading, scanning and skimming are good skills that help us to get the main ideas of the compositions. Besides, vocabulary is an important factor and we can guess or infer the meaning of some new words and difficult words through the word structure and context clues. Also, culture factors are essential, for they affect our thinking judgment. So long as we master the useful skills, we will increase our reading speed and comprehension.
[Key Words] scanning; skimming; guessing word; cultural factors
【摘要】阅读是英语学习中的一个基本的技能。人们有更多的机会接触到英语文章，无论是查阅资料，获取信息，还是娱乐休闲，上网聊天，人们所见到的英语文章越来越多，而文章所涉及到的范围也越来越广。很多学者已在诸多领域对如何提高阅读技能作了研究。这篇论文着重讲了三个方面。阅读过程中，略读和寻读技巧是掌握文章大意的捷径。此外，词汇是阅读中的重要因素之一。我们可以通过词的结构和情景线索来猜新词和难词。文化因素也很重要，因为它影响着我们的思维判断。掌握这些有用的技巧，我们就能提高阅读的速度与增强理解力。
【关键词】寻读；略读；猜词；文化因素
1. Introduction
With the development of society, English reading is becoming more and more popular. It is not the possession of examinations and people have more chances to read English compositions nowadays. No matter what purpose the readers have, such as finding materials, getting information or chatting on line, they will have to connect with English compositions more and more frequently in all aspects of their daily life .As one of the main international languages, English is a must important language. Considering the four aspects of English—reading, writing, speaking and listening, people do more reading. When they are reading, they will come across many problems, for example, new words, the author’s intension and so on. “Mastering reading skills will help us get more information from an article as fast as possible.”[1]R66 A lot of specialists have studied the reading skills and strategies in many aspects. Here, this paper is talking about a few reading skills that seem more important.
2. Skimming and scanning skills
Good readers use several techniques to make their reading more effective. “Students need to make their brains more absorbent by using a few simple skills such as skimming and scanning.” [2]R119 So to begin with this issue, they should know about the techniques of skimming and scanning.
2.1 Skimming
“Skimming is a way of converting materials quickly, with comprehension that may be complete enough for many purposes. One may not have the time, the interest, or the need to read many items carefully. On the other hand, it may be very useful to skim over something quickly to get the main idea, to build up one’s general background on a topic, or to satisfy one’s curiosity about the topic without spending a lot of time on it.” [3]R120 In this way, skimming means to look through a work quickly to get an overview of its contents. When they skim something that they haven’t yet read, they will be able to get the main idea of the content without having to concentrate on details. Then readers can tell quickly what they will find when they read the material more slowly and carefully.
When readers look over the daily newspaper to find out the main outlines, they are skimming. If they want to decide whether or not to read a certain magazine article, skimming it will help them decide by giving them an overall impression of the article.
To skim, readers can look for one or more of these four aids: subheadings, sentences at the beginning of paragraphs, words that are repeated, or words that appear in a special kind of type. Not everything they set out to skim will have subheadings, and not every paragraph will begin with the most important sentence. But everything they need to skim will be written, so they can use at least one of the following aids.
2.1.1 Subheadings
When readers skim several pages that have subheadings, their eyes will stop at these headings because they usually appear in a different kind of type from the text or the rest of the wording on the page, so paying attention to the subheadings will help them get an overview of what is on the pages.
2.1.2 Beginnings of Paragraphs
If there are no subheadings to guide the readers when they skim, they should look at the beginnings of paragraphs to see if these sentences give clues about the content. In textbooks or newspapers, especially, the first sentence of a paragraph tells more about it. Therefore, if they look quickly at the beginnings of the paragraphs on a page, they can often get a good idea of the content of that page.
2.1.3 Words that are repeated
One word clue to the content of material they are skimming is that the important words
are often repeated in various places on the page. If their eyes pick up those words as they
look quickly at the material they are skimming, they will know that the content of the page is probably about the words that are repeated most often.
2.1.4Words that appear in a special kind of type
.In some kinds of reading, especially in textbooks, important words are highlighted by a special kind of type (like boldface or italics). As these words seem different from the other words, they will probably catch readers’ eyes as they look quickly at the page. When they are so, the material readers are skimming will tell more about those particular words.
When one begins to practice skimming, one may find that it is not faster than normal reading. However; through practice one should be able to cover materials at two or four times the rate of normal reading with comprehension that will be enough for one’s purposes.
2.2. Scanning
“Scanning is a reading skill to find a particular point of information quickly in a text.” [4]R120Scanning is a way of looking for specific information quickly and without reading word by word or phrase by phrase. Before the readers start scanning, they need to know what information they are looking for. Then, in scanning they look for the words or phrases that give them the needed information. Sometimes they read in order to answer a question. When they come to the information, they may slow down their reading speed and read the passage to make sure they have found the right information or to see if they want to start reading more carefully at that point.
Scanning is very useful for readers to scan the text for particular bits of information they are searching for. Scanning techniques are particularly helpful when they want to consult a dictionary, looking for a certain advertisement, or finding a data or a name, when they look for the amount or the number of something, they simply look at the Arabic numerals, when they want to find the name of a person or an organization; they just scan for the words beginning with a capital letter. So scanning is quite useful for readers who want to find the exact information.
Whether readers skim or scan depends on what kind of text they are reading and what they want to get out of it. Sometimes they should use both of the two reading skills when reading a composition.
3. Guessing Skill
“Words are the building blocks of reading.” [5]R37 During the process of reading, readers will come across new words. Some of them do not affect them during reading, and then they can let them be. Fast and effective reading first asks them to “tolerant” some new words, but when they come to a key word, they need to know the meaning .Of course, they have certainly learned how to use a dictionary to help them find the meanings of words and perhaps they also know that the dictionary gives them additional information. But in my opinion, I don’t think it is a good way using a dictionary all the way and it is not convenient and the best way for them to use a dictionary everyday. Otherwise, it not only wastes their time and energy, but also slows down reading speed. Without a dictionary they still may know the meaning of the words by guessing through the following ways. And they can improve their reading skills by word analysis and context clues.
3.1Word Analysis
Many English Words are built on roots and affixes of Latin and Greek. By knowing the meanings of these word elements and understanding how they can be combined to make words, readers will be able to increase their vocabulary and become a better reader. In word analysis, they may break down the unknown words into three parts .The beginning is prefix, the middle is root, and the end is suffix. Here is an example:
Prefix root suffix
Per sist ence
(Through) (Stand) n.
Roots and affixes are the small units that can be combined in various ways to make a variety of words. Furthermore, roots and affixes are constant in meaning—they never change what they mean. For example, the word element “tri” always means “three” and the word element “able” always means “capable.” Therefore, when readers learn some of these elements, their vocabulary increase and it is also very skillful for them to guess the meaning of the words. To improve their reading skills, they should master the skill of guessing meaning and make good use of prefix and suffix.
3.1.1 Prefix
According to A comprehensive Grammar of the English Language(by Quirk etal,1985), major prefixes are classified into the following categories by the
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