Brief Talk on Skills of Improving Reading Ability 英语专业毕业论文.doc

brief talk on skills of improving reading ability一、 课题(论文)提纲引言1.略读和寻读的技巧1.1略读方法的体现 1.1.1略读副主题词1.1.2略读段首2.1.3 略读中重复出现的词2.1.4 略读中一些特殊类型词 1.2 寻读的方法及重要性2. 猜词技巧的体现 2.1 词的分析2.1.1 前缀2.1.2后缀 2.2 复合词 2.3猜测从上下文线索未知词的含义2.3.1 经验线索2.3.2 通过实例说明2.3.3通过简易说明2.3.4同义词或重述线索3.3.5比较或对比线索结束语二、内容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。三、 参考文献1吕文玲.提高阅读能力的技巧 j.牡丹江教育学院, 2004, (1)2王力. 阅读的多种技巧j.阴山学刊, 2005,6,(3)3尹兆荣 猜测阅读中未知词的含义j . 枣庄教育学院报, 2001, 6, (3)4陈伟平. 效率性阅读j 范学院学报, 2003, (2)5 栾兰.英语阅读猜词技巧j. 长春科学技术学院报, 2005,3, (1)6程立新.阅读中使用上下文线索j .承德民族职业技术学院学报, 2004, (2)brief talk on skills of improving reading ability abstract：reading is a basic ability in learning english. no7 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 factorsintroductionwith 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 englishreading, writing, speaking and listening, people do more reading. when they are reading, they will come across many problems, for example, new words, the authors intension and so on. “mastering reading skills will help us get more information from an article as fast as possible.” 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.1. skimming and scanning skillsgood 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.” so to begin with this issue, they should know about the techniques of skimming and scanning.1.1 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 ones general background on a topic, or to satisfy ones curiosity about the topic without spending a lot of time on it.” in this way, skimming means to look through a work quickly to get an overview of its contents. when they skim something that they havent 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.1.1.1 subheadingswhen 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.1.1.2 beginnings of paragraphsif 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.1.1.3 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.1.1.4 words that appear in a special kind of typein 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 ones purposes.1.2. scanning “scanning is a reading skill to find a particular point of information quickly in a text.” scanning 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.2. guessing skill “words are the building blocks of reading.” 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 dont 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.2.1 word 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 suffixper 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 meaningthey 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.2.1.1 prefixaccording to a comprehensive grammar of the english language(by quirk etal,1985), major prefixes are classified into the following categories by their meaning：(). negative prefixes prefixes meaning examplesun- not unhappynon- not nonsmoker () pejorative prefixes prefixes meaning examples mis- wrongly misleadpseudo- false pseudo-democracy ()prefixes of degree or sizeprefixes meaning examples out- s surpassing outgrowsub- below subnormal ()prefixes of attitudeprefixes meaning examplesanti- against antislavery()locative prefixesprefixes meaning examplestrans- across transplant ()prefixes of time and orderprefixes meaning examplespre- before prewarpost- after postwar 2.1.2 suffix suffix usually changes the word from one part of speech to another. it is convenient to classify them according to the word-class of the word they form. here is a partial list of common suffixes.()noun suffixessuffixes meaning examples -er(or) a person driver/actor-ess female hostess()verb suffixessuffixes meaning examples-ify turn into diversify-ize come popularize()adjective suffixessuffixes meaning examples-ful fullof pitiful-less without, out meaningless many suffixes can be added to words as endings, though they are probably not as varied as the prefixes. many suffixes have the same or similar meanings. when added to roots they build adjectives, nouns and adverbs. readers have probably already realized that adding the suffix “ist” or “er” or “or” or “ar” or “tor” means “a person or thing that does or makes a practice.” therefore you know that a “dentist” is one who works on teeth, an “actor” is one who acts roles or parts, a “conductor” is one who conducts and a “lecturer” is someone who lectures. “it is not always easy to figure out the exact meanings for words from prefixes, suffixes and roots. but knowing these word parts can help you acquire at least some idea of the meanings of many words without having to look them up in a dictionary.” if they are familiar with the word analyses and master the meaning and usage of the elements, they can guess the meaning of the words quickly and correctly. besides, the skill of guessing compound words is also very useful.2.2 compound wordssometimes, readers will come across some words or groups of words which are expected to “go together” on account of their logical connections, such as: grass-green, school-student, hit-ball, swim-pool, etc. these compound words also can be guessed by the basic knowledge of their vocabulary.2.3 guessing the meaning of the unknown words from context clues. “determining the meaning of unknown words from context is important for a reader.” context clues are words or sentences that come either before or after an unfamiliar word in a reading passage. they are hints that readers can use to determine the meaning of an unknown word. they cannot learn all the meanings of all the words they will ever need to know to improve their reading. but when they develop skills at using context clues, they will be able to figure out meanings for many words as they read. using context clues is also another way for readers to add to their vocabulary and become more effective readers. writers use at least six kinds of context clues: experience, example, summary, synonym or restatement, typography and comparison and /or contrast. as readers, they need to know if the clues are used, they can spot them when they read.2.3.1 experience clues people have two kinds of experiences. some are direct experiences. and the other kind of experiences are indirect-experiences through reading, watching television, or going to the movies. these are all learning experiences that provide clues to word meaning. because readers know from their own experiences, they have a context to follow. “for example, we know about the chronometer and geography, customs and habits, faith, political structures and social regime, etc. of some countries, which can help us to understand the articles deeply and improve our ability of inferring or guessing the meaning of new words.”example: when my pineapple plant blooms, it develops a colorful inflorescence, which loses its flowers and turns into a fruit.using experience as context clue: although readers may not know the meaning of the word “inflorescence”, they can tell from the sentence that an “inflorescence” is something that develops or appears on a plant, loses its flowers, and turns into a fruit. probably they have never grown a pineapple plant, but their experience tells them this plant ought to be something like other fruit-bearing plants. the experience indicates that they develop flowers or blossoms that fall away and are replaced by the fruit. therefore, by using their experience as a clue they can guess that the word “inflorescence” means “blossom.” experience is especially essential if the reading material is on technique or science or other professional fields. in this case the knowledge structure beyond the language will greatly contribute to the comprehension of the material .it is noticed that sometimes readers understand the linguistic information, but this understanding is superficial, and deep understanding will more or less depend on whether they have relevant information on this subject.2.3.2 explanation through examplein order to clarify an important concept or make an abstract concept clear, the author usually adopts examples to make readers understand the concept in detail. the examples in the context are just the clues for the reader to infer or guess the meaning of new words.examples:“(i) mollusks, such as clams and snails, are used as food.think: i dont know the word “mollusk”. but according to the sentence, examples of mollusks are clams and snails .i already know that they live in or near water. i also know that they live in shells. therefore, “mollusks” must mean shellfish.(ii) the soldiers used all the weapons they had. for example, they used bayonets and muskets.think: bayonets and muskets are examples of weapons. i know that “weapons” are used in fighting. therefore, “bayonets” and “muskets” are used in fighting.”(iii) defined most broadly, folklore includes all the customs, belief and tradition that people have handed down from generation to generation.think: the examples following the word “include” point out the contents of “folklore”; combined with our knowledge we can know these contents belong to which field and we can know the meaning of “folklore”.2.3.3 explanation through summary sometimes readers encounter an unknown word but they can figure out the meaning because the context supplies them with a summary; that is, the author gives readers several pieces of information in words they do understand. they can tell from the context that the unfamiliar word summarizes or ties together those statements. the word that is being explained, the unknown word, may come either before or after the information of summarizes.examples:“(i) marie was a comely girl. she had short, curly hair and big brown eyes; she was tall, slim and had perfect posture.analysis: the sentence following the word “comely” describes marie and contains words that indicate someone who has good qualities. therefore, the clues indicate that “comely” means “attractive-looking”