On How to Improve Undergraduates’ Reading Ability.doc

on how to improve undergraduates reading ability【摘 要】英语阅读能力是英语学习者学习英语的关键。在大学英语教学当中，阅读理解是非常重要的，而且对于很多大学生来说，阅读理解又是基本技能和学习目标。本文通过分析影响阅读能力的因素，探讨如何提高大学生的英语阅读能力。【关键词】大学英语 阅读技能 教学方法 the situation & problems in reading for undergraduatesenglish reading is the most frequent activity in language learning, its also a way to improve other language skills. only abundance of reading can improve listening, speaking, writing etc. reading teaching plays an important role in college english teaching, but there are still some problems in english reading for undergraduates.1basic language knowledge barrierbasic language knowledge includes pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar. vocabulary directly influences the students understanding in reading, so vocabulary mainly influences ones reading ability. although college students have accumulated a certain extent words when they enter college, they still cant use words freely and most of them are lack of words. due to poor vocabulary, they often have to stop reading to guess the meaning of words while they are reading which slow down their reading speed and finally influence the understanding of the passage. students have learned grammar in middle school, but lots of students can not make a clear sense of grammar and they could not analyze long sentences and complicated sentences which may cause some misunderstandings. poor vocabulary and grammar are two biggest barriers in reading activity for college students.2cultural background knowledge barrierin reading process, culture differences may confuse readers. if one can not understand the background information of the passage, they can only get the literally meaning which is meaningless. there is a cultural gap between english speaking countries and china. westerners and chinese have different history, geography, religion and culture which make a lot of differences in aspects of life. these differences show in many fields and what we often meet is idioms. english articles involve not only abundance of information about history, culture, religion, customs, politics, but also scientific knowledge. if students dont know these differences, they can not understand the passage correctly.3bad reading habitslots of students used to read the words quietly and use their pens to point words while they are doing reading. when students meet new words, they may stop and read the word again and again.the habit is distractive, its not good for readers to get the main idea of the passage and reader may lose their interests. then reader may look up the words in a dictionary. this habit may make students lose the ability to think and solve problems independently in a long term. the habit also causes students to focus on single word which may influence the reading speed and the understanding of passage. its not the way to cultivate students ability to think and solve problem in english. teaching tactics on how to improve undergraduates reading ability reading teaching relates to the success of college english teaching, and it also decides whether the final purpose of college english teaching will realize or not. therefore, we must pay enough attention to the teaching of english reading and try our best to improve undergraduates reading ability. as what the paper mentioned above, here are some tactics on how to improve college students reading ability.1inspire students interests & strengthen the introduction of cultural background informationinterest is the best teacher. interest is a state of wanting to learn or know. if students get more interested in studying english, the more motivated they will be. students will learn actively with interests. in the teaching procedure of english reading, teachers should provide formal reading environment and real reading materials which have to be standard. it means teachers should have a deep understanding of the following informationstudents studying objective, expectation, language level, difficulties of the reading materials, types of passages, then teachers could have a definite object in view as one who shoots the arrow at the target. generally speaking, teachers should choose lively, vivid reading materials which suits students language level.2improve students ability of analysisgrammar and vocabulary is the precondition for english reading, expression comprehension is the basis of reading comprehension. its the key point for students to learn analyzing skills which decides whether students could improve their reading ability or not. since it can cultivate and inspire students creativity thoughts, and it redound to students language ability and communication ability. in english reading teaching, teachers should pay attention to the subjects of reading materials which should involve daily lifelegend, famous people, society, culture, history, geography, science, politics, economics, etc. teachers should analyze the characteristics of types of literature specifically to students. firstly, teachers should teach students to forecast style and subject of passage according to the topic and background information, then skim passage to validate your predict. secondly, teachers can tell students to summarize the main idea of passage and know the main purpose of passage through questions, charts, etc. thirdly, students should read passage paragraph by paragraph and find out the topic sentence and main idea of each paragraph. fourthly, we can analyze the logic and the matter of writing of the passage. finally, teachers ask students to read text carefully to have a deeper understanding. students can improve their reading ability when they can use these skills freely.3cultivate good reading habitsreading skills generally include following meansskimming （to skim reading material and get the main idea in a short time）, skipping （to run ones eyes over reading material , skip irrelevant information and find out needed details, just like place, name, numbers）, seeking for topic sentence. different types of passages have different ways to find out topic sentences, take narration as an example, we have to grasp the beginning, happening and ending and get the main idea through the scenario. exposition usually uses illustration, classification & division, definition, comparison & contrast to explain one thing, so the topic sentence usually lies in the beginning or ending paragraph. argumentation usually has two different points, so we have to pay attention to the two points to catch the essential idea. conjunction is also very important in english reading. conjunction is the ligament between sentences and paragraphs, these words can predict the following text effectively and its also very helpful for students to speed up while reading. so teachers should lead students to practice these skills consciously, and try to cultivate good reading habits. 4improve reading speedreading comprehension and reading speed are two main factors for reading efficiency. reading speed relates to the success of exams. if students reading speed cant be improved, its hard to gain a good result in exams. reading speed has to be strengthened if students want to improve their reading efficiency. skimming is a very effective way for students to quicken their reading speed and comprehension. on the other hand, teachers should cultivate and train students to master reading skills, and teach students how to use skimming and skipping in practice. in order to improve reading speed, teachers can ask students to finish reading exercise in requested time. students have to centralize, and they cant look up dictionary and other reference books. through this way, students can enlarge their vocabulary and improve their comprehens