THE STRATEGIES OF READING TO COLLEGE STUDENTS.doc

the strategies of reading to college students abstract:there are four skills: speaking, reading, writing and listening. reading is gaining attention and emphasis in our college. to improve reading comprehension depends on the interplay of three factors: vocabulary,structure, and meaning. but students often feel puzzled about how to improve their reading ability. this paper exam-ines the problems in reading comprehension and offers some suggests for college students. key words: reading skill; comprehension; reading strategies 1 introductionit is believed that the best way of learning a foreign language is to study it in the target language community. the language environ-ment plays an important role. but for the chinese students they dont have such opportunity to learn the english language. many students have faced file crisis of comprehension in reading, the stu-dents with grammar skills are still unable to understand what they read. they have little experience in reading or thinking. they know the detail but cant understand the whole. thus, the teacher should try to provide for the students various reading materials in or- der to enrich their language experience through reading, the job of the teacher is to train students in a number of skills they need to un- derstand the reading materials.2 reading skills students will need to use all of language skills in order to un-derstand the reading selections. the book contains many types of selections on a wide variety of topics. these selections provide practice in using different reading strategies to extract the message of the writer. they also give students practice in four basic reading skills: skimming, scanning, reading for thorough comprehension,and critical reading.skimming is quick reading for the general ideals of a passage.tiffs kind of rapid reading is appropriate when you are trying to de-cide if carefully reading is not time to read something carefully.that is to say when you get a new book, look at the table of cont-cuts to see what material the book covers. after you have foundwhat the whole book covers you will be better prepared to begin studying the chapter you have been asked to read. like skimming, scanning is also quick reading. however, in this case the search is more focused. to scan is to read quickly in order to locate specific information. when you read to find a partic-ular date, or number you are scanning. reading the passage once to get the overall impression of what is about, and then reread it concentrating on the details. skim through the first and last para-graphs; look with more care at the subheadings; if there are ques-tions at the end of chapter, read them first so you will know what points to watch for as you read. read the chapter all the way through, as fast as you comfortably can. dont mark anything this first time through except the words that are new to you. circle them.then look again at the question, seeing whether you have found the ers to all of them. guided by the things the questions emphasize and your knowledge of what the whole the chapter cow ered, go rapidly through the chapter again, underlining the most important points. when you are trying to locate specific informa-tion, you need not read the whole material carefully. what you have to do is try to find in which part that information is likely to be, then read this part with more attention. reading for thorough comprehension is careful reading in order to understand the total meaning of the passage. at this level of comprehension the reader is able to summarize the authors ideals but has not yet made a critical evaluation of those ideals. a high rate of speed is essential. you should try to learn the information in the least amount of time. you are supposed not to be distracted by words or ideals unrelated to the purpose of the material.critical reading demands that a reader make judgments about what he or she reads. titis kind of reading requires posting and an-swering questions such as does my own experience support that of the author?do i share the authors point of view? and am i convinced by the authors arrangement and evidence?3 comprehension ability when you read comprehension text, you will inevitably find some words you dont know. sometimes you take time out to look up a new word in file dictionary, but doing that too many time slows down your reading. it is usually possible to find hints or clues about its definition from tile context. if a word is unfamiliar or strange to you, the writer sometimes includes a definition of the word in a sentence. this contest clue is file easiest one to spot. for exam- pie: jane is indecisive, that is, she cant make up her mind. more often, you may find a restatement, which tells you al- most as much as a definition, look at tiffs sentence: i am a reso-lute man. once i set up a goal, i wont give it up easily. examples can also give you some clues or hints to the mean- ings of unfamiliar words, kook at tiffs sentence: she is studying glaucoma and other diseases of the eye. sometimes tile meaning of many words can be readily guessed if you use your own experience or general knowledge of the subject. look at this sentence: the door was so low that i hit my head on tile lintel. from these examples, you can easily figure out the meaning of the italicized words. of course, a good vocabulary is indispensable to anyone who wishes to be a good reader. without words you could make no decisions and form no judgments whatsoever. words are explosive. phrases are packed with tnt. if you consciously in-crease your vocabulary you will improve your reading. how can you improve your vocabulary.? here are the suggestions for you to in-crease your word power:3.1 look and listen for new words. keep your eyes and ears open for words that you do not know. you vail see them in reading. you will hear them in talking with other people.3.2 write down your new words. get yourself a pocket notebook.carry this notebook with you. write down the new words that yousee or hear.3.3 find the meaning of new words. in the dictionary, look up the meanings of the new words you have written in your vocabulary notebook.3.4 make the new words your own. use each new word in talking with your friends or classmates. spell the word correctly.3.5 enter several new words in your vocabulary notebook each day. at the end of the week, quickly review the new words you entered during the seven-day period just ended. this review will help you remember the meanings of these words.4 reading strategies most students have more free time now then when they were at middle school. so they can spare more time to read. it is neces-sary to have an intelligent plan ff progress is to be made. make it clear how long you will read every day. tiffs can help you become regular and persistent. read in a quiet spot, as free from distractions as possible.force yourself to concentrate on what you are reading.if you stumble over unfanfiliar words, try to guess the meaning from the context, then check the meaning in a dictionary later. make your eyes literally leap, over lines of print and try to grasp the meaning of whole phrases at a time. try glancing only at nouns and verbs in sentences to see how much you can get out of reading this way. underlining these key words may help you started. first read through the whole passage to obtain an overall im- pression, and then, reread it to find the main idea. to understand the main ideal thoroughly, you must recognize the important facts or details. these facts and details give you a deeper understanding of main ideal. here are some ways to help you recognize important facts and details: 4.1 read for the main ideal. if you have identified the main ide- m, you can more easily recognize the important facts that support it. 4.2 keep it in mind that not all facts or details are equally impor- tant. look only for the facts related to the main ideal. 4.3 to check on your understanding of material you have read, review the facts or details you have decided are the most important. then consider if they support what you have identified as the main ideal.read the story that you find interesting or exciting. it often pays to read the same book over and over again: each time you read it you will learn different new words, and the familiar context helps to fix them in mind. 5 conclusion this article introduces some effective ways of helping students to improve their reading speed. it is important for students to speed up their reading. mastering a large number of words is essential to achieving fluency in english learning. the teacher should train the students read