Basic Skills for reading

1. READING SKILLS
Muhammad Daniyal Munir
Comsats Abbottabad

2. What is Reading?

3. C Nuttall
 Reading means getting out of the text
as near as possible to the message
that has been put in by the writer.
 In order to do so, you will need to :
 Understand, interpret, meaning, sense
 Decode, decipher, identify
 Articulate, speak, pronounce etc

4. C C Fries
 In reading, the student is developing
a considerable range of habitual
responses to a specific set of patterns
of graphic shapes.

5. N Anderson
 Reading is an active, fluent process
which involves the reader and the
reading material in building meaning.
 A synergy occurs in reading which
combines the words on the printed
page with the reader’s background
knowledge and experiences.

6. John Greenwood
 2 broad aspects/levels of reading
1. A basically visual task, that of
deciphering the marks on the page,
the brain receiving signals from the
eye – this mechanical level includes
eye movement, from left to right.

7. John Greenwood
2. A cognitive task, that of interpreting
the visual information, so that one is
not simply ‘barking at the print’ –
we’re concerned with thinking skills –
reconstruction takes place in the
reader’s mind: he attempts to build
up the meaning the writer had in
mind when he wrote the text.

8. Models of Reading Process

9. Bottom-up
 emphasizes the written or printed
text
 says reading is driven by a process
that results in meaning (or, in other
words, reading is driven by text), and
 proceeds from part to whole.

10. Top-down
 emphasizes what the reader brings to
the text
 says reading is driven by meaning,
and
 proceeds from whole to part.

11. Interactive model
 recognizes the interaction of bottom-
up and top-down processes
simultaneously throughout the
reading process.

12. DIRECTIONS:
Read the following paragraph through
once and only once.
When you've finished, look away from
your computer screen.
Then rewrite the story as best as you can
remember.
Don't reread the story until you are
directed to!

13. THE BOAT IN THE BASEMENT
 A woman was building a boat in her
basement. When she had finished the
the boot, she discovered that it was
too big to go though the door. So he
had to take the boat a part to get it
out. She should of planned ahead.

14. THE BOAT IN THE BASEMENT
 A woman was building a boat in her
basement. When she had finished the
the boot, she discovered that it was
too big to go though the door. So he
had to take the boat a part to get it
out. She should of planned ahead.

15.  The eyes are tools of the brain. The brain
tells them where to look and what to look
for. It decides what to attend to and use
from what the eye reports. The brain is
completely in charge of all human
information processing. So, when your eye
sent the input for the repeated the, your
brain's response was: "Don't get sloppy.
I've got that information already!"

16. Reading Skills

17. The Six Blind Men and the
Elephant
This is a story about six men. They could not see.
They were blind. One day, one of the blind men said,
‘There’s an elephant in Kampung Bahru.’
The second man said,’An elephant? What is an
elephant?’
The first man said,’I don’t know’.
The second man said,’I don’t know what an elephant
is like. Do you know what an elephant is like?’
Nobody knew. So they all went to Kampung Bahru to
find the elephant.

18. continued
The first man touched the elephant. He couldn’t see it,
but he could feel it. He felt its trunk. ‘Ah,’he said,’Now I
know what an elephant is like. It’s like a snake. It is long
and rubbery.’
The second man touched the elephant. He couldn’t see
it, but he could feel it. He felt its tusks. ’Ah,’he said, ’Now
I know what an elephant is like. It’s not like a snake. It’s
like a kris. It’s sharp and smooth.’
The third man touched the elephant. He couldn’t see
it, but he could feel it. He felt its ear. ‘Ah,’ he said, ‘Now I
know what an elephant is like. It’s not like a snake. It’s
not like a kris. It’s like a big leaf. It’s smooth and thin.’
The fourth man touched the elephant. He couldn’t see
it, but he could feel it. He felt its leg. ‘Ah,’ he said, ‘Now I
know what an elephant is like. It’s not like a snake. It’s
not like a kris and it’s not like a big leaf. It’s like a tree.
It’s round and hard.’

19. continued
The fifth man touched the elephant. He couldn’t see
it, but he could feel it. He felt its side. ‘Ah,’ he said, ‘Now
I know what an elephant is like. It’s not like a snake. It’s
not like a kris. It’s like a big leaf and it’s not like a tree.
It’s like a wall. It’s high and wide.’
The sixth man touched the elephant. He couldn’t see
it, but he could feel it. He felt its side. ‘Ah,’ he said, ‘Now
I know what an elephant is like. It’s not like a snake. It’s
not like a kris. It’s like a big leaf. It’s not like a tree and
it’s not like a wall. It’s like a rope. It’s long and thin.’
The six men began to quarrel and shout at each
other.

20. continued
The elephant just couldn’t keep quiet
anymore. He said,’Excuse me. Everybody is
right. My trunk is like a snake. My tusks are
like krises. My ears are like big leaves. My
legs are like trees. My sides are like walls.
My tail is like a rope.’

21. Skimming and Scanning
Skimming
 Skimming refers to the process of reading only
main ideas within a passage to get an overall
impression of the content of a reading
selection.
 Quickly running one's eyes across a whole text
to get the gist.
 It gives readers the advantage of being able to
predicate the purpose of the passage, the main
topic.

22. How to Skim:
 Read the title.
 Read the introduction or the first paragraph.
 Read the first sentence of every other
paragraph.
 Read any headings and sub-headings.
 Notice any pictures, charts, or graphs.
 Notice any italicized or boldface words or
phrases.
 Read the summary or last paragraph.

23. Examples of Skimming:
 The Newspaper (quickly to get the
general news of the day)
 Magazines (quickly to discover which
articles you would like to read in
more detail)
 Business and Travel Brochures
(quickly to get informed)

24. Skimming and Scanning
Scanning
 Scanning is a reading technique to be used when
you want to find specific information quickly. In
scanning you have a question in your mind and you
read a passage only to find the answer, ignoring
unrelated information.
 Quickly searching for some particular pieces of
information in a text.
 Scanning exercises may ask students to look for
names or dates, to find a definition of a key
concept, or to list a certain number of supporting
details.
 The purpose of it is to extract certain specific
information without reading through the whole text.

25. How to Scan:
 State the specific information you are looking
for.
 Try to anticipate how the answer will appear
and what clues you might use to help you locate
the answer. For example, if you were looking for
a certain date, you would quickly read the
paragraph looking only for numbers.
 Use headings and any other aids that will help
you identify which sections might contain the
information you are looking for.
 Selectively read and skip through sections of the
passage.

26. Examples of Scanning
 The "What's on TV" section of your
newspaper.
 A train / airplane schedule
 A conference guide