Teaching Strategies for Improving Students’ Reading Ability

孙静

Abstract：Reading is a very important part of English teaching， and it is a very important way of gaining information in foreign language learning. English reading can help students enlarge their vocabulary， learn grammar well and accumulate the social and cultural knowledge about the English nations. It is a major task to develop students reading skills and to improve their reading ability in English teaching.

Keywords： Reading；Teaching；Strategy

中圖分类号：G632.0 文献标识码：A 文章编号：1992-7711（2016）05-0066

Reading is not just the ability to recognize words， but the reader also needs to make sense of what he/she reads. Articulating words and pronouncing them correctly cannot be called reading； it is merely decoding–translating written symbols into corresponding sounds. Reading is an active process during which the reader tries to understand the meaning of a given text. English reading has always been considered one of the most important parts of foreign language learning. Reading in English， as the most frequently used way for students to get access to original English material， plays a crucial role in students English study. It facilitates students expansion of lexical items， enhancement of grammar， accumulation of the knowledge about English speaking countries society and culture and therefore helps the development of the other three language skills.

Reading comprehension means extracting the required information from the text as efficiently as possible. There are mainly three types of models for reading. One is called a bottom-up model， and this model reflects the belief that reading comprehension is based on the understanding and mastery of all the new words， new phrases， and new structures as well as a lot of reading aloud practice. Also， this reading follows a linear process from the recognition of letters to words， to phrases， to sentences， to paragraphs， and then to the meaning of the whole text.

However， a different view is that ones background knowledge plays a more important role than new words and new structures in reading comprehension. We all have experiences of reading something which does not contain any new words or new structures， but we still find it difficult to understand its meaning.

The current theory views reading as an interactive process. That is to say， the brain receives visual information and， at the same time， interprets or reconstructs the meaning the writer had in mind when he wrote the text. This process does not only involve the printed page but also the readers knowledge of the language in general， of the world， and of the text types. During the process of reading， all these factors interact with each other and compensate each other. Therefore， a proficient reader should have good language skills： recognizing words and phrases， understanding sentence structures. Also， he/she should have relevant knowledge about the topic， the organization of the type of text and general knowledge about the world.

Based on such understanding， teaching reading in the classroom divides reading activities into basically three processes in which bottom-up and top-down techniques are integrated to help students in their reading comprehension and in increasing their language efficiency in general. The three processes are pre-reading process， while-reading process， and post-reading process.

I. Pre-reading process

The aims of the pre-reading stage are three-fold： arousing the students interest in the topic or type of the text， motivating students to read the text by providing a purpose for reading， preparing the students for the content of the text. Before reading the whole text， some activities should be done to create expectations and arouse the students interest in the subject matter of the text. In this process， the students and the teacher could prepare themselves for the tasks and familiarize themselves with the topic of the reading tasks.There are some activities that could be done in the pre-reading process.

1. Encouraging students to predict

Predicting is a very important reading skill. The readers predictions， no matter right or wrong， will get his mind closer to the theme of the text to be read. Then the real reading will either confirm or reject the predictions. The reading results will be better than the situation where the reader starts reading with a black mind. The title of a text always contains the most important information of a written text， and students can make predictions based on studying the title.

2. Setting the scene and asking some questions

The second type of pre-reading activity is setting the scene. It means getting the students familiarized with the background knowledge relevant to the reading text. Also the teacher should ask some questions relevant to the scene to let the students have an aim to read.

Besides asking questions about the sign， the teacher can also set the scene by relating what students already know to what they want to know. The teacher can ask the students to write down three things that they would like to know concerning the theme of a text they are about to read. Then ask the students to read the article to see if they can find what they want to know.

3. Skimming to get the main idea

The third type of pre-reading activity is skimming. It means reading selectively to get a general idea of what an article is about and to become familiar with the most important ideas in it. When students skim a reading passage， they read the most important parts of it quickly， without reading every word. A good strategy for skimming is to read the first sentence of each paragraph. Students might also read key words in each paragraph. Skimming can help students get the main information and spend more time only on those items that are more important.

4. Scanning for information

The forth type of pre-reading activity is scanning. It means to read to locate specific information. Scanning for information can help students remember and review important information of a text. When scanning， students do not read every word. Instead， they look quickly in order to find certain facts or ideas. In that case， they would read quickly and notice only the sections related to this information and ignore other parts of the reading that do not answer these questions.

II. While-reading process

While-reading process mainly focuses on the further study of the text. It aims to help the students understand the content and structure of the text， as well as the authors purpose of writing it. The teacher can help the students become efficient readers with their own reading strategies and skills. Different texts offer opportunities for different kinds of exploitation. A teacher should have different ways of exploiting different texts focusing on the process of understanding rather than the results of reading.

1. Identifying the main idea

An article is always developed with a certain idea， and there are close relations between paragraphs. In English， the sentence that tells the central idea is called the topic sentence. In reading， the teacher should help students find the topic sentence to help them know the main idea of a text. So in order to help them understand the meaning， the teacher should help them find the topic sentence first.

2. Information transferring activities

Information presented in plain text form is not facilitative for information retention. When information in text form is transferred to another form（for example visual form）， it can be more effectively processed and retained. The way to transfer information from one form to another is called a transition device. The complicated input can be put into output by transition device. Transition device such as pictures， drawings， maps， tables， and taking notes are often used in teaching reading. Most of the information devices make use of visual aid so that information in text form is visualized. Research has shown visualization can help second language learners to comprehend meaning while reading

3. Eliminating the obstacle of new words

In order to understand the meaning of a text， students should first know the meaning of the words. But while reading， students always meet new words or phrases， and these new words and phrases may be the barrier for students to understand the whole text. In this case， the teacher should have methods to help students eliminate the obstacle of new words. One way for teacher to solve this problem is to relate the new words to the words the students already have learnt.

4. Drawing inferences from reading

Drawing inferences， which means “reading between the lines”， is an important reading skill. It requires the reader to use background knowledge in order to infer the implied meaning of the author. Reading sometimes contains ideas that are not directly explained. These are hidden， or implied， ideas. Recognizing and understanding ideas that are stated indirectly helps students to grasp a writers main idea as well as his or her purpose for writing. Drawing inferences is actually the process of relating the given information to what we have known about the world.

III. Post-reading process

After the pre-reading and while-reading process， teacher should do some post-reading activities. Post-reading task is not directly connected with the text， but usually “grows out” of it. It has two aims： one is to consolidate or reflect on what has been read in the text， the other is to relate the text to the students own knowledge. The teacher should design tasks which are relevant to the text being studied and enable students to produce language based on what they have learned. It is in this area， perhaps， that teacher has to be most inventive or imaginative. There are some activities teachers can do after reading.

1. Discussing

Discussing in class is quite often used as a way of exploiting reading texts. And discussing is often used for the exchange of personal opinions. This sort of discussion can start with a question like “What do you think of...？”

Discussion， however， needs not only involve the stating of personal opinions on general issues， it can also be used as a basis for other activities， such as problem-solving， the ranking of alternatives， deciding upon priorities etc.

2. Role-playing

Role-playing is a very common language learning activity where students play different roles and interact from the point of view of the roles they play. Role-playing is helpful in a language classroom for several reasons： a. it is motivating； b. students interact in small groups so that they have less pressure； c. students have the chance to practise the newly learned language； d. there is enough room for creativity.

3. Retelling

In this activity， the teacher provides key words and phrases and students retell the story according to these words. Or the teacher asks the students to retell the story from another characters point of view.

IV. Conclusion

Proper teaching strategies for English reading can help students develop their reading skills and efficient reading ability needs to be trained by efficient reading teaching method.Since a reading class is by nature a text-based one， we should go into further study of the proper teaching strategies for English reading to help the students master and develop their reading skills and enable them to become effective readers. The teaching of reading should focus on developing students reading skills and strategies， which can be achieved through pre-reading， while-reading and post-reading activities. A number of types of activities are provided in teaching reading.

（作者單位：山西省临汾市金殿联校金殿二中 041000）