Discussion on college students’English Reading Skills

敖登

【Abstract】Students are exposed to a growing amount of vocabularies and knowledge as they step into higher grades， while seem to have little improvement in their reading ability and no alternative means to realize their reading goals. Improving the English reading skills is very important for students as reading enjoys a huge ratio in an English exam paper. Talking about reading， we can not ignore these facts： reading materials， reading speed and reading skills. The followings analyzed are some common skills applied to reading-intensive reading and extensive reading as well as the obstacles that may be met while reading.

【Key words】English； reading skills； intensive reading； extensive reading

1. Introduction

With the development of our society， English has a growing application in various fields. The English reading， as a major means to understand and absorb language information， is always a main question type to reflect students English ability， sharing a big ration in the English test in college entrance examination. There are two major obstacles to be overcome before realizing such goals effectively.

2. Two obstacles of the English reading

2.1 Obstacle one： lack of the culture background of the English country

Cultural background is a potential obstacle for fluent reading. It is difficult to conclude a judgment in the situation where not knowing the culture background of English-speaking countries. Sometimes， students lacking of background knowledge of a country， are struggling to understand the reading material. So reading extensively is a great help to resolve such trouble.

2.2 Obstacle two： short of the reading skill

English reading is a necessary way up to higher English ability. And improving the reading ability is the major part and hardship for students from middle school in English learning and big hit in recent college entrance examination. Many questions in the English test in recent years can be included into the category of reading， which shares a very big ratio of total grades. Meanwhile， some other questions also examine students reading ability， but indirectly， like the “gap filling” part， which can be only completed based on the understanding of whole sentences instead of using the only tools of vocabulary and grammar.

3. two strategy of the English reading

3.1 intensive reading

Reading methods can be divided into two types， also known as the intensive reading and extensive reading. Intensive reading refers to reading intensively and profoundly. Intensive reading is applied to the text teaching class aiming to master the language knowledge and train for basic skills， like the use of some main words， sentence patterns as well as grammars. Materials for the intensive reading need to be read loudly and important sentences used among which need to be recited to develop the sense of English.

3.2 extensive reading

Extensive reading refers to reading extensively and exposing widely to various books in different fields， is a method to read widely aiming at improving reading skills and reading speed as well as the accuracy of understanding. The following ideas can be considered to improve students reading speed： firstly， cultivate a manner of extensive reading by setting a specific goal in the amount you will read everyday like one essay for each day， that is about three hundred essays for a year. Secondly， have the manner to read in a given time in or off class. Fifteen minutes is suitable for each time of reading， or record the time needed for one essay. The reading amount can not be overloaded for students each time， meanwhile the reading speed can be raised before next time of reading.

4. Conclusion

For the students and English fans， it is far less enough to be equipped with proper reading manners and reading methods as well as reading skills without combination of those to the long term reading practices. Only with such combination can the three major obstacles be solved and English reading ability be improved effectively and fast.

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