OnHowtoImproveUndergraduates’ReadingAbility

高怡菡

I. the situation & problems in reading for undergraduates

1. basic language knowledge barrier

basic 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. poor vocabulary and grammar are two biggest barriers in reading activity for college students.

2. cultural background knowledge barrier

in 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. 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.

3. bad reading habits

lots 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.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.

II. teaching tactics on how to improve undergraduates reading ability

1. inspire students interests & strengthen the introduction of cultural background information

interest 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.

2. improve students ability of analysis

grammar 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.

3. cultivate good reading habits

reading skills generally include following means-skimming， skipping， 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.

4. improve reading speed

reading 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.

in conclusion， english reading plays a very important role in english learning and its also the difficulty for college students to improve reading ability. both teachers and students should have a clear sense of the importance of reading ability. teachers should inspire students reading interests， widen students reading scope， strengthen the introduction of cultural background knowledge， cultivate students good reading habits， and make students master different kinds of reading skills and tactics in english teaching. only in this way， students can improve their reading ability.

References：

[1]胡春洞.英語阅读论[M].南宁：广西教育出版社，1998.