The Strategies of Reading Ability

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1、提 高 英 语 阅 读 能 力 的 策 略The Strategies of Reading AbilityContentsAbstract.1Key words.1I.Introduction1II.Strategies of reading skills22.1 Vocabulary22.2 Skills involved in reading comprehension3.Choose appropriate reading materials4.Use Your Background Knowledge6.Use advance organizers75.1 look at title

2、s.75.2 look at illustrations75.3 look at the format7.What do we read8.Principles and models for teaching Reading87.1 Bottom-up model and Top-down mode107.1.1 Bottom-up model107.1.2 Top-down model107.2 the other ways10.Conclusion11References12摘要：在整个英语学习中，英语阅读能力提高受到越来越多的人的重视。本篇文章的目标就是要为英语学习者提供一些关于英语阅读

3、能力提高方面的建议。通过总结国内外的研究成果，我们可以得出：策略的应用在阅读的提高中有着至关重要的地位。我们的目标就是要通过调查，找出来哪些策略是最常用的，哪些策略是最有用的。在提高阅读能力的策略应用上，给出一些有用的建议。关键词：建议； 阅读能力； 阅读策略； Abstract: As we considered the whole process of English learning, we can easily get that: The English reading ability is the most important part in the English learning

4、. The aim of this paper is to find out which strategy is the most frequently used in China and which are more helpful ones for second language learners. Though reviewing the major findings from researches done on EFL learners reading ability strategies in Chinese-speaking contexts and comparing them

5、 with those from the West, we can know clearly that the using of learning strategies in reading acquisition is very important for a second language learner. Finally, the paper will also draw some suggestions and implications for EFL learning and teaching in China.Key words: suggest; reading ability;

6、 reading strategiesI. IntroductionReading comprehension means extracting the required information from the text as efficiently as possible. Reading is a silent and individual activity since the writers intention was that the text should be read not heard. Some people think that reading is a “passive

7、” skill, however, nothing could be far from the truth. In reality, reading is an active information seeking process in which readers relate information in the text to what they already now.(how to be a more successful language learn. 91). The other people think that reading is an “active” skill. It

8、usually involves guessing, predicting, checking and asking oneself question. This should therefore be taken into consideration when devising reading comprehension exercises. Another important consideration is that the exercises must be clearly defined and a clear distinction made between teaching an

9、d testing should be strictly supervised. The students must be taught how to approach and consider the text in order to become independent and efficient readers . They may feel reassured and guided . Therefore , using the reading materials is one of the best ways of building up the students confidenc

10、e .(中国英语教学第26卷，第四期，55) II. Strategies of reading skillsFor most second language learners who are already literate in a previous language, reading comprehension is primarily a matter of developing appropriate, efficient comprehension strategies. Some strategies are related to bottom-up procedures and

11、 others enhance the top-down processes. Following are ten such strategies, each of which can be practically applied to your classroom techniques.2.1 VocabularyAs we all know, the vocabulary learning plays a key role in the whole process of the second language learning and is extremely important to t

12、he second language learners. Vocabulary is like the bricks and tiles for the whole building of language proficiency. Without a solid mastery of vocabulary, listening, reading, translation and writing is an attic in the air. Therefore, if one cant learn English vocabulary well, it is impossible for h

13、im to obtain a good course level in English language studying.However, in our studying, the vocabulary learning takes a great amount of time and energy both of the teachers and the language learners, which was the key point in the second language learning. But some teachers and students consider voc

14、abulary mastery as a nature thing. For example, in the traditional classroom, the teacher teaches vocabulary through reading one by one, and the students are asked to follow the teacher to read and write several times. It is mechanical verbal and written repetition. The process of teaching and learn

15、ing is so similar every day that both the teacher and the students find that vocabulary learning is so boring, and is also inefficient. As a result, the results of our learning are not good. Therefore, to find an appropriate strategy becomes very important for the second language learners and also i

16、s the main point of this study.You are reading newspaper or magazine when you go to school study lots of new works and you know the passage meaning, if you dont remember the words meaning when you read. We will spend lots of time to understand. In this way, not only we dont understand the passage me

17、aning but also we dont have lot of time to do read finish in the exam. So we increase reading ability must remember vocabulary. Having made predictions based on the title, students can be asked to predict some lexical items that they think are likely to occur in the text. Then the students read the

18、text to confirm their predictions. Or you may have selected a passage that deals with a topic you know little or nothing about, good titles always contain the most important information of a written text. Predictions based on studying the title seldom go far wrong. Reading such a passage ay require

19、more advanced language skills. If you are a beginning reader, it is best to pick a passage you know something about.Vocabulary plays an important role in reading comprehension. Since one can never learn all the words of a language, it is important to be able to recognize words you have never seen be

20、fore by relying on some of the strategies described below:Pay attention to cognates and borrowings. Many languages are related and contain the same words, although these may be spelled somewhat differently. Words in different languages that come from a common source are called cognates. For instance

21、, English mother, Spanish madre, and German Mutter look similar because they all originated from the same Indo-European parent word. Languages also borrow words from each other, either with or without adjustments to male them conform to rules of word formation. Look for familiar elements in new word

22、s. In most languages, there are certain elements that are used for building words in fairly regular ways. If you notice how these elements are combined , it will help you recognize words you may have never seen before. Consider the probabilities. There are certain probabilities of occurrence that he

23、lp readers fill in the blanks. For instance, in the sentence They went to the box office to get some,there is a good chance that the missing word is tickets. Dont demand an exact meaning for every word. Suppose you ran into the English sentence She bought some bananas, mangoes, and chirimoyas and yo

24、u didnt know the word chirimoyas. However, you could guess that it is probably some kind of fruit. Chances are that such an approximate meaning will be good enough to allow you to continue teading. 2.2 Skills involved in reading comprehensionAs a college student in China, I have learned English for

25、about ten years. When I was a middle school student, I found that English reading was extremely difficult. How to read effectively became a key point in the English learning. In 2005, I had worked in a middle school for two months. When I was in that school, I collected a lot of useful information .

26、Based on so many researches in and abroad and my own experience, it is feasible to do a further research on the English vocabulary learning. This section attempts to clarify and illustrate some aspects of the nature of reading . If the students fail to understand the nature of reading , they will ad

27、opt inappropriate and ineffective reading strategies; if teachers fail to do so, they will be unable to help the students to develop effective reading skills .There are two broad levels in reading.A. Visual signals from the eyes;B. A cognitive task of interpreting the visual information, relating th

28、e received information with the readers own general knowledge, and reconstructing the meaning that the writer had meant to convey.In order to achieve two levels of reading, the reader needs the following skills.A. Recognising the script of a language.B. Understanding the explicitly stated informatio

29、n.C. Understanding conceptual meaning.D. Understanding the communicative value(functions)of sentences.E. Deducing the meaning of unfamiliar lexical items.F. Understanding relations within sentences and between sentences.H. Understanding references.I. Recognising indicators in discourse.J. Recongnisi

30、ng the organization of the text.K. Making inferences. (英语教学法教程王蔷 主编 ，115).Choose appropriate reading materials We read books when we were young. So we must use Chinese very practiced, this depends on the language we are studying. If we are a speaker of English and we are studying a language such as

31、Japanese and French, it will take a ling time before we can solve real reading words. And read in the foreign language every day. Ten minutes a day is a good way to start. But ,as we advance, we will find that we can increase both the quantity of pages. We read and the level of difficulty of the tex

32、ts. So we must try to increase our reading effective speed.Most language learners are first introduced to written materials through their textbooks. There materials are often specially written, adapted, and simplified. Their purpose is to introduce specific grammar points and vocabulary items. They

33、are designed to be read with attention to every grammatical and lexical detail, thereby encouraging word-for-word reading . exclusive reliance on such texts deprives learners of opportunities to practice different types of reading strategies.Although many newer language textbooks, particularly those

34、 for teaching English, French, and Spanish, include authentic reading materials and hints on strategy use , you will have to supplement texts ”Authentic” means materials that have been written by native writers for the purpose of informing or entertaining native readers, not teaching language. Such

35、materials are not graded to fit your level of proficiency, so you will have to select them carefully. Some suggestions on how to choose are offered below. There are several reasons for this.Firstly, choose appropriate reading materials. A lot will depend on who the students are. If they are all busi

36、ness people, the we may well want to concentrate on business texts. If they are science students, reading scientific texts may be a priority. But if , as is often the case , they are a mixed group with differing interest and careers, a most varied diet is appropriate .Among the things the teacher mi

37、ght want them to read are magazine articles , letters , stories ,menus, advertisements ,reports , play extracts, recipes , instructions, poems ,and reference material . Most language learners are first introduced to written materials through their textbooks. These materials are often specially writt

38、en, adapted and so on. Their purpose is to introduce specific grammar points and vocabulary items. These passages are usually short, written in the same genre.Secondly, find the right level of difficulty, find something that you can read with minimal use of a dictionary. If you have to refer to a di

39、ctionary too much, you will quickly get tired and confused when trying to put all the pieces together. Fortunately, authentic texts range in difficulty form the simplest(tickets, menus) to the most complex(literary, editorials), so you can always find something that is appropriate for your level.Thi

40、rdly, choose topics with which you are familiar, familiarity with the topic will make it easier for you to guess the meaning of unfamiliar words. If you are a beginning reader, choose short newspaper and magazine articles dealing with topics about which you have some knowledge. For example, reading

41、about now event or accident in your native language and then reading about is in the foreign language is a good way to begin reading foreign language newspaper. Fourthly, choose materials that are of interest to you. I think choose materials that you think you might be interested in. if you find the

42、 materials interesting, you will be more likely to continue reading. For example, if you are planning to travel, read a guide about the country in the forging language. If you are interested in the country where the language you are studying is spoken, subscribe to a newspaper or popular magazine fo

43、rm that country (how to be a more successful language learn. 93)Following these approaches, many teachers view reading as an essentially mechanical enterprise. Many English reading teachers attend to surface-level features of reading ,some going so far as to read and react to a text as a series of s

44、eparate pieces at word or sentence level, rather than as a whole unit of discourse. In these classrooms, students learn to read at only the local, structural level. .Use Your Background KnowledgeBrown H .Donglas points out that“The best way to improve your knowledge of a foreign language is to go an

45、d live among its speakers. The next best way is to read extensively in it.”As you know from reading in your native language, it is always easier to read about familiar topics. This is even more true when reading in a foreign language because topic familiarity helps the nonnative reader to guess the

46、meanings of unfamiliar words. For instance, if you are familiar with baseball, it will be easier for you to read a foreign language text about it than if you had no knowledge of the game.Chinese EFL students poor reading comprehension, and is also the most neglected factor in EFL reading in China. R

47、esearch has shown a close relationship between students background knowledge and reading comprehension . If they have specific background knowledge about a text before reading , they will comprehend it better ; if they lack that particular background , comprehension will be difficult or impossible .

48、Therefore, it is the reading teachers responsibility to develop the needed background knowledge before something is read so as to help students improve comprehension. When students background knowledge of a topic increases , their comprehension also improve. Tierney and Pearson offered an example (c

49、ited in James , 1987 : 179), illustrating the great influence of readers background knowledge on comprehension.“The batsmen were merciless against the bowlers . The bowlers placed their men in slips and covers. But to no avail . The batsmen hit one four after another with an occasional six . Not onc

50、e a ball like it would hit their stumps or be caught . ” Readers unfamiliar with cricket will most probably conclude that this passage is unintelligible . However , if they are provided with the needed background knowledge relative to cricket before reading , they will find it much easier to compreh

51、end.(中国英语教学第25卷， 第2期，49 ).Use advance organizersGive instructions is through lectures or discussions. When worked in No.152 middle school, in class I am usually an organizer or guide rather than a dominator. Sometimes I ask the students to answer some questions, sometimes I am asked to answer their

52、questions. Usually I join in one group to discuss one or two questions, then I move to another group. The purpose of discussion is to see that the students have finished the reading assignment and to help them understand the book better. Some questions are designed so that they give rise to argument

53、. The students are allowed to hold their own views as long as they can find points from the book to support their ideas. This motivates the students. Their oral errors are not corrected unless they hinder the exchange of ideas or until the discussion is finished. This fives the students confidence t

54、o share their ideas in class. How do you read are features of the text that can help you build up expectative about its content. Here are three obvious ways.5.1 look at titles A title will reveal what the article is about and will help you understand ins content. By looking at a title that says Wuth

55、ering Heights you know that the article will probably provide information about the story happen in Wuthering Heights. Then you can read the article and confirm whether your predictions were correct.5.2 look at illustrations. Picture, photos, and other illustrations are often used to underline a mes

56、sage. An article is about the scholar letter, you can build up your expectations about the content for your imperfect knowledge of the language by using information in the picture. Predicting is an important reading skill. The readers predictions, no matter right or wrong, will get his mind closer t

57、o 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 blank mind. Predictions can be done in many different ways.5.3 look at the formatsometimes you can get

58、 your first overall impression of a text by looking at its general format. Right away you can tell whether it is some sort of schedule, a document a newspaper piece, or a scholarly article. You can use this information to help you decide how you will deal with the reading of the text and the kinds o

59、f information you will look for. . What do we readThink about your experience of learning English. What kind of texts did you read? Think about your experience of learning English, short stories? Tales? Essays? Diaries? Plays and poems? It seems there is a great variety. But what do we read in reali

60、ty? There are more, we practice this question.Work in pairs and make a list of the things that you and your partner read in the past two days in any language. Note them down in the box below.Ladies literary cartoon loveTales It is easy to see that textbook have a heavy load of literary texts. E.g. s

61、tories, tales and non-literary passages. E.g. essays, diaries. We believe reading textbooks should have a great variety of really materials. Of course, textbooks should always be supplemented by special materials. Below is a lost of things we read in daily life.Addresses cookbooksPhone books letters

62、Name cards NewspapersPlays Business letterPoems Magazines(adapted from Gebhard 1996:198)We have in hand how to read and what to read, that we will discuss how to teach and what to teach, because we will become teacher in the future. We must understand this base general knowledge. As soon as we feel

63、ready to start reading on our own, make it a habit to read something in a foreign language every day. Ten minutes a day is good way to start. As we advance, we will find that we can increase both the quantity of pages we read and the level of difficulty of the texts. . Principles and models for teaching ReadingEnglish and Chinese are derived from quite different language families and cultural backgrounds. The two languages are sure to differ in the ways in which Chinese student of English often think