Ø
Using Reading Strategies
Language instructors are often frustrated by the fact that students do
not automatically transfer the strategies they use when reading in their native
language to reading in a language they are learning. Instead, they seem to
think reading means starting at the beginning and going word by word, stopping
to look up every unknown vocabulary item, until they reach the end. When they
do this, students are relying exclusively on their linguistic knowledge, a
bottom-up strategy. One of the most important functions of the language
instructor, then, is to help students move past this idea and use top-down
strategies as they do in their native language.
Effective language instructors show students how they can adjust their
reading behavior to deal with a variety of situations, types of input, and
reading purposes. They help students develop a set of reading strategies and
match appropriate strategies to each reading situation.
Strategies that can help students read more quickly and effectively
include
- Previewing:
reviewing titles, section headings, and photo captions to get a sense of
the structure and content of a reading selection
- Predicting:
using knowledge of the subject matter to make predictions about content
and vocabulary and check comprehension; using knowledge of the text type
and purpose to make predictions about discourse structure; using knowledge
about the author to make predictions about writing style, vocabulary, and
content
- Skimming
and scanning: using a quick survey of the text to get the main idea,
identify text structure, confirm or question predictions
- Guessing
from context: using prior knowledge of the subject and the ideas in the
text as clues to the meanings of unknown words, instead of stopping to
look them up
- Paraphrasing:
stopping at the end of a section to check comprehension by restating the
information and ideas in the text
Instructors can help students learn when and how to use reading
strategies in several ways.
- By
modeling the strategies aloud, talking through the processes of previewing,
predicting, skimming and scanning, and paraphrasing. This shows students
how the strategies work and how much they can know about a text before
they begin to read word by word.
- By
allowing time in class for group and individual previewing and predicting
activities as preparation for in-class or out-of-class reading. Allocating
class time to these activities indicates their importance and value.
- By
using cloze (fill in the blank) exercises to review vocabulary items. This
helps students learn to guess meaning from context.
- By
encouraging students to talk about what strategies they think will help
them approach a reading assignment, and then talking after reading about
what strategies they actually used. This helps students develop
flexibility in their choice of strategies.
When language learners use reading strategies, they find that they can
control the reading experience, and they gain confidence in their ability to
read the language.
Ø
Reading to Learn
Reading is an essential part of language instruction at every level
because it supports learning in multiple ways.
- Reading
to learn the language: Reading material is language input. By giving
students a variety of materials to read, instructors provide multiple
opportunities for students to absorb vocabulary, grammar, sentence
structure, and discourse structure as they occur in authentic contexts.
Students thus gain a more complete picture of the ways in which the
elements of the language work together to convey meaning.
- Reading
for content information: Students' purpose for reading in their native
language is often to obtain information about a subject they are studying,
and this purpose can be useful in the language learning classroom as well.
Reading for content information in the language classroom gives students
both authentic reading material and an authentic purpose for reading.
- Reading
for cultural knowledge and awareness: Reading everyday materials that are
designed for native speakers can give students insight into the lifestyles
and worldviews of the people whose language they are studying. When
students have access to newspapers, magazines, and Web sites, they are
exposed to culture in all its variety, and monolithic cultural stereotypes
begin to break down.
When reading to learn, students need to follow four basic steps:
- Figure
out the purpose for reading. Activate background knowledge of the topic in
order to predict or anticipate content and identify appropriate reading
strategies.
- Attend
to the parts of the text that are relevant to the identified purpose and
ignore the rest. This selectivity enables students to focus on specific
items in the input and reduces the amount of information they have to hold
in short-term memory.
- Select
strategies that are appropriate to the reading task and use them flexibly
and interactively. Students' comprehension improves and their confidence
increases when they use top-down and bottom-up skills simultaneously to
construct meaning.
- Check
comprehension while reading and when the reading task is completed.
Monitoring comprehension helps students detect inconsistencies and
comprehension failures, helping them learn to use alternate strategies.
Improving
Your Reading Skills
- Read
as much and as often as possible. Make sure to include academic texts on a
variety of topics written in different genres as part of your reading.
- Read
major newspapers, such as The New York Times or Science Times.
- Use
the websites of National Public Radio (NPR) or the BBC to get transcripts
of shows and study the content and new vocabulary you encounter.
- Continually
expand your vocabulary knowledge.
- Develop
a system for recording unfamiliar words.
- Write
each word on a card and mix up the cards each time you study them. Write
the context (the sentence the word was used in) to help you learn
correct word usage.
- Group
the words according to topic or meaning and study the words as a list of
related words.
- Review
the new words on a regular basis so that you remember them.
- Increase
your vocabulary by analyzing word parts. Study roots, prefixes,
and suffixes.
- Study
word families (e.g., enjoyment, enjoy; enjoyable, enjoyably)
- Use
available vocabulary resources.
- Use
a good thesaurus to study various shades of meanings of words.
- The
Longman Language Activator provides "collocations"
(words used together).
- There
are online concordancers that search corpora and provide examples of
words in context, such as the British national corpus.
- Practice
using context to guess the meaning of unknown words.
- Continually
practice using new words you encounter in your speech and writing. This
will help you remember both the meaning and the correct usage of the
words.
- Think
carefully about how ideas are connected within a text. The connections
between sentences and the links between paragraphs are critical to
complete comprehension.
- To
understand the structure of a reading passage, outline the text.
- Begin
by determining the main idea or concept presented in each paragraph.
Remember to distinguish between the main points and the details that
exemplify them.
- Group
paragraphs that address the same concept. Think about how the key idea
in one paragraph relates to the main point of the next paragraph. If
there are several paragraphs that focus on the same idea or concept,
synthesize the key points into one main idea.
- Write
one sentence or phrase summarizing the paragraphs that discuss the same
idea.
- Add
important details that support each major idea or concept.
- Learn
to recognize different organizational styles in order to understand the
way an article is structured.
- Look
for the common patterns of organization that you find in articles.
- Pay
attention to connecting words in order to understand the pattern
of organization.
- Write
a summary of a text, making sure that it incorporates the organizational
pattern of the original.
- If
the text is a comparison, be sure that your summary reflects that and
uses appropriate transition words and phrases for comparison.
- If
the text argues two points of view, be sure both points of view are
reflected in your summary and that appropriate transitional words are
used.
Ø Types of questions
There are 10-12 different types of multiple choice TOEFL iBT reading
questions. The way to get a higher score is to familiarize yourself with all
sorts of questions. This will help narrow the choices and select the correct
answer.
TOEFL iBT reading questions fall into three categories: basic information,
the skills of inference and learning reading skills. These questions can be of
different types:
·
Understanding
facts and details
·
Identification
of negative
·
Referrents
location
·
Understanding
vocabulary in context
·
Make
inferences
·
Determining
the purpose
·
Paraphrasing
·
Knowledge
consistency
·
Identify the
main ideas
·
The logic
·
Summarize
the important points
Each of the main guides iBT TOEFL, as HBP, Delta, Barron, Longman, Kaplan,
and Cambridge, will provide plenty of practice guidelines and respond to each
of these questions. During the performance of their practice exercises and
tests, it is useful to record the type of questions that tend to make mistakes,
so you can identify what you need to work.
Ø TOEFL
Reading Tips
Learn and practice reading strategies and some academics can help you
succeed on the TOEFL after. While preparing for the test, read in a variety of
topics to expand your vocabulary. You can read textbooks, newspapers,
magazines, academic journals and websites. Guess the meaning of unfamiliar
words and try to catch the main point, even if you do not know the meaning of
each word.
Other skills are worth developing include: pre-viewing, reading faster,
using the context, make inferences, skimming, scanning, making connections,
summarizing, note taking, and synthesis. Improve the skills of each of
these sub-will allow for greater global score on the reading section.
Preparation Strategies
Read, Read, Read. Read in English regularly. Focus on academic texts from
university textbooks or other materials. Do not stick to one or two topics that
you are interested in. Read from variety of subjects - science, social science,
business, arts, geography, history, economics, and others. Academic texts,
apart from textbooks, could be found in variety of articles and academic
publications on the Internet or university libraries.
Find the purpose of the passage. Knowing the purpose of the reading you may easily find what
the writer is trying to accomplish. The purpose of the passage in most of the
readings is embedded in the introductory paragraph which is one of the most
important paragraphs in the text. Most of the passages in TOEFL iBT will try to
do the following:
·
To Explain - to present the
information on a specific topic in explanatory manner. These texts contain
mostly factual information.
·
To Resolve - it aims at finding
solution for some sort of dilemmas or questions that need answers. Usually
there would be a debate.
·
To convince - to persuade the
reader of the validity of certain viewpoint or idea. There would be opinions
and support with evidence in those type of passages.
Increase vocabulary. When reading wide variety of texts
on different subjects you should make a word list. Organize your list in topics
for better results. Example topics could be business, geography, science and
others. Make flashcards to help you learn those word lists. Use the words
learned in your writings and speaking.
Take notes. During all sections of TOEFL iBT
note taking is allowed. It is a crucial component for success. It is difficult
to remember all facts and details from a reading text in order to answer the
questions. You also don't have enough time to search for those again in the
text. So, the solution is called note taking. When skimming and reading the
texts you should write down all important facts and details in order to find
them fast and easily when you need them. See also our effective note taking
strategies.
Learn how to skim the text. Skimming means reading
the text quickly to obtain very first general impression on what the text is
about, what its main idea is. Skimming corresponds with Reading to find
information objective in TOEFL iBT. You should develop your ability to skim
quickly but at the same time to identify all major points in the passage. Take
notes. See also our skimming strategies.
Read after skimming. Only skimming is not enough. Read
the passage again. This time read it more carefully, but don't forget that you
have limited time. Take notes. Identify the passage type - classification,
cause/effect, compare/contrast, problem/solution, etc.
Try to guess the meaning of unfamiliar words in the passages, the context can help to do that. After that,
check those words in the dictionary. Guessing the words from the context brings
great advantages - you save time and it doesn't disturb your comprehension of
the texts.
Highlight some of the pronouns (he, him, they, them,
etc.) in the texts. Identify to which nouns in the particular text the
highlighted pronouns refer.
Practice making general inferences and conclusions based on what is implied in the text.
Learn to organize the data presented in the passage in charts and tables. Create charts with categories and place
the important data from the passage in the appropriate category. In TOEFL iBT
you are not asked to create charts. Rather, charts are provided and you are
asked to categorize the information in pre-defined categories.
Advice for Reading,
Performance Level: Low
Score Range: 0–14
- Read
as much and as often as possible in English.
- Read texts on a variety of topics.
- Read both academic and non-academic
materials.
- Read about subjects that interest you and
that DON'T interest you.
- Write basic questions to test your
understanding of a text.
- Write questions and answers about the first
paragraph. Then guess what might be discussed in the next paragraph.
- Use your knowledge of grammar to understand
difficult sections of a passage.
- Think carefully about the relationship
between independent and dependent clauses.
- Look for words that refer back to some
information given in a previous section of the text.
- Look at pronouns and find
the nouns that they refer to
- Look at relative pronouns
(who, that, which, whom, whose) used in
adjective clauses (for example, The student whoseclassmates are taking the TOEFL®
test....) and find the nouns they refer to
- Work with a reading partner. Read different
newspaper or magazine articles.
- Write questions about the articles you read.
- Exchange articles with your partner and try
to answer your partner's questions.
- Continually
expand your vocabulary knowledge.
- It is important to increase your vocabulary on
many subjects because you will have to read about various topics at the
university.
- Review lists of terms used in academic
textbooks.
- Make a plan for studying new words.
- Write a new word on one side of a card and
the definition on the back.
- Write the sentence you
saw the word in to help you learn correct usage
- Study the words often and
always mix up the cards
- Group the words by topic or meaning. Study
the words as a list of related words.
- Study vocabulary by making a list of opposites (words with different meanings)
and synonyms (words
with similar meanings)
- opposites (relevant-irrelevant; abstract-concrete)
- synonyms (excellent, outstanding, superb)
- Review the new words on a regular basis so
that you remember them.
- Expand your vocabulary by analyzing the parts
of a word. This will help you understand some unknown words that you see.
- Study roots (a
part of a word that other parts are attached to)
- -spect- (look at)
- -dict- (say)
- Study prefixes (a
part of word attached to the beginning of a word)
- Study suffixes (part
of a word attached at the end of the word)
- -tion (inspection)
- -able (predictable)
- Study word families (the noun, verb, adjective, or
adverb forms of related words)
- enjoyment (noun)
- enjoy (verb)
- enjoyable (adjective)
- enjoyably (adverb)
- Use the context to guess the meaning of
unknown words.
- Notice when difficult terms are defined in
the text.
- Look for examples with an explanation of the
meaning of a word.
- Look at the other words and structures around
an unknown word to try to understand it.
- Use resources to help you study vocabulary.
- Use an English-English dictionary to learn
correct meaning and word usage.
- Get calendars that teach a new word each day
or websites that will send you an e-mail with a new word each day.
- Study the vocabulary you find on university
websites that give information about the university and the faculty
teaching at the school.
- Practice correct usage by making sentences
with new words. This will also help you remember both the meaning and the
correct usage of the words.
- Have a teacher check your sentences.
- Review the new words on a regular basis so
that you remember them.
- Study
the organization of academic texts and overall structure of a reading
passage.
- Read an entire passage from beginning to end.
- Look for the main
ideas of
the article.
- Look for the supporting
details.
- Pay attention to the
relationship between the details and main ideas
- Learn to recognize the different styles of
organization that you find in articles in English in order to understand
the way an article is structured
- Pay attention to the connecting
words/transitions used
for specific relationships.
- steps (first, second, next, finally)
- reasons (because, since)
- results (as a result, so, therefore)
- examples (for example, such as)
- comparisons (in contrast, on the other hand)
- restatements of
information (in other words, that is)
- conclusions (in conclusion, in summary)
- Outline a text to test your understanding of
the structure of a reading passage.
- Begin by grouping paragraphs that address the
same concept.
- Look for ways that main
ideas in one paragraph relate to the main points of the next paragraph
- Write one sentence
summarizing the paragraphs that discuss the same idea
- Look at connections between sentences.
- Look at how the end of
one sentence relates to the beginning of the next sentence
- Think about the
connection between the ideas of the two sentences
- Combine the sentences
using appropriate transitions words to show the relationship between
ideas
- Write a summary of the entire passage.
Advice for Reading.
Performance Level: High
Score Range: 22–30
- Read
as much and as often as possible. Make sure to include academic texts on a
variety of topics written in different genres as part of your reading.
- Read major newspapers, such as The New York Times or Science Times.
- Use the websites of National Public Radio
(NPR) or the BBC to get transcripts of shows and study the content and
new vocabulary you encounter.
- Continually
expand your vocabulary knowledge.
- Develop a system for recording unfamiliar
words.
- Write each word on a card and mix up the
cards each time you study them. Write the context (the sentence the word
was used in) to help you learn correct word usage.
- Group the words according to topic or meaning
and study the words as a list of related words.
- Review the new words on a regular basis so
that you remember them.
- Increase your vocabulary by analyzing word
parts. Study roots,prefixes,
and suffixes.
- Study word families (e.g., enjoyment, enjoy;
enjoyable, enjoyably)
- Use available vocabulary resources.
- Use a good thesaurus to study various shades
of meanings of words.
- The Longman Language Activator provides
"collocations" (words used together).
- There are online concordancers that search
corpora and provide examples of words in context, such as the British
national corpus.
- Practice using context to guess the meaning of
unknown words.
- Continually practice using new words you
encounter in your speech and writing. This will help you remember both
the meaning and the correct usage of the words.
- Think
carefully about how ideas are connected within a text. The connections
between sentences and the links between paragraphs are critical to
complete comprehension.
- To understand the structure of a reading
passage, outline the text.
- Begin by determining the main idea or concept
presented in each paragraph. Remember to distinguish between the main
points and the details that exemplify them.
- Group paragraphs that address the same
concept. Think about how the key idea in one paragraph relates to the
main point of the next paragraph. If there are several paragraphs that
focus on the same idea or concept, synthesize the key points into one
main idea.
- Write one sentence or phrase summarizing the
paragraphs that discuss the same idea.
- Add important details that support each major
idea or concept.
- Learn to recognize different organizational
styles in order to understand the way an article is structured.
- Look for the common patterns of organization
that you find in articles.
- Pay attention to connecting
words in
order to understand the pattern of organization.
- Write a summary of a text, making sure that it
incorporates the organizational pattern of the original.
- If the text is a comparison, be sure that
your summary reflects that and uses appropriate transition words and
phrases for comparison.
- If the text argues two points of view, be
sure both points of view are reflected in your summary and that
appropriate transitional words are used.
