WHY READ

To have the opportunity to learn to read is the greatest gift, which everyone should be given. If you can read, the door is open to you to move anywhere in the world – and you don’t need a passport or a plane ticket! You can read a story taking place in another country; you can learn how they look, how they talk, what they wear, what they laugh at, what work they do. Or you can move back in time into another century, find out what life was like a hundred years ago or go further back and read about life a thousand years ago. On the other hand, try moving forward in time. Some writers try to imagine what life may be like some hundred years from now. They may not be right in their forecasts, but it is interesting to imagine.

If you cannot read you can only find out what somebody tells you, or these days what you can hear on radio or television. But so far you cannot choose just what you want to hear. If you read you can choose whichever book you like from the shelf, and you can read for as long as you have the time and inclination. Your ‘station’ does not close down; your speaker does not go away.

HOW TO READ

Most people learn to read as children with one finger on the word, whilst they pronounce it. Later, in many cases even when they could read faster, they still feel they must at least pronounce the words in their heads, even if they do not actually say it loud. However, if we think of reading as comprehension, of understanding and thinking about what we are reading it is not necessary to ‘hear’ the word in your head or say it with your mouth. Understanding depends on seeing those black marks on the pages and relating them to ideas, to information. It is possible to learn to read and understand a foreign language without even hearing or speaking it.

So try reading faster than you think you can. You may find that you understand just as much or even more when you read faster. Your short-term memory can only hold certain amount of information for a very short time. If you read slowly you will have forgotten the beginning before you reach the end.

This is not to say you should always read fast. The idea is to develop different ways of reading for reading for different purposes. If I have just a few minutes to read the daily papers, I glance at the headlines; perhaps skim through something that looks interesting, maybe even read thoroughly something that seems to me important. On the other hand, if I am reading about a new theory that seems difficult to understand I may glance through the chapter and paragraph headings if any, noting any diagrams, graphs, graphs or pictures. With this I have turned my mind in the direction of the topic and I am ready to begin reading fairly slowly and with concentration. Later I may go through it again more quickly to get the feel of the whole idea again.

When you meet a new word you do not know should you stop? Turn to the dictionary and look up the meaning? If you do, you may lose the thread of what you are reading and still end up confused. It is often better to go on to the end of the sentence, to the end of the paragraph, perhaps to end of end of the chapter. The word has a place in the context, in the total meaning and often you can guess may not absolutely be right and you may find yourself adjusting that idea as you go along. Only if you find you still cannot understand the sentence, the paragraph or the chapter without the exact meaning of that word should you turn to the dictionary.

Do not be afraid of guessing! For some reason guessing has often been discouraged in schools. An informed guess is very useful and is the basis of the thinking of researchers. A guess is the spark that jumps across the electric current that is nearly touching. The connection in your mind is almost made: the guesses go across and often in this way eventually arrive at a correct answer.

We need to remember always that reading is a thinking process. You are not a machine with camera eyes and nothing happening to the ‘picture’ your eyes takes. Your eyes are part of the work, but already before you cast your eyes on the page you have a surprising amount of information in your head on an amazing range of subjects. Your job is to put together what you already know with what you see on the page. This does not mean that what you see on the page will always agree with what you know. It may entirely contradict your previous knowledge. So think and you are reading, put two and two together even if you are going to get a new and surprising five for the answer, instead of the four you expected!

Many students studying for an English examination such as GCE fail woefully, in the section known as ‘comprehension’. Perhaps if we used simpler word ‘understating’ the failures would be less.

How can you tackle the comprehension passage? It is advisable to skim through very quickly first, to turn your mind in the right direction and stir up whatever information you already have on the topic.

Skimming is not really reading. In English writing, often the first paragraph states the main idea, or the writer’s attitude to the topic. The last paragraph often sums up the arguments for the various ideas. Frequently, the first sentence in the paragraph is ‘meatier’ than the rest of the paragraph.

Try reading the first paragraph, than the first sentence of each sentence of the paragraph. Now sit back and think, is it about elephants or space or travel or mathematics? Is it explaining, describing or telling a story of several events? What did you not understand?

Now read again at a moderate pace, thinking as you read. Again sit back and think what you have gained now over the first reading. What points still trouble you? You are now perhaps ready to look at the questions and think about them, bearing in mind what you have just read. Now go back and read again, holding the questions at the back of your mind as you read. Next go through the questions again with the passage you have read in your mind. You can now begin actively to look for answers. Notice that as far you have not written a word, and you may have used up half the allotted time. Don’t panic. Remember that what you have to write is only a sentence or two that may take you only five minutes. Most of your time should be spent on reading and thinking. Your aim is to understand. Without understanding you cannot answer those questions. So read the passage several times, stopping to think after each reading and you will find that in the end the answers will form themselves. Don’t forget to give a minute or two to checking what you have written. We all make careless mistakes especially under examination pressure.

WHAT TO READ

The general answer is everything you can lay your eyes on – road signs, wrappers, magazines. At first, if you have trouble reading English, don’t be ashamed of looking for something much easier than what you feel you ought to be reading. If you are in secondary school you may need to go back to the reading meant for primary 4, 5 or 6. If you are at the top end of secondary school you might need to read what class 1 is supposed to read. You need plenty of practice in reading what seems easy, so that you can increase your reading speed and not feel that you have to labour over every sentence. The more you read the quicker you will read and the more easily you will understand and the more you will enjoy reading. Become a reading addict. If you get into the habit of reading in every moment, you will begin to feel empty if you don’t have something to read. Cut down on your talking time and spend it on reading! The world is waiting for you out there!

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