TheStrategiesofReadingAbility

1、提高英語閱讀能力的策略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 titles.7.5.2 l

2、ook 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：在整個英語學(xué)習(xí)中，英語閱讀能力提高受到越來越多的人的重視。本篇文章的目標(biāo)就是要為英語學(xué)習(xí)者提供一些關(guān)于英語閱讀能力提高方面的建

3、議。通過總結(jié)國內(nèi)外的研究成果， 我們可以得出： 策略的應(yīng)用在閱讀的提高中有著至關(guān)重要的地位。我們的目標(biāo)就是要通過調(diào)查，找出來哪些策略是最常用的，哪些策略是最有用的。在提高閱讀能力的策略應(yīng)用上，給出一些有用的建議。關(guān)鍵詞 ：建議 ； 閱讀能力；閱讀策略；Abstract:As we considered the whole process of English learning, we can easily getthat: The English reading ability is the most important part in the English learning. The ai

4、m 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 researchesdone on EFLlearners reading ability strategies in Chinese-speaking contexts and comparing them with thos

5、e from the West, we can know clearly that the using of learningstrategies 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;reading str

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

7、ever, 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 usually invol

8、ves 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 and testing sho

9、uld 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第1頁共13頁studentsconfidence .(中國英語

10、 教學(xué)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 othe

11、rs 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 the se

12、cond 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 atticin the air. Therefore, if one can t learn English vocabularyimpossiblewell,it isfor him to obta

13、in 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 vocabulary ma

14、stery 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 learning is so

15、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 is the main

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

17、also we donthave 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 text to con

18、firm their predictions. Or you may have selected a passage that deals with a topic you know little or第2頁共13頁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 more

19、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 before

20、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, Eng

21、lish 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 words. In

22、 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 help re

23、aders 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. Dontdemand an exact meaning for every word. Suppose you ran into the English sentence She bought some bananas, mangoes, and chirimoyas and you did

24、ntknow 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 about t

25、en 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 middleschool for two months. When I was in that school, I collected a lot of useful information .Based on

26、 so many researchesin 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 adopt inappr

27、opriate andineffective 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.第3頁共13頁A. Visual signals from the eyes;B. A cognitive task of interpreting the visual information, relating the re

28、ceived 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 information.C.

29、 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. Recongnising

30、the organization of the text.K. Making inferences. (英語教學(xué)法教程王薔主編 ，115) .Choose appropriate reading materialsWe 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 Japa

31、nese 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 texts.

32、So we must try toincrease our reading effective speed.Most language learners are firstintroduced to writtenmaterials through theirtextbooks. There materials are often specially written, adapted, and simplified. Theirpurpose is to introduce specific grammar points and vocabulary items. They are desig

33、ned 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 for teac

34、hing 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第4頁共13頁language. Such mate

35、rials 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 business

36、 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 isoften the case , they are a mixed group with differing interest and careers, a most varied diet is appropriate .Among the things the teacher might w

37、ant 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 written, a

38、dapted 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 diction

39、ary 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.Thirdly,

40、 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 about

41、 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 mater

42、ials 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 form tha

43、t 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 separat

44、e 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.第5頁共13頁 .Use Your Background KnowledgeBrown H .Donglas points out that“The best way to improve your knowledge of a foreign language is to go a

45、nd 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 studentspoor 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 readersbackground 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 once

50、 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 comprehend

51、.(中國英語教學(xué)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第6頁共13頁ask the students to answer some questions, sometimes I am asked to answer

52、their 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 ar

53、gument. 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 confid

54、ence to 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 titlesA title will reveal what the article is about and will help you understand ins content. By looking at a title that says

55、 Wuthering 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

56、 message. 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 reader s predictions, no matter right or wrong, will get his mind clo

57、ser to 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 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,