Unit 3: Reading
Unit 3: Reading
Unit 3: Reading
UNIT 3 : READING
UNIT STRUCTURE
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Unit 3 Reading
3.2 INTRODUCTION
Reading involves a variety of skills. The main ones drawn from John
Mumbry’s, Communicative Syllabus Design are listed below :
Recognizing the script of a language
Deducing the meaning and use of unfamiliar words
Understanding explicitly stated information
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One of the most important points that we keep in mind while reading
a piece of text is that there is not one type of reading but several secondary
to our objective reasons for reading. Depending upon the objective of reading
a piece of text, readers have to adopt their reading speed and techniques to
their aim when reading. In fact there are several techniques that the efficient
readers have at their disposal and which they like to apply to suit their
objectives. Two of the techniques are skimming and scanning.
3.4.1 Skimming
You know that I once wrote a book called The Discovery of India.
I was engaged in that search long before I wrote that book. It
was not mere curiosity that led me to that search. I was engaged
in many activities and I wanted a proper reconciliation between
my activity and my thought. Thought without action is
undeveloped thought. Action without thought is folly.
As the reader skims through the text, the first thing that he does is
to survey the text to find out what the passage is about The reader’s
eyes will pick up certain words and phrases like mile posts in a long
road and in the process he mentally tries to fill in the gaps. Most
probably, a reader will pick up the following details.
I wrote ….. Discovery of India ….. engaged in the search long
before……. many activities ……. reconciliation between activity
and thoughts
We act on impulse …. automatic instinctive action …. catching
a brick ……. thrown at us……. living conditions automatic
actions …... must to proceeded by thinking.
Integration of thoughts and action …. Happiness ……. no inner
conflict …. Happiness, an inner state of mind …. nothing to do
with riches …. but co-ordination of thought and action.
This sort of sampling the text helps us to get a gist of it. We
know that the text is organized in the form of an article where the
main aim of the writer is to emphasis on the value of coordination
between thought and action. This is the technique that we follow
when we record a newspaper for example. We don’t spend the
whole day poring through every word or sentences in a newspaper.
We skim through the pages, dipping into information and thus form
a general idea of what is happening where.
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3.4.2 Scanning
the story, noting how he rose in business till the fateful firing incident
when he found his fortunes taking such a turn that ultimately he had
to close down his business as a career and start life all over again
as a waiter in a restaurant (the story is annexes to this unit).
At the end of the reading, you may like to respond to the text
in its global context. For example, you may like to know why the
author had given the title “Martyr’s Corner” to this story. You may
like to react to the relevance of the title of the story. In order to find
an answer to this question, you do not try to locate information from
the text. On the contrary, you try to look at the, whole story globally.
You will mentally go through the circumstances that had prompted
Rama to shift his business to another location as a result of which
he lost his old customers, his sales dropped and he had to close
down his business. What you had done here is to take a global view
of the story and would now like to say something like this : The title
for the story appears to the appropriate because the martyr’s
monument that was set up at the place where Rama had his
business played an important part in the fall of fortunes of Rama
resulting in his loss of business and his starting life all over again as
a waiter. This is precisely a global comprehension of the story.
Global comprehension skills can also be exemplified from poetry
or any other written texts. Let us take “Ozymandias of Egypt”, a
poem by P.B. Shelley.
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said : Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter’d visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp’d on these lifeless things.
The hand that mock’d them and the heart that fed
And on the pedestal, these words appear
“My name is Ozymangias, king of kings,
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them with the lines : “what these folks do not see is that I sit before
the oven practically all day frying al this stuff…….”. we now know
why Rama considers the specific information from the text for an
understanding of a specific point. Such an approach to a reading
activity is referred to as intensive reading. Since, the reader is locating
information, it is also referred to as local comprehension.
Similarly, the other two questions would require us to locate the
specific information from the text. The information is there very overly
in the passage. All that you do is to locate it. As a reading activity it
can be seen as an activity of reading for accuracy involving a detailed
understanding of the text not only in terms of “what” it says but also
“how” it says it. An intensive reading activity is primarily concerned
with developing reading strategies— judgements, reasoning,
interpretation, appreciation etc. in the reader.
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Again, sometimes you may encounter a very familiar word but placed
oddly in a sentence that could puzzle you. You may go to the first
paragraph of the story “The Martyr’s Corner” and locate the word
“establishment” and the expression “vision sprung out of air”. These
are two likely question that may appear in your mind.
(a) What does the author mean by “establishment”?
(b) Why is Rama’s shop referred to as “a vision sprung out of air”?
You cannot locate the required information from the text. You
will have to draw inferences for the comprehension of the word
“establishment” and the expression “a vision sprung out of air”.
From the story, you know that Rama’s business was confined
to some food items that just filled a tray which he balanced on his
head while coming each day for his sales. You don’t call such a
small business an “establishment”. Is it ironical? You try to infer
why the author uses this word. Similarly, you draw inferences why
a shop is referred to as a “a vision sprung out of air” from the context.
A vision is a fleeting glimpse of something. Does not Rama’s shop
provide merely a fleeting glimpse when the author states ‘At eight
you would not see him, and again at ten you would see nothing; but
between eight and ten he arrived, sold his goods and departed”.
You draw your inferences from this context.
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But what we would like to add here is that in the English classroom
a good book of grammar and usage and a standard English– English
dictionary could be the most rewarding reading tool for reference skills.
There is also the persistent teacher concern that grammar is necessary
for accuracy in the language.
The need for developing reference skills lies in the fact that they
contribute towards an input rich communicational environment which is
undoubtedly a prerequisite for language learning. It remains for the teacher
to develop activities to make use of these tools in the classroom for the
purpose of the development of specific reading skills.
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Building the reading objectives listed at 3.3 of this unit into a general
language learning programme calls for creating environment for reading.
How do we create environments for reading?
One of the ways by which we create environment for reading would
to establish positive attitudes in the learners to reading. This can happen
through interesting reading activities in the class. To achieve this aims the
need for setting up reading clubs and class libraries can be explored. These
reading clubs and class libraries can select texts— story books and short
novels— that appeal to the young readers and one within their knowledge
of language. Teachers may merely supervise the work, leaving the students
to run the clubs and libraries. Such an approach can create in the learners
a positive attitude to reading.
The skills of reading aloud and silent reading need to be highlighted at
this point. Reading aloud is an activity for the lower classes. This habit
reduces reading speed because one can only read aloud at a much slower
speed; it is also known to affect comprehension. Insistence on reading
without whispering or even lip movement shall come very early so as to
train learners for mature reading. Reading aloud does not serve a purpose
but that it merely supports speaking and to learning how to pronounce
words, phrases or sentences correctly. In order to develop this skill of silent
reading, the learners must be given access to good books.
As the learner develops an intellectual maturity, the range of books
provided to them earlier, may be widened to include books on a variety of
items. Pupils enjoy travel literature, adventure, sports and recreation. Using
texts of different types for the reading clubs and class-libraries develops a
variety of reading styles. This exposure to variety encourages reading for
different programmes and thereby the reader modifies his/her strategies
and techniques of reading. Hence, it becomes necessary to familiarize
learners with the features of different types of best. The best way for creating
environments for reading is to develop reading clubs and class libraries.
Such an effort would in turn develop in learners a sound reading habit.
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Ans to the Q. No 1:
(a) affects (b) gist (c) tone and intention
(d) particular point of information
(e) retrieving (f) different form
Ans to the Q. No 2:
(a) False (b) False (c) False (d) True (e) False (f) True
Ans to the Q. No 3:
(a) C (b) B (c) A (d) A (e) A
Ans to the Q. No 4:
(a) True (b) False (c) True (d) False (e) False
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