Unit 3: Reading

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Reading Unit 3

UNIT 3 : READING
UNIT STRUCTURE

3.1 Learning Objectives


3.2 Introduction
3.3 Development of Reading Skills
3.4 Reading with comprehension different types of texts
3.4.1 Skimming
3.4.2 Scanning
3.5 Reading for global and local comprehension

3.5.1 Global comprehension


3.5.2 Local comprehension
3.6 Inferences and Extrapolation
3.6.1 Inferential comprehension
3.6.2 Extrapolative comprehension
3.7 Using Reading for Reference Skills
3.8 Creating environment for reading
3.9 Scaffolding concepts and activities
3.10 Let us Sum up
3.11 Further Reading
3.12 Answers to Check Your Progress
3.13 Model Questions

3.1 LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After going through this unit you will be able to


define the concept of reading skills
specify different types of reading comprehension
evaluate relevant reference skills
specify strategies for creating environment in the classroom
make reading an activity-oriented experience.

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Unit 3 Reading

3.2 INTRODUCTION

Like listening and speaking, reading is a language skill. It is an ability


to understand a piece of text either in writing or in print (including electronic
visuals).
You look at this electronic board in a railway station. The train timings
and position of trains are displayed on a screen
You pick up a joke book at the book store and leaf through it,
occasionally pausing at a page.
You take out this study material, pencil in hand to mark at the points
you consider important.
In all the three cases, you and reading is a piece of text. Reading
undeniably involves two necessary element, a reader and a text. A third
element is often important, namely the writer. We shall not emphases the
writer in this unit because there is a separate unit exclusively on writing.
However, it is important to state that there is a high degree of correlation
between reading and writing. The effective reader has knowledge of the
writing system. He can recognize letters in the printed form as well as the
handwritten form and is familiar with the combination of letters in spelling of
words.
In the above paragraph, you will notice that the word understand at the
beginning is given in italics. The word is the context of reading is a key-
word. Mere reading aloud without understanding does not count as reading.
Elementary local schools practice reading aloud for other purposes. We
shall gradually go into the details of these issues in this unit.

3.3 DEVELOPING READING SKILLS

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

50 Proficiency in English
Reading Unit 3

Understanding information when not explicitly stated


Understanding conceptual meaning
Understanding the communicative value of (function) sentences and
utternesses.
Understanding relations within sentence.
Understanding relation between parts of a text through grammatical
cohesive device.
Interpreting text by going outside it.
Recognizing indicators in discourse.
Identifying the main points or important information in a piece of
discourse.
Distinguishing the main idea from supporting details.
Extracting salient points to summarize (the text, an idea etc.)
Selective extraction of relevant points from a text.
Basic reference skills.
Skimming
Scanning to locate specifically required information
Transcoding information to diagrammatic display.
In the given list, one can discover a hierarchy of the skills that indicate
the fact that the reading process ranges from recognizing the script of a
language at one end of the scale to activities like selective extraction of
relevant points from a text or transcoding information. These skills provide
the guidelines for organizing classroom activities.
Let us clarify the point as to how skills provide guidelines. To do so,
we have to ask ourselves the question. How are reading skills developed?
These skills are developed through the reader’s interaction with the text.
The interaction depending upon the level, and the nature of the text can be
of different kinds. As one reader along there are the points that emerge
sensitive in the seminars reader’s mind.
1. Points relating to the organization of the passage, and
2. Points relating to the content of the passage.
The first point makes the reader sensitive to issues like

Proficiency in English 51
Unit 3 Reading

the function of the passage


the general organization (e.g. organization/ descriptive)
the rhetorical organization (e.g. contrast / comparison)
the cohesive devices etc.
The second point makes the reader sensitive to issues like
the plain fact of the text
the implied fact if any
deduced meaning
exclusion (e.g. reader’s individual response to the text).
These are the parameters that will be handled in this unit in greater
detail.

3.4 READING WITH COMPREHENSION DIFFERENT


TYPES OF TEXTS

The word ‘text’ refers to a piece of spoken or written language. In


the context of this unit, let us concentrate on written language which requires
“reading”. A text may consist of just one word e.g. the word SILENCE written
in the reading room of a library. It may be of considerable length e.g. a
poem, a story, an essay or a novel. We will concern, ourselves with texts
larger than a sentence – texts, having a succession of separate sentences
thematically related.
If reading is to be efficient, there are certain strategies that need to
be followed. Most importantly, there is the issue on reading speed.
Experiments have shown that slow reading effects comprehension. Slow
readers easily get discouraged. They will also tend to stumble on unfamiliar
words and fail to grasp the general meaning. Hence there has been an
effort towards teaching faster reading. Michael West in his book Learning
to Read a Foreign Language (Longman) found that training Indian students
to improve their reading in English also substantially improved their reading
in their Mother Tongue / First Language. He concluded that reading ability is
a general power that can be “transferred” and shows itself in improvement
of the reading of another language. Hence, there has grown the need for
developing faster reading skills for better comprehension of a piece of text.
52 Proficiency in English
Reading Unit 3

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

Skimming is a specific reading technique necessary for quick


efficient reading. Skimming differs from general rapid reading in that
the reader goes through the text extremely quickly, merely dipping
into it and sampling it at various points to get a gist of it, to know how
it is organized or to get an idea of the tone and intention of the writer.
Let us suppose a reader is skimming through the following
pieces of text :

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.

Of course, “We sometimes act on some impulse or


uncontrollable urge. If suddenly you throw a brick at me and my
hand goes up to protect myself, it is an automatic, instinctive
action and not a result of deliberate thought. Our living is
conditioned by a series of automatic actions from morning till
night. Anything we do outside that common range of actions,
however, has to be preceded by some measure of thinking. The
more action and thought are allied and integrated, the more
effective they become and the happier you grow. There will then
be no inner conflict between a wish to do something and inability
Proficiency in English 53
Unit 3 Reading

to act or between thinking one way and acting in another. The


happiest man is he whose thinking and action are co-ordinated.
Happiness, after all, is an inner state of mind. It is little
dependent on outside environment. Happiness has very little to
do, for instance, with whether you are rich or not rich. Some of
the most miserable persons I have come across in my life are
the rich people. It is true that poverty makes one miserable in a
very acute way. But my point is that it is not wealth but co-
ordination of one’s thought and action which removes inner
conflicts. It is in that way that integration of personality is achieved.

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.

54 Proficiency in English
Reading Unit 3

3.4.2 Scanning

Scanning occurs when a reader goes through a text very


quickly in order to find a particular point of information. A person
picks up the morning paper and passes his eyes through the pages
and gives a quick glance at the headlines and passes on to the next
page. He is actually scanning the pages of a newspaper. When a
person wants some information about a train, he would not read the
whole railway time-table, but look for a particular train time. Looking
through a text for particular pieces of information is termed scanning.
There is a great range of texts suitable for scannig - indixes,
dictionaries, maps, advertisements, labels, various charts and so
on. Here is a chart showing many exchnge rates

Money Currency Selling Buying


Exchange US dlr 49.98/50.08 49.17/49.14
Rates Gbp 78.97/79.13 77.20/77.15
Supporting Can dlr 90.11/56.21 48.50/48.77
Euro 65.50/65.73 64.19/65.15
Jap yen* 65.96/66.09 64.19/65.15
Aud 53.38/53.34 52.00/51.97
Sing dlr 39.00/39.98 39.82/38.00
Hk dlr 6.45/6.46 6.34/6.33

Supposing you are interested in the rates of Euro dollars. You


simply let your eyes wonder over the text until you find what you are
looking for: This activity is scanning.
You can even scan a piece of longer text to locate a piece of
information in the text. supposing, you are scanning through the
passage given at 3.4.1. Now it is possible for you to scan the same
article in order to note down a piece of information. For example,
you would like to know how the author describe a happy person.
You scan the page for the phrase the happiest man and come up
with the information. “The happiest man is he whose thinking and
Proficiency in English 55
Unit 3 Reading

action is co-ordinated. Thus, scanning is retrieving what information


is useful for our purpose.

CHECK YOUR PROGRESS


Q 1: Fill in the blanks with the appropriate word
(a) Slow reading the
comprehension fo a piece of text.
(b) Skimming helps us to get a of a piece of text.
(c) Skimming helps us to get an idea of the of the writer..
(d) Scanning is a technique of reading that helps us to find in a
piece of text a
(e) Scanning is a way of the necessary information
contained in a piece of text.
(f) Scanning a text is skimming a text.

3.5 READING FOR GLOBAL AND LOCAL


COMPREHENSION

In this section, we move on to two other reading skills or techniques


that are termed as global comprehension and local comprehension. The
term global comprehension is associated with extensive reading whereas
the term local comprehension is associated with intensive reading. It would
be useful to elaborate on the two concepts of reading with greater detail.

3.5.1 Global Comprehension

Global comprehension is the understanding of a longer text


in its totality. We often read a longer text, a story or a novel for
example, for pleasure and not necessarily for minute details. It is a
fluency activity, mainly involving the reader to be able to respond to
a piece of text in a general sense. For example, a reader is reading
the short story titled “The Martyr’s Corner” by R.K. Narayan. He
reads the story extensively for the pleasure of it. At this stage, he is
not concerned with specific details but with the overall plot of the
story. He follows up the daily life of Rama, the central character of
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Reading Unit 3

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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Unit 3 Reading

Look on my work e mighty, and despair!”


Nothing beside remains; round the decay
Of what colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch a away.
What exactly does the poet intends to say in this poem?
When we ask this question, we are actually inviting the listener to
look at the poem globally. It is a matter of local comprehension. You
understand from the poem that the poem is developed around the
theme that human achievements cannot survive the ravages of time.
We find Ozymandias as the symbol of human achievements.
Nothing of his achievements had remained.

3.5.2 Local Comprehension

Local comprehension is the skill of reading a piece of text


closely or intensely for the purpose of extracting specific information
from the text. This skill is referred to as intensive reading skill. As an
example let us refer back to the story “The Martyr’s Corner”
appended to this unit and concentrate our attention in the first four
paragraphs. Earlier, you had read the story for extensive reading
skills. Now, we go back to a part of the story for intensive reading
skills. In this case, you do not like to miss out the details of the
passage that you are reading, both at the levels of form and content.
Let us illustrate how local comprehension works. As you read
the first four paragraphs, you may like to ask yourself a series of
specific questions. Some of them could include :
Why does Rama consider the compliments as ‘glib remarks’?
At what time did Rama get up?
At what time did he arrive at his place of business?
These are only three of a host of questions that form in your
mind that aid to the comprehension of the text. You may have to go
back to the passage to locate the specific information. For example,
when we focus our attention on the words “glib remarks”, we connect

58 Proficiency in English
Reading Unit 3

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.

CHECK YOUR PROGRESS


Q 2: Say whether the following statements as a
true or false
(a) Local comprehension is reading for plesaure.
T F
(b) Global comprehension is associated with intensive reading.
T F
(c) Local comprehensive is a fluency activity. T F
(d) Local comprehension refers to locating information from a piece
of text. T F
(e) Global comprehension is synonymous with “reading for
accuracy. T F
(f) Local comprehension involves a detailed understnding of what
the text states out how it states T F

3.6 INFERENTIAL AND EXTRAPOLATIVE

In this section we move on to two other reading skills or techniques


that are termed as inferential comprehension and extrapolative

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Unit 3 Reading

comprehension. The term inferential is the adjective form of the name


inference. The verb infer means to draw the meaning from something. On
the other hand, the term ‘extrapolative’ draws from the verb extrapolate in
the present context means to use facts already known for something in the
future. These two terms are used here as higher level reading skills. That
is, drawing inference is a higher ability than locating information from a text.
Similarly, extrapolating information is a much higher ability than either
locating information or drawing inferences because it goes to the level of
applying information in another context or situation.

3.6.1 Inferential Comprehension

In the context of reading, infenerring means making use of


syntactic, logical and cultural clues to discover the meaning of
unknown elements. If these are words, then word formation and
derivation will also play an important part. As an example, let us
take us word ‘pyol’ at paragraph 14 of the story “The Martyr’s Corner”
(Enclosed in the Annexure-A). The word is not there in your dictionary
either. In this situation, as an intelligent reader, you infer the meaning
from the clues available for you from the context. “After dinner, he
tucked a betel leaf and tobacco into his mouth and slept on the pyol
of his house1. We infer from the context that.
(a) The word is a noun; it appears as the head of a noun phrase
“the pyol”.
(b) Being a noun, it would refer to a thing on which one can sleep,
let’s say a piece of furniture.
(c) There is only one item of ‘furniture’ in the house ‘the’ pyol.
We draw inferences that pyol could be a raised platform,
something like a bed or a divan where Rama slept that night.
When dealing wit a new text, you are likely to encounter a number
of unfamiliar words. In such cases, it would be useful to make
guesses and then to consult a dictionary to confirm the guess.
Hence, from the beginning, it is vital to develop the skill of inference.

60 Proficiency in English
Reading Unit 3

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.

3.6.2 Extrapolative Comprehension

As mentioned in 3.6, to extrapolate is to use facts already


known from a piece of text for another situation. This situation may
be outside the text but the text will provide you with a springboard to
make use of the information. For example, you once again go back
to the story in the appendix where there is an account of a fight that
took place at the street corner where Rama had his business when
you use the information contained in the story about the fight to
describe a situation elsewhere. You are extrapolating the
information— applying it to look at another similar situation.

Proficiency in English 61
Unit 3 Reading

Here’s another example. In one of the school readers there


is a story about a king and his minister Tirumalai. The student while
reading the story, reflects upon the social life of the people in a
monarchy and tries to compare it with his own social system.
Likewise, after reading a poem the “As we rush, as we rush, in
the train”, the reader may be asked to write his experiences of a
railway journey. He reflects upon the poetic experience and tries to
reconstruct his own experience. In other words, his comprehension
here can be extrapolative.

3.7 USING READING AS A TOOL FOR REFERENCE


SKILLS

The term ‘reference skills’ has been seen as an ability of a skilled


reader to refer to related textual materials. These skills are brought into
play through observational reading— leading the reader to look up reference
materials for which skimming in required. These includes–
dictionaries, catalogues, directories, encyclopedias and other
reference materials.
index or chapter– heading to find out what he wants and then
skim through the pages at great speed.
newspapers, notices and advertisements
atlases and city maps
railway time– lables
forms and regulations
handouts on different topics etc.
Bright and McGregor in their book Teaching English as a Second
Language refer to atlases and maps as a tool for reference skills. They
qualify this approach by stating that they are not teaching geography but
only the efficient use of a book. It seems that such approaches towards
teaching reading beyond the curriculum can make classroom interaction
fairly interesting. Language is best acquired through different meaning making
contexts.

62 Proficiency in English
Reading Unit 3

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.

CHECK YOUR PROGRESS


Q 3: Select the appropriate word/ expression from
the choices to complete each statement
(a) Inferential comprehension is a reading technique that involves
A. locating information
B. grasping the general idea of the entire text
C. using logical clues for comprehension
(b) Extrapolative comprehension is a reading technique that
involves the reader to
A. make guesses concerning the meaning of an item
B. use textual information in another context
C. form a general idea of the text studied
(c) References skills are related to
A. skimming B. scanning C. intensive reading
(d) Input-rich environment is one where students have access to
A. a host of reference materials
B. the textbook as the sole material
C. the question banks
(e) The most rewarding tool for developing reference skills is
A. the dictionary B. atlases C. newspapers

Proficiency in English 63
Unit 3 Reading

3.8 CREATING ENVIRONMENTS FOR READING

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.

64 Proficiency in English
Reading Unit 3

CHECK YOUR PROGRESS


Q 4: Say whether the following statements are true
or false
(a) Reading clubs and class libraries help to develop positive
attitudes in the learner towards reading. T F
(b) Reading aloud helps to develop faster reading. T F
(c) Mature reading is silent reading with comprehension. T F
(d) Reading aloud shall be encouraged at all stages of learning.
T F
(e) Silent reading helps to develop pronunciation. T F
(f) Using a variety of texts can develp a variety of reading styles.
T F

3.9 SCAFFOLDING CONCEPTS AND ACTIVITIES

The term ‘scaffolding’ drawn from the field of masonry refers to


structures of poles and boards that are joined together when workers need
to work high up on the outside of a building. In the above description of
scaffolding two key expressions are “poles and boards are joined together”.
Scaffolding thus become synonymous with joining. We have come across
concepts like skimming and scanning. Now can we think of joining these
concepts with some activities? We will present two samples here, one for
the elementary level reader and the other for the advance level reader.
Sample1 (for elementary level learners)
Objective : Showing understanding of a text by miming it.
Scanning a text for realizing the information of the
text through mime.
Precedure :
Write on the blackboard the list of sentences on the rack
Invite learners to take it in turns to mime any sentence
on the list.
Encourage learners watching the mime to scan the
sentences to find out which of the sentences is being mimed.
Proficiency in English 65
Unit 3 Reading

Examples of simple actions


A boy is walking
A girl is dancing
The boy is playing football
The boy finds pieces of string lying on the ....... and pockets
it.
Examples of more complete sections
A boy is gazing hand at an object at a distance on a sunny
day
A girl was reading a book when she heard her mobile
phone and she looked for it in her bag

Sample 2 (for uper level learners)


Objective : Showing understanding of a paragraph by silent
reading using the techniques of skimming and
scanning.
Procedure
Select a story or an article or a poem and cut up this text
into paragraps
Distribute the paragraphs randmoly to a group of learners
giving one paragraph to each.
Learners silently read the paragraphs and collectively
attempt to rearrange the text to its original form.

3.10 LET US SUM UP

In this unit we discussed the concept of reading as one of the


four language skills. The focus was on identifying strategies for the
development of the skill in the pupils. We took a close look at the sub-skills
involved in reading and moved on to these major points:
We discussed the strategies for reading different types of text
illustrating concepts like skimming and scanning, and reading for global
and local comprehension.

66 Proficiency in English
Reading Unit 3

We discueesd strategies for inferential and explorative reading skills


Our main objective of this unit was to build up the reading
objectives or reading sub-skills into a general language learning
programmes. It was expected that these concepts would provide the teacher
to organize classroom activities into a meaningful programme in which pupils
would develop the skill of reading comprehension.

3.11 FURTHER READING

1) Andrew Wright et al (2010) Games for Language Learning, Cambridge


University Press.
2) Joanna Baker et al (2008) The English Teacher’s Handbook,
Continuum London.
3) M.L. Tickro (2003) Teaching and Learning English Orient Language.

3.12 ANSWERS TO CHECK YOUR


PROGRESS

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

Proficiency in English 67
Unit 3 Reading

3.13 MODEL QUESTIONS

Q 1: Make a list of objectives of teaching reading at the lower primary stage.


Q 2: Make a list of the objectives for teaching reading at the upper primary
stage.
Q 3: Discuss the importance of reading aloud.
Q 4: Discuss the relative importance of reading aloud and silent reading.
Q 5: What is meant by intensive reading? How is it different from extensive
reading?
Q 6: Suggest some ways by which you motivate the learner to develop
reading habits.

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68 Proficiency in English

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