Learners report two main difficulties in reading, which may be linked. There are too many unknown words and as a result reading is simply not a pleasure. For some students, even reading in their own language is a chore.
Having a wide vocabulary is essential to making sense of written language. Of course, this is a circular argument, because the more you read the more vocabulary you learn and the more words you know the more easily you can read. Don’t make the mistake of reading with your dictionary beside you, looking up every single new or doubtful word. This is laborious and prevents you from practicing the skill of prediction.
Sometimes in reading you find a word you know but the sense doesn’t seem to fit in. This is not surprising because words have so many meanings and degrees of meaning. What is more, part of their meaning is shaped by the words around them. Keep looking at the surrounding words and asking yourself “what sort of meaning would make sense here?”
The more that people study the reading process, the better they can pass on to language learners a range of advice to choose from. People have learned to read in all kinds of ways. Here is some information that could help you plan to be a better reader in the foreign language you are studying.
1）Work out the general meaning first
When people read in a new language they often feel they must take a detailed approach, focusing on every word, particularly those they don’t know. They read as if they were using a microscope, looking carefully at each of the small pieces（the individual words）, but not necessarily seeing the whole picture at first. This is called the “bottom-up” approach. Other readers try to look first at the big picture（the “top-down” approach）, attending to individual bricks only as necessary, a process that involves some intelligent guesswork. Generally this second approach is recommended by successful learners.
2）Interactive reading
Another way of thinking about reading is to describe it as an interactive process, where the text brings something to you and you bring something to the text. Readers bring together all their knowledge of the world with what they see on the page in front of them. That is why, when reading in our own language, we don’t need to read every word. We add meaning which is not actually stated.
3）From supported reading to independent reading
Language learners start by needing considerable support as they read. Textbooks supply this support in the form of introductions that summaries the contents, glossaries, pictures, explanations of new grammar points. In your reading you need to move gradually from this support to reading more the text itself.
1. According to the author, ________.
A. looking up the dictionary is of great help for the understanding
B. reading more promotes the gaining of vocabulary
C. the more you read, the less useful the dictionary will be
D. the amount of vocabulary is the key to reading
2. Successful learners recommend ________.
A. trying to look first at the big picture B. looking carefully at each of the small pieces
C. focusing on every word D. “bottom-up” approach
3. The word “chore” in the first paragraph maybe means ________.
A. an important aspect B. a difficult and tiring thing
C. an easy question D. something special
4. You come across a new or doubtful word when you are reading, you can ________.
A. just miss it and let it be B. keep looking at the surrounding words
C. look it up in the dictionary each time D. make sense of it with the help of dictionary
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