Reading Comprehension: Key Techniques to Improve Skills
As second language learners of English, we recognize a lot more words than we completely understand. Familiarity with words doesn’t necessarily mean you understand them. That’s why it’s important that we engage in active reading, try to understand as much as we read. Guided practice is particularly useful when you are developing reading skills. This article will give you effective reading strategies that will help you improve your reading comprehension.
📚 Master Your English Reading Skills
- Read with a clear purpose: Before starting, decide if you are reading for pleasure or looking for specific data to automatically boost your speed.
- Master Skimming and Scanning: Use Skimming to grab the main idea from titles and intros, and Scanning to quickly locate names, dates, or key terms.
- Context over translation: Control the urge to translate every word; only look up a term if it completely stops you from understanding the generalmeaning.
- Engage in active reading: Connect text details to your prior knowledge to infer conclusions and keep a vocabulary journal to strengthen your accuracy daily.
Reading Strategies That Work
Skimming: The Bird’s Eye View
Before diving into every single word, skimming allows you to capture the "big picture" of a text. It’s about getting the main idea by quickly looking at titles, intros, and conclusions so you know exactly what to expect before you start a deep read.
How to practice skimming?
- Before reading the whole text, read the title, introduction and conclusion. It gives you an idea about the text.
- Then read the first and last sentence of each paragraph
Scanning The Treasure Hunt
Looking for specific information in the text. Like, name, number, specific term etc.
When you are looking for a specific name, a date, or a technical term, you don't need to read the whole page. Scanning is a high-speed technique that helps you skip irrelevant information to find exactly what you need, which is a lifesaver during time-pressured exams like the IELTS where you need to answer the reading comprehension questions without reading the entire text
How to practice scanning?
- Be clear on what is it that you are looking for, a name, address, number, scientific term, key words etc.
- Learn to skip over irrelevant information.
- Don’t read the text word to word, glance over the text roughly top to bottom.
Inferring: Reading Between the Lines
Not everything is written explicitly in a text. Inferring is like being a detective; it’s the art of using clues and your own prior knowledge to reach conclusions that the author hasn't stated directly. It’s what turns a passive reader into an active, critical thinker. For example, in a story the writer might not say that a character has a temper but there might be many scenes of character’s outburst.
How to practice inferring?
- Use prior knowledge – Connect details from text to your life to guess what is happening.
- Find proof – Whatever theory or conclusion you have, find evidence of it in the text.
Strategies to Increase Reading Speed and Accuracy
- Focus on the main idea not every word – While reading, it’s hard to continue reading even though you might not know some words. It’s important you control the urge to google or translate every word you don’t know. Excessive pausing and constant translation break the flow of reading, making you a slower reader and causing you to lose interest in the text. Only stop to look up a word if it prevents you from understanding the overall meaning.
- Read in phrases not word by word – When we read, we tend to pronounce every word in our head and that causes us to pause many times. Excessive pausing breaks the flow of reading, it’s better to chunks of sentences instead of every word.
- Stop translating every word – One thing that slows down the reading speed more than anything else is constant translating. Instead, try to get used to reading and thinking in English.
- Reduce rereading – It’s natural to want to go back and reread sentences that you don’t fully understand while reading. That one tendency makes you a slow reader and eventually makes you lose interest in the text.
- Make vocabulary journal – googling every word while reading isn’t a good strategy but writing down 3-5 new words every day will increase your vocabulary. The more your vocabulary strengthens, the better your reading speed and accuracy will get.
- Read with purpose – Be clear on why are you reading? Is it for pleasure? Is it for finding specific details or information? Etc. Knowing the purpose to reading instantly increases your reading speed.
Conclusion
Mastering reading comprehension is not about knowing every single word in a dictionary, but about being strategic with how you process information. By applying techniques like skimming, scanning, and inferring, you can transform a frustrating reading experience into an efficient and rewarding one. Remember that consistency is key; starting with short, interesting texts and gradually increasing the difficulty will build your confidence and your vocabulary naturally.
At Canadian College, we understand that every learner has unique challenges. That’s why our courses offer expert feedback to help you refine these strategies and reach your language goals faster. Start practicing today and watch how your reading speed and accuracy reach a new level!
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
How can I improve my reading comprehension?
The best way to improve your reading comprehension is to form daily habit of reading in English. Starting with reading short text and then gradually moving to reading long texts.
Does reading in English helps in learning new Vocabulary?
It does. Especially if you make efforts to remember and practice new words you come across.
What types of text should I read as a beginner in English?
You should start with short texts on topics that you find interesting like short news articles, sports or art themed texts.
Why is reading comprehension important in English?
Reading is an important language skill without which it’s difficult to understand English well.
References:
- Cambridge English. (2024). The benefit of immersive language-learning experiences and how to create them
- University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. (2024). Reading Strategies: Skimming and Scanning.
- Purdue Global. (2024). 10 Tips to Improve Your Reading Comprehension for College.
- Journal of Linguistics, Literature and Language Teaching. (2023). Effectiveness of skimming and scanning in enhancing TOEFL reading skills.
.svg){kind=small}
