READING SKILLS

Laboratorium Bahasa
UPM SOSHUM ITS

Introduction
Comprehension is part of life.
Every waking minute our brain is busy
making sense of our world.
In reading process the brain tells the eyes
what to look for in order to make
connections.
Knowing and practising reading skills help
improve reading comprehension.

1. Scanning :for a specific

Scanning is a fast-paced reading skill
focus

Used for locating specific information i.e., a

phone number in a directory, a word in the
dictionary, a date or year in a text, certain TV
program in a TV program directory, and so on.
Information can be obtained from a text
without reading every word.
Readers should not try to read the entire
passage carefully.

2. Skimming
Skimming is very fast-paced reading.
Skimming aims to obtain an overview of
the form and contents of the text, e.g. the
writers main point, style, focus, point of
view, the overall organization of the
material, and how the text relates to the
needs, background knowledge, and
interests of the reader.

Skimming: for getting the gist

of something
The technique you use when
you're going through a newspaper
or magazine: you read quickly to
get the main points, and skip over
the detail.

It's useful to skim:

to preview a passage before you read it in
detail
to refresh your understand of a passage
after you've read it in detail

3. Previewing
Previewing is a high-speed reading skill.
To hypothesize about the information from
the text and to match new information with
what is already known.
Example: before we decide to read a
book, we read the front and back covers,
the table of contents, the authors name,
the number of page and other features.

The common steps are:

Read the title.

Look at any pictures.
Notice if the text is divided into parts.
Read the first sentence of each paragraph.
Read the last paragraph or at least the last
sentence.
Notice names, numbers, dates, and words
that stand out.

4. Predicting
Predicting is done before reading and is usually
unconsciously.
Aim: to guess what will be in the passage.
When you predict you find:
What kind of text you will read. Is it a newspaper article,
a story, an advertisement, a textbook, a brochure, a
recipe, a letter, or what?
What you already know about what you will read
How carefully you want to read it. Will you read to
remember every word? Will you scan, for one or two
pieces of information? Will you read for pleasure, with no
need to remember?

5. Topic Sentence
The topic tells you what the author is writing about.
Learning to identify topics helps us to:
- see the connection between a text and previously
formed schemata
- notice how the details in the text relate to each other.
In some paragraphs, the topic is stated in one sentence
(the topic sentence).
A topic sentence usually appears at the beginning of a
paragraph, but may occur in other places as well.
If you can find the topic sentence quickly, you can read
the whole paragraph much faster and you can
understand it better.

6. Main Idea
The main idea is the idea which the author
wishes to express about the topic.
Other names the central idea, central
focus, controlling idea, or main point
Reading for main ideas makes it possible
for the reader to recognize what is
important and what can be skipped over in
a text.

7. Text Organization:
7.1 Generalization/Detail (Listing of
related ideas)
Often the author lists a few facts about a
topic, perhaps to explain a main idea,
support an opinion, or give some evidence
about a general statement.
Writers often use special signal words to
let the reader know how the text is
organized.

7.2 Time Order (Chronology,

Sequence, Process)
With a Time Order pattern, the writer tells about
some events in the order in which they
happened.
Time order signal words:
first, next, soon, after, at last, finally, dates, last,
later, before, while, then, times during,
afterwards, right away, later on, in the meantime,
in the beginning, eventually, at the end, not long
after, immediately.

7.3 Comparison and Contrast

Comparison: Writers sometimes want to

compare two things. They want to explain how
the two things are alike and how they are
different.
Contrast: Sometimes a writer wants to explain
only how two things are different.
Signals of likeness: like, as in, in the same
way, similarly, both, also.
Signals of differences: however, but, rather,
yet, conversely, instead, different from, in
contrast to, although, bigger than, on the other
hand.

7.4 Cause Effect.

This is the pattern used to show how one event
or condition is caused by another.
In many situations, there is not just a single
cause and a single effect. A single cause can
produce many effects and sometimes a single
effect is the result of several causes.
Sometimes a single cause leads to a single
effect which leads to another effect and another
(chain reaction)

8. Making inference

Sometimes the topic of a text may not be

stated anywhere directly.
You must look for clues and try to guess
what the passage is about. This is called
making an inference.

9. Summarizing
Summarizing is the retelling of the
important parts of a passage in a much
shorter form.
Good summary:
- includes the main ideas and the major
supporting points.
- does not include minor details, repeated
details, or the readers opinions.

Summarizing rules:
1. Delete unnecessary material information that is trivial.
2. Delete material that is important but redundant.
3. Substitute a superordinate term for a list of items. If a text contains
a list such as chair, table, desk, substitute the word furniture.
4. Substitute an encompassing action for a list of subcomponents of
that action. For example, John went to London may be substituted
for John left the house. He went to the train station. He bought a
ticket.
5. Select a topic sentence. The topic sentence, if there is one, usually
is the authors summary of the paragraphIf there is no topic
sentence, invent your own.
6. Determine the overall pattern of organization of the text. Is it a
comparison? A chronology? An analysis of a process? An
explanation of causes and effects? An argument?