Efficient reading

【Abstract】 The paper is introducing some ways to teach the reading lessons， mainly about six stages in the reading lessons.

【Key words】reading skills； Efficient reading

【作者簡介】郭琴琴，浙江省臺州市金清中學。

Reading is one of the most important ways to get information. In the same time， someone can get much information， but someone cant.

In traditional views， there are three basic steps of teaching a reading lesson： 1.Pre-reading： the aim of this step is to arouse the students interest in the topic or type of the text， motivate students to read. 2.While-reading： focus on the explanation of the text， help them understand the context and become efficient readers with their own reading strategies and skills. 3.Post-reading： not directly connected with the text， but usually “grows out” of it. One is to consolidate or reflect on what students read， the other is to connect the text with students own knowledge， interests， views etc.

But in my view， the ability of reading is more active. When practicing reading， many readers are very rigid in their speed of reading， and they read anything at the same speed. This is very inefficient. Abstracting the organization and main ideas is invaluable for general comprehension.

There are six stages of reading development.

1. Stage one： Introduction. The introduction will be short or long dependent on the age of students and the intensive or non-intensive course. Reading integrates language study. At this stage， reading is linked with listening， speaking， pronunciation and writing.

2. Stage two： Familiarization. Rearrangement and recombination of materials. Recombination may be situational dialogues.

3. Stage three： Acquiring reading techniques. Simple narrative and conversation materials can develop an uncomplicated and entertaining theme. Unfamiliar words can deduce from illustrations cognates.

4. Stage four： Practice. Practice students reading skill with a wider range of language. After this stage， they can read more complex text with more vocabulary.

5. Stage five： Expansion. Students are encouraged to discuss the materials with their aesthetic appreciation， imagination and power of judgment and discriminative reasoning. Students learn to scan information， read with careful attention and extract the major ideas and arguments. Students can get some experience in translating English into their native language. Reading is also related to listen， write and speak. When they read an interesting material， then can give a presentation to share with their classmates. Teachers can help students to find more diversified materials from journals.

After stage five， students still need help in more difficult material in English. For instance， student often cannot identify the essential differences between the common logical connecting， such as “however， nevertheless， yet， in any case， besides， furthermore， more ever.” Such words are indispensable for understanding the thoughts and for drawing implications. Teachers should find suitable poems， stories， essays， scenes from plays and short novels to attract students to practice reading.

6. Stage six： independence. Students who have reached this stage should be encouraged to develop an independent reading program depending on their own special interest. They should be able to express their own opinions to the teachers. Independent study for higher level students can better motivate themselves.

In the reading lessons， building and maintaining an adequate vocabulary， integrating the language skills improve reading speed. At stage two or three， over-head projector can be used to encourage reading， at three or four， reading a certain number of pages in a limited time can make a pre-established comprehension criterion. In practicing reading， scanning is a useful skill. Students are encouraged to find as many answers as possible to a question. Stage four to six is to practice students reading independently.

References：

[1]Mary S.temperly[J].Wilgn M.river.

[2]A practical guide to the teaching of English as a second or foreign language[J].

[3]Edward B.Fry Ph.D Reading skills[J].