浅谈大学英语阅读技巧.pdf

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1、Abstract Reading is one of the four important skills in English as asecond or foreign language.It is also a skill that the students need topossess to support independent and self-directed learning.With theInformation Ages arrival,the English materials gradually change frompaper materials to electron

2、ic ones.So,it becomes more and moreimportant for English majors to speed up their reading in order to acquireas much information as possible.Thus,fostering a good English readinghabit is essential for students.And being able to adopt different readingskills for different reading materials and purpos

3、es will also help thestudents read more effectively.The paper mainly concerns some Englishreading skills and discusses how to foster good English reading habits forcollege students.Key Words characteristics;English reading;make notes;foster theEnglish reading habits浅谈大学英语阅读技巧【摘 要】阅读是学习第二外语的必须掌握的四项基本

4、技能之一，也是大学生用于自学须掌握的学习策略和技巧。随着信息时代的到来，英语阅读材料渐渐由传统的纸质材料向电子读物转变，提高英语专业学生的阅读速度尽可能多的获取信息变的越来越重要。因此学生有必要养成良好的英语阅读习惯。学生能对不同的英语阅读材料和不同的阅读目的采用不同的阅读方法，也将有助于他们更加有效的阅读。本文主要叙述一些与大学生相关的英语阅读技巧，并且讨论了如何养成良好的英语阅读习惯。【关键词】特点；英语阅读；做笔记；培养英语阅读习惯1.IntroductionAs reading is a part of academic literacy,English teachers usuall

5、yhave high expectations of a students ability to cope with the demands ofreading in English.Most college students wish to read more books.Reading is a way for college students to be more knowledgeable andsuccessful.However,it is also an activity that many college studentsdont enjoy very much.To succ

6、eed at schools,students need to possess arange of strategies and skills that support self-directed learning.Traditionally,many of these strategies and skills,some of which arehighly generic,are not explicitly taught to students in the expectation thatstudents either already have these skills,or will

7、 naturally acquire anddevelop these skills in their course of study.In order to improve thecollege students5 ability of English reading,we should answer thefollowing questions:What are the English reading habits of students?How to become an effective reader?How to foster the English readinghabits?2.

8、The characteristics of college studentsWith the development of society,science and technology develop athigh speed and the competition in the society become sharp.Studies inthe past have shown that the exam-oriented educational system promotesrote learning,and so that there needs to be a paradigm sh

9、ift in how thecollege students view education and about the way they learn.Mostcollege students read English materials only to pass exams and do notread for pleasure.However,the situation changes now.In order tobecome well-learnt people that the society needs,most college studentslong for extensive

10、English reading,hoping to do preparation for the futurejob by this way.At the same time,the purposes of college students are tocomplete the studies and to obtain good results.In order to adapt to thedemands of society and school,college students treat seeking knowledgeas the first duty.They relate t

11、hemselves to the society closely,hoping toenrich themselves through reading and become the learned persons whocan face the challenges of the society.Therefore,the motivation of themajority of college students is definite.It is also obvious that the Englishreading materials gradually change from the

12、paper materials to theelectronic reading materials.The Internet that opens another window forthe college students becomes the most convenient tool for collegestudents to get information.Now the serious problem is that collegestudents can read on some level,but many do not read effectively.Inother wo

13、rds,many college students take it for granted that they couldunderstand concepts or lessons by memorizing the English words andinformation rather than understanding the ideas that are expressed by thewords.Consequently,information is retained mainly for the purpose ofpassing an exam;memorization is

14、mistaken for learning.3.Effective English reading strategiesBecause a large portion of time at schools is spent on working withwritten sources,and because there are lots of English materials to becovered in a short amount of time,it is essential that reading behaviors ofEnglish majors should be both

15、 purposeful and efficient.Reading istalking and discussing with the reader himself,with the author and others.So as the readers,the first thing for the readers do is to accumulateinformation before reading.To ensure the good results of reading,thecollege students also need to develop effective readi

16、ng strategies.Knowing how to read effectively involves accumulating backgroundinformation before reading,selecting the English materials,understanding the structure of texts,how to read for different purposes,and how to reflect on your reading.3.1 Accumulating background information before reading4R

17、eading is a receptive language process.It is a psycholinguistic processin that it starts with a linguistic surface representation encoded by a writerand ends with meanings that the reader constructs.There is thus anessential interaction between language and thought in reading.The writerencodes thoug

18、hts as language and the reader encodes the language tothought/5 Reading is not passive but active,and in fact an interactiveprocess that has been recognized for some time in first or native languagereading.l In the English reading,it is a process that needs not only thecollege students5 active parti

19、cipation,predication and informationprocessing,but also their prior experience and background knowledge.Language is a part of culture and also the carrier and the container ofculture.Language and culture is closely related,each influencing andshaping the other.To learn a foreign language implies to

20、learn the culturein which it is spoken.2 Reading is a kind of verbal communication.The readers communicate with the author(s)through the text.In this way,culture factors are inherent to the reading act and therefore influence thereaders control over the input(Byra met al 1994)”.In the readingprocess

21、,we cannot understand or interpret a text without the influence ofour previous social experience and social context in which the readingtakes place.The text we read,the topic we are interested in as well as theway we approach are culturally constructed(Kress,1989).5,3JThe cultural factors play an im

22、portant role in the process of Englishreading.Some cultural factors cause problems in reading directly so as toconfuse college students and hinder their understanding.Other culturemisunderstandings may dangle in their mind and prevent them fromgrasping the real meaning.4 Culture and language are clo

23、sely related toeach other.As one way of communication,reading English materialsreflect cultural differences through the language in written form.Thereaders should aware the cultural differences and try their best toaccumulate background knowledge of all sorts.So the first piece ofadvice that will be

24、 given here is to do as much reading as the studentscan.College students in the school can make use of the library resourcesto support their study and self-learning.The kinds of resources includeEnglish books,English journal articles,English magazines,etc.,as wellas a wide range of library services.

25、Now thousands of books,magazines,journal articles and newspapers have electrical versions.It is no doubtthat the college students task will be much easier if they know somewebsites they really want to find online.3.2 Improving your English reading strategies3.2.1 Choice readingChoice reading is very

26、 important.Actually it is a process of selectingEnglish materials.The reader should clearly recognize the classificationof the English books and should certainly know which type of Englishbook he is reading.It is best if the reader know his purpose of readingbefore reading starts.It means that the r

27、eader should turn his attention topractical goals.To receive the information,the reader can read not onlythe book title,the subtitle,the table of contents,but also the authorspreface,the abstract introduction and the index.These are all theinformation that authors want to transmit to the reader.Acco

28、rding tothese clues,the college students can choose different types of Englishreading materials with the different demands.The college students shouldalso be aware that different reading skills should be adopted when theEnglish reading material are different.3.2.2 How to select English sourcesIn ord

29、er to get useful information,the college students had betteranswer the following two questions:How well those English sourcesmeet the purpose of reading?How reliably the author presents those ideasand information in the book?The college students have better read thingsthey are interested in so that

30、the hard work required for comprehensionwill seem much more pleasurable.Also,the college students will bemuch more eager to understand what they are reading,not only as ameans to improve their reading comprehension,but also as a meansto better understand the interesting subject-matter.The process of

31、selecting an English source includes examining its publisher,its referenceand its author(s).Depending on the readers purpose of reading,it canalso involve assessing timeliness.Some ways of selecting English sourcesare follows:(i)Pay more attention to the timelinessWhen a book is published,it always

32、has a special social background.For example,if a reader wants to find some information about computers,hed better check the materials published after 1940s.(ii)Evaluating the publisher of an English bookExperienced readers may have some information about a bookspublisher.He may know the book that is

33、 published by an individual,anorganization or government agency.Generally speaking,authors andpublishers usually have a bias about a particular topic or issue.When thepublisher is a scholarly or professional journal,the reader can often gainan understanding of what kinds of articles it publishes by

34、looking over thecontents of several issues of the journal or by reading a few of the articlesfound within it.It is very important for the English majors to know somefamous publishers of the English-speaking countries.(iii)Evaluating the relevance of an English bookIf a reader reads with a definite p

35、urpose,such as for a research project,he should have a look at the relevance firstly.Relevance is the extent towhich a source provides information that person can use in evaluating thematerials.There are several ways to determine whether the informationpresented in a scholarly or professional journa

36、l article is likely to berelevant to the readers reading purpose.There are two main strategies tohelp the reader to determine whether the article is relevant to readers5needs and interests.An abstract-a brief description of the article and itsresults-often appears at the beginning of the article.Whe

37、n an abstract isnot used,an articles introduction often provides similar information.(iv)Evaluating the author(s)of an English bookIn order to get a better understanding of a book,the reader had betterknow the author(s)as much as possible.No matter what kind of book thereader chooses to read,its imp

38、ortant to know its author or authors.Mostscholarly or professional journal articles contain a short biographical noteabout the author of an article.If these biographical notes have not beenincluded and the reader would like to learn more about them,he mightconsider searching for each author on the n

39、et.An increasing number ofauthors have created home pages on which they list information aboutthemselves,such as their educational background,professionalexperience,and interests.”53.3 The process of English readingIf the readers face with a difficult and complex English text,or if they donot read e

40、ffectively under normal circumstances,the readers can improvethe way of reading by being more purposeful in the approach to reading.Think of reading as a three-stage process that consists of:(1)Plan for English reading(2)English reading(3)Reflection3.3.1 Planning for English readingPlanning for Engl

41、ish reading will help the reader to give the reading afocus.The reader can do preparation of reading by asking the followingquestions:What does the reader wants to get out of reading this English text?Are there any ideas that should be taken into English reading?Why has this particular English text

42、been selected?Can the English text be subdivided into sections to read?What has skim reading told the reader about the English text?3.3.2 English readingWhen a reader reads,the reader is looking at the communication ofsome kind of meaning in a structure.Since writers choose to organizematerial in a

43、particular way,the reader needs to be able to see thisstructure in the text.In texts ideas are built up from sentence toparagraph to whole text;ideas and concepts tend to be developed fromparts or segments to a whole.The uses of reading focus attention onauthors as readers,on the use of sources,and

44、on the art of reading as awriter.,6J Understanding the structure of an English text will help thecollege students to know how to read it.There are two main aspects of structure.(1)The development of ideas in sentences and paragraphs;(eg,someauthors show their main viewpoints in the first or last sen

45、tence)(2)The development of the argument.Once a focus has been developed for reading,how the college studentsread a particular English text depending on the nature and structure of theEnglish text.The following are some useful guiding principles that thestudent had better keep in mind.(1)Identify th

46、e starting point of the writers argument-usually this willbe found in the first or second paragraph.(2)Remember that English follow rules of grammar.By understandingthe rules that govern speech,the reader can eliminate some falseconclusions and gain a better understanding of what is being said.(3)Se

47、e if the reader can detect any assumptions the writer has made,orthe start of a particular method of argument.(4)Identify important,or central,ideas(or any stated principles)inparagraphs as the reader reads them.(If there is more than one,try towork out which is the most important or central);(5)Eva

48、luate the evidence that has been presented in support of ideas orprinciples,and decide whether the evidence is relevant,persuasive,andconvincing;(6)Assess whether the conclusions are justified on the basis of theevidence that has been presented.After the reader has read carefully through the English

49、 text in full,assuggested above,make some brief notes on:(1)the understanding of the English text;(2)the preliminary response to the ideas and arguments that have beenpresented.In the process of reading an English essay,the college students shouldtry to read without stopping when meeting unfamiliar

50、words and phrases.The college students can underline the new words and look them up in adictionary after finishing.If reading is often interrupted,the collegestudents will find that it is very difficult to create an understanding of awhole text.Generally speaking,reading interruption has the opposit