Reading Skills

Reading Skills Skimming Scanning Reading for detailed information Inferring meaning from context

Skimming or Skim-reading What is it? It means to look through the text quickly to get the main ideas. Australia is one popular country for international students to study. If you stay with an Australian family, there will be some cultural differences that you may find confusing or surprising. The first thing to learn if you study in Australia is that Australia is a multicultural society, where there are many families from different backgrounds who have settled in Australia. This means that families may have many different ways of thinking and doing things. What can be said about the red words?

Tips for Skimming Academic Texts Look at the section headings and subheadings. Read the opening paragraph. Look at diagrams or illustrations and their captions. Read the abstract at the beginning of an article (if their is one). Read the summary (conclusion) at the end. Keep your eyes in the center of the page as this will enable you to read more quickly. DO NOT try to read every word.

Example A good example of skimming is when you don’t have much time to read the newspaper, so you quickly look through it, just reading the headlines to see what the main news items are. Then you get an idea of the items you want to come back and read later when you have more time.

Scanning What is it? It means to look through the text to find a specific piece of information.

Examples: Looking for a name in a phone book Looking for a specific ingredient Looking for the date of an event This is a necessary skill in academic reading. For example, if you need to review an article you have already read to find a particular quote or reference.

Reading for Detailed Information A.K.A. Intensive Reading When reading, you need to be able to understand: the vocabulary the syntax (grammatical structures) the discourse (the language of the piece) If you experience difficulty when reading, you may have a problem with one of these.

Inferring Meaning from Text An important skill you should try to develop rather than always reaching for your dictionary. Try to guess the meaning of unknown vocabulary from the context. Consider how crucial the unknown word is to the overall comprehension of the text. The advantages are improved fluency and speed!

Questions to Ask Yourself Before You Read Why am I reading this? What kind of information do I need? What kind of reading strategy should I use?