1. Understanding and Improving Reading Skill Monday, 28-09-09 A book is like a garden carried in the pocket. (Chinese Proverb)

2. A) Understanding Reading

3. What is reading? Reading is the ability to draw meaning from the printed page and interpret this information appropriately (Grabe & Stoller 2002:9). The cognitive process of understanding a written linguistic message. Reading is a multifaceted process involving word recognition, comprehension and fluency.

4. What is fluent reading? A rapid process An efficient process An interactive process A purposeful process A flexible process A comprehending process A learning process A linguistic process

5. Purposes of reading For pleasure For practice For simple information For writing For learning and memorizing For critiquing Etc

6. Types of reading Scanning (looking for specific information) Skimming (a bird’s eye view) Inferring (guessing and predicting what can be the next)

7. B) Improving reading

8. Activity Scanning, Skimming, Inferring Now read the title of the story and predict what it is about THE SILENT COUPLE Read the following lines and do inferring Once upon a time there was a newly married couple; still dressed in their wedding finery, they relaxed in their new home when the last of the guests at their feast had left. ‘Dear husband’, said the young lady, ‘please go and close the door to the street, which has been left open’. ‘Me shut it?’ said the groom. ‘A bridegroom in this splendid costume, with a priceless robe and a dagger studded with jewels? How could I be expected to do such a thing? You must be out of your mind. Go and shut it yourself.’ ‘So!’ Shouted the bride, ‘you expect me to be your slave: a gentle beautiful creature like me, wearing a dress of finest silk – that I should get up on my wedding day and close a door which looks onto the public street? Impossible.’

9. …continued Now read all the paragraphs before the concluding one and guess conclusion They were both silent for a moment or two, and the lady suggested that they should make the problem the subject of a forfeit. Whoever spoke first, they agreed, should be the one to shut the door. There were two sofas in the room and the pair settled themselves, face to face, one on each, sitting mutely looking at one another. They had been in this posture for two or three hours when a party of thieves came by and noticed that the door was open. The robbers crept into the silent house, which seemed so deserted and began to help themselves to every portable object of any value they could find.

10. …continued The bridal couple heard them come in but each thought the other would attend to the matter. Neither of them spoke or moved as the burglars went from room to room, until at length they entered the sitting room and at first failed to notice the utterly motionless couple. Still the couple sat there, while the thieves collected all the valuables, and even rolled up carpets under them. Mistaking the idiot and his stubborn wife for wax dummies, they stripped them of their personal jewels and still the couple said nothing at all.

11. …continued The thieves made off, and the bride and her groom sat on their sofas throughout the night. Neither would give up. When the daylight came, a policeman on his beat saw the open street door and walked into the house. Going from room to room, he finally came upon the pair and asked them what was happening. Neither man nor wife deigned to reply. The policeman called in reinforcements and the swarming custodians of law became more and more enraged at the total silence, which to them seemed a calculated affront.

12. …continued The officer in charge at last lost his temper and called out to one of his men: ‘Give that man a blow or two, and get some sense out of him!’ Conclusion At this the wife could not restrain herself: ‘please, kind officers’ she cried, ‘do not strike him – he is my husband!’ ‘I won!’ shouted the fool immediately, ‘so you have to shut the door!’

13. Read in context No bicycles!

14. Reading: from strategy to skill Driving Automaticity comes through the practice of thousands of hours Read things of your interest for the practice purpose

15. Some reading strategies Specifying a purpose for reading Previewing the text Predicting the contents of the text Posing questions about the text Finding answers to posed questions Connecting text to background knowledge Making inferences

16. …continued Linking one part of the text to another Paying attention to text structure Rereading Guessing the meaning of a new word from context Critiquing the author Critiquing the text Reflecting on what has been learnt from the text

17. Conclusion Reading How to improve it Home task