[Abstract] Reading is a basic ability in learning English. No matter what purposes the reader have, such as finding materials, getting information or chatting on line, the reader will have to connect with English compositions more frequently in all aspects of the daily life. A lot of specialists have studied how to improve reading skills in many aspects. This paper analyzes three aspects of it. In the course of reading, scanning and skimming are good skills that help us to get the main ideas of the compositions. Besides, vocabulary is an important factor and we can guess or infer the meaning of some new words and difficult words through the word structure and context clues. Also, culture factors are essential, for they affect our thinking judgment. So long as we master the useful skills, we will increase our reading speed and comprehension.
[Key Words] scanning; skimming; guessing word; cultural factors
【摘要】阅读是英语学习中的一个基本的技能。人们有更多的机会接触到英语文章，无论是查阅资料，获取信息，还是娱乐休闲，上网聊天，人们所见到的英语文章越来越多，而文章所涉及到的范围也越来越广。很多学者已在诸多领域对如何提高阅读技能作了研究。这篇论文着重讲了三个方面。阅读过程中，略读和寻读技巧是掌握文章大意的捷径。此外，词汇是阅读中的重要因素之一。我们可以通过词的结构和情景线索来猜新词和难词。文化因素也很重要，因为它影响着我们的思维判断。掌握这些有用的技巧，我们就能提高阅读的速度与增强理解力。
【关键词】寻读；略读；猜词；文化因素
1. Introduction
With the development of society, English reading is becoming more and more popular. It is not the possession of examinations and people have more chances to read English compositions nowadays. No matter what purpose the readers have, such as finding materials, getting information or chatting on line, they will have to connect with English compositions more and more frequently in all aspects of their daily life .As one of the main international languages, English is a must important language. Considering the four aspects of English—reading, writing, speaking and listening, people do more reading. When they are reading, they will come across many problems, for example, new words, the author’s intension and so on. “Mastering reading skills will help us get more information from an article as fast as possible.”[1]R66 A lot of specialists have studied the reading skills and strategies in many aspects. Here, this paper is talking about a few reading skills that seem more important.
2. Skimming and scanning skills
Good readers use several techniques to make their reading more effective. “Students need to make their brains more absorbent by using a few simple skills such as skimming and scanning.” [2]R119 So to begin with this issue, they should know about the techniques of skimming and scanning.
2.1 Skimming
“Skimming is a way of converting materials quickly, with comprehension that may be complete enough for many purposes. One may not have the time, the interest, or the need to read many items carefully. On the other hand, it may be very useful to skim over something quickly to get the main idea, to build up one’s general background on a topic, or to satisfy one’s curiosity about the topic without spending a lot of time on it.” [3]R120 In this way, skimming means to look through a work quickly to get an overview of its contents. When they skim something that they haven’t yet read, they will be able to get the main idea of the content without having to concentrate on details. Then readers can tell quickly what they will find when they read the material more slowly and carefully.
When readers look over the daily newspaper to find out the main outlines, they are skimming. If they want to decide whether or not to read a certain magazine article, skimming it will help them decide by giving them an overall impression of the article.
To skim, readers can look for one or more of these four aids: subheadings, sentences at the beginning of paragraphs, words that are repeated, or words that appear in a special kind of type. Not everything they set out to skim will have subheadings, and not every paragraph will begin with the most important sentence. But everything they need to skim will be written, so they can use at least one of the following aids.
2.1.1 Subheadings
When readers skim several pages that have subheadings, their eyes will stop at these headings because they usually appear in a different kind of type from the text or the rest of the wording on the page, so paying attention to the subheadings will help them get an overview of what is on the pages.
2.1.2 Beginnings of Paragraphs
If there are no subheadings to guide the readers when they skim, they should look at the beginnings of paragraphs to see if these sentences give clues about the content. In textbooks or newspapers, especially, the first sentence of a paragraph tells more about it. Therefore, if they look quickly at the beginnings of the paragraphs on a page, they can often get a good idea of the content of that page.
2.1.3 Words that are repeated
One word clue to the content of material they are skimming is that the important words
are often repeated in various places on the page. If their eyes pick up those words as they
look quickly at the material they are skimming, they will know that the content of the page is probably about the words that are repeated most often.
2.1.4Words that appear in a special kind of type
.In some kinds of reading, especially in textbooks, important words are highlighted by a special kind of type (like boldface or italics). As these words seem different from the other words, they will probably catch readers’ eyes as they look quickly at the page. When they are so, the material readers are skimming will tell more about those particular words.
When one begins to practice skimming, one may find that it is not faster than normal reading. However; through practice one should be able to cover materials at two or four times the rate of normal reading with comprehension that will be enough for one’s purposes.
2.2. Scanning
“Scanning is a reading skill to find a particular point of information quickly in a text.” [4]R120Scanning is a way of looking for specific information quickly and without reading word by word or phrase by phrase. Before the readers start scanning, they need to know what information they are looking for. Then, in scanning they look for the words or phrases that give them the needed information. Sometimes they read in order to answer a question. When they come to the information, they may slow down their reading speed and read the passage to make sure they have found the right information or to see if they want to start reading more carefully at that point.
Scanning is very useful for readers to scan the text for particular bits of information they are searching for. Scanning techniques are particularly helpful when they want to consult a dictionary, looking for a certain advertisement, or finding a data or a name, when they look for the amount or the number of something, they simply look at the Arabic numerals, when they want to find the name of a person or an organization; they just scan for the words beginning with a capital letter. So scanning is quite useful for readers who want to find the exact information.
Whether readers skim or scan depends on what kind of text they are reading and what they want to get out of it. Sometimes they should use both of the two reading skills when reading a composition.
3. Guessing Skill
“Words are the building blocks of reading.” [5]R37 During the process of reading, readers will come across new words. Some of them do not affect them during reading, and then they can let them be. Fast and effective reading first asks them to “tolerant” some new words, but when they come to a key word, they need to know the meaning .Of course, they have certainly learned how to use a dictionary to help them find the meanings of words and perhaps they also know that the dictionary gives them additional information. But in my opinion, I don’t think it is a good way using a dictionary all the way and it is not convenient and the best way for them to use a dictionary everyday. Otherwise, it not only wastes their time and energy, but also slows down reading speed. Without a dictionary they still may know the meaning of the words by guessing through the following ways. And they can improve their reading skills by word analysis and context clues.
3.1Word Analysis
Many English Words are built on roots and affixes of Latin and Greek. By knowing the meanings of these word elements and understanding how they can be combined to make words, readers will be able to increase their vocabulary and become a better reader. In word analysis, they may break down the unknown words into three parts .The beginning is prefix, the middle is root, and the end is suffix. Here is an example:
Prefix root suffix
Per sist ence
(Through) (Stand) n.
Roots and affixes are the small units that can be combined in various ways to make a variety of words. Furthermore, roots and affixes are constant in meaning—they never change what they mean. For example, the word element “tri” always means “three” and the word element “able” always means “capable.” Therefore, when readers learn some of these elements, their vocabulary increase and it is also very skillful for them to guess the meaning of the words. To improve their reading skills, they should master the skill of guessing meaning and make good use of prefix and suffix.
3.1.1 Prefix
According to A comprehensive Grammar of the English Language(by Quirk etal,1985), major prefixes are classified into the following categories by their meaning：[6]R76
(ⅰ). Negative prefixes
Prefixes meaning examples
Un- not unhappy
Non- not nonsmoker
(ⅱ) pejorative prefixes
Prefixes meaning examples
Mis- wrongly mislead
Pseudo- false pseudo-democracy
(ⅲ)prefixes of degree or size
Prefixes meaning examples
Out- s surpassing outgrow
Sub- below subnormal
(ⅳ)prefixes of attitude
Prefixes meaning examples
Anti- against antislavery
(ⅴ)locative prefixes
Prefixes meaning examples
Trans- across transplant
(ⅵ)prefixes of time and order
Prefixes meaning examples
Pre- before prewar
Post- after postwar
3.1.2 Suffix
Suffix usually changes the word from one part of speech to another. It is convenient to classify them according to the word-class of the word they form. Here is a partial list of common suffixes.
(ⅰ)noun suffixes
suffixes meaning examples
-er(or) a person driver/actor
-ess female hostess
(ⅱ)verb suffixes
suffixes meaning examples
-ify turn into diversify
-ize come popularize
(ⅲ)adjective suffixes
suffixes meaning examples
-ful full of pitiful
-less without, out meaningless
Many suffixes can be added to words as endings, though they are probably not as varied as the prefixes. Many suffixes have the same or similar meanings. When added to roots they build adjectives, nouns and adverbs. Readers have probably already realized that adding the suffix “ist” or “er” or “or” or “ar” or “tor” means “a person or thing that does or makes a practice.” Therefore you know that a “dentist” is one who works on teeth, an “actor” is one who acts roles or parts, a “conductor” is one who conducts and a “lecturer” is someone who lectures.
“It is not always easy to figure out the exact meanings for words from prefixes, suffixes and roots. But knowing these word parts can help you acquire at least some idea of the meanings of many words without having to look them up in a dictionary.” [7]R26 If they are familiar with the word analyses and master the meaning and usage of the elements, they can guess the meaning of the words quickly and correctly. Besides, the skill of guessing compound words is also very useful.
3.2Compound words
Sometimes, readers will come across some words or groups of words which are expected to “go together” on account of their logical connections, such as: grass-green, school-student, hit-ball, swim-pool, etc. These compound words also can be guessed by the basic knowledge of their vocabulary.
3.3 Guessing the meaning of the unknown words from context clues.
“Determining the meaning of unknown words from context is important for a reader.” [8]R112 Context clues are words or sentences that come either before or after an unfamiliar word in a reading passage. They are hints that readers can use to determine the meaning of an unknown word. They cannot learn all the meanings of all the words they will ever need to know to improve their reading. But when they develop skills at using context clues, they will be able to figure out meanings for many words as they read. Using context clues is also another way for readers to add to their vocabulary and become more effective readers.
Writers use at least six kinds of context clues: experience, example, summary, synonym or restatement, typography and comparison and /or contrast. As readers, they need to know if the clues are used, they can spot them when they read.
3.3.1 Experience Clues
People have two kinds of experiences. Some are direct experiences. And the other kind of experiences are indirect---experiences through reading, watching television, or going to the movies. These are all learning experiences that provide clues to word meaning. Because readers know from their own experiences, they have a context to follow. “For example, we know about the chronometer and geography, customs and habits, faith, political structures and social regime, etc. of some countries, which can help us to understand the articles deeply and improve our ability of inferring or guessing the meaning of new words.” [9]R24
Example:
When my pineapple plant blooms, it develops a colorful inflorescence, which loses its flowers and turns into a fruit.
Using experience as context clue: Although readers may not know the meaning of the word “inflorescence”, they can tell from the sentence that an “inflorescence” is something that develops or appears on a plant, loses its flowers, and turns into a fruit. Probably they have never grown a pineapple plant, but their experience tells them this plant ought to be something like other fruit-bearing plants. The experience indicates that they develop flowers or blossoms that fall away and are replaced by the fruit. Therefore, by using their experience as a clue they can guess that the word “inflorescence” means “blossom.”
Experience is especially essential if the reading material is on technique or science or other professional fields. In this case the knowledge structure beyond the language will greatly contribute to the comprehension of the material .It is noticed that sometimes readers understand the linguistic information, but this understanding is superficial, and deep understanding will more or less depend on whether they have relevant information on this subject.
3.3.2 Explanation through Example
In order to clarify an important concept or make an abstract concept clear, the author usually adopts examples to make readers understand the concept in detail. The examples in the context are just the clues for the reader to infer or guess the meaning of new words.
Examples:
“(1) Mollusks, such as clams and snails, are used as food.
Think: I don’t know the word “mollusk”. But according to the sentence, examples of mollusks are clams and snails .I already know that they live in or near water. I also know that they live in shells. Therefore, “mollusks” must mean shellfish.
(2) The soldiers used all the weapons they had. For example, they used bayonets and muskets.
Think: Bayonets and muskets are examples of weapons. I know that “weapons” are used in fighting. Therefore, “bayonets” and “muskets” are used in fighting.” [10]R41
(3) Defined most broadly, folklore includes all the customs, belief and tradition that people have handed down from generation to generation.
Think: The examples following the word “include” point out the contents of “folklore”; Combined with our knowledge we can know these contents belong to which field and we can know the meaning of “folklore”.
3.3.3 Explanation through summary
Sometimes readers encounter an unknown word but they can figure out the meaning because the context supplies them with a summary; that is, the author gives readers several pieces of information in words they do understand. They can tell from the context that the unfamiliar word summarizes or ties together those statements. The word that is being explained, the unknown word, may come either before or after the information of summarizes.
Examples:
“(1) Marie was a comely girl. She had short, curly hair and big brown eyes; she was tall, slim and had perfect posture.
Analysis: The sentence following the word “comely” describes Marie and contains words that indicate someone who has good qualities. Therefore, the clues indicate that “comely” means “attractive-looking” or “pretty”.
(2) Jan’s hair was a mess; her clothes were torn; she was wet and dirty. She was totally disheveled.
Analysis: All the information in the first sentence points to a messed up or disorderly appearance. Therefore, “disheveled” must mean “in disorder” or with everything out of place.” [11]R43
(3)The war-torn village was decimated. The enemy soldiers had rounded up the men, women, and children and shot them all.
Analysis: The sentence following the word “decimate” shows us one miserable picture that everyone living in the village was killed and nobody was alive. Therefore, the clues indicate that “ decimate” means “kill” or “destroy”.
3.3.4 Synonym or restatement clues
A synonym, which is a word that means nearly the same as another word ,is one type of context clue that helps readers to determine the meanings of unfamiliar words. Sometimes an author who uses a word unfamiliar to them also writes a synonym for it, which may be done for emphasis or to make a meaning unknown word. This type of clue is sometimes called a “restatement” clue, because the synonym restates the idea.
Examples:
(1)“In some isolated regions in the world, people continue to live as they did years ago. In these areas, which are separated from the rest of country, there does not seem to be a great concern with conserving natural resources.
Analysis: The word ‘isolated’ means ‘separated from’ because the meaning of ‘isolated’ was repeated in second sentence.” [12]R30
(2) The candidate was surrounded by his followers, his adherents.
Analyses: The first part of the sentence uses familiar words. The unfamiliar word “adherents” appears after the command therefore the word that gives the meaning for it is before the comma. The clue shows the meaning of “adherents” is “followers.”
(3) It would have been easier for the parents to teach the child to use the word “bathroom” instead of “lavatory.”
Analysis: The unfamiliar word "lavatory" follows the familiar word “bathroom”. The phrase "instead of” between them shows that one word is an alternate for the other. Therefore, the meaning of "lavatory” is “bathroom”.
3.3.5 Typographical Signal Clues
Commas, dashes, and parentheses are punctuation symbols that guide readers to relationships among words. Sometimes they are also clues to give readers help about word meanings. The clue is not an independent clue but functions in relation to other clues. Although the commas, dashes or parentheses are certainly typographical signals, they may also serve as example clues, synonym clues, or others. Because this type of clue is so useful and so frequently seen, you should be in the lookout for it.
Examples:
(1) The pupils of the eyes dilate (grow larger) in the dark.
The clue: Parentheses follow the unfamiliar word “dilate”. Inside them is a definition. So the word “dilate” means “grow larger”.
(2) You must arrive punctually --on time-- for the test
The clue: The definition of the word “punctually” is given between the dashes. So “punctually” means “on time.”
(3) Jerry was ambivalent, in conflict, about what to major in at college.
The clue: The word “ambivalent” is defined by the words between the commas, so “ambivalent” means “having conflicting feelings or thoughts”.
3.3.6 Comparison and /or Contrast clues
Comparison means similarity; contrast means difference. The words are usually used together because contrast can exist only where there are some elements of similarity. When a comparison clue is used, a reader can understand the meaning of unknown word by determining how it is similar to a word already known. A contrast clue gives the reader information about how the unknown word differs from an idea expressed in familiar words.
“Readers guess or infer words through antonyms. In the course of contrast, the author must use some homologous words or antonyms to make the characteristics of different thing more outstanding .We are able to infer the meaning of new words from our known or familiar words through the logic relation in the context or the description for the contrast of those different things or phenomena.” [13]R23 In addition, when showing this kind of contrast, the author will commonly use some symbol words such as “but”, “yet”, “however”, “despite”, “though”, “rather than ”,“unlike ”,“not”, “in spite of ”, “in contrast”, “though” and the co-ordinates linked by “while” etc to figure out that some word is the antonym of another one. Readers can understand or guess the meaning of new words just through these antonyms.
Examples:
(1) “Bill was good at art, music, and photography, and his brother was even more versatile.
The clue: If Bill is described as being good at art, music, and photography, he is obviously good at doing many things. Because his brother is described as even more versatile, then his brother must be even more “varied and competent” than Bill. The sentence therefore offers an example of a comparison clue provided by the writer
(2) Unlike his brother, who was friendly with everyone, Bob was quite surly.
The clue: The sentence is an example of a contrast clue because Bob is described as being surly. The word “unlike” shows that Bob is different from his brother and his brother is friendly with everyone. So surly must mean the opposite of “friendly”and therefore means ‘bad-tempered or unfriendly.’” [14]R47
(3) “Andrew is one of the most supercilious men I know .His brother, in contrast, is quite humble and modest.
The Clue: The word “supercilious” is really a difficult word. But “in contrast” shows the relationships with the following “humble and modest”, and we can venture to infer it means “not humble or modest”. [15]R23
The above context clues are important ways to help readers improve their reading skills.
Reading is not a one-way activity, but two-way activity. It is therefore an active process. Reading process is one during which the reader must think over. The purpose of reading is to grasp the meaning of the material. The readers should first follow the lead of the writer’ thoughts and master its main ideas. Only in this way, the readers will not deviate too much when guessing the meaning of words. On this basis, readers can go on their guessing in a scientific way. Besides, to expand their vocabulary, they must develop the habit of examining context. And they become better readers when they are aware of the various types of context clues –and use them to help readers figure out unfamiliar words. Instead of stopping when they come to an unknown word, or waiting for another person to define the unknown word, try using context clues and guessing skills, then try to figure out meanings for themselves.
So in my opinion, words are the basis of an essay. If readers can master the guessing skills, they can be better readers than before. Besides, they should read the compositions in an English thinking way. And they should make good use of culture factors to improve their reading skills.
4. Cultural Factors in Reading
Cultural factors play a very important part in reading. It is known that different countries have different thinking ways. While reading-compositions written in English, if readers understand the different cultures of English speaking countries and their distinguished thought, it swill help them to understand the inner meaning of the passage more easily and they can get the main idea of the passage more quickly. So first they should know the meaning of the culture.
“What is culture? Culture is a large and evasive concept. Spair (1921) says, ‘Culture may be defined as what a society does and thinks’, Kohls (1929) defines culture as an integrated system of learned behavior patterns that are characteristics of the members of any given society .According to Brown (1978), ‘culture is a collection of beliefs , habits living patterns and behaviors geographic areas’.” [16]R62 These scholars, definitions to culture show the fact that culture has wide and pervasive implications .In a word, culture means the total way of life of a person. This simple definition implies that culture refers to the patterns of customs, traditions, social habits, values, beliefs and language of a society. As culture is so inductive, it includes virtually everything that groups of people think, say, do and make.
During their reading, language is the symbol of culture. “Samovar and Porter said, ‘Language is a reflection of its culture.’ Language and culture are inseparable.” [17]R101 Language and culture are inseparable. As language reflects culture and is an important component and the carrier of it, a language learner can never master the language without being well informed about its relevant cultural background information, And also with the development of linguistics, many experts of today in view of teaching of a foreign language believe that learning a foreign language doesn’t mean merely learning its phonetics grammar and individual words, but means learning both the language and its culture.
Knowing the phonetics, grammar and vocabulary is far from enough to learn a language well. They must learn about the background information. “ Thus when learning a foreign language, we should keep in mind that learning its cultural information is not only helpful to understanding of it but also indispensable to master it. For instance, when we know the origin of Thanksgiving Day, we will have no difficulty in understanding their way of celebration with a turkey; and if we know the earlier setters from Europe in American Continent, we will find no problem of understanding the common American characteristics—seeking for freedom and individuality, etc.” [18]R101
Another example is an Indian festival Onam. When a passage refers to Onam is a festival that celebrates nature and a year of good harvest, In August or September, people keep flowers in their homes for ten days before the main day of parade of elephants, fireworks and dances .One of the most exciting events is the Onam boat race. The festival also celebrates the return of a king of an old story .In the story, the King is a very good King and his people love him. The King is so popular that the gods become jealous and send him away. To keep the people happy, the gods let the king return once a year to celebrate Onam with his people. But in China, when readers come across the boat race, they will consider it as a activity to memorize the great patriot and poet QuYuan who jumped into the river to end his life for country affairs. But in India, it just celebrates nature and good harvest or the return of a king. Knowing that the meaning of the boat race in China is different from that in India, readers can understand the composition more easily. By this way, readers can find that cultural background plays a very important role in reading.
Cultural background affects readers’ thinking, especially in reading; it determines and influences their understanding in the followings:
4.1 Cultural differences determine the right understanding of the compositions
Culture is the essential factor in understanding a text. Chinese students may fail to understand English passage because they just think in their own Chinese way. If they know the English author always writes the topic sentence first and then he gives an example to support his idea, they can get a right understanding. And they should know that in mainstream American culture, the ideal form of communication is direct rather than indirect. For this reason, English writers give the topic sentence directly at the beginning of the paragraph. This is different from Chinese way of thinking.
4.2 Cultural factors help the right understanding of the passage.
A wrong concept on a word may also hinder students from understanding, to understand a text does not mean only to know the rough idea, but the cultures that contains in the passage. The more Chinese students know the culture of the target language, the more they can understand the text.
4.3 Cultural factors influence the right understanding of the passage.
There is also some cultural knowledge that may cause confusion and hinder students from understanding the whole text. “Texts also involve some cultural differences that may confuse students when the author writes ‘you should listen with interest’, his approach to achieve this purpose is: ‘focusing your eyes on the speaker.’” [19]R62 But Chinese may take it as a pronoun.
So it can be seen that if a reader has little cultural knowledge, he is not a successful reader. Coady says that background knowledge becomes an important variable when readers notice, and that students with a western background usually learn English faster than those without such a background. “Cultural factors play an important role in the composition. Therefore, students must be aware of cultural differences and form cultural bounded schemata to facilitate reading.” [20]R62 With the effort of learning culture, they will find that reading is an easy job.
5 Conclusion
English is becoming more and more important in our daily life and reading is a basic ability in learning English. Thus readers should practice more and meanwhile try to master efficient skills. Skimming and scanning are good skills that help them get the main idea of the passage. Besides, guessing the meaning of words through word structure and context clues help them a lot while reading. At last, readers should pay more attention to foreign culture backgrounds so as to improve their reading ability.
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