Think about it! When you are reading a book, a summary, a paper, or an article in English, most certainly you don’t read every word and understand it in your main language, right?
This is because reading in English is no different from reading in your mother tongue. You know it is not necessary to read and understand all the words to grasp the meaning of what you are reading. The skills you require to read English are exactly the same as the ones you need to read in your native language.
There are four main techniques that will enhance your reading skills no matter the language. Use them and practice them extensively and before you know it, you will be reading in English, or any other language, like a native. Here they are:
1. Skimming You use skimming to quickly grasp the main idea of the text. What you do is basically run your eyes down the text gathering the important information. This is a great practice when you need to rapidly understand what’s going on at a business meeting, since skimming does not require that you understand every single word that is written. Normally, skimming is a practice that is widely used while reading the newspaper, to get the news fast; magazines, to identify articles that may interest you; or brochures, to grasp the main information quickly.
2. Scanning You scan a text to find a specific piece of information. The same as when skimming, you must run your eyes down the text to find what specifically interests you. People normally scan schedules and meeting plans, among others, to identify specific information they need. Scanning is also common when watching TV, and train or plane schedules, as well as convention handbooks. While scanning, forget about words or phrases that you don’t get; these don’t matter right away.
3. Broad reading This aspect of reading is practiced for pleasure and general understanding of the text. You immerse yourself in the extensive reading of long texts as a leisure activity or for professional reasons. Broad reading increases your knowledge on a subject. Business people and students apply this practice when reading books related to their field, interesting novels, or specialized magazines.
4. Thorough reading This is the concentrated aspect of reading, the one that allows you to understand something in detail. Thorough reading is used in short texts to comprehend very specific information. It requires lots of attention to be able to understand it completely. To grasp every detail, you must understand every single word, phrase, and number, like when reading reports, insurance claims or contracts.
As in any other skill, fast and effective reading is developed with practice. The more you read, the faster and more perceptive you get; words start to become familiar, phrases start to make sense, and you start to feel you are finally mastering the English language, with the help of your ESL program and your determination to make it to the top!
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