READING SKILL
TYPES OF READING TECHNIQUES
“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body,” said English author Joseph Addison.
As you need exercise to build your physical strength, you need to read to build your mental muscles.
People read for a variety of reasons—to pass time, to seek answers, or to clear their heads.
Whatever their reasons for reading, it is a great way of exercising the brain and improving communication skills. You can choose the right type depending on objective.
The four main types of reading techniques are the following:
- Skimming
- Scanning
- Intensive
- Extensive
Skimming
Skimming is sometimes referred to as gist reading where you’re trying to glance over the material to grasp the main idea.
The way you do this is to read the first and last paragraph and check for any dark headings.
Skimming may help in order to know what the text is about at its most basic level.
You might typically do this with a magazine or newspaper and would help you mentally and quickly shortlist those articles which you might consider for a deeper read.
You might typically skim to search for a name in a telephone directory.
Skimming Saves Your Time
Skimming will certainly save you a lot of time as you grasp the main idea of whatever you are reading, but do not expect your comprehension to be high during the process.
However, skimming is useful when your goal is to preview the text to get a better idea of what it’s about. It will help prepare you for deeper learning.
Definition : As learning expert and author Pat Wyman says in her online course, Total Recall Learning™ for Students skimming is a terrific idea to get an overview and mental picture in your mind which will help improve your memory.
This strategy makes it much easier to recall what you’re about to read.
- Take a look at the table of contents first.
- Review the subheadings in each chapter
- Quickly read the first paragraph in that section
- Check out anything in your text that is in bold or italics
- If there is a chapter summary, now is a good time read it over.
This completely prepares your brain to have an overview of what this chapter is about.
You can then go on to use scanning to find specific important ideas.
Scanning is commonly used in everyday life, for example when looking up a word in a dictionary or finding your friend’s name in the contacts directory of your phone.
Skimming example of newspaper skimming is speed reading for cursory overview for general information. Going through an entire newspaper quickly through the headlines is an example of skimming. Going through a data-table quickly to elicit an overall idea of the topic on which data is presented is an example of a skimming technique of reading. Do not expect a deep comprehension of the written text after skimming. Reading only the headings of chapters is skimming.
SCANNING:
Imagine if you went to the Louvre museum only to see the Mona Lisa. You’d quickly walk through all the corridors and rooms merely glancing at the walls until you found it. Scanning is quite similar to that.
It is one of those kinds of reading where you read to search for a particular piece of information. Your eyes quickly skim over the sentences until you find it.
You can use this method when you don’t need to go deep into the text and read every word carefully. Scanning involves rapid reading and is often used by researchers and for writing reviews.
Scanning
Scanning is considered as a helping hand in reading texts that are heavy and need to be searched upon. This works like the Ctrl+F command and is assisted by the keywords to be searched in the given text. Scanning is Rapid Reading with importance in research and preparing reviews. For students, it works as a ‘bullet way’ to locate answers to specific questions. Scanning, basically, works to find answers to the-Wh Questions like What-When-Where-Who and Why.
It is simple to understand the meaning of the term itself. It attempts to get specific information and scans through the available texts.
Uses of scanning:
Picture yourself visiting a historical city, guide book in hand.
You would most probably just scan the guide book to see which site you might want to visit.
Scanning involves getting your eyes to quickly scuttle across sentence and is used to get just a simple piece of information. You’ll be searching for specific words or phrases that will give you more information and answer questions you may have.
Interestingly, research has concluded that reading off a computer screen actually inhibits the pathways to effective scanning and thus, reading of paper is far more conducive to speedy comprehension of texts.
Something students sometimes do not give enough importance to is illustrations.
These should be included in your scanning. Pay special attention to the introduction and the conclusion.
SCANNING EXAMPLES:
Imagine if you went to the Louvre museum only to see the Mona Lisa. You’d quickly walk through all the corridors and rooms merely glancing at the walls until you found it. Scanning is quite similar to that.
It is one of those kinds of reading where you read to search for a particular piece of information. Your eyes quickly skim over the sentences until you find it.
You can use this method when you don’t need to go deep into the text and read every word carefully. Scanning involves rapid reading and is often used by researchers and for writing reviews.
Scanning is reading with a specific purpose in mind for specific information. When one reads an entire text/document quickly while looking for specific information, it is called scanning. For example: Going through an entire newspaper and looking for specific news related to the India-Pakistan cricket match. You scanned to get specific information about Delhi University admissions and cut-offs.
Intensive Reading
Among the different types of reading skills, intensive reading is used when you want to read carefully by paying complete attention to understand every word of the text. It is where you would examine and decipher each unfamiliar word or expression.
As the term states, intensive means in-depth. This reading method is especially used when reading academic texts, where the goal is to prepare for an exam or to publish a report. This method helps retain information for much longer periods.
USES OF INTENSIVE READING:
You need to have your aims clear in mind when undertaking intensive reading.
Remember this is going to be far more time consuming than scanning or skimming.
If you need to list the chronology of events in a long passage, you will need to read it intensively.
This type of reading has indeed beneficial to language learners as it helps them understand vocabulary by deducing the meaning of words in context.
It moreover, helps with retention of information for long periods of time and knowledge resulting from intensive reading persists in your long term memory.
This is one reason why reading huge amounts of information just before an exam does not work very well.
Students tend to do this, and they undertake neither type of reading process effectively, especially neglecting intensive reading.
They may remember the answers in an exam but will likely forget everything soon afterwards.
Extensive reading
Extensive reading involves reading for pleasure.
Because there is an element of enjoyment in extensive reading it is unlikely that students will undertake extensive reading of a text they do not like.
It also requires a fluid decoding and assimilation of the text and content in front of you.
If the text is difficult and you stop every few minutes to figure out what is being said or to look up new words in the dictionary, you are breaking your concentration and diverting your thoughts.
Extensive reading is one of the methods of reading that people use for relaxation and pleasure. Adopt this method when the purpose is to enjoy the reading experience. It places no burden upon the reader and due to its indulgent nature, it is seldom used if the text isn’t enjoyable.
This is one of the methods of reading that occurs naturally. It’s how you’ve read as a child and while growing up.
This method of reading helps you understand words in context and enriches your vocabulary.
Example:
Because there is an element of enjoyment in extensive reading it is likely that students will pick up a magazine and flip through the pages. They take in, only the headings or the pictures to get a broad idea of what the magazine covers.
criTICAL READING:
Among the different types of reading strategies, critical reading has a special place. Here, the facts and information are tested for accuracy. You take a look at the ideas mentioned and analyze them until you reach a conclusion.
You would have to apply your critical faculties when using this method. Critical reading is often used when reading the news on social media, watching controversial advertisements, or reading periodicals.
Conclusion:
Various types of reading leads to different outcomes. Choosing the right one can be instrumental in furthering your goals. Further, diversifying your reading habits to include different types of reading will enable you to become a better writer and speaker. Improving your communication skills will enable you to convey your ideas with precision and clarity. It’s not always easy to get your point across. But reading gives you the power to understand multiple perspectives. Building a reading habit can be effective in the short and long run.
English Study Material 