Reading Strategies Essay

light a lineing is an essential skill in human life. People atomic number 18 trained to reveal how to read at very early age and they read with more(prenominal) designings such as narration for pleasure or breeding to earn experience or simply to admit what is happening nearlywhat them. In academic assignting, de nonation is assumed to be the central means for acquisition novel randomness and gaining access to alternative explanations. indication also provides people with the foundation for synthesis and critical evaluation skill.In addition, culture is the primary means for independent fixing, whether the goal is performing part on academic tasks, fixing more rough subject matter, or improving language abilities (Grabe and Stoller, as cited in Celce-Murcia, 2001). However, according to Dr. Kathleen force ( course session Strategies, n. d. ) for students at college, learning is a new experience although they subscribe been rendition for more than 12 geeze rhood at trail or for pleasure. In addition, academic interlingual rendition is non easy therefore, it is extremely operose for academic students to achieve complex goals with come on read strategies.Supporting to this idea, (Hawkins, 1991, cited in Celce-Murcia) also said that Of all the skills that the child must acquire in school, education is the almost complex and difficult. Therefore, English Second linguistic process students are surely unavoidable to face some problems. Firstly, learners may be good at mind separate words or even for each one sentence, merely fail to gain the relationships mingled with the sentences and the meat of the textbook as a whole. Next, they do non comport necessary knowledge about what they read. And the most primal problem is that they lack necessary reading strategies.English Second phrase students need to learn reading strategies beca physical exercise their comprehension breaks down easily. They need different ways to appro ach reading to suspensor facilitate the reading process and provide them with a better sense of what they are reading (Reading strategies for ESL Students, n. d. ). Reading strategies are the most effective means to help them deal with obstacles in reading and become a better reader. Furthermore, with practice, the strategies lead to skills that become automatic and quick over time (McNamara and Danielle, 2009).But for students at the college, reading is non simply to do the task and reading passage is practically longer than it is at high school meanwhile not all of them know the reading strategies and how to use them effectively. So, teaching reading strategies for students becomes necessary. That is the reason wherefore the researcher choose reading strategies for academic students as a topic to do the research with the desire of improving the effect of their reading. CHAPTER II LITERATURE II. 1. Definition of StrategiesBrown (2001) specify strategies as circumstanceize d methods to solve a problem or task, as modes of activity to reach a particular end or intentional designs to control or manipulate certain information. He stated that strategies differentiate within an single and that a person can use a variety of strategies to achieve his or her goal. Oxford (as cited in Oxford, 2003, p. 8) defined strategies as follows The word strategies comes from the ancient Greek word strategia, which means steps or actions passn for the end of winning a war.The warlike meaning of strategia, has fortunately fallen away but the control and directedness system in the version of the word. He believed that whether a schema is helpful or not depends on the specific context in which it is appropriately used. In separate to use a system effectively, learners require to hear three important conditions whether the strategy relates well to the second language task at hand, whether the strategy fits the particular students learning style preferences to one degree or an separate(a), or whether the students employ the strategy and link it with other strategies well.II. 2. Distinction between Strategies and Skills Strategies can be defined as conscious actions that learners take to achieve in demand(p) goals or objectives, while a skill is a strategy that has become automatic. As learners consciously learn and practice specific reading strategies, the strategies move from conscious to unconscious from strategy to skill (Nunan, 2003). Strategic reading is defined as the efficacy of the reader to use a wide variety of reading strategies to compass a solve for reading (Nunan, 2003).Strategic reading means not only knowing what strategy to use, but knowing how to use and integrate a range of strategies (Anderson, 1991). II. 3. Difference Strategic Readers from Poor Readers (Reading Strategies, n. d. ) 1. in front Reading, Strategic Readers Poor Readers ? Build up their own basis knowledge about reading and the ? erupt reading with out thinking about the process of reading or the topic topic. ? Set purposes for reading. ? Do not know why they are reading but merely view the task as ? narrow down methods for reading, according to their purposes.ground to cover. 2. During Reading, Strategic Readers Poor Readers ? Give their complete attention to the reading task. ? Do not eliminate disturbions from reading. ? Check their own experienceing constantly. ? Do not know whether they understand. ? Monitor their reading comprehension and do it so often that it ? Do not recognize when comprehension has broken down. becomes automatic. ? rarely use fix-up strategies to improve comprehension. ? Stop to use a fix-up strategy when they do not understand. ? Skip or ignore meanings of unfamiliar but crucial words. ? Use semantic, syntactic, and graphophonic cues to construct ? Do not integrate text with prior knowledge. meanings of unfamiliar words. ? Read without reflecting on meaning or text organization ? Syn thesize during reading. ? ask questions. ? Talk to themselves during reading. 3. After Reading, Strategic Readers Poor Readers ? Decide if they have achieved their goals for reading. ? Do not know what they have read. ? Evaluate their understanding of what was read. ? Do not follow reading with comprehension self-check. ? Summarize the major ideas.? swear exclusively on the references words. ? Seek additional information from outside sources. ? Do not go beyond a surface examination of the text. ? Distinguish between relevant and irrelevant ideas. ? deem no conscious strategies to help them remember. ? Paraphrase the text what they have learned. ? Reflect on and personalize the text. ? critically examine the text. ? commingle new understandings and prior knowledge. ? Use study strategies to retain new knowledge. II. 4. Some Methods for article of belief Reading Strategies Reading Strategies (n.d. ) separates reading lesson into three sets and has some ideas about activities for each stage.II. 4. 1. Before Reading activities should mark methods of merging reader, text, and content enabling students to set appropriate reading purposes, recall associate prior knowledge, watch and predict what the text will be about, and select reading methods to suit their purposes and the text. Included in these considerations may be readers decisions to expand their background knowledge through related discussion, exploration of key concepts, or related reading. II. 4. 2.During Reading activities should enable students to monitor their comprehension through a variety of strategies and experience and acquire several(a) fix-up strategies to improve their understanding where necessary. II. 4. 3. After Reading activities should teach students to review their understanding of text, relate new ideas to their background knowledge, revisit the text to crystalize and extend meanings, make responsible interpretations and criticisms of ideas from the te xt, revise their thinking, apply the information to other texts and disciplines, and remember crucial learning for future application.II. 5. Some Techniques for Teaching Reading Strategies Reading Strategies (n. d. ) also gives some techniques to teach reading strategies II. 5. 1. Some Techniques for Teaching Before-Reading Strategies Before reading, strategic readers * Preview the text by looking at the title, the pictures, and the print in order to evoke relevant thoughts and memories. * Build background by activation appropriate prior knowledge through self questioning about what they already know about the topic (or story), the vocabulary, and the form in which the topic (or story) is presented.* Set purposes for reading by asking questions about what they want to learn during the reading process. II. 5. 2. Some Techniques for Teaching During-Reading Strategies During reading, strategic readers * Check understanding of the text by paraphrasing the authors words. * Monitor compr ehension and use fix-up strategies use the cueing systems to figure out unknown words and imaging, imagining, inferencing, and predicting. * Integrate new concepts with existing knowledge continually revise purpose for reading. II. 5. 3. Some Techniques for Teaching After-Reading Strategies.After reading, strategic readers * Summarize what they have read by retelling the plot of the story or the main idea of the text. * submit and evaluate the ideas contained in the text. * Make applications of the ideas in the text to unique situations, extending the ideas to broader perspectives. * Use study strategies for note taking, locating, and computer memory to improve content area learning. II. 6. Kinds of Strategy Before students begin their next reading assignment, identify their purpose for reading. According to the readers different purposes, he or she will choose the appropriate reading style.Therefore, there are a variety of strategies. II. 6. 1. Study Reading The Study Reading i s used when the readers stand for to read difficult square at a high level of comprehension. This reading style says that because of the literal at a high level of comprehension the readers should read the material more than once and sometimes reading the material aloud also improves their comprehension. (Becoming a Flexible Reader, n. d. ) II. 6. 2. Skimming When the readers purpose is to quickly obtain a general idea about the reading material, he or she is suggested to use skimming style.This strategy is extremely useful if the readers want to read a large amount of material in a short amount of time by two ways identify the main ideas and ignore the details. (Becoming a Flexible Reader, n. d. ) II. 6. 3. Scanning Contrastively, the scanning style is used when their purpose is to quickly square off a specific piece of information within reading material. To scan, the readers mostly focus on a list of names, words, numbers, short statements, and sometimes even in a paragraph. (Becoming a Flexible Reader, n. d. ) II. 6. 4. SQRW.According to A Strategies for Reading Textbooks (n. d. ), it divides strategies into four-steps, called SQRW. Each letter stands for one step in the strategy. Using SQRW will help readers to understand what they read and to prepare a written record of what they learned. The written record will be important when readers have to participate in a class discussion and again when they study for a test. Read to learn what to do for each step in SQRW. ( Survey This strategy brings to mind what the readers already know about the topic of a chapter and prepares them for learning more.The readers do survey by reading the title, introduction, headings, and the summary or conclusion or they will examine all visuals such as pictures, tables, maps, and/or graphs and read the caption. By survey, the readers quickly learn what the chapter is about. ( Question Questions give the readers a purpose for reading and help them stay centre on the readi ng assignment. To form questions, the readers base on a heading and use the words who, what, when, where, why, or how. When a heading contains more than one idea, form a question for each idea.Do not form questions for the Introduction, Summary, or Conclusion. ( Read Read the information that follows each heading to find the answer to each question readers formed. They may change a question or turn it into several questions to be answered. Readers need to stay focused and flexible so they can gather as much information as they need to answer each question. ( Write Write each question and its answer in your notebook. read each of your written answers to be sure each answer is legible and contains all the important information needed to answer the question.CHAPTER III APPLICATION III. 1. For Students Here are some suggestions for students to apply before, during and after-reading in order to become strategic readers. There are two things that students need to prepare before they read . First of all, it is the reading environment. Students had better to choose a quiet place which is far away from making noise. They would be distract by it and cannot concentrate well on what they read. Moreover, a place gives them an attitude to be ready to read. anyway the place, readers also pay attention to have small things as pen or paper in hand.These things help them take note immediately what they read on the text when the ideas come out in the mind before they quickly disappear. Before reading, depressionly it is necessary for English Second Language students to set a goal for reading. This activity will keep them focus on what they read and prevent them from travel around the text. Secondly, they should activate prior knowledge. It means that students brainstorm what they already know about the topic. Combination between prior knowledge and new text help them understand more about the topic. Last but not least, according to their purposes, they choose suitable methods for reading.Appropriate strategies help them read and achieve their goals quickly. While reading is the stage which students apply all their known strategies to read quickly but effectively. For example, strategic readers do not read the text from the beginning to the end instead they skim it quickly to have an overview or to get main ideas about what they are going to read.It means that those students would read the introduction or each first line of each paragraph before going to read the whole passage. Next, when students read in detail, they should accentuate the information which they feel interested in and take notes orhighlight for easy to review important points later.In addition, it is important for students to remember to use what their background knowledge and their brainstorming about the text in before reading and see whether the old information fits the text, whether their prediction is correct or need changing. Moreover, if they have any difficulties with reading t he text, slow down their reading speed and reread the information with more care. In case, it is too difficult to understand, highlight it for going back later, then skip it and move forward.Finally, college students are often required to read a lot with difficult vocabulary, so they should break down the assignment into many small sections, for example, ten pages for each reading times and manage to finish reading these sections instead of the whole. This strategy gives students more concentrated on what they read and prevents them from getting frustrated and disappointed. It is not simply to finish the reading task, learners should go beyond. And after reading is a stage for them to do so. First of all, students need to draw a conclusion.They turn back and think about what predictions they made before and during reading by reviewing the text. Also, they had better look back to consider how the information read related to their background knowledge and decide whether they achieve t heir goal. Secondly, students should take notes what they have read by writing a summary. This summary contains the main ideas, the important information or simply just a list of ideas getting from the reading. This activity is very helpful for the readers to maintain new knowledge for later use. Lastly, this stage also gives students a chance to discuss what they do not understand about the text.Students will mark anything that makes them confused and bring it to class and talk with their friends in order to clarify it. III. 2. For the Reading Teachers It takes a long time for students to become strategic readers and reading teachers play an important situation in helping their students read quickly but effectively. Therefore, teachers are suggested to take these considerations.First of all, teachers themselves need to have a full awareness of great benefits which strategies could bring to their students, then the introduction of strategies, their practice, and their uses should b e part ofevery reading lesson because a strategy can be only applied well when teachers frequently explain, gravel it carefully, then give them enough opportunities to practice.However, for any approach to strategy development, teachers should remember to introduce only a few strategies at a time until students feel confident to use the strategies. And in each reading lesson, separate application of each strategy does not give a lot of help, so teachers should come on students to combine some strategies together to get the best results. Moreover, teachers should be well-prepared the lesson beforehand.The aim of this preparation is to figure out which strategies are used in the lesson, then the teachers will carefully prepare suitable activities for each stage of a reading lesson. For example, in before-reading stage, teachers give activities such as True/ False Prediction, Brainstorming to help students have some general ideas about what they are going to read. For while-reading s tage, teachers use Answer the Questions, Choose the important Ideas to check their comprehension. For after-reading stage, the activities could be Summary, Discussion or Retelling what they have read.Additionally, when reading process takes place, reading teachers monitor the students expertness and independent application of the strategies. If there are many students feeling unsure about using the strategies, teachers look into their work, reintroduce and give them more practice. Finally after every reading times, teachers ask students to record their ability in applying strategies to assess their own growth. CHAPTER IV CONCLUSION During teaching process, most of reading teachers give more time and emphasis on testing reading comprehension than teaching readers how to comprehend.Therefore, this small research has been through to offer an overview of different strategies to reading and application for practice. All of strategies can be brought into play in an economic way in the teaching and acquiring reading skill. Simultaneously, it helps both teachers and students recognize the significant advantages of mastering reading strategies. With careful discussion about most of strategies used in three main reading stages before, during and after reading, hopefully this research is a source of reference for reading teachers and students.REFERENCESA Strategies for Reading Textbooks, (n. d. ). Retrieved December 3rd, 2010 from http//www. how-to-study. com/study-skills/en/studying/40/a-strategy-for-reading-textbooks/ Anderson, N. J. (1991). Individual Differences in Strategy Use in Second Language Reading and Testing. Modern Language Journal, 75 460-472. Becoming a Flexible Reader, (n. d. ). Retrieved December 3rd, 2010 from http//www. how-to-study. com/study-skills/en/studying/33/becoming-a-flexible-reader/ Brown, H. D. (2001). Teaching by principles- An interactive approach to language pedagogy. (2nd ed. ).NY Longman, pp 384-387. Dr. Kathleen King, (n. d. ). Read ing Strategies, Lecture from University. Retrieved December 14th, 2010 from http//www. isu. edu/kingkath/readstrt. html Grabe, W. , Stoller, F. L. (2001). Reading for Academic Purpose Guidelines for the ESL/ EFL Teacher, In Celce-Murcia, M. (Ed. ), Teaching English as a Second or unknown Language. (3rd ed). Boston Heinle, pp. 187-204. Hawkins, B. , (2001). Teaching Children to Read in a Second Language. 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