A SIMPLE APPROACH TO DEVELOPING EFFECTIVE READING SKILLS PART 2

As explained in part 1, reading is not the same as comprehension, theoretically.
However, they are one and the same thing in practice. (Reading specialists use both terms interchangeably to mean the same thing).

Comprehension has four hierarchical levels;
Literal, inferential, critical and creative respectively.

The literal level requires the reader to recall facts that are overtly stated in the text.
Such facts could be names, things or ideas. This is the most elementary of the skills, and the learner would have acquired it appreciably by the end of primary schooling. The skill is not strong enough to enable the learner add any novel personal information, but he/she uses it to answer questions which begin with "who", "what", "where", and "when".

The inferential level empowers the reader to suggest relevant additional information based on the text confronted and personal experience. He/She can use the comprehension gained to answer questions that begin with "How"... and "Why".

The critical reading level leads to the making of balanced judgements about the author's style and/or some other aspects of the text.

At the creative (which is the highest) level of reading, the reader is able to bring out something new, personal and relevant to the text. It could be by suggesting an alternative title, summarising the text, or re-writing part or all of it. Creative comprehension enables the reader to utilise his/her knowledge of content very imaginatively and is most intellectually demanding. Students should do more of critical and creative reading than the literal and inferential reading. The latter two are the lower order skills, while the former belong in the higher order.

READING PROBLEMS AND THEIR SOLUTIONS

Reading involves recognising the letters of the alphabets, words, phrases, and clauses, and assigning correct meanings to them unconsciously at the same, so that a critical mass of information may emerge for the reader. The information does not point to effective comprehension until it results in problem-solving. For example, you gathered information by gliding and probing through a passage. The evidence that you were informed from the passage is your correctly responding to the questions that followed.

The learner suffering from low vocabulary and generally weak language power will not be able to meet the linguistic demands of the questions. Hence, you should read often and widely in order to increase your language power. The lexical density and structural complexity of a text has implication for how quickly and efficiently you make meaning when you read orally or silently.

A word or phrase has not not become part of your vocabulary unless you could spell and use it correctly in company of other words to form a sentence. As such, when you encounter a new word or expression in your reading tasks, you should not only take note of it, but also use it in your day to day communication tasks. Also, you need to master the features of the different (simple, compound, complex and compound-complex) types of sentence. By this, you would be able to process them for meaning when you confront them in print, and write them in a show of functional comprehension.

Poor eye sight and demented brain could weaken the learners memories, thereby preventing them from effectively processing, storing, and recalling written information.
Learners who manifest such reading problems may have to go for medical attention or visit the campus or school clinic.

The eye and the brain are connected and must work in unhindered unity during reading. The eyes should move in a particular direction (right to left) and at a specific, constant speed when you read. Your eyes should take between 200 to 400 words at a single fixation (static but attentive look) at the text, as an advanced student. The more words your eyes meaningfully pick per fixation, the more efficient your comprehension of the target text.

Then you read phrase by phrase, rather than word by word. Note that when words occur in company of other words, they shed part of their individual meaning to accommodate the other words. Thus, you are likely to miss the points of a text if you read word by word.

To be continued..........