Friday, July 1, 2011

ESL Practicum: Reading Strategies

Hola Readers,

In class, we continue our journey towards English usage awareness by briefly reviewing reading strategies: scanning, skimming, and close-reading.  This is a good review especially when I take the GRE Literature Subject Test this October.

Scanning is used to look for specific answers.  It is usually prompted by questions ( including word clues ), and it can be located in the bodies of paragraph, footnotes, bold (emphathetic) words, and illustrations.  The usual phrases and keywords that signal specificity include: for example, parts of text, kinds, types, year, and number.

When one is skimming, one is looking for general information.  The title of the text can give readers a general idea of the text.  The introduction and conclusion also summarize ideas.  Questions asking for reasons ( the whys ), attitude, procedures, paraphrases, and importance can be best addressed through skimming.

In doing a close-reading, it's important to locate a thesis ( including a subject topic and controlling idea ) that is arguable and discussable.  The reader also analyzes the author's attitude, purpose, and audience ( using evidence from the text or common knowledge ), while drawing from one's background knowledge.

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