The Strategies of Reading Comprehension for English Major

鄒高飛

【Abstract】Students tend to learn English in different ways. Some need to gather more examples and imitate them， while others require less. In a classroom， we， English teachers， cannot tailor the approach to each individual student， so we should make them involved personally in order to discover what works best. Teachers can introduce some strategies of learning English to the students. What are strategies？ A strategy is the art of planning. After planning carefully， we can succeed in guiding our studies. In the following passage， we will discuss the strategies of reading comprehension for English majors in college.

【Key words】 Strategies；reading

I.Introduction： The Role of Reading Comprehension in English Learning

Nowadays， reading comprehension plays an important role in English learning for all college students. Reading comprehension is one of the most important abilities in English language learning. The main purpose of English reading in the university is to develop the students to have the stronger reading ability. As a result， in reading training， students could pay attention to some reading strategies.

II.The Strategies That Can Be Adopted

1.Activating Prior Knowledge

1.1.The Role of Background Knowledge

Background knowledge includes all experiences that a reader brings to a text： life experiences， educational experiences， knowledge of how texts can be organized logically， knowledge of how ones first language works， knowledge of how the second language works， and cultural background and knowledge， to name a few areas.

1.2.Suggestions

Readers may not have previous experience of playing certain sports. If you have no knowledge of how the sport is played， or the vocabulary involved in it， you have no background knowledge to activate.

2.Cultivating Vocabulary

2.1. The Role of Vocabulary

It becomes very clear that vocabulary plays an important role in reading. When I watch my classmates reading narrative stories and see many of them meticulously looking up every word they do not understand in a bilingual dictionary， while others， trying to get meaning out of the text by using pictures and guessing what the author is attempting to communicate.

2.2. Dictionary Use

Students who meet a word they cannot interpret are likely first to ask what it means which is fine as long as an informant is available， but not practical as the basis for independent study， so most students turn to the dictionary.

2.3. Active， Receptive and Throwaway Vocabulary

A primary attach skill is identifying the words that can be ignored， so that the other words that really stand in the way of comprehension can be tackled by some of the strategies described below.

2.4. Ignoring Certain Words

One mark of a skilled reader is the ability to decide what may be safely ignored. This is something many students have never contemplated； it may seem wrong， because it is not done in class. Therefore it needs to be done in class to make it respectable.

2.5. Difficult Words

Not all words are difficult， and many are difficult only in some contexts or for some readers. However， we can identify some ways in which words are used， and some kinds of lexical items that frequently present difficulty to a foreign language reader.

2.5.1. Idioms

An idiom is a lexical item consisting of several words， with a meaning that cannot be deduced from the individual words. The problem is that idioms are the ones composed of simple words， each of which the student understands， but not the meaning of idioms themselves.

2.5.2 Words with Several Meanings

Any word with more than one meaning is potentially troublesome. To tackle these unexpected misunderstandings， we must first be aware that they may occur and then use common sense in deciding whether to accept a familiar meaning or check whether another is possible.

2.5.3 Transference of Meaning

Metaphor and similar kinds of transferred meaning are always potential problems. Like idioms， they do not mean what at first glance they seem to mean.

2.6 Ways of Dealing with Difficult Words

There are some ways of dealing with these difficulties. Reducing the scale of the problem by ignoring inessential words is the first step. Next， the student must acquire strategies for dealing with the lexical items that really block comprehension.

3. Reading for comprehension

3.1 Models of Reading Comprehension

There are three models of reading comprehension. They are top-down processing， bottom-up processing and the interaction of top-down and bottom-up processing.

3.2 Intensive and Extensive Reading

Intensive reading can be defined as using a text for maximal development of comprehension skills. All activities are designed to explicitly teach readers the comprehension skills necessary for them to transfer the strategies and skills to their own reading when they are not in the classroom.

3.3 Methods for Students

It is well known that understanding texts is closely associated with understanding syntax. The reading lesson is not the place for extensive grammar teaching， but reading does require grammatical skills.

3.3.1 Simplifying Sentences

The principle is to remove all the optional parts of the sentences systematically until only the essentials remain and the bare structure of the sentence is clear.

3.3.2 Interpreting Pro-forms

This skill involves identifying the meanings of words like it， our， this， those， then， one， so/not and comparatives. Such words are used to avoid needless repetition.

3.3.3 Interpreting Ellipsis

It is a principle of efficient communication that the writer does not give the reader more information than necessary. To make the reader's task easier， there is normally a certain amount of redundancy.

3.3.4 Interpreting Lexical Cohesion

Here， our concern is with the problems caused when a reader fails to interpret the relationship between a lexical item and other parts of the discourse. The most obvious problem occurs when a writer uses different lexical items to refer to one and the same thing.

4.Some Strategies for Develop Reading Skills

4.1. Be active while reading

To do it successfully， we have to understand what the words mean， see the pictures， understand the arguments， and work out if we agree with them. If not， we only just scratch the surface of the text and we forget it quickly.

4.2. Find proper reading texts

A balance has to be struck between real English on the one hand and our capabilities and interests. If low-level students read a copy of "The Times"， they will probably not be able to understand them at all .

4.3. Predict reading texts

When we read texts in our own language， we frequently have a good idea of the content before we actually read. Book covers give us a hint of what s in the book， photos and headlines hint at what articles are about before we read a single word. While reading English， we also should get this hint一the book cover， the headlines一our brain start s predicting what we are going to read， then， expectations are set up and the active process of reading is ready to begin.

4.4. Respond to the content

Learners should respond to the content of a reading context， not just to the language. Especially， when we do extensive reading， we should try to express our feelings about the topic， to provoke personal engagement with it and the language.