KINDS OF READING

and
READING TECHNIQUES

COMPILED BY:
ATTA-UL-MUSTAFA
ASSISTANT PROF. in ENGLISH
UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE
FAISALABAD
 KINDS OF READING

According to purpose & manner of

comprehending
1. Extensive Reading
- Reading for getting pleasure on any
topic of interest
- Main purpose: to relax and enjoy
yourself
- comics, humorous stories, tales, novels,
short articles in the newspapers and
magazines, jokes, and other forms of
light reading materials
It means reading as much as possible, for your
own pleasure, at a difficulty level at which
you can read smoothly and quickly without
looking up words or translating to English
as you go.
Unlike intensive reading where you spend half
an hour in decoding (making sense of) a tiny
part of one book, here you read many
simpler books that are at or slightly below
the level at which you read fluently.
This lets you get used to reading more complex
sentences with ease, reinforces the words
you already know and helps you learn new
words from context.
Start with stories that are well below your fluent
level, and while reading, follow these steps:
I. Don’t look up words in the dictionary.
II. Skip over parts you don’t understand.
III. If you aren’t enjoying one book, throw it
aside and get another.
Key Principles for Extensive Reading:
1. The reading material is easy.
2. Variety of reading material on a wide
range of topics must be available.
3. Learners choose what they want to
read.
4. Learners read as much as possible.
Advantages:
1. EFL or ESL students become much
fluent readers by extensive reading.
It increases their (i)- vocabulary
(ii)- fluency – listening & speaking
abilities.
2. It causes them read a lot and hence
develop positive attitudes toward
reading and enhance motivation to
study the foreign language.
Why start at such basic level?
1. It helps you get used to reading quickly;
since you should know most of the words
already, you hardly have to think about
them.
2. The sentences are simple, so you can
understand them immediately, and as you
start reading more complex sentences, you
will have an perceptive sense of how they fit
together.
Why start at such basic level?
3. It helps you learn to use the
information in the text to figure out
(understand) the unknown words,
instead of a dictionary.
4. You get a sense of where your fluent
reading level is, so as you improve
you can tell when a book is too hard
or too easy.
Why start at such basic level?
5. Words that are parts of basic books are basic
words themselves, and as you see them
over and over, you learn them quickly;
when you progress to more advanced
books, you will know those basic words
without having to think about them.
6. You can finish books in a reasonable amount
of time, so you don’t get bored with one
book.
Why not use a dictionary?
1. Stopping to look up a word, even if it
doesn’t take you very long, breaks your
concentration, but if you read many basic
books without a dictionary, you gain the
ability to figure out words from context
almost instantly and read quickly.
2. It involves reading for pleasure because
there is an element of enjoyment in it; it is
unlikely that students will understand
extensive reading of a text they do not like.
Why not use a dictionary?
3. It also requires a fluid (flowing, runny)
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.
2. Intensive Reading
- careful or in-depth reading
- you read for details and extract specific
information on particular topics
- the kind of reading you do when you study,
prepare a term paper, or an oral report
- has several techniques or sub-types:
scanning, skimming, exploratory reading,
study reading, critical reading, and analytical
reading
2. Intensive Reading
You need to have your aims clear in mind when
doing intensive reading.
It is 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 is beneficial to language
learners as it helps them understand vocabulary
by deducing the meaning of words in context.
It helps with retention of information for long
periods of time and knowledge resulting from
intensive reading persists in your long term
memory.
2. Intensive Reading
This is one reason why reading huge amounts of
information just before an exam does not
work very well.
When students do this, 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.
2. Intensive Reading
It involves learners reading in detail
with specific learning aims and
tasks.
It can be compared with extensive
reading, which involves learners
reading texts for enjoyment and
develop general reading skills.
2. Example
The learners read a short text and put events
from it into chronological order.
Intensive reading activities include skimming a
text for specific information to answer true or
false statements or filling gaps in a summary,
scanning a text to match headings to
paragraphs, and scanning jumbled
paragraphs and then reading them carefully
to put them into put them into the correct
order.
 Speed Reading
• It means to read rapidly by assimilating (learning)
several phrases or sentences at once.
• 1. Enroll in a Speed Reading Class
Avoid on-line speed reading courses. They don’t
work.
Speed reading is best learned in a speed reading
class taught by a knowledgeable, experienced,
speed reading expert.
 Speed Reading
• 2. Use a Flexible Reading Speed
Some reading material must be read slowly and
carefully: legal contracts, mathematical equations,
and poetry are a few examples.

Other reading material can be read at much faster

speeds: newspapers, magazines, and novels.

Adjust your reading speed to the type of reading

material and your reading purpose.
 Speed Reading
• 3. Preview Before Reading
Look through material first to get a sense
of what is interesting and important to
you, and what you might be able to
skip.
Then focus on the sections that you need
to understand and remember, and skim
or skip the rest.
 Speed Reading
• 4. Avoid Highlighting
• Although readers believe that highlighting in
yellow (or any other color, for that matter)
improves their reading speed and comprehension,
the reverse is actually true.
• Highlighting simply means they don’t want to
bother learning the material right now.
• The result: They end up reading the material
twice, and possibly not understanding or
remembering it either time!
 Speed Reading
• 5. Write a Course of Action on Correspondence
• Improve your reading speed and avoid re-
reading correspondence by jotting brief
notes immediately after reading each piece
of correspondence.
• Simply refer to your notes on each piece
when you’re reading to respond some time
later.
 Speed Reading
• 6. Read in the Proper Environment
• Prop (sustain, support) your book or
magazine using a bookstand – angling your
reading material at 45 degrees improves
your reading speed and reduces eyestrain.
• Avoid reading difficult or important
material in bed, where your mind and body
tend to relax. You’ll stay alert if you sit at a
desk instead.
 Speed Reading
• 7. Form a Question
• Improve your reading comprehension,
reading speed, and concentration by
turning headings and subheadings in
textbooks and other nonfictional books into
questions.
• Then scan the text for the answers. Your
reading speed improves by doing this, and
you become focused on your material.
 Speed Reading
• 8. Skim Material First for Main Ideas
• Speed read for main ideas in nonfictional works
like how-to books and educational texts.
• Scan the table of contents and first and last
sentences of each paragraph.
• You’ll improve your reading speed and
comprehension if you understand a book’s
structure first.
• This will help you know which parts of the book
to skim and which parts to read more carefully.
 Speed Reading
• 9. Prioritize Your Reading
• Create three piles for your reading materials –
important, moderately important, and least
important.
• Then read the material in their order of
importance.
• You’ll improve your reading speed by doing this,
and improve your reading comprehension by
getting to the important material first, when your
mind is clear and sharp.
 Speed Reading
• 10. Read Early in the Day
• Many people can double their reading
speed and improve their concentration
by reading the material that’s important
to them early in the day.
 READING TECHNIQUES/SUBKINDS
for Intensive Reading
1. Scanning
- rapid reading assisted by key words to
locate specific pieces of information
-for research, review
- to get information that answer what,
who, where, when, how
Examples. looking for a word meaning in
the dictionary, getting a document from
the filing cabinet, looking through the
yellow pages
Scanning: …..
Scanning: ….. EXAMPLES
2. Skimming
-rapid reading focusing on the Title,
Headings, Topic Sentence, Sign Posts
to get the main idea
- effective preliminary step to reading
thoroughly because after skimming,
you can quickly go back to details
you need to read entirely
 Skimming Steps
1. Preview the text by reading the title
and the introduction. (Usually, the
introduction has thesis statement).
2. Check if there are headings and
subheadings.
3. Read the 1st paragraph and the 1st
sentences of the succeeding
paragraphs.
 Skimming Steps
4. Quickly check keywords in the
paragraph. (sometimes highlighted,
italicized, underlined)
5. Read the last paragraph (Usually it
summarizes the main points.
6. If you feel that a paragraph contains
important information that answers
what, why, when, how, and who, read it
fully.
Skimming….. EXAMPLES
Examples:
• Surveying a chapter/article
• Reviewing something you’ve
read
• Choosing a magazine/book to
buy in the bookstore
3. Exploratory Reading
• Aims to get a fairly accurate picture of
a whole presentation of ideas; how the
whole selection is presented
• Allots more time for reading
• Examples:
• Long articles in magazines, short
stories, descriptive texts
4. Study Reading
- the reader must get a maximum understanding
of the main ideas and their relationships
-examples: SQ3R, SQ4R (survey, question, read,
record, recite, review)
SQ4R: STEPS
1. Surveying: (preparing for reading) Take note
of the titles, headings & subheadings; words in
italics or bold print; intro & summaries;
pictures & captions; questions at the end of the
chapter or section (do this in few minutes only)
2. Questioning: (focusing your reading)
Turn headings & subheadings into questions
by asking who, what, when, where, why, and
how abt. them.
3. Reading: (focusing your reading)
Take time to read with maximum
comprehension. Try to answer the questions
you posed in the previous step. Try to det.
the main ideas and major details of the text.
4. Recording: (focusing your reading)
Take note so you can remember what you
have read.
5. Reciting: (recalling step)
Recite aloud or mentally, pair up with a
partner for a Q&A session.
6. Reviewing: (recalling step)
Repeat some of the previous steps and
review on a regular basis
5. Critical Reading
- question, analyze and evaluate the text
- use critical-thinking skills to:
differentiate bet. fact & opinion;
recognize author’s purpose in writing;
make inferences abt. purposes and
characters;
recognize the author’s tone in writing;
recognize persuasive techniques or
propaganda designed to sway you to
believe
- reader stops to consider the facts
carefully, “take time to read in order to
the get facts straight”

Examples:
Reading done in periodicals, books, ads
which are loaded with propaganda
devices designed to sway opinions
6. Analytical Reading
- careful attention to each word and its
importance in relation to other words in
the sentence or the parag.
- Examples:
Reading mathematical problems, scientific
formulas, and certain definitive statements
of key ideas that require a
questioning/inquisitive mind
7. Developmental Reading
- When a reader is under a
comprehensive reading program that
lets him go through stages & monitors
him closely
Examples:
• SRA
• ARC