English Reading

Tips for English reading comprehension

1.Develop a broad background.
Broaden your background knowledge by reading newspapers, magazines and books.

2. Know the structure of paragraphs.
Good writers construct paragraphs that have a beginning, middle, and end. Often, the first sentence will give an overview that helps provide a framework for adding details. Also, look for transitional words, phrases or paragraphs that change the topic.

3. Identify the type of reasoning. Does the author use cause and effect reasoning, hypothesis, model building, induction or deduction, systems thinking?

4. Anticipate and predict.
Try to anticipate the author and predict future ideas and questions. If you're right, this reinforces your understanding. If you're wrong, you make adjustments quicker.

5. Look for the method of organization. Is the material organized chronologically, serially, logically, functionally, spatially or hierarchical?

6. Create motivation and interest.
Preview material, ask questions, discuss ideas with classmates. The stronger your interest, the greater your comprehension.

7. Pay attention to supporting cues.
Study pictures, graphs and headings. Read the first and last paragraph in a chapter, or the first sentence in each section.

8. Highlight, summarize and review.
Just reading a book once is not enough. To develop a deeper understanding, you have to highlight, summarize and review important ideas.

9. Build a good vocabulary.
Use a dictionary regularly and pay attention to roots, prefixes and suffixes.

10. Use a systematic reading technique.
Develop a systematic reading style and make adjustments to it, depending on priorities and purpose. It can include Survey, Question, Read, Recite and Review.

11. Monitor effectiveness.
Good readers monitor their attention, concentration and effectiveness. They quickly recognize if they've missed an idea and backup to reread it.

12. Remember that reading aloud may be counterproductive

13. Slow down your reading speed if you find it difficult.