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Abstract:Reading is one of the four basic skills which learners are required to master if they want to learn a foreign language. English reading can improve readers’ perception so as to give a lot of help to improve listening, speaking and writing. It can increase knowledge, widen their visions, and enhance their interest in English. However, in China, in process of foreign language learning, some learners seem to have difficulty in reading accurately and efficiently. To help the learner become a more efficient reader, it is crucial to improve their reading ability. This paper clearly states how to improve reading ability by the following methods: forming a good habit of reading, enlarging vocabulary, using various reading skills and so on.
Key words: Reading ability; obstacle；improve
中圖分类号：G632.0 文献标识码：A 文章编号：1992-7711(2013)23-0098
I. Introduction
Nowadays, as the development of the society, the influence of learning English language is becoming more and more popular. Today English is widely used in different fields. Such as in business, diplomacy, art, film, English learning and so on .For English learners reading is one of the four basic skills which learners are required to master if they want to learn a foreign language. English reading can improve reader’s perception so as to give a lot of help to improve listening, speaking and writing. It can increase knowledge, widen their visions, and enhance their interest in English. So it is clear that it’s very important to improve English reading. But the problem is that many English learners seem to have difficulty in reading accurately and efficiently. Moreover, in various international and domestic examinations,English reading has taken larger and larger part. The score takes about 40%in the college English test band four and six. In a certain extent, doing well or not in the reading comprehension directly influences the grades of English tests. And we can not study foreign language well without improving the reading ability. What’s more,in the traditional mode of teaching, teachers just impart basic knowledge, and regardless of cultivating students’ good psychology of reading. As a result, students are prone to bring out impatience, anxiety, fear and such bad feelings.Therefore bad psychology of reading greatly affects improvement of reading ability. In this situation, how to improve English reading draws more and more attention. This paper tries to state some points about how to help English learners improve their reading ability. Ⅱ. Reasons for improving reading ability
There are a lot of reasons for improving reading ability, such as in all kinds of English examinations, reading magazines or books and materials. Different people have different reading purposes. But the same one is to get more knowledge from reading. Especially for students, reading comprehension takes a large part in all kinds of English examinations. And the score of reading comprehension may influence the whole score in some degree. So it is important to improve reading ability.
1. Helping learners become a more efficient reader
If we want to be a efficient reader, we must be confident and active in reading. Some readers have no self-confidence in reading. Before reading, they fear that they cannot understand the passage. When they meet with new words, they will feel so nervous as to lose the courage to go on reading it. These readers are defeated not by their weakness but by their lack of confidence. We know that people read to get information or to learn and absorb or to enjoy themselves. So, when you are reading，there is no need to feel any pressure. Just try to get the information you need or enjoy yourself. But this is not enough. A good reader should also try to communicate with the author actively. Try to guess the author’s real meaning between the lines and don’t force your own thoughts upon the author’s. Even if there are some new words, that does not matter much. You don’t have to know the exact meaning of every new word, just try to guess the meaning of the word from the context. To become a more efficient reader, you should also read often and read a lot. If you can do these,you will be a efficient reader soon.
2. Learners read in different ways for different purposes
First, learners read in different ways for different purposes. Christine Nuttall has pointed out that college students could not just read text books in their daily life. They will read various materials, such as novel, fiction, poetry, telephone directory, statistics, label on medicine leaflet, notice, and application form. They should know why they read each one, what they want to get from it, and how they read it. When they read each item, they need to use different kinds of reading skills. Do they read a telephone directory the same way as a poem? How about a timetable or a notice? Reading these is very different from reading a book. The way they deal with each text is strongly influenced by the purpose in reading. Quickly scanning a street map to find a place where they want to go is very different from reading a legal document. They will soon realize big differences in the reading speed they use. Second, learners read for meanings. Whatever their reasons for reading (excluding any reading for language learning), it is not very likely that they read just for pronunciations, grammatical structures, syntax, words. They read because they want to get something from the writing. They want to understand what the writer wants to tell them. An article can not only give us some facts, but also be enjoyment, ideas and feelings. No matter what it is, while they read, they want to get messages that the writer intended. They are interested in what the writing meant.
It is obvious that improving reading ability is very important if they want to be proficient readers.
III. Some obstacles in reading
There are some obstacles to hinder learners from improving their abilities in reading comprehension in the process of reading. In this paper, we will talk about three obstacles, there are word to word reading, over rely on dictionary, slow reading speed and lack of culture background.
1.Word to word reading
A good reader should develop a correct method of reading. That is, to train himself to read attentively(not to read back) and silently(not to read aloud), sentence by sentence, not word by word. Whenever meeting a new word, try to guess the meaning from the context. Consulting the dictionary from time to time not only affects one’s reading speed and the comprehension of the reading material, but also will get the reader frustrated.
Whatever they read, most of them read in a same way, word by word, which is a waste of time and energy. We should read in groups rather than a single word. Reading clusters can make it possible to improve students’ reading speed and reading comprehension. Clustering trains students to look at group words instead of one word at a time.
2.Over rely on dictionary
It is no doubt that dictionary can help us know new words easily. But it will effect our thinking if we use dictionary frequently. We can not follow the author’s thinking, so we have to read the content again and again. It not only waste time, but also effect our understanding of the whole content. So we’d better look up the new words after we read the whole content. And we can also guessing the meanings from the word-formation. For most of the new words we can guess the meaning of them by their word formation. Compounding, prefixation, suffixation and conversion are the main types of word formation. Knowing the ways of the formation of the words, you can guess the meanings of the new words without much difficulty. 3. Slow reading speed
If you are reading for meaning，try to read fast. Some people read very slowly. They think that reading slowly helps them understand better. That is not right. As a mater of fact, the faster you read, the better you understand. The expression “haste makes waste” does not apply to reading. Remember, nothing hurts concentration more than reading too slowly. Your mind will keep up with your reading speed if you ask it to. By always reading at your top speed, you challenge your understanding and make it easier for your mind to concentrate on the material. To improve your reading speed, you must get rid of the following bad habits:(1)Point at words or hold a pen or a pencil or ruler under the line while reading;(2)Mumble the words to yourself or say the words in your mind，though other people cannot hear you reading;(3)Read back from time to time;(4)Stop reading at occurrence of the unknown words to look them up in the dictionary.
4. Lack of culture background
For a long time, people have been working on how the cultural element affects learning of English. Anthropologists and linguists regard knowledge of cultural background and language structure as the key items.People often ignore English culture and lack background knowledge. They have very little or even no knowledge about English speaking countries culture. “Therefore, they could not understand or they could misunderstand some idioms. At last it will hinder them from improving reading comprehension and reading abilities.”“The background knowledge is a vital factor to affect learners’ abilities in reading comprehension.”
IV. Some ways to improve reading ability
Dai Lin has pointed out clearly that good learning habits are the necessary premise of successful study. Lots of English learners complain that reading is a difficult task. It can`t give them any benefits and useful information. After an examination in reading, they often say that their reading speed is too slow; they can`t understand what the meaning of the materials is; their reading abilities are poor. If they have good reading habits, they can flexibly use various reading skills in a test to get high marks, and they can improve their reading abilities.
1. Enlarging vocabulary
The English language has about 750, 000 words, and more new words are coming into use daily. Also, words are constantly being redefined. Each word takes additional meanings as time passes until it has many meanings. It has been proved that the readers with small store of vocabulary will find it very difficult in reading comprehension. How to solve this problem? We can build up our vocabulary from the following two aspects: (1)Learning about word formation
Firstly, learn about word formation. You can enlarge your vocabulary by using the rules of word formation, Many words in the English language are made up of word parts called roots, prefixes, and suffixes, like“sad”, “sadly”, “sadness”, and so on. Therefore, this method is used to help readers get the meaning of an unknown word by analyzing the word structure, which is by dividing words into usable parts such as roots, prefixes and suffixes. If you know a number of commonly used prefixes, roots and suffixes, they will be of use in unlocking the meanings of unknown words that you find in your reading. For example, when you know the word “courage”, “ encourage，discourage，courageous” will not be new to you.
(2)Collecting the words you often meet in reading
Secondly, collect the new words you often meet in reading. That does not mean encouraging you to consult the dictionary whenever you meet a new word in reading. The appropriate way is to try to guess the word meanings from context clues, from the words around it, and then you will gradually know the clear meaning of the word after meeting it often. And now, if you look it up in the dictionary, you will have a good memory of it.
2. Improve your grammar
Language is composed of words and grammatical structures. The accurate rate of comprehension is based on the mastering degree of the words and grammar. In case of learning a language, for instance, a child or a beginner who learns a foreign language, learns some words first, then begins to get in touch with the regulation of sentence-grammar, then he can use words to make sentences himself. Only by understanding the rules of the game, you can win the game. Sometimes, we find some learners recite a large number of words and they can say the meaning of them as they see them, but when these words are arranged into a sentence, these learners cannot make sense of them. Why? That is because they are not familiar with grammar. Grammar is the skeleton, which produces the variety of different words combinations. We know that if you thread coins with a cord, you can carry away many coins at a time easily; if the coins scatter on the floor, it is hard to pick up every one. Grammar is like the cord to give life to the combination of words and make the expression diversified. It makes us know the approval, interrogatory or surprising tone and the like. Mastering grammar is the basic step to make progress on English reading. 3. Using various reading skills
(1)Finding out the topic sentence
This skill is a basic one to grasp the main idea of an article. The two basic parts of a paragraph are the main idea and the supporting details. The author’s point or purpose, the main idea is usually stated in a single sentence. The sentence that states the main idea in a paragraph is called the topic sentence. According to the topic sentences, we can learn not only what or whom the article describes but also what the author wants the readers to know. The topic sentence always appears at the beginning or at the end of a paragraph. Sometimes we can read the first and last sentences in each paragraph only, omit the rest of them. By doing this, we can get the meaning of each paragraph easily. This reading skill will reduce time of reading the unimportant message, make our reading speed quickly and make us find the relevant messages quickly.
(2)Skimming and Scanning
Skimming and scanning are skills for making fast search for information. Skimming is a way of reading materials quickly, in order to look for a general idea, especially when we try to decide whether careful reading would be desirable or when there is not enough time to read carefully. Like skimming, scanning is also quick reading. However, in this case,the search is more focused. Scanning and skimming are important skills. They do not remove the need for careful reading, but they enable the reader to select texts, or parts of texts, that are worth spending time on.
①Skimming
Skimming is a way of reading materials quickly, in order to look for a general idea, especially when we try to decide whether careful reading would be desirable or when there is not enough time to read carefully. This skill-type reading can be used when reading newspapers, magazines, novels and so forth, which can not only enlarge horizon but also bring enjoyment of language. But how can we skim? Force your eyes to move fast. Sweep across each and every line. Pick up only a few key words in each line. You and I may not pick up exactly the same words when we skim the same piece, but we will both get a pretty similar idea of what it is all about. As we begin to skim a passage, we should read the first paragraph at normal speed all the way through. Because the opening paragraph contains an introduction or overview of what will be talked about. Then, from the second paragraph on, we can only read as much of each paragraph as we have to in order to discover whether it contains a main idea or any important details. We skip over the parts, which are nonessential to us until we reach the ending paragraphs, which we should read more carefully because they often contain a summary. This skill of reading is widely used when one read an exposition or an essay. When one begins to practice skimming, one may find that it is not faster than normal reading. However, with a little practice one should be able to cover materials at two or four times the rate of normal reading, with comprehension that will be enough for one’s purposes. ②Scanning
Like skimming, scanning is also quick reading. However, in this case, the search is more focused. To scan is to read quickly in order to find a particular point of information. Scanning skill is particularly helpful when we want to consult a dictionary, look for a certain advertisement (hunting for a job, renting a house, etc.). For example, when we look for the amount or the number of something, we simply look at the Arabic numerals; when we want to find the name of a person or an organization, we just scan for the words beginning with a capital letter. Sometimes before we read articles of this kind, we can read the questions first. When reading, you need to keep the questions in your mind all the time, read it with some aims，then read the article as quickly as you can．The parts that are not relevant with the questions are swallowed at a high speed, and the other relevant messages are tasted at a little slow speed. The answers of scanning must be accurate. It’s warned that you should not pay attention to the reading speed, if so, you can’t locate the right answers and scanning is of no use at all.
(3)Guessing the meaning of new words
Everyone knows that new words and expressions are always easily found when reading an article. Some of them can be ignored because they are not so necessary for you to grasp the main idea of an article or answer the questions. However, there are also a lot of new words, which are key words to the article. If you do not understand the meanings of these words will greatly affect the understanding of the article. So the ability of guessing the meanings of the new words is very important in reading. For this reason, you must try to improve the ability of guessing the meanings of the new words or expressions.
①Guessing the meanings from the contexts.The meanings of the words can be guessed from the given information in the contexts.②Guessing the meanings from the contrasts.During the course of reading an article，sometimes the learners can infer an opposite or similar meaning by the meanings of the given words. ③Guessing the meanings from the definitions.When writing an article，sometimes the writer will give a suitable definition to a word. We can guess the meanings of the new words by these given definitions easily.
V. Conclusion
As stated above, it is very necessary and important to develop the students’ ability of reading. However, reading is an art never completely mastered. Rome was not built in a day. In other words, you will not become great overnight. It is necessary for us to keep on applying these methods to our daily reading in order to consolidate and improve our reading ability. Here another thing should be made clear. Each person has his own advantages and disadvantages. One should keep on accumulating experience and seek out the drawbacks. The discussion above on reading is just an attempt to find out the methods in English reading. Only in the process of reading, can you discover the right way for yourself.
(作者單位：安徽省无为县十里墩中心校 238300)
Key words: Reading ability; obstacle；improve
中圖分类号：G632.0 文献标识码：A 文章编号：1992-7711(2013)23-0098
I. Introduction
Nowadays, as the development of the society, the influence of learning English language is becoming more and more popular. Today English is widely used in different fields. Such as in business, diplomacy, art, film, English learning and so on .For English learners reading is one of the four basic skills which learners are required to master if they want to learn a foreign language. English reading can improve reader’s perception so as to give a lot of help to improve listening, speaking and writing. It can increase knowledge, widen their visions, and enhance their interest in English. So it is clear that it’s very important to improve English reading. But the problem is that many English learners seem to have difficulty in reading accurately and efficiently. Moreover, in various international and domestic examinations,English reading has taken larger and larger part. The score takes about 40%in the college English test band four and six. In a certain extent, doing well or not in the reading comprehension directly influences the grades of English tests. And we can not study foreign language well without improving the reading ability. What’s more,in the traditional mode of teaching, teachers just impart basic knowledge, and regardless of cultivating students’ good psychology of reading. As a result, students are prone to bring out impatience, anxiety, fear and such bad feelings.Therefore bad psychology of reading greatly affects improvement of reading ability. In this situation, how to improve English reading draws more and more attention. This paper tries to state some points about how to help English learners improve their reading ability. Ⅱ. Reasons for improving reading ability
There are a lot of reasons for improving reading ability, such as in all kinds of English examinations, reading magazines or books and materials. Different people have different reading purposes. But the same one is to get more knowledge from reading. Especially for students, reading comprehension takes a large part in all kinds of English examinations. And the score of reading comprehension may influence the whole score in some degree. So it is important to improve reading ability.
1. Helping learners become a more efficient reader
If we want to be a efficient reader, we must be confident and active in reading. Some readers have no self-confidence in reading. Before reading, they fear that they cannot understand the passage. When they meet with new words, they will feel so nervous as to lose the courage to go on reading it. These readers are defeated not by their weakness but by their lack of confidence. We know that people read to get information or to learn and absorb or to enjoy themselves. So, when you are reading，there is no need to feel any pressure. Just try to get the information you need or enjoy yourself. But this is not enough. A good reader should also try to communicate with the author actively. Try to guess the author’s real meaning between the lines and don’t force your own thoughts upon the author’s. Even if there are some new words, that does not matter much. You don’t have to know the exact meaning of every new word, just try to guess the meaning of the word from the context. To become a more efficient reader, you should also read often and read a lot. If you can do these,you will be a efficient reader soon.
2. Learners read in different ways for different purposes
First, learners read in different ways for different purposes. Christine Nuttall has pointed out that college students could not just read text books in their daily life. They will read various materials, such as novel, fiction, poetry, telephone directory, statistics, label on medicine leaflet, notice, and application form. They should know why they read each one, what they want to get from it, and how they read it. When they read each item, they need to use different kinds of reading skills. Do they read a telephone directory the same way as a poem? How about a timetable or a notice? Reading these is very different from reading a book. The way they deal with each text is strongly influenced by the purpose in reading. Quickly scanning a street map to find a place where they want to go is very different from reading a legal document. They will soon realize big differences in the reading speed they use. Second, learners read for meanings. Whatever their reasons for reading (excluding any reading for language learning), it is not very likely that they read just for pronunciations, grammatical structures, syntax, words. They read because they want to get something from the writing. They want to understand what the writer wants to tell them. An article can not only give us some facts, but also be enjoyment, ideas and feelings. No matter what it is, while they read, they want to get messages that the writer intended. They are interested in what the writing meant.
It is obvious that improving reading ability is very important if they want to be proficient readers.
III. Some obstacles in reading
There are some obstacles to hinder learners from improving their abilities in reading comprehension in the process of reading. In this paper, we will talk about three obstacles, there are word to word reading, over rely on dictionary, slow reading speed and lack of culture background.
1.Word to word reading
A good reader should develop a correct method of reading. That is, to train himself to read attentively(not to read back) and silently(not to read aloud), sentence by sentence, not word by word. Whenever meeting a new word, try to guess the meaning from the context. Consulting the dictionary from time to time not only affects one’s reading speed and the comprehension of the reading material, but also will get the reader frustrated.
Whatever they read, most of them read in a same way, word by word, which is a waste of time and energy. We should read in groups rather than a single word. Reading clusters can make it possible to improve students’ reading speed and reading comprehension. Clustering trains students to look at group words instead of one word at a time.
2.Over rely on dictionary
It is no doubt that dictionary can help us know new words easily. But it will effect our thinking if we use dictionary frequently. We can not follow the author’s thinking, so we have to read the content again and again. It not only waste time, but also effect our understanding of the whole content. So we’d better look up the new words after we read the whole content. And we can also guessing the meanings from the word-formation. For most of the new words we can guess the meaning of them by their word formation. Compounding, prefixation, suffixation and conversion are the main types of word formation. Knowing the ways of the formation of the words, you can guess the meanings of the new words without much difficulty. 3. Slow reading speed
If you are reading for meaning，try to read fast. Some people read very slowly. They think that reading slowly helps them understand better. That is not right. As a mater of fact, the faster you read, the better you understand. The expression “haste makes waste” does not apply to reading. Remember, nothing hurts concentration more than reading too slowly. Your mind will keep up with your reading speed if you ask it to. By always reading at your top speed, you challenge your understanding and make it easier for your mind to concentrate on the material. To improve your reading speed, you must get rid of the following bad habits:(1)Point at words or hold a pen or a pencil or ruler under the line while reading;(2)Mumble the words to yourself or say the words in your mind，though other people cannot hear you reading;(3)Read back from time to time;(4)Stop reading at occurrence of the unknown words to look them up in the dictionary.
4. Lack of culture background
For a long time, people have been working on how the cultural element affects learning of English. Anthropologists and linguists regard knowledge of cultural background and language structure as the key items.People often ignore English culture and lack background knowledge. They have very little or even no knowledge about English speaking countries culture. “Therefore, they could not understand or they could misunderstand some idioms. At last it will hinder them from improving reading comprehension and reading abilities.”“The background knowledge is a vital factor to affect learners’ abilities in reading comprehension.”
IV. Some ways to improve reading ability
Dai Lin has pointed out clearly that good learning habits are the necessary premise of successful study. Lots of English learners complain that reading is a difficult task. It can`t give them any benefits and useful information. After an examination in reading, they often say that their reading speed is too slow; they can`t understand what the meaning of the materials is; their reading abilities are poor. If they have good reading habits, they can flexibly use various reading skills in a test to get high marks, and they can improve their reading abilities.
1. Enlarging vocabulary
The English language has about 750, 000 words, and more new words are coming into use daily. Also, words are constantly being redefined. Each word takes additional meanings as time passes until it has many meanings. It has been proved that the readers with small store of vocabulary will find it very difficult in reading comprehension. How to solve this problem? We can build up our vocabulary from the following two aspects: (1)Learning about word formation
Firstly, learn about word formation. You can enlarge your vocabulary by using the rules of word formation, Many words in the English language are made up of word parts called roots, prefixes, and suffixes, like“sad”, “sadly”, “sadness”, and so on. Therefore, this method is used to help readers get the meaning of an unknown word by analyzing the word structure, which is by dividing words into usable parts such as roots, prefixes and suffixes. If you know a number of commonly used prefixes, roots and suffixes, they will be of use in unlocking the meanings of unknown words that you find in your reading. For example, when you know the word “courage”, “ encourage，discourage，courageous” will not be new to you.
(2)Collecting the words you often meet in reading
Secondly, collect the new words you often meet in reading. That does not mean encouraging you to consult the dictionary whenever you meet a new word in reading. The appropriate way is to try to guess the word meanings from context clues, from the words around it, and then you will gradually know the clear meaning of the word after meeting it often. And now, if you look it up in the dictionary, you will have a good memory of it.
2. Improve your grammar
Language is composed of words and grammatical structures. The accurate rate of comprehension is based on the mastering degree of the words and grammar. In case of learning a language, for instance, a child or a beginner who learns a foreign language, learns some words first, then begins to get in touch with the regulation of sentence-grammar, then he can use words to make sentences himself. Only by understanding the rules of the game, you can win the game. Sometimes, we find some learners recite a large number of words and they can say the meaning of them as they see them, but when these words are arranged into a sentence, these learners cannot make sense of them. Why? That is because they are not familiar with grammar. Grammar is the skeleton, which produces the variety of different words combinations. We know that if you thread coins with a cord, you can carry away many coins at a time easily; if the coins scatter on the floor, it is hard to pick up every one. Grammar is like the cord to give life to the combination of words and make the expression diversified. It makes us know the approval, interrogatory or surprising tone and the like. Mastering grammar is the basic step to make progress on English reading. 3. Using various reading skills
(1)Finding out the topic sentence
This skill is a basic one to grasp the main idea of an article. The two basic parts of a paragraph are the main idea and the supporting details. The author’s point or purpose, the main idea is usually stated in a single sentence. The sentence that states the main idea in a paragraph is called the topic sentence. According to the topic sentences, we can learn not only what or whom the article describes but also what the author wants the readers to know. The topic sentence always appears at the beginning or at the end of a paragraph. Sometimes we can read the first and last sentences in each paragraph only, omit the rest of them. By doing this, we can get the meaning of each paragraph easily. This reading skill will reduce time of reading the unimportant message, make our reading speed quickly and make us find the relevant messages quickly.
(2)Skimming and Scanning
Skimming and scanning are skills for making fast search for information. Skimming is a way of reading materials quickly, in order to look for a general idea, especially when we try to decide whether careful reading would be desirable or when there is not enough time to read carefully. Like skimming, scanning is also quick reading. However, in this case,the search is more focused. Scanning and skimming are important skills. They do not remove the need for careful reading, but they enable the reader to select texts, or parts of texts, that are worth spending time on.
①Skimming
Skimming is a way of reading materials quickly, in order to look for a general idea, especially when we try to decide whether careful reading would be desirable or when there is not enough time to read carefully. This skill-type reading can be used when reading newspapers, magazines, novels and so forth, which can not only enlarge horizon but also bring enjoyment of language. But how can we skim? Force your eyes to move fast. Sweep across each and every line. Pick up only a few key words in each line. You and I may not pick up exactly the same words when we skim the same piece, but we will both get a pretty similar idea of what it is all about. As we begin to skim a passage, we should read the first paragraph at normal speed all the way through. Because the opening paragraph contains an introduction or overview of what will be talked about. Then, from the second paragraph on, we can only read as much of each paragraph as we have to in order to discover whether it contains a main idea or any important details. We skip over the parts, which are nonessential to us until we reach the ending paragraphs, which we should read more carefully because they often contain a summary. This skill of reading is widely used when one read an exposition or an essay. When one begins to practice skimming, one may find that it is not faster than normal reading. However, with a little practice one should be able to cover materials at two or four times the rate of normal reading, with comprehension that will be enough for one’s purposes. ②Scanning
Like skimming, scanning is also quick reading. However, in this case, the search is more focused. To scan is to read quickly in order to find a particular point of information. Scanning skill is particularly helpful when we want to consult a dictionary, look for a certain advertisement (hunting for a job, renting a house, etc.). For example, when we look for the amount or the number of something, we simply look at the Arabic numerals; when we want to find the name of a person or an organization, we just scan for the words beginning with a capital letter. Sometimes before we read articles of this kind, we can read the questions first. When reading, you need to keep the questions in your mind all the time, read it with some aims，then read the article as quickly as you can．The parts that are not relevant with the questions are swallowed at a high speed, and the other relevant messages are tasted at a little slow speed. The answers of scanning must be accurate. It’s warned that you should not pay attention to the reading speed, if so, you can’t locate the right answers and scanning is of no use at all.
(3)Guessing the meaning of new words
Everyone knows that new words and expressions are always easily found when reading an article. Some of them can be ignored because they are not so necessary for you to grasp the main idea of an article or answer the questions. However, there are also a lot of new words, which are key words to the article. If you do not understand the meanings of these words will greatly affect the understanding of the article. So the ability of guessing the meanings of the new words is very important in reading. For this reason, you must try to improve the ability of guessing the meanings of the new words or expressions.
①Guessing the meanings from the contexts.The meanings of the words can be guessed from the given information in the contexts.②Guessing the meanings from the contrasts.During the course of reading an article，sometimes the learners can infer an opposite or similar meaning by the meanings of the given words. ③Guessing the meanings from the definitions.When writing an article，sometimes the writer will give a suitable definition to a word. We can guess the meanings of the new words by these given definitions easily.
V. Conclusion
As stated above, it is very necessary and important to develop the students’ ability of reading. However, reading is an art never completely mastered. Rome was not built in a day. In other words, you will not become great overnight. It is necessary for us to keep on applying these methods to our daily reading in order to consolidate and improve our reading ability. Here another thing should be made clear. Each person has his own advantages and disadvantages. One should keep on accumulating experience and seek out the drawbacks. The discussion above on reading is just an attempt to find out the methods in English reading. Only in the process of reading, can you discover the right way for yourself.
(作者單位：安徽省无为县十里墩中心校 238300)