On How to Improve Undergraduates’ Reading Ability

【摘 要】英語閱讀能力是英語學習者學習英語的關鍵。在大學英語教學當中，閱讀理解是非常重要的，而且對于很多大學生來說，閱讀理解又是基本技能和學習目標。本文通過分析影響閱讀能力的因素，探討如何提高大學生的英語閱讀能力。

【關鍵詞】大學英語 閱讀技能 教學方法

【中圖分類號】G642 【文獻標識碼】A 【文章編號】1674－4810（2011）12－0043－02

Ⅰ The situation problems in reading for undergraduates

English reading is the most frequent activity in language learning， it’s also a way to improve other language skills. Only abundance of reading can improve listening， speaking， writing etc. Reading teaching plays an important role in college English teaching， but there are still some problems in English reading for undergraduates.

1．Basic language knowledge barrier

Basic language knowledge includes pronunciation， vocabulary and grammar. Vocabulary directly influences the students’ understanding in reading， so vocabulary mainly influences one’s reading ability. Although college students have accumulated a certain extent words when they enter college， they still can’t use words freely and most of them are lack of words. Due to poor vocabulary， they often have to stop reading to guess the meaning of words while they are reading which slow down their reading speed and finally influence the understanding of the passage. Students have learned grammar in middle school， but lots of students can not make a clear sense of grammar and they could not analyze long sentences and complicated sentences which may cause some misunderstandings. Poor vocabulary and grammar are two biggest barriers in reading activity for college students.

2．Cultural background knowledge barrier

In reading process， culture differences may confuse readers. If one can not understand the background information of the passage， they can only get the literally meaning which is meaningless. There is a cultural gap between English speaking countries and China. Westerners and Chinese have different history， geography， religion and culture which make a lot of differences in aspects of life. These differences show in many fields and what we often meet is idioms. English articles involve not only abundance of information about history， culture， religion， customs， politics， but also scientific knowledge. If students don’t know these differences， they can not understand the passage correctly.

3．Bad reading habits

Lots of students used to read the words quietly and use their pens to point words while they are doing reading. When students meet new words， they may stop and read the word again and again.

The habit is distractive， it’s not good for readers to get the main idea of the passage and reader may lose their interests. Then reader may look up the words in a dictionary. This habit may make students lose the ability to think and solve problems independently in a long term. The habit also causes students to focus on single word which may influence the reading speed and the understanding of passage. It’s not the way to cultivate students’ ability to think and solve problem in English.

Ⅱ Teaching tactics on how to improve undergraduates’ reading ability

Reading teaching relates to the success of college English teaching， and it also decides whether the final purpose of college English teaching will realize or not. Therefore， we must pay enough attention to the teaching of English reading and try our best to improve undergraduates’ reading ability. As what the paper mentioned above， here are some tactics on how to improve college students’ reading ability.

1．Inspire students’ interests strengthen the introduction of cultural background information

Interest is the best teacher. Interest is a state of wanting to learn or know. If students get more interested in studying English， the more motivated they will be. Students will learn actively with interests. In the teaching procedure of English reading， teachers should provide formal reading environment and real reading materials which have to be standard. It means teachers should have a deep understanding of the following information－students’ studying objective， expectation， language level， difficulties of the reading materials， types of passages， then teachers could have a definite object in view as one who shoots the arrow at the target. Generally speaking， teachers should choose lively， vivid reading materials which suits students’ language level.

2．Improve students’ ability of analysis

Grammar and vocabulary is the precondition for English reading， expression comprehension is the basis of reading comprehension. It’s the key point for students to learn analyzing skills which decides whether students could improve their reading ability or not. Since it can cultivate and inspire students’ creativity thoughts， and it redound to students’ language ability and communication ability. In English reading teaching， teachers should pay attention to the subjects of reading materials which should involve daily life－legend， famous people， society， culture， history， geography， science， politics， economics， etc. Teachers should analyze the characteristics of types of literature specifically to students. Firstly， teachers should teach students to forecast style and subject of passage according to the topic and background information， then skim passage to validate your predict. Secondly， teachers can tell students to summarize the main idea of passage and know the main purpose of passage through questions， charts， etc. Thirdly， students should read passage paragraph by paragraph and find out the topic sentence and main idea of each paragraph. Fourthly， we can analyze the logic and the matter of writing of the passage. Finally， teachers ask students to read text carefully to have a deeper understanding. Students can improve their reading ability when they can use these skills freely.

3．Cultivate good reading habits

Reading skills generally include following means－skimming （to skim reading material and get the main idea in a short time）， skipping （to run one’s eyes over reading material ， skip irrelevant information and find out needed details， just like place， name， numbers）， seeking for topic sentence. Different types of passages have different ways to find out topic sentences， take narration as an example， we have to grasp the beginning， happening and ending and get the main idea through the scenario. Exposition usually uses illustration， classification division， definition， comparison contrast to explain one thing， so the topic sentence usually lies in the beginning or ending paragraph. Argumentation usually has two different points， so we have to pay attention to the two points to catch the essential idea. Conjunction is also very important in English reading. Conjunction is the ligament between sentences and paragraphs， these words can predict the following text effectively and it’s also very helpful for students to speed up while reading. So teachers should lead students to practice these skills consciously， and try to cultivate good reading habits.

4．Improve reading speed

Reading comprehension and reading speed are two main factors for reading efficiency. Reading speed relates to the success of exams. If students’ reading speed can’t be improved， it’s hard to gain a good result in exams. Reading speed has to be strengthened if students want to improve their reading efficiency. Skimming is a very effective way for students to quicken their reading speed and comprehension. On the other hand， teachers should cultivate and train students to master reading skills， and teach students how to use skimming and skipping in practice. In order to improve reading speed， teachers can ask students to finish reading exercise in requested time. Students have to centralize， and they can’t look up dictionary and other reference books. Through this way， students can enlarge their vocabulary and improve their comprehensive language ability.

In conclusion， English reading plays a very important role in English learning and it’s also the difficulty for college students to improve reading ability. Both teachers and students should have a clear sense of the importance of reading ability. Teachers also have to attach importance to the problems which influence students greatly and help students to overcome these difficulties. Teachers should inspire students’ reading interests， widen students’ reading scope， strengthen the introduction of cultural background knowledge， cultivate students’ good reading habits， and make students master different kinds of reading skills and tactics in English teaching. Only in this way， students can improve their reading ability.

References

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［2］李樹河.大學英語閱讀的重要性及策略研究［J］.內蒙古財經學院學報（綜合版），2005（4）

［3］唐滟珊.大學英語閱讀教學模式的探索［J］.高教論壇，2005（5）

［4］曲玲.大學英語閱讀教學改革嘗試［J］.遼寧高職學報，2005（2）

〔責任編輯：王以富〕