The Importance Of Reading Strategies

1 Strategies of Reading40 Strategies can be defined as "deliberate actions that learners select and control to achieve desired goals or objectives" Winograd and hare (1988, p.123). This definition underscores the active role that readers take in strategies to achieve the desired result. "Effective language instructors show students how they can adjust their reading behavior to deal with a variety of situations, types of input, and reading purposes. They help students to develop a set of reading strategies and match appropriate strategies to each reading situation. When language learners use reading strategies, they find that they can control the reading experience, and they gain confidence in their ability to read the language. The

Skimming and scanning: using a quick survey of the text to get the main idea, identify text structure, confirm or question predictions.

4. Guessing from context: using prior knowledge of the subject and the ideas in the text as clues to the meanings of unknown words, instead of stopping to look them up.

5. Paraphrasing: stopping at the end of a section to check comprehension by restating the information and ideas in the text. Instructors can help students learn when and how to use reading strategies in several ways.

1. By modeling the strategies aloud, talking through the processes of previewing, predicting, skimming and scanning, and paraphrasing. This shows students how the strategies work and how much they can know about a text before they begin to read word by word.

2. By allowing time in class for group and individual previewing and predicting activities as preparation for in-class or out-of-class reading. Allocating class time to these activities indicates their importance and value.

3. By using close (fill in the blank) exercises to review vocabulary items. This helps students learn to guess meaning from

In addition, Anderson developed other lists of reading strategy. He has broken the list of twenty four strategies into three different groups: cognitive reading strategies (thinking), metacognitive reading strategies (thinking about your thinking /planning and compensating reading strategies).

A. Cognitive reading strategies:

1. "Predicting the content of an upcoming passage or section of the text.

2. Concentrating on grammar to help you understand unfamiliar constructions.

3. Understanding the main idea to help you comprehend the entire reading.

4. Expanding your vocabulary and grammar to help you increase your reading.

5. Guessing the meaning of unfamiliar words or phrases to let you use what you already know about English.

6. Analyzing theme, style, and connections to improve your