Better Reading Part 1

We all know how to read -- that's easy; but have you ever really thought about the process of reading. What is actually going on when you pass your eyes over the letters. It's the cognitive process of understanding a written linguistic message! Well, at least that is what a dictionary might say. And when it comes to reading an IELTS passage in order to later answer questions on it, we can think about the process of reading in order to develop a reading strategy.

The words go into our minds where they are processed: we organize them in order to understand the ideas made by the writer. But such organization can be a slow process, especially in your second or third language. It won't necessarily happen all at once after just one reading. It might be incremental, slowly building up a picture in your mind.

So begin with a quick skim over the whole passage, especially the beginning. That will set a kind of grid in your mind, into which more information can later be slotted. Skim means to read quickly for the major points; so don't spend long on this.

Then, before beginning the main reading, look at a few of the questions. You'll quickly be able to see what the passage is about and what things you need to get from it. Of course don't look at every question in detail -- a skim throught the first few should be enough.

Now read the whole passage in detail. But not slowly. Use a a scrap of paper to note down the main points of each paragraph. Keep your eyes moving, even if you can't understand everything. What you are doing now is getting a basic understanding of the whole piece and identifying the parts you'll have to go back to later in order to extract details to answer the questions. You are not trying to memorize the entire piece, just trying to get a basic understanding. You are filling that grid that you prepared during your skim of the piece and the questions.

Question Time. Hopefully you haven't wasted too much time up till now and you have plenty of time to read each question and go back to the text for the answers