Reading is an essential part of language instruction at every level because it supports learning in multiple ways. Teachers are the one responsible to mold the young mind of the students/pupils learn how to read from simple letters of the alphabet up to the complicated form of paragraph. However, reading skills will not end up here we must assure that student’s comprehension improves so that self-confidence will also increase in them.

            Strategies that can help students read more quickly and effectively include:

• Previewing – reviewing titles, section headings and photo captions to get a sense of the structure and content of a reading selection
• Predicting – using knowledge of the subject matter to make predictions about content and vocabulary and check comprehension; using knowledge about the author to make predictions about writing style, vocabulary and content
• Skimming and scanning – using a quick survey of the text to get the main idea, identify text structure or question predictions
• Guessing from context – using prior knowledge of the subject and the ideas in the text as clues to the meaning of unknown words, instead of stopping to look them up
• Paraphrasing – stopping at the end of a section to check comprehension by restating the information and ideas in the text

Instructors/ teachers can be a great help to students learn when and how to use reading strategies by modeling the strategies aloud, talking through the process 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. In addition, teachers must allow time in class for group and individual previewing and predicting activities as preparation for in-class or out-of-class reading because these indicates their importance and value. Using cloze (fill in the blank) exercises to review vocabulary items also helps students learn to guess meaning from context.

Research shows that when learners use reading strategies, they find that they can control the reading experience, and they gain confidence in their ability to read the language. Now, teacher’s frustration about the fact that students do not know how to read effectively and without comprehension will become, lessen when almost if not all students will use these strategies in reading.

By: Angelica R. Magno | T-III | Luakan Elementary School