How To Read Effectively
To read effectively, someone must first understand the purpose of reading. Purposes of reading are necessary to be understood by the readers as soon as they are ready to read a particular text. By understanding its purpose, one will get engaged optimally in reading activity.
Nunan (1999: 249) suggests that there are seven main purposes for reading. They are (1) to obtain information for some purposes or because we are curious about some topics, (2) to obtain instruction or how to perform some tasks for our work or daily life (e.g., knowing how an appliance works), (3) to act in a play, play a game, do a puzzle, (4) to keep in touch with friends by correspondence or to understand business letters, (5) to know when or where something will take place or what is available, (6) to know what is happening or has happened (as reported in newspapers, magazines, reports), and (7) for enjoyment or excitement.
The first thing that you must do before you read is asking yourself: “Why am I reading this?; what am I looking for from this text?”. Then, when you read a passage with a new theme, it is important for you to understand the basics of the theme before you read it in depth. To understand the basics of a certain topic, you can start by understanding the general ideas of the topic. Make notes on new terms that you find and make sure you understand the meanings. At last, write down the keywords and find out the meanings.
Basically, we can say that reading is a communication between a writer and the reader. The writer states and tries to communicates his or her ideas on the written texts, while the reader will try to obtain the ideas from the texts. If the reader is able to comprehend the texts, it means that the communication runs smoothly. The process on how a reader translates printed texts to meaning is the key issue in the building of the models of reading process. In this issue, there are three models of reading process that have been developed: bottom-up, top-down, and interactive models. The definitions are:
a. Bottom-Up Model
Bottom-up model or we can say it as text-based assumes that “the translational process begins with print, i.e., letter or word identification, and proceeds to progressively larger linguistic unit, phases, sentences, etc., ending meaning” (Burns et al.,1996: 20). Furthermore, as defined by Fries and Reed in Wiwied (2004: 12), it is a model of reading which assumes that the process of translating print to meaning begins with print.
From those definitions, it can be concluded that readers who employ this model decode printed symbols or texts and use their linguistic proficiency to process them into meanings. It means that the readers use it to comprehend the meanings of the texts. This model is in line with the statement of Roe et al. (1995: 5), who consider reading as a decoding process.
b. Top-Down Model
On the other hand, top-down model (reader-based) of reading process believes that “the act of reading begins with the reader generating hypotheses or predictions about the material, using visual cues in the material to test these hypotheses as necessary” (Burns et. al.,1996: 20). This model does not only rely on the printed symbols or texts, but it also involves the readers’ schemata or prior knowledge in order to comprehend the texts. The process of predicting the meaning of the texts will take place in this model. This model believes that the decoding process may not always be done to every single symbol of the texts. In this process the readers’ intelligence and experience or schemata play as the most important role to comprehend the texts.
c. Interactive Model
According to Rumelheart in Burns et.al. (1996: 31) interactive model indicates that “at least for skilled readers, top-down and bottom-up processing occur simultaneously because comprehension depends on both graphic information and the information in the readers’ mind”. It seems that this model of reading process bridge the gaps between bottom-up and top-down models of the reading process. It suggests that the readers do not exclusively use either printed symbols or prior knowledge. Instead, the readers use both models due to the fact that actually recognition and comprehension of printed words and ideas are the result of using both models of the reading process (Burns et al., 1996: 21).
It can be concluded that this model combines the two preceding models in which the readers utilize both their ability in recognizing printed symbols into meaning as well as their background knowledge to comprehend the texts they read.
Finally, we can employ the “The Five Point Reading Plan” below to make the reading activity runs smoothly and effectively.
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THE FIVE POINT READING PLAN Predict What do you already know about this subject? What do you expect the text to talk about? Go to the Index at the back. Pick out the key words or names you need to follow up. Look at the information about the authors of the text and the date when the book or article was first published. This may help you to understand the authors' point of view and where their work fits in with other publications in the same field. Skim the contents page before you begin reading. It will give you an overview of what the book covers and what the authors thought was important. Move quickly through the first and last paragraphs to get a general idea of the content of the text. Scan Look for specific information, including your keywords and their synonyms. Analyse When you have found relevant paragraphs, read them more carefully. Be an active reader. Ask questions like, 'What is the author saying?' 'How can I use this information?' 'Does this agree or disagree with other readings?' 'How does this information relate to my experience?' Note Take careful notes. Source: Study Skills Brochure/03/SLC/2007 |
References:
Burns, P.C., Roe, B., & Ross, E.P. 1996. Teaching Reading in Today’s Elementary Schools. Boston: Houghton Mifflin
Nunan, David. 1999. Second Language Teaching & Learning. Boston, Massachusetts: Henley Publisher.
Roe, et.al. 1995. Secondary School Reading Instruction – The Content Areas. Boston: Houghton Mifflin
