Reading types

Reading, in very simple words, is the process of looking at a piece of written work, make out what is written on the page or sheet and understand what is written there.
Here, we have to make a distinction between reading silently and reading aloud. These two ways of reading have different purposes. Primarily, reading aloud is done to make others listen and understand and reading silently is to read "in the mind", so that we can understand, what we are reading, better. The teacher reading out a lesson or a story or a poem in the classroom is a good example for reading aloud. People reading the newspaper or a magazine at home or elsewhere is a good example of reading silently. In other words, reading aloud is aimed at improving our pronunciation while reading silently helps in improving our comprehension.

1. Reading
Reading, in very simple words, is the process of looking at a piece of written work, make out what is
written on the page or sheet and understand what is written there.
Here, we have to make a distinction between reading silently and reading aloud. These two ways of
reading have different purposes. Primarily, reading aloud is done to make others listen and
understand and reading silently is to read "in the mind", so that we can understand, what we are
reading, better. The teacher reading out a lesson or a story or a poem in the classroom is a good
example for reading aloud. People reading the newspaper or a magazine at home or elsewhere is a
good example of reading silently. In other words, reading aloud is aimed at improving our
pronunciation while reading silently helps in improving our comprehension.
Now, let us discuss what the reader needs to have with him, to be a good reader. In other words, what
are the pre-requisites for reading. 1) The reader should have a good knowledge of the language he is
reading in - the alphabet, the writing system, the word order and of course the meanings. 2) The
reader should have a purpose for reading - that is he should know why he is reading the piece.
So, reading is like 'decoding' a text by identifying the written symbols on the page. This whole process
should be done keeping a purpose in mind.
Purpose of reading
The student's purpose of reading is to study well and answer well in his exams. An effective reader
adapts his style and speed of reading to suit his purpose / need.
Some of the purposes of reading are:
a) to get overall information about the text, that is what is the text about;
b) to get some information from the text, that is search for information from a dictionary or a railway
time table;
c) to read for pleasure or interest, that is what we informally call "time pass".
d) to read as a hobby, as a special interest, like reading a novel, a magazine, a poem, etc.
What are the characteristics of reading
1. Reading is purposeful.
That is, there is always a reason for reading. In general terms, we read either for information
or pleasure. Your purpose in reading a recipe is obviously different from your purpose in going
through a legal document, or in reading a poem. But there is nothing like totally purposeless
reading - even when you read a novel during travel, you read it to pass your time, and that is
the purpose.
2. Reading is selective.
That is, the type of reading you do or the way you read a text varies according to your purpose
in reading. You quickly scan a page in the telephone directory to locate a name, a telephone
number, or an address, but you have to pay careful attention to every word in a legal
document. To put it crudely, we scan for specific information, noting only what is relevant to
our purpose at the given moment and rejecting or ignoring the majority of what appears on
the page because it is irrelevant to our purpose. We skim, attempting to extract the gist of a
text. Or we read intensively with the aim of decoding the whole of the writer's message.

2. 3. Reading speed varies according to content and purpose.
Efficient readers use the minimum number of clues in the text - semantic and syntactic - to
extract the information they need. You will agree that you generally read a novel or a short
story faster than you read you textbook or study material.
4. Reading is silent.
Reading aloud is a specialized skill used, for example, by actors and newsreaders, but seldom
by the general reader. If it is used, its purpose is to L communicate to another person a written
message to which that person does not have! access.
5. Reading is text-based.
It seldom involves the mere decoding of individual sentences isolated from context. Look at
this set of sentences : I The mind of a thinker may work in many ways. The experiments proved
his theory of ring structure. However, water is only a solvent and not a reagent. What is wrong
with this ? We cannot make sense of these sentences, because they are together without any
relationship among them. They do not constitute a text at all and so we cannot 'read' this set
meaningfully.
6. Reading involves complex cognitive skills.
Readers do not merely decode the message. They make predictions and inferences - they
anticipate based on what they read. They build assumptions about the overall content at the
macro-level and predict what is IikeIy to come next in the text at the micro-level. That is why
reading is called "a psycholinguistic guessing game". Readers may also impose their own
organization on the information they extract from a text. At a mGre sophisticated level, they
react to what they read, assessing the accuracy of the facts presented, the value of the
opinions stated, or the quality and appropriateness of the style.
7. Effective reading also involves chunking of information that the well-developed schema
makes possible.
When we read, our eyes take in whole phrases at a time which are meaningful; they do not
move from word to word in a straight line, but move backwards and forwards over the text.
You will understand this if you do a simple exercise. Try covering a text with a piece of paper
and reading it literally word by word. Move the paper along the text, revealing only one word
each time. You will find that it is almost impossible to read and understand a text in this way.
You soon lose track of the meaning and you need to keep looking back across the text to take
io whole sentences. Your reading slows down so much in this attempt to read only one word
at a time, that you lose these sense of what you are reading.
8. Reading is based on comprehension.
That is, understanding meaning is integral to reading rather than the result of it. The more we
comprehend, the more we can, and tend to, read.
Examples of different types of texts
Our way of reading also depends on the type of text we are reading. Different types of texts would
mean: 1) an academic journal or text book 2) novels, magazines and newspapers 3) a dictionary,
telephone directory or the railway time table 4) instructions and recipes 5) a poem, rhyme, story and
others
The writer writes different types of texts with different purposes in mind and different readers in
mind. It is up to the reader to select / choose the appropriate text for his purpose and also read in
the manner, which is suitable for his need or purpose.
For example:

3. a) A teacher writes notes for the student to read and understand a topic easily.
b) A novelist writes a novel for his readers to read and enjoy.
c) A chemist/pharmacist writes the composition of a drug and its dosage for his patients to read and
follow the instructions;
d) A machine or appliance manufacturer writes instructions and a user manual for the user to read
and use the machine safely.
In this way the text, the write, the reader, the purpose of the text and the reason for reading it - all
these are interconnected.
Thus, the purpose for reading can basically be classified as
A) Reading for Pleasure
B) Reading for Learning
C) Reading for Survival
What is reading Comprehension?
As mentioned earlier, to understand what we have read, is called reading comprehension. In a
classroom, for example, the teacher reads out a lesson, explains how and difficult words, asks
questions and gives notes - all these are done to help pupils better.
But, in real life, there is no teacher or guide to help us read. Then, how do we understand well! People
do not read in a vacuum, in empty space. They bring something of the world and their past
experiences to the reading process. And most important of all, readers have a thorough knowledge
of the language - its vocabulary, its grammar, its word order, etc - which help the reader to read
effectively.
Further, the reader brings his knowledge of the world which helps him understand the topic he is
reading, the culture of the people involved in the text he is reading and their way of life. So, in other
words, reading involves a large element of personal discovery, struggle and achievement.
In the reading comprehension process, the reader learns as he understands. And if the reader puts
into practice what he has read, that is a greater achievement. Thus, after reading the instructions in a
manual, we are able to operate a machine successfully, that is the real purpose of reading.
Reading Speed and comprehension
Some people think that if they read slowly, they can understand better. This is not true. There is
something called an optimum speed at which people read which helps them understand better. This
is because, good readers do not read word by word. They read in meaning groups of words or in
meaningful chunks. Readers take in the meaning from each chunk and that is how they are able to
read fast. Of course, our reading speed depends on what we are reading and why we are reading.
What are reading Strategies?
In the reading process, the role of the reader, the context and the text is very important. The process
of reading is dynamic, that it is active. In the past, reading was labelled as a "passive" skill but it is no
longer described in such a way. It emphasizes the reader's progression through a text. This means, the
reader starts reading and at the end, arrives at the meaning of the text, by using different techniques

4. and methods - which we call strategies. In other words, reading strategies are those actions, which
the reader employs to arrive at the meaning. This only shows that there is a constant interaction
between text and the reader. That is, meaning is created, and grasped by the reader in the course of
reader as he depends on his language proficiency, and knowledge of the world along with the inputs
provided by the printed or written text. of course, the inputs can be provided in different ways: by the
use of appropriate vocabulary, the use of grammar, word order, phrases, idioms, etc. The reader uses
all the above mentioned features to arrive at the meaning. These are called strategies.
Why do we need different reading strategies?
As mentioned earlier, processing the meaning of the text that we are reading will vary with the nature
of the text, the reader's purpose and the context or situation.
For example, let’s take a novel. We read a novel for different purposes:
a) On a train or a bus (for pleasure)
b) in a library ( to enjoy or to get information)
c) in a classroom (as part of the syllabus - for study purpose)
In all these situations, do we read the novel in the same way? Do we employ the same strategies?
In situation (a), we are reading "lightly" - i.e., without much concentration. Here, our purpose is only
to read the story and enjoy it, especially because we are reading to relieve our boredom.
In situation (b), we read with a little more concentration. Here, the atmosphere in the library itself
makes us read more seriously. We would like to analyse the story in-depth, know more about the
characters, note down any new vocabulary and grammatical usages etc.
In situation (c), we are actually studying the novel. We will be discussing it in class, write an essay on
the events and characters and probably write an exam also based on the novel. Here, the storyline,
the plot, and the characters, the language used to describe and narrate the story - all these are
important.
This is what we call in-depth reading. In all the three situations mentioned above, readers employ
different strategies: a) read lightly to enjoy; b) read with concentration - to learn;
c) read in-depth to study and understand.
Thus, we need different strategies for reading based on what we are reading and why we are reading
the text and the purpose.
The four main types of reading techniques are the following:
Skimming
Scanning
Intensive
Extensive

5. Skimming
Skimming is sometimes referred to as gist reading. Skimming may help in order to know what the text
is about at its most basic level. You might typically do this with a magazine or newspaper and would
help you mentally and quickly shortlist those articles which you might consider for a deeper read. You
might typically skim to search for a name in a telephone directory.
You can reach a speed count of even 700 words per minute if you train yourself well in this particular
method. Comprehension is of course very low and understanding of overall content very superficial.
Scanning
Picture yourself visiting a historical city, guide book in hand. You would most probably just scan the
guide book to see which site you might want to visit. Scanning involves getting your eyes to quickly
scuttle across sentence and is used to get just a simple piece of information. Interestingly, research
has concluded that reading off a computer screen actually inhibits the pathways to effective scanning
and thus, reading of paper is far more conducive to speedy comprehension of texts.
Something students sometimes do not give enough importance to is illustrations. These should be
included in your scanning. Special attention to the introduction and the conclusion should also be
paid.
Intensive Reading
You need to have your aims clear in mind when undertaking intensive reading. Remember this is going
to be far more time consuming than scanning or skimming. If you need to list the chronology of events
in a long passage, you will need to read it intensively. This type of reading has indeed beneficial to
language learners as it helps them understand vocabulary by deducing the meaning of words in
context. It moreover, helps with retention of information for long periods of time and knowledge
resulting from intensive reading persists in your long term memory.
This is one reason why reading huge amounts of information just before an exam does not work very
well. When students do this, they undertake neither type of reading process effectively, especially
neglecting intensive reading. They may remember the answers in an exam but will likely forget
everything soon afterwards.
Extensive reading
Extensive reading involves reading for pleasure. Because there is an element of enjoyment in extensive
reading it is unlikely that students will undertake extensive reading of a text they do not like. It also
requires a fluid decoding and assimilation of the text and content in front of you. If the text is difficult
and you stop every few minutes to figure out what is being said or to look up new words in the
dictionary, you are breaking your concentration and diverting your thoughts.
Is the ability to learn and assimilate information genetic?
It is not uncommon for people to associate intelligent or bright kids with their equally intelligent
parents. Often children of parents exercising a profession appear to be more intelligent. However, it
is important to note first and foremost, that academic intelligence is only one form of intelligence and
even a university professor who scores high on academic intelligence, might be the most impractical
person, finding it difficult to pragmatically solve problems to simple everyday tasks. The notion of

6. intelligence is an extremely complex and diverse one and to pin it into just a single word means
whipping out the multitude of connotations and meanings that it actually embodies.
Scientists have found no plausible relationship between our genes and our ability to learn or our
intelligence. There is no genetic DNA test that can predict intelligence because intelligence is due to
your environment. It is likely that children with parents who exercise a profession appear more
intelligent because their parents directly or directly encourage it. Likely, it is also evident that parents
who neglect their children and do not enforce their schooling commitments (doing their homework,
study periods etc) will perform less well in school and appear “less intelligent”. Again, it is evident
why children who have had no opportunity for schooling might be considered anything but
“intelligent”.

Different types of reading Strategies
The first thing we should note about reading strategies is that we read selectively and flexibly: in other
words, we read different texts in different ways which are related to the function of the text and our
own purpose in reading it in a particular context.
Effective readers are prepared to read and re-read with greater attention, those parts of the text
which are important. Meaning is not just extracted from the text, it is a process of mediation or
interaction with the help of language features and world knowledge. Let us look at these features in
detail.
a) Language / Linguistic features:
i Word order (also called syntax) which helps readers to understand how the meaning is
organised.
ii Vocabulary: words are like building blocks and they contain meaning capsules which help the
reader to extract the meaning and put it in the right order.
iii Grammar and linking devices: In addition to word order, grammatical devices like linking words and
punctuation marks also help the reader to understand how the writing is organised. Examples
of linking words would include conjunctions (and, but, so ...etc.); Words conveying cause and effect
like because, therefore, that is why, as a result; words which caution us like, however, on the other
hand, still, though ...etc.
The best way to get practice and use the above linguistic features is to read more and more. Read the
newspaper, magazines, novels, stories and other interesting texts. This will not only improve your
language but also your reading proficiency.
b) World knowledge: In addition to linguistic features, the knowledge of the world that we bring to
the reading page also help us to understand effectively. Knowledge of the world includes our past
experiences, our past reading, our interaction with our friends and relatives - in short - our view of
life. Thus, reading strategies are chosen according to the type of text we are reading, the purpose (or
reason) for which we are reading. And reading strategies can be linguistic as well as from our past
experiences in the world.