مادة القراءة و الاستيعاب لطلاب السنة الثانية جامعة حلب كلية الآداب الثانية بإدلب

[أ. مسلم قمباز]

The first lecture

 
Introduction
The importance of spoken and visual communication at present seems to have overshadowed the role of reading.  But the increasing development of tele-communication and printing technology have paved the way for a world-wide printed materials which assume a literate audience.
  According to the psycholinguistic view, the process of reading doe not involve the use of all the information in the text, but a selection of language cues to arrive at meaning. In addition, the reader resorts to his background knowledge and relies partly on graphic representation.
  The reader uses orthographic, semantic and syntactic clues in the reconstruction of the text in order to understand how reading works.  The process of using language code to understand the message involves language and thought.  The reader brings to the task his / her ideas, attitudes and his / her beliefs.  This background knowledge and the ability to make linguistic predictions determine the expectations of the reader as s/he reads.
  Reading is not a kind of sound response to letter stimuli with no intervening process. Therefore, meaning cannot be derived from printed words on the surface structure.  Instead, the reader arrives at understanding the meaning through an underlying process of selecting the graphic cues to predict language structures which would help him / her comprehend the message.
Reading Techniques
Here are various techniques and exercises which try to apply the insights of the psycholinguistic model to reading:
Reading Exercises
1.        Skimming
2.        Scanning
3.        Reading for thorough comprehension
4.        Critical reading
Skimming
Skimming is quick reading which is intended to give the general idea of the text.  The students are asked to read the passage quickly to find the answers with time-limits.
Scanning
Scanning is similar to skimming in that the reader is forced to read a certain passage quickly, but the focus here is for specific information ( a date, a number or a place).  Students are taught to be aware of graphic forms such as a written number, a numeral, a capitalized word, or short phrases containing key words.
Reading for thorough comprehension
This technique is intended to train students to get the total message of a passage: its main points and supporting details.

Critical reading
This technique aims at pushing the students beyond the thorough comprehension stage and encouraging them to evaluate what they read.  This critical reading can be developed when we introduce passages of reading which argue a particular point of view and invoke other suggestions.
  Questions that would develop this kind of reading are of this kind: " For what purpose and for what audience is this intended?" ; "Are you convinced of the evidence presented?"; " Do you agree with the writer's point of view?" Such questions open up new lines of thought and lead to discussions in which the students use vocabulary and information from the passage.
Language Exercises
Your efficiency in reading depends on your proficiency in language.  Exercises which treat specific language problems are, therefore, necessary. That is why, you should pay special attention to vocabulary items and syntactic structures.
Vocabulary
You should learn how to use the context to help you understand the meaning of lexical items as words never stand in isolation.  The use of the context requires the analysis of some syntactic and morphological clues.  
  Syntactic clues can help the reader understand unfamiliar words from the context.  For example, if the reader is told that the unfamiliar item is a verb, s/he begins to make inferences about the previous items: whether they are nouns, adjectives, or adverbs.  Morphological clues can also provide some help in understanding the parts of speech which give some sense to the text. The exercises you do on stems and affixes can help you attack the unfamiliar words.
  You are to realize that there are two types of vocabulary. The first type is called active vocabulary and the second type receptive vocabulary. What do we mean by active vocabulary? We mean by active vocabulary items the words which you can use yourselves.  Receptive vocabulary items, on the other hand, are words which you can understand, but you cannot use.
Syntax
The syntactic structure of the text can create some problems. Discourse markers such as " however" , " although" , " furthermore", " namely" mark the functional value of sentences; they tell the intention of the writer.
  Syntactic difficulty may be due to the following factors: complex noun groups, coordination, subordination, noun clauses… etc. .
Reading strategies
Dealing with difficult words
•        Read the sentence the word is in and decide what kind of word it is ( a noun, an adjective… etc. )
•        Read the paragraph the word is in and try to work out the meaning from the context
•        Use your dictionary to check the exact meaning of the word.



Prediction
•        Before you read a text, look at the title and any photos or drawings.
•        Read  the first few lines of the text. Guess what kind of text it is (e.g. newspaper, adventure story, etc. )
Dealing with cultural references
•        Look out for names and expressions related to different cultures.
•        Use the context to guess what the names represent, or what the expressions mean.
•        If there is not enough information to guess , use atlas, a dictionary or an encyclopedia.
Last but not least, reading is one of the most important skills for learning a foreign language. Once we stop reading, our life stops.

THE END

[دانيا]

أ. مسلم قمباز,  

thanks for your effort

[Obada Arwany]

Mr . Msallam
Thank you very much for your efforts in putting the stuff you give
it is an extra efforts that is much much appreciated

I hope you the best for you are really from the best staff I have ever known

Mr. Msallam