How to Improve the Students’Reading?Ability

1. A brief introduction to the important meaning of improving the students reading ability

Nowadays， the international communication becomes more and more frequently， the science technique also becomes more and more advanced and the knowledge becomes more and more multiplex. The people who read the book， magazines， letters and other forms of information should use the tool—English.

Today， the speed of peoples reading is 100-200 words per minute， but with the growing quantity of the books， magazines and materials， the speed of reading cannot quickly catch up with it. The reading ability includes reading speed， comprehension level， memory ability and so on. Still， most of the teachers and the students in China ignore studying the reading skills. In this case， the level of English reading has become more and more lower. Whats more，  with the development of modern English teaching， the traditional method does not fit in the trade. If one can gain the message quickly， the ability of adopting the society will be stronger.

2. The present problems and causes

Because of the limitation of the teaching condition， our country has mainly adopted the form which requires a large number of students study together， and also because of the limitation of the quantity of teaching time， in English classroom the teachers mainly explain the glossary， analysis sentence structure for the main intention. Nowadays， most of the students in school just depend on the textbook and practice， English reading lesson is made by reading the text again and again to keep the points in mind， and in English class， students just enhance the vocabulary and pay great attention to the analysis of sentence structure. Therefore， the students have only studied many grammar rules， but not learned reading methods， and naturally also without any improvement of reading ability.

There are many teachers whose teaching methods cannot adapt to the modern education systems. They just make the meaning superficially but not to make the students dig the deep connotation. And many students cant make the correct understanding on the text， then affect the accuracy of understanding. Some teachers take “integrative comprehension” as the most important part of reading， and ignore the vocabulary study.

3. Solutions to the problems

3.1 Enlarge vocabulary

Enlarge the vocabulary. There are many ways toachieve this goal， for example， by keeping a dictionary handy， maintaining a list of new words， and knowing the origin of words at first .To expand vocabulary is the foundation of the reading ability. Therefore， if you want to study English well， you must grasp the vocabulary and try to express them in English. Also reciting is one of the methods to enlarge the vocabulary. If we compare the foreign language study to covering the house， the words can be regarded as the bricks.

Try to make every word live. Imagine the thing that can be used in some other ways， then describe the word on other simple words. For example， describe TV. from the shape， the size， the color， the switch， the function and so on. Then expand this word from the noun to the verb form， from adjective to the adverb， the verb to the noun and so on. In this way can we expand vocabulary by using the word formation like this.

3.2 Guiding yourself through the reading

When we do some reading， we are using the structures of a text placed by an author to guide us to obtain the main ideas of the text by generating questions，. It requires not only to master the purpose of reading materials， but also to master the ideas of the center， and to master the detailed facts in the article. Whats more， there are some requirements when we read the material， students should have the ability on understanding the specific facts plot， and the abstract meaning.  As we read it is also important to understand the literal meaning， and to understand its deep meaning， including the author's attitude toward opinion intentions， etc. The examine can apply the information in the material to understand the analysis problem， and also can apply the life common sense of the middle school students to understand and analyze the problem.

3.3 Form a good reading habit.

The habit formation is the same as the development of things， which requires the power of both internal and external factors. Internal cause is the root cause of the development and change of things. External cause is only the condition to promote the development of things. Habit formation is， of course， mainly due to internal causes. But due to the weak students self-control and perseverance， and the formation of habits takes over a fairly long period of time， after running time， and a positive， good habits， compared with a negative and harmful habit formation， I do not know how many times more difficult， therefore， for middle school students， cultivate good habits of reading in the reading， teachers need to parents at pains， using a variety of ways to help. Simply said that， it doesnt take much to read better， but we do need to know how to get started. There are some methods to strengthen our reading habit.

（1） Establish a daily plan. We should get some new reading materials to establish the daily plan. Students have strong ability to imitate， and teachers， parents， and classmates who have good reading habits can produce excellent guidance. After a while， good reading habits began to form.

（2） Selected readings. The old saying： Interest is the best teacher， and is the real motivation for students to learn. Stimulating students' interest in reading is an intrinsic factor in improving their reading ability. Choose the content language of the reading material to be rustic and vivid， the content is fascinating， must try to choose those students to read to love not to be relieved， not a breath to read the unreadable material. It is also necessary to follow the principle that is easy to read gradually. If it is difficult to be appropriate， it will stimulate students' interest in reading and enhance their confidence in reading.

（3） Broaden the scope of reading. Let the students read as much as possible communicative function strong， practical and strong application， exposit. Provide students with various kinds of genres and materials， including the characters' anecdotes， popular science， cultural customs， human history， news reports， advertising instructions， etc. If conditional words can also read the original edition of the simple book， newspapers and magazines， etc.

（4） Guarantee reading time. In addition to the teacher in English class regularly arranged reading training， should also be 20 minutes a day of after-class English reading activities， lets the child carry a straightforward interesting English books and magazines to encourage students to read more， but the reading pieces， use of sporadic time reading， such conducing to the deep understanding of reading materials.

Many books guide the students study analyze the structure of the article， it means to improve the students logical inference ability. In our daily practices， the only thing after students finished the reading is check the result .In fact， the second reading after the practice is very important .Our goals not only gain the massage， but develop the correct thinking method to analyze the writers intention.

3.4 Study the effective reading skills

3.4.1 Fast extensive reading

Form the habit of reading quickly. The extensive reading here refers to the extensive reading of a large number of books covering different fields， which requires reading quickly， understanding and mastering the main contents of the book. To determine a definite book quota， the quota should be combined with the actual， practical and feasible， but much less. For example， read 10 pages a day and read 10 books （about 100 pages per book） for 12 weeks.

3.4.2 Timed reading.

Develop the habit of reading time in your spare time. Keep reading for 5-10 minutes each time， not too long. Because the time is quick to read， the energy is highly concentrated， time is long， easy to be tired， the energy dispersive is boring. Start with "starting time" and finish reading "finishing time" to calculate the reading speed. Got down， long time insist， must receive obvious effect.

3.4.3 Skimming.

Skimming is also called the jump to read （reading） and skipping or browse （glancing）， is a kind of special， very practical fast reading skills. Skimming refers to reading as quickly as possible， as if you had a bird's eye view of the obvious sign on the ground. In other words， skimming requires the reader to read selectively， skipping certain details to catch the passage and speed up reading. According to statistics， slightly trained readers can read between 3，000 and 4，000 words per minute.

Scanning is a kind of fast reading form that quickly find a particular fact or a particular information from large amounts of data， such as characters， events， time， place， number， etc， while not for other slight part. By using this method， readers will be able to skim as many printed materials as possible in the shortest possible time， and find the source of information we need. For example， looking for the operation of a train or car in the station， looking for one of the flight time at the airport， in the library looking up the directory， books and periodicals in the literature to find a certain dates， names， or numbers， etc.， can use this method.

Choose some helpful materials for students to read which is benefit for developing the students reading feeling. It can make students regard reading English is not a boring thing but an interesting thing .

The English teaching outline of middle school clearly states：“Focus on cultivating students' reading ability， so as to lay a solid foundation for further study and use of English”. In the past years， reading comprehension plays an important role in English performance， and reading comprehension questions are becoming more difficult every year. At present， in middle school English teaching， slow reading， intensive reading， heavy language forms， and neglect reading skills training. Therefore， high school students have the phenomenon of slow reading speed and poor comprehension. So we should have some reading skills ahead and have planned， targeted and systematic reading training， we can effectively improve our reading comprehension.

【作者簡介】王冰，山西省孝义市第五中学。