How to Be a Good Reader

The only way you can become a good reader is through practice. You cannot read a few lines in your English book once a week and become a good reader. You need to read every day. You should always carry something to read with you.

When you begin to read you should ask yourself a question: Why am I reading this? If you are reading to practice your English, you will read in a certain way. You will read slowly and concentrate on the grammatical structures. If you are reading for information about a particular subject, you will read in another way. You will concentrate on main parts and supporting facts. You use the grammar of the passage as a means, not an end.

Reading to practice English is the way most secondary school students read English. In secondary school you did not read English to learn about a particular subject; for example, you did not read English to learn history. You read English to learn how a sentence was put together, how the verb agreed with the subject, etc. But this is not the way you should read for the Supplementary Reading.

Reading for information is the kind of reading you do in your own language. You do not stop to analyze grammatical structures when you pick up a book written in your native language. You understand structures without thinking about them. They are second nature to you.

Now you must develop this skill in English. You must learn to read for meaning.

The Supplementary Reading measures how well you understand the meaning of a passage. It measures your ability to understand the main idea and the supporting facts. It measures your ability to read "between lines". It measures your ability to do this at the speeds required by the College English Syllabus.