Improving Reading Speed - Activities for the classroom
Summary
The purpose of the article “Improving
Reading Speed” written by Neil J Anderson (1999) is to present of activities
that can be helpful in the classroom to increase reading speed. Some studies
conducted with native English speakers indicated that through rapid reading,
learners can achieve skills for rapid reading and develop better comprehension
at the same time. Coady and Anderson (1993) states that it is important to
include a rapid-reading component in reading programs, and that it is also
useful to increase reading-rate of students in a L2 classroom without
decreasing comprehension. Nutall (1996:127) says that by increasing the
reading-rates, students can get into what he calls the “virtuous cycle of a
good reader”. This is supported by Stanovich (1986) who claims that the increase
in students’ reading abilities is directly proportional to the amount of
reading they do.
Four reading-rate activities can be used in
the second language reading class to increase students’ reading rates.
The first one is Rate-Buildup Reading. Students
read as much material as they can within a period of time, and the drill is
repeated three or four times, to reread the “old” material quickly and then
easily move to the “new”.
The second one is Repeated Reading. Here,
students read a passage many times until they reach criterion levels of reading
speed and comprehension. This is, because students understand more when they
quickly read a passage several times than when reading it slowly only one time.
The third one is Class-Paced Reading. This
one, allows students to set a goal for a minimal reading rate. This activity helps
to foster group work abilities in learners as they work together to improve
their reading rates.
The last activity is Self-Paced Reading. This activity
allows students to determine their own reading-rate goals, and the amount of
material they need to read within 60 seconds to meet their reading goals. Here,
students can assess whether they are keeping up with their individual goals or
not.
In addition to these four activities,
students can do a variety of reading passages and multiple-choice comprehension
questions like those in rate-building texts.
References
1. Anderson, N. (1999). Improving reading speed.
In English
Teaching Forum(Vol. 37, No. 2).
2. Coady, J., & Anderson, N. (1993). The
relationship between comprehension and reading rate. meetin
of Teachers of English to Speakers of Othe Languages, Atlanta, GA.
3. Nuttall, C. (1996). Teaching
reading skills in a foreign language.
Heinemann, 361 Hanover Street, Portsmouth, NH 03801-3912.
4.
5.
Stanovich, K. E. (1986). Matthew effects in reading: Some consequences
of individual differences in the acquisition of literacy. Reading
research quarterly, 360-407.
