{{B}}Developing Reading Skills{{/B}}
Developing Reading Skills: Intermediate is designed for adults who want to strengthen their reading skills for academic, personal, or career purposes. These materials have been tested successfully with both native and non-native speakers of English.
This text also emphasizes guided reading practice and the development of reading speed. The readings come from current non-fiction, magazine, and newspaper writing, and they cover a wide subject range in order to expose the reader to the content demands of different types of reading material.
We have tried to select the readings with great care so that we would have to make as few changes as possible from the original text. We have occasionally simplified structures and vocabulary in the earlier readings. In later readings, we have used margin glosses to help the reader out. The readings are arranged in order of difficulty, and the exercises deliberately build upon vocabulary and structures introduced in earlier chapters. We recommend that the chapters be presented in the given order if possible.
As in the development of any other skill, guided practice over an extended period of time is essential. In the beginning, many students will have difficulty in finishing the articles in the time you suggest. We have given reading speeds (words per minute) after every reading. You can choose the most appropriate time limit for your class.
The students must learn to stop reading word by word and, instead, read to grasp the general ideas of the article. They should try to guess the probable meanings of unfamiliar words from their contexts rather than look these words up in the dictionary.
{{B}}Better College Reading{{/B}}
Better College Reading aims to intrigue and improve. It intrigues by gathering in one place thirty relatively short articles -- collected from scores of mass media sources — on lively, interesting subjects, ranging from how movie stunt men work, to the awakening of prejudice in children, to police decoys, to the importance of the name one bears, and more.
It improves by arranging the articles according to length and difficulty and by providing exercises and scorekeeping devices designed to challenge the student to enlarge his/ her vocabulary and to increase his/her reading-speed and comprehension.
The selections in Better College Reading also provide good models for students struggling to write beginning short compositions. Each article is followed not only by objective questions but also by suggestions fox' writing and questions designed to stimulate thought and discussion.
The articles range in length from 350 to 2500 words, each succeeding article a little longer than the one preceding it. The exercises grow in length and difficulty to match the length and difficulty of the articles.
The articles include words ranging from the somewhat familiar decoy and baffled to the relatively abstruse androgynous, odyssey, and anachronism. The vocabulary exercises following each article present some of the more difficult words in the context of their sentences. The students should look these words up in the dictionary and, after selecting the appropriate definition from the several to be found for any given word, write it in the blank provided. This will help the student understand the article better and help fix those words in his/her memory.
{{B}}Reading and Thinking in English{{/B}}
Reading and Thinking in English is an integrated course in reading comprehension for students of English as a foreign language. It is based on the belief that a special kind of course is required for students of English whose main need is to gain access to information through English. The course has been designed for a wide range of learners whose needs can be described as "English for Academic Purposes" — advanced secondary school pupils preparing for tertiary education, students in universities and other tertiary institutions, adults whose profession requires them to make use of material in English. It is therefore intended to help students and others read textbooks, works of reference and general academic interest, sourcebooks and journals in English. 'You must be able to understand basic English grammar and vocabulary in order to use the book successfully.
This book can be used by students working with a teacher in a class. It can also be used by students working individually and independently. The practice activities are all designed to develop reading strategies and the ability to understand how information is organized in passages. They involve answering questions, completing tables and diagrams, making summaries, etc. The activities are not mechanical. A reader has to think carefully in order to read with understanding. So reading and thinking are part of the same process.
It is better to work regularly for a short time than to work occasionally for a long time. It is not a good idea to study more than one part of a unit in one study period. It is a good idea to go back to a previous unit and do a difficult exercise again.