Reading Skills in the

Malaysian Primary School

English Language
Curriculum
 What is Reading?
Reading is the process in which the
reader constructs meaning by
interacting with the text.

This interactive process involves the

readers prior knowledge, the text,
and the reading situation
 Skills in Reading
Two broad levels in reading:
Visual signal from the eyes
A cognitive task of interpreting the
visual information, relating the
received information with the readers
own general knowledge, and
reconstructing the meaning that the
writer had meant to convey.
 Process of Reading : three levels of
description
Level 1 Level 2 Level 3
Decoding print Identifying letters, Scanning, fixating,
words, phrases anticipating,
categorizing, testing,
matching, verifying

Making sense Assigning meaning to Anticipating syntactic

phrases and and semantic
sentences categories, matching,
verifying

Questioning Noting discrepancies Retrieving material

between different from long-term
statements or memory, comparing,
between what is read inferring
and what is known
 Reading skills
Skimming
Scanning
 Reading Comprehension skills
Literal comprehension
Reorganisation
Inferential comprehension
Evaluation
Appreciation
Skimming and scanning are especially valuable when there is
only one item of information that you need to find from a
particular passage.

Skimming and scanning are very

rapid reading methods in which
you glance at a passage to find
specific information. These
reading methods make it easier
for you to grasp large amounts of
material, especially when you're
previewing. They are also useful
when you don't need to know
every word.
Skimming is used to quickly gather the most important
information or gist. Its not essential to understand each
word when you are skimming.

Run your eyes over the text, noting important information.

Use skimming to quickly get up to speed on a current business
situation.
Examples of Skimming:

The Newspaper to quickly get the

general news of the day
Magazines to quickly discover
which articles you would like to
read in more detail
Business and Travel Brochures to
quickly get informed
How to Skim?

Working quickly

1. Read the title if there is one.

2. Read the introduction or the first paragraph if there is one.
3. Read the first sentence of every other paragraph.
4. Notice any pictures, charts, or graphs.
5. Notice any italicized or boldface words or phrases.
6. Read the summary or last paragraph if there is one.
 Scanning is a reading technique to be used when you want
to find specific information quickly. In scanning you have a
question in your mind and you read a passage only to find
the answer, ignoring unrelated information.

Examples of Scanning:

A google search list on the internet.

A bus / airplane schedule
A conference guide
A graph
How to scan
1. State the specific information you are looking for.

1. Try to anticipate how the answer will appear and what

clues you might use to help you locate the answer. For
example, if you were looking for a certain date, you
would quickly read the paragraph looking only for
numbers.

1. Use headings and any other aids that will help you
identify which sections might contain the information you
are looking for.

1. Selectively read and skip through sections of the passage.

 Skim and scan this paragraph in 30 seconds

When you skim and scan, you need to cover

everything, even titles, subtitles, side features, and
visuals. That bit of information you need may not be
tidily packaged in a paragraph, so you need to check
the entire page--not just the main body of the text,
there are also many visual clues that help you to
find information. Heads and subheads break up the
text and identify the content of each part. Where
key terms are introduced and defined, they appear
in boldface type. Graphs and charts have titles
and/or captions that tell you what they are about.
These clues will help you to find information. . . but
only if you use them.
In other words, when you are
skimming and scanning

1. Cover everything
2. Check entire page
3. Notice visual clues
4. Notice graphs, charts, titles,
captions
 Conclusion
Skimming and scanning is used when
reading all types of documents.
We skim to get the idea of what a document
is about and typically skim all documents
before we actually begin to read.
As we skim, we
think about the topic
think about what we already know about the topic
start to guess or anticipate the details we are
going to read about.
We scan for specific information.
We work quickly when we skim and scan.
 Literal Comprehension
Understanding what is explicitly stated
by the author in the text
Literal meaning is simply what the text
says. It is what actually happens in the
story. This is a very important level of
understanding because it provides
the foundation for more advanced
comprehension. Without
understanding the material on this
level, you could not go any farther.
 Literal Comprehension
Recognition
- Recognition of Details
- Recognition of Main Ideas
- Recognition of a Sequence
- Recognition of Comparison
- Recognition of Cause and Effects
- Recognition of Character Traits
 Literal Comprehension
Recall
- Recall of Details
- Recall of Main Ideas
- Recall of a Sequence
- Recall of Comparison
- Recall of Cause and Effects
- Recall of Character Traits
 Reading for Main Ideas and
Supporting Details
The Topic of a Text
It is important to know the topic of
what you read. To find the topic, ask
yourself:
What am I reading about?
What is the general idea?
 Main Idea
The main idea is the summary of essential points of the
paragraph.
The main idea of a paragraph can often be substituted
with a topic sentence with controlling ideas.
Sometimes a paragraph may not have main ideas
explicitly stated for the reader. Instead it contains
details that all combine to suggest a main idea.
You will then have to use your own words to form
the main idea by summarising the details in the
paragraph in one or two sentences.
As you read, look out for key words to help you get
a general idea of what the topic is about.
 Reorganisation
Classifying
Outlining
Summarising
Synthesizing
 Inferential Comprehension
Inferring Supporting Details
Inferring Main Ideas
Inferring Sequence
Inferring Comparisons
Inferring Cause and Effect Relationship
Inferring Character Traits
Predicting Outcomes
Interpreting Figurative Language
 Using background knowledge or
determining the relationships
between events in the text to draw
conclusions not explicitly stated in the
text.
 Inferential Meaning
Inferential meaning involves
determining what the text means. You
start with the stated information. This
information is then used to determine
deeper meaning that is not explicitly
stated. Determining inferential
meaning requires you to think about
the text and draw a conclusion.
 Inferencing
Inferencing is a reading skill in which you read
between the lines and use your knowledge and
experience to understand what is left unsaid.
This skill is useful because writers often do not tell us
directly what they mean.
We have to use our past experiences, knowledge,
and whatever information or clues given in the text
to understand what is not stated.
 Predicting
Prediction is the use of ones knowledge about
language and the context in which it occurs to
expect what is coming next in writing or speech.
Good readers:
Begin by quickly glancing over the text to make
some prediction about what they are going to
read
Look for familiar words or topics, to get some
background knowledge about the topic
Find out the writers purpose of a particular text
(fiction, non-fiction); the format used (book,
newspaper etc.); the content
 Prediction
Prediction is an important skill in reading because it
helps you to be an effective and fast reader.
Predictions can be made by:
Asking questions that the text might answer
By asking questions that the text may answer, it
will help you to identify the main points of the
text and the details.
Using prior knowledge or experience
Drawing logical association
 Drawing conclusion
Drawing conclusions is an
important skill to help you get
the most out of your reading
and to understand the writers
point of view.
 How to draw conclusion
To draw an appropriate conclusion from a
text, take the following steps:
a) Read the paragraph and identify the
topic sentence or the main idea
b) Look for supporting details as evidence
that you can use to reach a conclusion.
Examples of evidence are facts, statistics,
reasons, definitions, and descriptions
c) Combine your prior knowledge with the
supporting details to draw conclusions.
d) Ask these questions:
i. What is the writer trying to prove?
ii. What is the consequence of these events?
iii. What is going to happen because of these
actions?
iv. What can I conclude from the paragraph?

Sometimes conclusions are pointed out in the

paragraph itself.
Some expressions that point to a conclusion:
therefore, it is believed that, in fact, as a result
 Evaluating
Judgements of Reality or Fantasy
Judgements of Facts or Opinion
Judgements of Adequacy and Validity
Judgements of Appropriateness
Judgements of Worth, Desirability and
Acceptability
 Evaluative Meaning
Evaluative meaning is what the text is
telling us about the world outside the
story. Readers must analyze what they
have read. Then, they must form an
opinion based on the information
 Evaluating
To evaluate information in a text you need to ask
yourself the following:
Do I understand the point being made?
Is there unity in the text does the writer stick to the
point all through?
Are all the ideas and examples clearly connected
and easy to follow? (coherence)
Are the words specific and concise? (effective
language)
Is sufficient support given to ideas expressed?
Is the tone reasonable and convincing?
 Appreciation
Emotional Response to the content
Identification with Characters or
Incidents
Reactions to the Authors Use of
Language
Imagery
 A typical comprehension lesson:

1. Start with word-by-word decoding and

translation (using controlled vocabulary)
2. Followed by comprehension questions
(who, what, when, where etc) most of
which involve answers (literal
comprehension)
3. End with checking answers with little/no
explanation
 Problems:
no training of higher-order comprehension skills:
interpretive (read between the lines)
critical (read for evaluation)
creative (read beyond the lines)
no development of students skills in syntactical,
semantic, lexical, stylistic analysis and making
excursion to their knowledge of the world to
confirm meaning
loss of contextual focus, overview, and immediate
frustration as soon as the reader encounters an
unknown word
Reading lesson
 Tutorial Task
Discussion Questions
In groups of 4, select a reading passage
for a Year 4/5 class.
Suggest a reading skill that you think is
appropriate for the text.
Suggest appropriate activities that focus
on the reading skills that you have
suggested