How to read effectively?

[SS19flyover]

Do pupils in school learn to read the mother tongue effectively? Yes and no. Up to the fifth grade, reading, on the whole, is effective taught and well learned. to the level we find a steady and general inprovement, but beyond it the curves flatten out to a dead level. This is not a person arrive at his natural limit of efficiency when it reaches the sixth grade, for it has been shown again and again the with special tuition much older children, and also adults, can make enermous improvement. Nor does it mean that most sicth-graders read well enough for all practical purposes. A great many pupils do poorly in high school because a sheer ineptitude in getting meaning from the printed page. They can improve; they need to improve; but they don't.
The everage high-school graduate has done a great deal of reading, and if he goes on to college and he will do a great deal more; but he is likely to be a poor and incompetent reader. (note that this holds true of the average student, not the person who is a subject for a special remedial treatment.) He can follow a simple piece of fiction and enjoy it. But put him up against a closely written exposition, a carefully adn economically stated argument, or a passage requiring critical consideration, and he is at a loss. It has been shown, for instance, that the average high school student is amazingly inept at indicating the central thought of a passage, or the levels of emphasis and subordination in and argument or exposition. To all intents and purposes he remains a sixth-grade reader till well along in college.

[tan_r]

And after that he/she stops 'reading'. :(

[IanQ]

Its more of a practice makes perfect skill. My background is from IT and finance, so those articles will come naturally to me. But legal papers? gosh... my head start to spin (actually still spinning from reading compliance and legal documents from work... I am not even sure if the sentences are proper English! haha. I have not looked at the Malay translation yet. ).

[Bigjoe]

As someone who have been involved in the education business for a number of years. I have come to the conclusion, the solution to getting people interested and improving their reading is to encourage them to communicate in it. When a child is forced and encourage to speak or write, he/she has no choice but to learn how to read better. The key is to challenge the child as well as interest the child in doing so. I always encouraged children to talk to me as if they are making a presentation i.e., talk like an adult. I make them write things they are interested to write about, to show their skills and knowledge they are proud of and to reward them when they do well.

[tupai]

in todays world where most of us get info overload, speed reading seems the right thing to cultivate...so 2 years ago, i saw an ad from the british council advertising lessons in speed reading...i enquired, put my name down and weeks later was told that the course is cancelled. Why? b'cos I was the only one in the whole of Malaysia who expressed an interest to sign up! heck! I put my wife's name as the 2nd person and yet we do not have the minimum number to have a decent class...

so i told the BC people that I must have made a record of sort in being the slowest reader in the whole of malaysia...they laughed :p

anyone got this skill to teach me?

yang amat berusaha membaca tupai

p/s they have not advertise the same lessons any more :(

[Joe Gomez]

Am retired now & fulltime into Insurance hope to catch up on my reading ....as in serious reading. :p
Saw Vixey's comments on books she has read i.e on her own page ....
She seems like a reader-for-all-seasons ..... :cool:
Maybe she can give some pointers on the topic started by SS19flyover.

hi YAB tupai. U back in town ?

[Vixey]

Am retired now & fulltime into Insurance hope to catch up on my reading ....as in serious reading. :p
Saw Vixey's comments on books she has read i.e on her own page ....
She seems like a reader-for-all-seasons ..... :cool:
Maybe she can give some pointers on the topic started by SS19flyover.


Ahhh..Uncle Joe, why didn't you tell me you were stopping by at my page? We could have had some tea with honey & delicious muffins or cookies.... :p

Don't really know what pointers I can give on this topic, Uncle Joe. My earliest memory is sitting on my mum's lap looking at a book. I was about 3, I think. She used to read to me daily, but not "at" me. I think she made it a point that my eyes followed her fingers across the written word long before I could even read.

She made reading an essential part of my day so much so that if we didn't read together, it was like we skipped a meal! I looked forward to it very much because it was OUR time together. Now when I look back, I realise that when she got home from work, she had tons to do, yet she always cheerfully sat me down with her to read.

So, from picture books, to Peter & Jane books, the Adventures of Noddy and the whole enchanting world of Enid Blyton, my mother was my "dealer". When I could read on my own, we still had OUR time together, but she would read Time or Reader's Digest. She brought home books for me from the library and I think she told relatives and friends to give me books for birthdays & Christmas.

Reading was never a chore for me, I just naturally liked it. And when I "discovered" that books could actually teach you something about some faraway land that was TRUE...wow...that was an amazing concept to my little mind! I used to be so excited when people gave me those huge big books of discovery on space, animals, civilizations etc...

My parents used to encourage me to talk about what I read. In retrospect, they made me feel like I was contributing something new at dinner time when I excitedly told them about dinosaurs etc...

I guess maybe then, there wasnt any electronic devices to capture my attention so being the only child and all, books were my only escape from utter boredom.

Now, they are my personal paradise. Regardless of where I am and what I have done for the day, I can never go to bed without reading; its an essential part of me. And for that, I have to thank my mom.

[tan_r]

Who was it that said "You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read."?

[Vixey]

Who was it that said "You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read."?

Charles "Tremendous" Jones

[Joe Gomez]

Ahhh..Uncle Joe, why didn't you tell me you were stopping by at my page? We could have had some tea with honey & delicious muffins or cookies.... :p

Don't really know what pointers I can give on this topic, Uncle Joe. My earliest memory is sitting on my mum's lap looking at a book. I was about 3, I think. She used to read to me daily, but not "at" me. I think she made it a point that my eyes followed her fingers across the written word long before I could even read.

She made reading an essential part of my day so much so that if we didn't read together, it was like we skipped a meal! I looked forward to it very much because it was OUR time together. Now when I look back, I realise that when she got home from work, she had tons to do, yet she always cheerfully sat me down with her to read.

So, from picture books, to Peter & Jane books, the Adventures of Noddy and the whole enchanting world of Enid Blyton, my mother was my "dealer". When I could read on my own, we still had OUR time together, but she would read Time or Reader's Digest. She brought home books for me from the library and I think she told relatives and friends to give me books for birthdays & Christmas.

Reading was never a chore for me, I just naturally liked it. And when I "discovered" that books could actually teach you something about some faraway land that was TRUE...wow...that was an amazing concept to my little mind! I used to be so excited when people gave me those huge big books of discovery on space, animals, civilizations etc...

My parents used to encourage me to talk about what I read. In retrospect, they made me feel like I was contributing something new at dinner time when I excitedly told them about dinosaurs etc...

I guess maybe then, there wasnt any electronic devices to capture my attention so being the only child and all, books were my only escape from utter boredom.

Now, they are my personal paradise. Regardless of where I am and what I have done for the day, I can never go to bed without reading; its an essential part of me. And for that, I have to thank my mom.Well if all that u mentioned aint pointers .... then my dear plum pudding, I am a banana luvin Eskimo ( no offense to Eskimo forumers in USJ ) :D .... & u can hit me with a seal pelt ....... :eek:

[Joe Gomez]

............... Regardless of where I am and what I have done for the day, I can never go to bed without reading; its an essential part of me. And for that, I have to thank my mom. ..... Mum & Mr Pimblott, I presume ..... ;)
Say hi to Dad 4 me.

[mysticalangel]

As someone who have been involved in the education business for a number of years. I have come to the conclusion, the solution to getting people interested and improving their reading is to encourage them to communicate in it. When a child is forced and encourage to speak or write, he/she has no choice but to learn how to read better. The key is to challenge the child as well as interest the child in doing so. I always encouraged children to talk to me as if they are making a presentation i.e., talk like an adult. I make them write things they are interested to write about, to show their skills and knowledge they are proud of and to reward them when they do well.

Hmm...sounds rather familiar. That's how I cultivated my love for reading and subsequently love of language (English) and in a way or another, develop my creativity. Of cos,I still luv to read and read an amazing lot.

[orchipalar]

Err...how to read effectively?...ahem...just need to somewhat concentrate lar...:p

[SS19flyover]

a so called expert said reading can split to 4 level.....

1. elementary reading
2. inspectional reading
3. analytical reading
4. Syntopical reading

Im still reading this book written by Mortimer J. Adler, How to read a Book...
but it was damn boring lah....written in 1940, soo much history bout reading.