Reading should be made a regular practice among the learners. Hence, this is the third important communicative skill for the learners. Reading does not have to be limited only to text books and study material. It can be extended to anything that requires the learner’s potential to read, comprehend and look out for important and necessary materials. Here are some relevant sources that a learner can adopt in order to strengthen and make his reading skills flexible;
Newspapers and magazines: Although a bit traditional source to apply the reading skills, yet print media is considered to be one of the useful podiums to encourage reading among the learners. After completing a lesson inside the class, learners can take up newspapers and skim and scan through various news articles that can be inter related with the topic taught. More over the learners can improve their grammatical skills by practicing with newspaper articles or features published in the magazines. This source helps the learners to inculcate the habit of extra reading and also helps them to come across various new words and phrases that they can make use of in their daily lives.
Story Books: The best source that may help the learners to knit their world of imagination and simultaneously develop the skills of silent reading. Silent reading enhances the growth of creativity and imagination within the minds of the learners and paves a fictional path on which the learners can identify themselves as one of the characters of the plot. Through story books the learners come across the definition and importance of maintaining a gripping theme, continuity in the plot and the transformation among the characters.
Poetry and Drama: Reading a poem can help the learner to relax and soothe his burdened mind. Poetry drives the learner’s concentration from a permanent world to a transient world where the leaner picks up the ideas of rhythm, meter and tempo, expression, modulation and also captivates the notes of imagination. In order to read and understand poetry the learner needs to feel the theme of the poem.
Similarly in order to converse in a better way learners can read out certain chosen pieces related to drama. Reading out a play teaches the learners the ways to feel each character of the plot and have an overall analysis of the real life characters around them.
Comprehension Passages: One of the best ways to develop and nurture the reading skills among the learners. Through this reading task the learners masters the techniques to skim, scan, comprehend, ponder, relate, discard and connect various ideas. The learners read the comprehension passage again and again in order to understand the theme. They try to skim and scan the text in order to find information that might match as answers to the given questions. Through this practice the learner is actually picking out important information while discarding the unnecessary details. This act of comprehending and choosing can also be inter related with other subjects or other features.
The learners can also make use of the libraries and other forums in order to develop and enrich their reading communicative skills.