新編大學(xué)英語第二冊unit4 Text C: Myths and Misconceptions about Readin

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UNIT 4 AFTER-CLASS READING 2; New College English (II)

Myths and Misconceptions about Reading

Myth One: Concentrating on Each Word in Print Aids Comprehension and Memory

1 If you concentrate on each word in print, you create comprehension problems for yourself. In addition, you may find that you often read a passage but cannot recall much of it. This frustrates many readers. Research shows that the brain, in just one second, can sort out 100 million separate messages, distinguishing between the important and the unimportant. The inefficient reader sends to the brain such "weak signals" seemingly unrelated chunks of information that the brain loses its focus on reading and gets distracted or bored. The eyes continue to look at the print but the brain wanders: thinking, planning, and daydreaming about unrelated topics. If you are unable to concentrate while reading or become easily bored or restless, you are probably reading too slowly to engage your mind.

2 You do not speak in a robot-like fashion or stop between each word when you talk. You usually speak in groups of words. Since you think in similar fashion, why not read the same way in idea clusters? It is the natural way to read. Your comprehension will improve if you learn to read for meaning and concentrate on ideas, not words. Long, difficult sentences are more easily understood if you "chunk " the information into meaningful phrases. This practice, extended to all your reading, enables you to read more rapidly.

Myth Two: The Only Way to Read Anything Is Slowly and Carefully

3 Many students read everything at the same habitual rate slowly whether it's the TV guide, the evening newspaper, a textbook, or a novel. Skillful readers, however, learn that there is more than just one way to read. They are flexible, that is, they read different kinds of materials in different ways. They vary their rate, depending on two main factors: the difficulty of the material and their purpose in reading.

4 Do you silently say the words or need to hear each word when you read? Then you are limiting yourself to a speed at which average people speak fewer than 200 words a minute. You may either be vocalizing moving your lips and saying the words in a whisper or you may be subvocalizing hearing them in your head. While you cannot eliminate mentally hearing all words when you read, too much subvocalization reduces your reading rate by as much as 50 percent. Good readers tend to concentrate only on key words, those words that give important meaning to the passage.

Myth Three: Going Back over Just-Read Material Improves Understanding

5 If you have the habit of constantly and needlessly going back and rereading parts of the sentence, not only will you be reading slowly but you may also have trouble understanding what you are reading. The smooth, logical flow of thought is broken if you continuously go back over sentences while reading.

6 Many people reread because they lack the confidence to believe they can understand what they read the first time around. At times, rereading is necessary to understand difficult material or to remember additional details. But the type of rereading discussed here is an unnecessary, unconscious habit.

Myth Four: Comprehension Decreases as Rate Increases

7 Often students say with great pride that they read slowly because they want to be sure to get the full meaning and remember every single word. Actually, by trying to digest every word, these students slow down their comprehension and often find themselves confused and disinterested.

8 Readers who absorb 80 percent of what they read have very good comprehension. Striving for 100 percent all the time makes you read much more slowly than is necessary. If you try to remember everything, you can wind up remembering very little and become frustrated because of the tremendous task you have imposed on yourself. The faster, more efficient reader usually has far better comprehension than the very slow reader.

Myth Five: It Is Physically Impossible to Read Rapidly Because Your Eyes Cannot Move That Quickly

9 Eye movement studies disprove this notion. The average college freshman reads around 200 to 250 words per minute, but these studies indicate that it is physically possible for the eyes to see and transmit printed information to the brain at rates as high as 900 to 1,000 words per minute. Beyond this rate students engage in subskills of reading: scanning (searching for a fact or item), skimming (looking for the main ideas), and skipping (getting an overview). People who use the three S's are not engaged in thorough reading, but they are often using reading skills in a highly effective way.

10 Reading takes place when the eyes and mind work together: While the eyes do from 5 to 10 percent of the work, the brain does the remaining 90 percent. The brain scans, sorts, selects, samples, and finally assimilates information. So the main limitations in rapid reading are your own slow eye movements and a lack of belief that you can read faster.

Myth Six: Faster Reading Takes the Pleasure Out of Reading

11 It is wrong to assume that fast readers move so rapidly through print they never stop to reflect and "drink in" a favorite passage or a difficult one. Efficient readers have learned how to speed up or slow down at will, while slow readers are prisoners to slowness.

12 Slow readers rarely have the experience of reading a novel or a short story at one sitting. Have you ever watched a favorite movie, one you had seen in the theater, on TV? Isn't the intensity of the mood, the flow of the dialogue, the interaction of the characters, the action of the plot rudely disturbed by all those commercials? The same can be true when a novel is read too slowly if you always need to put it down after reading a small portion of the story. When reading more rapidly becomes automatic, you derive more pleasure from reading than when you read too slowly.