Page 73 - SREENARAYANAGURU OPEN UNIVERSITY
P. 73
unprecedented access to information and ideas, it also demands new skills - the ability
to quickly sort through vast amounts of information, to critically evaluate sources, and
to adapt reading strategies to different formats and purposes.
Moreover, in a multilingual society like India, reading in English often involves
mental translation, cultural interpretation, and navigating between different scripts and
language structures. This makes the process of reading not just a linguistic exercise,
but a cognitive and cultural one as well.
Keywords
Reading , Vocabulary, Scanning, Skimming, Speed reading, Decoding the dictionary
Discussion Look back and recollect the things that you
2�3�1 Ready To Read read in a day. It might be the newspaper, a
novel, a message in your phone, an email, an
If we find a pamphlet or if we get a mes- advertisement or even a user manual for your
sage on our phone, what do we do? We try to new computer. Now, try to figure out the reason
read and understand them. Reading is one of why we read different things in our daily lives.
the primary skills to be learned in a language. You read the newspaper in the morning so that
What do you mean by reading? Reading is the you get to know what happens around us. It
process by which one is able to comprehend gives us information about the happenings in
the meaning of a written piece of work� In the world. When you get an email or a message
order to read something, we need to be famil- on your phone, you read them because some-
iar with the language. What is the base of a body is trying to communicate something to
language? What do we do first when we start you personally. Similarly, when you reply to
learning a language? In our kindergarten, when that message, you are trying to communicate
we started studying English, we all began with with them. Thus, reading becomes essential
learning alphabets. Alphabets are the base of in communication. When you read a novel, a
any language that has a script. It is alphabets cartoon, a poem or a short story, you do it for
that form words and it is words that form sen- pleasure. The piece of writing that you read
tences. Once we are familiar with alphabets, gives you pleasure or a break from your mun-
we learn to form words with them. After form- dane routines. When you buy a new computer,
ing words, we learn to form sentences with in order to operate it, you need to refer to the
them. This is how we progress in learning a user manual provided by the company. Now,
language. what does this do? It provides you with instruc-
tions on how to operate a computer. We read
Let us try to list our reasons for reading:
for information, instruction, communication,
f Information and pleasure.
f Instruction We read aloud and also silently for meaning.
f Communication Reading aloud is mostly done during child-
f Pleasure
hood. It helps in practice for pronunciation as
SGOU - FYUGP - SLM - English for Communication 67

