READING SKILLS

Reading Skills For SMA Muhammadiyahs' students
One of the objectives of teaching reading is to develop the students' reading skills.
The students' reading skills are:
1. SKIMMING ( find the main idea of the text quickly)
To skim is to read through a text quickly to find the gist or the main idea of the text. Very often the gist is easily found in the first or the last sentence, which is called a topic sentence. Certain texts can only be skimmed by reading them through. Before the students are familiar with skimming skill, the teacher has to explain how to skim and give some exercises afterwards. there are two Important things to do in developing skimming skill, i.e. :
a . The time must be strictly controlled.
b. The students must be prevented from reading all the text
NOTE : Not all paragraph or text can be skimmed.
2. SCANNING (Find specific information needed quickly)
To scan is to read through a text quickly to find specific information needed.(e.g. : names, years, numbers, words, etc.)
There several scanning signs which have to be introduced to the students, e.g. : capital letters, underlines, paragraphs, numbers, brackets, italic letter, quotation marks, etc.
again, how to scan should be introduced to the beginners by telling them what scanning sign which helps them. strictly controlled time, prevention from reading intensively, and limited numbers of questions must be put into consideration.
3. READING FOR DETAILED INFORMATION (Find detail information)
This skill is used when one wants to get the information supplied by the by the text in details. Most of the questions given by the teacher when teaching reading belong to this skill. the teacher tends to ask anything about the text.
4. READING BETWEEN THE LINE (Make conclusion based on the information in the text)
Reading in order to find information which is not explicitly stated in a text; using our experience and intuition, and by making inferences/conclusion; we try to answer the questions.
The conclusion is not explicitly mentioned in the text, so the questions of reading between the lines skill cannot be answered by copying the sentences of the text.
5. REDUCING THE MEANING FROM CONTEXT (Find the meaning of word based on the information in the text)
To get the meaning of a new word in the text, one might stop reading and look up his dictionary. this is not always necessary. By reading the text he might be able to get the meaning. he uses clues from the words around the new word. it may be a different way of expression something written, or the writer may go on to explain what he/she means by the word.
6. REFERENCE (Find the word by looking for special pronoun in the text)
Texts often use reference markers, e.g. : pronouns and noun substitutes, to avoid repetition. to understand what they mean/ refer to, we use clues from words, phrases or sentences coming before and after them. In asking questions, we don't always use 'refer to'.
7. PREDICTION
Asking things that are not mentioned in the text, but if the text is lengthened with more information, the answer may appear in it.