You probably had such a book that required a lot of time in reading, while the other was “swallowed” literally in one sitting. Generally, the complexity of the text depends on many factors – mood, physical condition, type of material and reading abilities.
Reading comprehension is a pedagogical term that means the ability to read a text, process and understand its content. A person’s ability to understand a text depends mainly on character traits and skills. If text recognition is difficult, the student uses too much of their mental powers to process individual words, which makes it difficult to understand the meaning. Secondary English comprehension is found most difficult for students to understand the text and its meaning.
To get deeper into the reading comprehension skill, it’s time to look at some of the strategies to improve it.
Let’s have a look!
How to Improve Reading Comprehension?
- Read Mindfully and Take Time to Absorb Information
Once you’ve reduced the amount of information you absorb and started thinking about what really matters, it’s time to figure out what will be most useful. You need to turn reading into an active process that you’re doing, getting rid of passive consumption. Create a list of topics that interest you the most. After that, determine the optimal form of reading – blogs, books, or other materials. The main takeaway is that if you read consciously, you’ll begin to appreciate the information you consume.
- Create A Thoughtful Reading Stream
It’s very difficult to change your attitude to the text and it takes a lot of practice. You just need your usual patience and vigilance. After all, many of you have been reading since childhood and along with this have acquired some negative habits that affect the assimilation of information. To create a stream for thoughtful reading, first determine how much time you have available. Then select a few topics that interest you. Put them in the correct order and read them later or earlier. Don’t lose sight of your goal to keep thought fresh, to remain receptive, to comprehend and analyze the text.
- Improve Your Vocabulary
To learn how to better absorb information, you need to form your vocabulary. If half of the words are incomprehensible, there will be no meaning in reading. The more words you know, the better you understand the text, as well as the context that is embedded in them. When learning new words, don’t try to cram them, but understand why they’re used in the text. Find a few sentences and rewrite them in a notebook along with the new word. As you read more books and take notes it’ll enhance your reading comprehension and vocabulary.
- Let Information Guide You
If you’re reading a textbook or book, use several strategies to guide the information.
- Reread the executive summary, introduction and conclusions.
- Go to Wikipedia or other websites to cover any white spots left after reading the book.
- find out what other books and articles you need to read to fully understand the topic.
It often happens that you read a book on a specific topic, and stop taking an interest in it. So, dig further, go deep into the subject and grab more information.
- Develop Your Reading Fluency
Have you noticed that you stop whenever you see a comma?
It’s very difficult to understand the text if you read words rather than whole sentences. That’s why you need to develop reading fluency. Reading fluency is how smoothly it goes. Words should flow naturally, such as when speaking. Many of the words in the text are just “spectacular”. You should read them with a sense of context, but you don’t need to read every letter. Don’t stop, even if the meaning isn’t completely clear. With practice, you’ll learn to perceive entire sentences without getting stuck in single words.
Overall Takeaway!
Whether you’re reading O level English comprehension or any others, adopting these tips will enhance your overall skills. You can also take the help of home tutors to improve your reading comprehension. Tutors help students in selecting the reading material with vocabulary that matches their current ability levels. They’re professionals and well-aware of basic tips and techniques that enhance the effectiveness and make you fluent in learning skills.