Reading Comprehension

1. Reading
Comprehension
“Skimming and Scanning”

2. What is reading?
Reading is a means of
language acquisition, of
communication, and of
sharing information and
ideas.

3. Reading Purposes:
 Reading for pleasure;
 Reading for a general impression;
 Reading for organizing reading
and studying;
 Reading for learning content or
procedure.

4. The Reasons of Reading:
 It will improve your vocabulary;
 It will improve your reading
comprehension;
 It will increase your reading speed;
 It will broaden your understanding of
yourself and others;
 It will introduce you to new information
and ideas.

5. Skimming :
Skimming is defined as the ability to
identify their main ideas while very
rapidly and selectively skipping over
reading material. It is used to quickly
identify the main ideas of a text. When
you read the newspaper, you're
probably not reading it word-by-word,
instead you're skimming the text.

6. Continued....
Skimming is done at a speed three to
four times faster than normal reading.
People often skim when they have lots of
material to read in a limited amount of
time. Use skimming when you want to
see if an article may be of interest in
your research or not.

7. Scanning :
Scanning is defined as the ability to
locate specific information or facts a
rapidly as possible. Glancing at selection
for a specific piece of information and
stopping when you find it. Scanning is a
technique that you often use when
looking up a word in the telephone book
or dictionary.

8. MAIN IDEAS AND
SUPPORTING IDEAS

9. A. HOW TO FIND THE MAIN IDEA
Practically every paragraph has (or should
have) a topic idea. Just what is a topic
idea? As has been pointed out before, it is
usually included in a general statement.
Often it is about a number of things or
people, or a rule, or a principle of some
sort. It is always more general, and includes
more than the details which support it.

10. 1.THE TOPIC IDEA USUALLY IN
THE FIRST SENTENCE
Where should you look for the topic
idea?
The first sentence usually states it. If it
does, this sentence may be summary
sentence telling in general what the
paragraph is about, an introductory
sentence pointing out what is to be
discussed, a brief definition or a
statement to be explained,

11. 2. THE TOPIC IDEA MAY BE IN
THE LAST SENTENCE
If the first sentence does not contain
the topic idea, the next place to look is
in the last sentence. If it in this
sentence, it may be the repetition of
the first, either in the same or in
different words. Or the last sentence
may contain a conclusion to which a
set of specific detail or chain of
reasoning has led.

12. 3. THE TOPIC IDEA MAY BE IN
THE SECOND SENTENCE
The second sentence may contain the
topic idea. When it does, the first
sentence may point back something in
a preceding paragraph, it may contain
a more general idea than the
paragraph develop in the paragraph.
When the topic idea is in the second
sentence, it often contains some word
(usually pronoun) which depends for
its meaning on the first sentence.

13. Example
Basketball was invented in 1891 by a physical
education instructor in Springfield, Massachusetts, by
the name of James Naismith. Because of the terrible
weather in winter, his physical education students
were indoors rather than outdoors. They really did not
like the idea of boring, repetitive exercises and
preferred the excitement and challenge of a game.
Naismith figured out a team sport that could be played
indoors on a gymnasium floor, that involved a lot of
running, that kept all team members involved, and that
did not allow the tackling and physical contact of
American-style football.
The question:
What is the main idea of this passage?
(A) The life of James Naismith
(B) The history of sports
(C) Physical education and exercise
(D) The origin of basketball.

14. Quiz:
“A Private Conversation”
Last week I went to the theatre. I
had a very good seat. The play was
very interesting. I did not enjoy it. A
young man and a young woman
were sitting behind me. They were
talking loudly. I got very angry. I
could not hear the actors. I turned
round.

15. Continued....
I looked at the man and the
woman angrily. They did not pay
any attention. In the end, I could
not bear it. I turned round again.
‘I can’t hear a word!’ I said
angrily. ‘It’s none of your
business,’ the young man said
rudely. ‘This is a private
conversation!’.

16. Answer these questions!
1. Where did the writer go last week?
2. Did he enjoy the play or not?
3. Who were sitting behind him?
4. Were they talking loudly, or were
they talking queitly?
5. Could the writer hear the actors or
not?

17. Children love cartoons, and they can sit for
hours watching them. For this reason, Sunday
morning television offers cartoons program
another. However, given the age of the viewing
audience, these programs communicate a
disturbing message, they suggest that the
world is one big battlefield with war face which
is the primary activity of humans and aliens a
like. In cartoon after cartoon, animated
character shoots, boom and blow one another
up. The message is that war face is fun,
without any serious or damaging effects. And
that message is further reinforced by the
commercials interruptions which are designed
to sell everything from play thanks to toy
grenades.

18. 1. Find the main idea of paragraph
above?
2. Explain the definition of main idea
and supporting idea?
3. Who are love cartoons very much?
4. How many times do they can sit for
watching television?

19. B. Find the main idea and
supporting idea in the paragraph
below:
Two weeks ago, the most modern trade
center in Jambi was damaged by fire. The
fire took place at the time when a lot of
people were there. Even though the fire
brigade had worked to extinguish the fire,
still there were a lot of victims. There were
140 peoples injured and 40 of them were
still hospitalized and 42 peoples passed
away. The police worked hard to
investigate the cause of the fire.