The document discusses strategies for improving reading skills. It defines reading as a complex process involving comprehension. Some key strategies discussed include identifying reading purposes, finding helpful materials, using suitable reading styles like skimming and scanning, following instructions carefully, and increasing reading speed. The document emphasizes practicing extensive reading from a variety of sources to develop vocabulary and background knowledge for better reading comprehension.

1. A. INTRODUCTION
We all know that English has become the most popular language in the
world. There are millions of people learn and use it every year. However, the
way to master it is not easy for all people. We need time to study and practice
English. As we know that English has four important skills: reading, listening,
speaking and writing. Of the four language skills, reading seems to be the most
important one because in the learning process, it helps students develop other
skills and provides knowledge on the target language as well. Educational
researchers have found that “there is a strong correlation between reading and
academic success”. In other words, a student who is a good reader is more likely
to do well in school and pass exams than a student who is a weak reader.
Moreover, reading is very necessary for daily life. Reading can help us to
achieve some clear aims. For example, we read a road sign so that we know
where to go quickly. We read the instructions on a ticket machine because we
need to know what to do next.
Especially, when we read, we interpret, integrate, critique, infer, analyze,
connect and evaluate ideas in texts. We negotiate multiple meanings not only in
our heads but in the minds of others. When reading, we strive to process text
beyond word-level to get to the big picture. Reading takes us to a new level of
active understanding and insight. It enhances language and vocabulary
knowledge. Good learners use a variety of comprehension strategies
simultaneously and they know how to deliberately apply specific strategies to
aid their comprehension, particularly with regard to challenging
texts/information. A reader can read a variety of materials with ease and interest,
can read for various purposes, and can read with comprehension even when the
material is neither easy to understand nor intrinsically interesting. Proficient
readers are capable of acquiring new knowledge and understanding new
concepts, are capable of applying textual information appropriately and are

2. capable of being engaged in the reading process and reflecting on what is being
read.
Successful reading depends on the interaction of reading strategies for
processing the text, background knowledge and linguistic competence. Thus
besides the reading texts in the textbooks, we need to read more outside the
classroom to enrich our vocabulary as well as their background knowledge. That
means we must read extensively. In fact, in Vietnamese high schools, teaching
and learning reading are mostly based on textbooks. Therefore, students don’t
seem to be interested in reading lessons. Many of them find reading difficult and
boring and even some are afraid of reading. After reading a text, they don’t
understand much about its content or they misunderstand the author’s ideas.
That’s the reason why students’ reading result is now worse and worse.
As a teacher of English, I think that something has to be done to help
students improve their reading results as well as develop their reading skill. I
will present in this study some strategies/tips that can help improve students’
skills.
B. CONTENT
I. What is reading?
There are some different ways to define what reading is. We can say
reading is a huge topic. It is a receptive skill. Reading can be defined as a
process, which involves a reader, a text and a resultant interaction
between the two. Reading is the process of constructing meaning from written
texts. It is a complex skill requiring coordination of a number of interrelated
sources of information.
Reading is a holistic act. Success of reading comes from practice over long
periods of time. And also, there may be more than one interpretation of a text.
The interpretation depends on the background of the reader, the purpose for
reading, and the context in which the reading occurs.

3. Or in another definition of reading, it is about understanding written texts.
Reading is a complex activity that involves both perception and thought.
Reading consists of two related processes: word recognition and comprehension.
Word recognition refers to the process of perceiving how written symbols
correspond to one’s spoken language. Comprehension is the process of making
sense of words, sentences and connected text. Readers typically make use of
background knowledge, vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, experience with
text and other strategies to help them understand written text.
II. STRATERGIES
Effective language teachers should show students how they can adjust their
reading behavior to deal with a variety of situations, types of input, and reading
purposes. They need help students develop a set of reading strategies and match
appropriate strategies to each reading situation. The following suggests ways to
help students make a better process in practicing their reading skill
1. IDENTIFY THE READING PURPOSES AND GOALS
Clear reading goals are very important in practicing progress. It can significant
increase your reading efficiency. Reading goals can be:
• an essay or seminar subject;
• a report brief;
• a selected subject area;
• a series of questions about a specific topic.
Use your reading goals to help you identify the information that is relevant to
your current task.
2. FIND HELPFUL READING MATERIALS AND RESOURCES
This can be very necessary for students in practicing their reading skill. We can
read any kinds of materials form many resources but ask yourself the question:

4. “How helpful are the reading texts in improving reading skill?” before choosing
the materials to read.
For example: In practicing for the IELTS tests, if you decide to work with long
articles or long fictions, how will they help you in doing reading exercises?
3. USE THE SUITABLE READING STYLES AND STRATERGIES
-Time management:
As we know, the time maybe is the biggest problem for everybody. In a test or
an exam, we cannot spend too much time on reading section. That’s the reason
why we should write down the Start and Finish time for each passage and obey
it. This can help you manage your time when doing a test or an exam. For
example, Start at 9:00 – Finish at 9:13 for the first part. So don’t finish at 9:15 or
later. But, if you could not finish a passage in time, leave it and transfer the
answers to the answer sheet and move to the next passage, and if you have some
time left at the end of the Reading Section, review the question and double
check the grammar, spelling and save some points.
- Scanning and skimming
What Is skimming?
Skimming is one of the tools you can use to read more in less time.
Skimming refers to looking only for the general or main ideas, and works best
with non-fiction (or factual) material. With skimming, our overall understanding
is reduced because we don’t read everything. We read only what is important to
our purpose. Skimming takes place while reading and allows us to look for
details in addition to the main ideas. But how to skim?
Once you know where the reading is headed, you can begin to read only the first
sentence of each paragraph. Also called topic sentences, they give you the main
idea of the paragraph. If you do not get the main idea in the topic sentence or if
the paragraph greatly interests you, then you may want to skim more.

5. At the end of each topic sentence, your eyes should drop down through the rest
of the paragraph, looking for important pieces of information, such as names,
dates, or events. Continue to read only topic sentences, dropping down through
the rest of the paragraphs, until you are near the end. Since the last few
paragraphs may contain a conclusion or summary, you should stop skimming
there and read in detail. Remember that your overall comprehension will be
lower than if you read in detail. If while skimming, you feel you are grasping the
main ideas, you are skimming correctly.
Or in another word, we can skim by following instructions:
-Read the title if there is one
-Read the introduction or the first paragraph if there is one
-Read the first sentence of every other paragraph
-Notice any pictures, charts or graphs
-Notice any italicized or boldface words or phrases
-Read the summary or last paragraph if there is one
Thus, we can say: “Do not read the reading.” Of course, it’s only in a few cases,
not all the times. Actually, you don’t have to read the reading passages. It is a
bad waste-of-time idea. Just quick-find the main idea of each paragraph and
create a map (if possible) then underline the keywords. You can save a lot of
time by following these steps.
Scanning
Scanning is a reading technique to be used when you want to find specific
information quickly. In scanning you will have a question in your mind and you
read a passage only to find the answer, ignoring unrelated information. It is also
another useful tool for speeding up our reading. Unlike skimming,
when scanning, you look only for a specific fact or piece of information without
reading everything. For scanning to be successful, you need to understand how

6. your material is structured as well as comprehend what you read so you can
locate the specific information you need. Scanning also allows you to find
details and other information in a hurry. So what is way to scan? Because you
already scan many different types of material in your daily life, learning more
details about scanning will be easy. Establishing your purpose, locating the
appropriate material, and knowing how the information is structured before you
start scanning is essential.
- State the specific information you are looking for
- Try to anticipate how the answer will appear and what clues you might
use to help locate the answer. Keep the concept of key words in mind while
scanning. Your purpose will determine the key words. Suppose you are looking
for the time a train leaves from New York City for Washington, D.C.The key
words to keep in mind are “from New York City” and “to Washington,D.C.” If
you are looking for the cost of a computer printer with the code number PX-710,
the key word to locate in a list of many printers is “PX-710.” Or another
example, if you were looking for a certain date, you would quickly read the
paragraph looking for numbers.
- Use headings and any other aids that will help you identify which
sections might contain the information you are looking for
- Selectively read and skip through sections of the passage
In the past, you probably scanned without knowing you were doing it. Now with
the information provided in this section, you can use scanning more
intentionally and frequently. The more you practice, the more effective scanning
will become. Finally, the most important benefit of scanning is its ability to help
you become a more flexible reader. Scanning adds another high gear to your
reading.
A reading-exercise sample
Saving Species in the forest

7. Exactly what a public forest is and how the public should be able to use it has
been debated since the National Forests were first formed in 1905. Since then,
the US Forest Service has been allowing timber, mining, ranching and
recreational interests to use the forests as a resource. In fact, the Forest Service,
which manages 34 million acres of wilderness across the country, is part of the
Department of Agriculture. Since the government perpetuated the concept of
nature as a user-friendly commodity, you might say that it missed the forest for
the trees.
For the last 27 years, the rest of the nation-both public and private-has been
working to comply with the landmark Endangered Species Act, but the US
Forest Service has paid little attention to the wildlife under its care: sometimes
due to a lack of funds, sometimes a lack of information, sometimes a lack of
will. For the forests in Southern California, however, this is changing. A little
known regional environmental group, the Center for Biological Diversity,
brought a lawsuit two years ago that has forced the Forest Service to face the
Endangered Species Act and comply with it. Assuming the agency is able, all
the life in the forest, from Smith’s blue butterfly to the cattle rancher to the
intrepid backpacker, will be affected. ……….
. ……….
Using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the text, answer the following
questions.
1. What activities have been allowed in public forest since 1905?
2. What made the Forest Service comply with the Endangered Species Act?
How can we answer the questions correctly in a short time without knowing the
techniques above?
Question 1: We easily see the answer key from timber, mining, ranching. We
can find the keyword (or clue) is 1905

8. Question 2: The answer is A lawsuit. A proper noun beginning with a caption is
the clue for us to find the answer quickly.
In summary, skimming and scanning are considered as the most important
techniques in reading. They are used when reading all types of documents. We
skim to get the idea of what a document is about and typically skim all
documents before we actually begin to read. As we skim, we think about the
topic; thinks about what we already know about the topic; start to guess or
anticipate the details we are going to read about. And we scan for specific
information. And we can work more quickly when we skim and scan.
Following the instructions
In reading exercises, if the authors want you to answer, exactly the way they ask
you to. It can be number or a name, number of words to write or anything else
which if you don’t follow, you can harm your score.
You can see clearly in the following important points
1) When you are going to fill the answer, make sure to copy the given example’s
style. Look at the examples below:
Example 1:
If the style of the example is “60%”, your answer also should be with the same
style, a number and %. Anything other than this is not acceptable (like “60” or
“60 percent” or “sixty percent”).
Example 2:
If the style of the example is “third”, your answer also should be with the same
style. Anything other than this is not acceptable (like “3rd” or “3″ or “3rd
rank”).
2) ONE answer only
If they give you such instruction, never ever try to write more or less than this,
even if the answer can be more or less.

9. For example, if the name of 5 activities is mentioned in the passage, and all 5 are
potential answers, just write ONE of them unless they ask you for two or three
names.
3) Use NO MORE THAN … WORDS!
In this structure, everything counts as a word, even “a” and “the”. Make sure to
write the exact number of words allowed.
Knowing types of reading task
There are some types of reading task that you have to know in order not to be
surprised when you start to do the task. They may conclude:
- Matching
- Identify the writer’s (author’s) view
- Multiple choices
- Sentence completion
- True/False or Not Given (Yes/No or Not given)
- Answer questions
- Word definition
For these types of reading task, you should be ready to get familiar with each
type. For example, in word definition exercise, you don’t have to spend too
much time finding the meaning. In stead, you guess from the context: using
prior knowledge of the subject and the ideas in the text as clues to the meanings
of unknown words, instead of stopping to look them up
4. INCREASE THE READING SPEED
This can be another significant tip for us to improve reading skill. It helps us
finish our task on time without harming our score. The key to increasing your
reading speed is not to increase the speed at which your eyes move across the
page, but to increase the word span for a single fixation. A simple way of

10. developing the habit of taking in more than one word per fixation is to take a
page of text and divide it length ways into three with two lines drawn down the
page. Using a pen or pencil as a pointer, read each line of text by allowing your
eye to fall only in the middle of each of the three sections, as indicated by your
pointer.
C. CONCLUSION