How to cultivate the habit of reading

NT Bureau - Chennai, May 26:

'Reading is a habit to be developed by oneself and it cannot be taught by teachers,' said Richard R Day, professor, Department of Second Language studies, University of Hawaii.

He was speaking at a seminar jointly organised by English Language Teachers Association of India (ELTAI) and Office of Public Affairs US Consulate General in South India at M O P Vaishnav College for Women here yesterday.

Addressing a gathering of professors and lecturers of various colleges on 'Effective Strategies for Teaching and Learning,' Richard said reading is an interactive process between the readers and the text.

Stressing on knowledge he said, ' knowledge means a deep understanding of topics and the language that the reader has acquired.The more the student reads the more are the chances of becoming a good reader.

Richard said teachers should implement various strategies in schools to bring individuals with good reading skills, for which he proposed extensive reading of easy and interesting books that would create interest in students to read and simultaneously improve vocabulary.

He emphasised that strategy training would be effective only if the students at the intermediate level to begin their learning activity.

He further said the reader should not use dictionaries when he comes across a difficult word at the initial stage. Instead, the students should try to analyse and derive the meaning by correlating or associating meaning to the unknown word.

Giving more tips, Richard suggested vocabulary cards to help memorise unfamiliar words,and insisted on keeping a vocabulary journal.


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