Reading

SKILL - 3

READING

INTRODUCTION

Language, when used for communication, is a tool. We must remember that handling of any tool requires a certain skill. The inborn ability to use a language that all human beings possess has to be developed and sharpened through practice. When we say that someone is a good user of a language, we mean that he is able to use language effectively for all his communicative needs, in all kinds of situations that he possesses all communication skills or language skills. These skills are: Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing (LSRW). Of all these four skills, the essential skill for the second language learners is the reading skill.

The generally accepted principle is that writing skill is based on reading skill. Reading helps you acquire vocabulary, word usage, sentence construction, developing paragraph and organisation of the material. This ability helps you to write effectively. In this context, it is worth referring to the words of the seventeenth-century genius, “On Reading' hold profound meaning: “Reading maketh a full man, writing an exact man, and conferring (speaking) a ready man”. We use language as a means of communication in terms of receiving and sending information. We receive information through listening and reading and we send information through speaking and writing.

To develop competence in receiving and sending information we need to acquire language skills such as listening, speaking, reading and writing. The ability to read and comprehend effectively is an essential skill. It can be acquired and developed with intelligent, consistent and continuous effort like any other skill.