Objetivo General: Conocer y aplicar las estrategias de lectura para el manejo adecuado de informacin general y especfica de textos tcnicos

en ingls.

UNIDAD 2

BSQUEDA DE INFORMACIN GENERAL Y ESPECFICA

Lead in. A) Mark with an (X) the steps you mostly follow in order to comprehend a text. o You read quickly to find the main ideas o You try to find the main idea and the ideas that support it o You read word by word o You usually underline the important points o You take notes o You activate background knowledge o You compare and contrast to L1 knowledge o You check your understanding as you read by self-questioning o You translate from L2 to L1 o You repeat the same idea again and again o You keep notes o You collaborate with peers o You skip the unknown words (not essential) o You pay attention to connectives o You look for words phrases that give you clue to the meaning o You guess the meaning of a word from the context o You divide the words into parts
Defining Reading strategies Reading strategies have been defined as specific, problem oriented actions or techniques that can be either conscious or unconscious or automatic. Reading strategies vary from reading behaviours such as skimming a text to get the general idea, scanning a text for a specific piece of information, making contextual guesses about the meanings of unknown words, skipping unknown words, making predictions, confirming inferences, identifying the main idea, rereading, to strategies such as activating prior background knowledge and recognizing text structure. Lack of consciousness of many strategies and mental processes, by the learners, causes some difficulties in researching this field. Some reading strategies are observable and others are not. Asking questions can be observed by another person, but a mental comparison or question to oneself is not directly observable (Wendon, 1987).

Task 1. A) Read the following text

1. Reading Rate Tasks a. pre-reading b. reading rate recognition deciding which sentences do not belong to the text analyzing a text internal structure and

c.

c. phrased reading d. paced reading, pacing tasks e. cloze identification tasks 2. Skimming or Extracting Main Ideas a. match pictures with text b. choose the best title for the text c. choose a suitable heading for each paragraph d. write a title for the text e. choose the statement that best sums up the main idea f. choose the best summary g. match questions with answers 3. Scanning or Reading for Specific Information a. eye movement tasks b. rapid reading rate c. discriminate information 4. Predicting or Preparation Time for Reading a. pre-reading b. using prior knowledge c. activating schemata: text content d. brainstorming e. topic discussion f. looking at the title and predict expected vocabulary in the text 5. Dealing with Unfamiliar Words a. guessing meaning from context b. paying attention to linguistic clues c. looking at pictures, diagrams, charts d. using clues of definition to figure out meaning parentheses or footnotes synonyms and antonyms e. using Latin and Greek roots, prefixes and suffixes 6. Vocabulary Development a. using new words in different contexts 7. Rhetorical Patterns Recognition a. deducing text type and genre b. understanding text organization: putting scramble sentences and paragraphs in the correct order deciding where certain sentences should go in the text deciding which sentences are in the wrong position and where they should go

understanding how the part relate to the whole d. identifying rhetorical devices: sequencing ranking categorizing comparing, contrasting differentiating associating listing, defining observing illustrating classifying, describing generalizing outlining summarizing understanding chronology, recognizing cause and effect, recognizing analogies following instructions, e. linking ideas using discourse markers f. using deixis and pronominal reference g. exploiting language redundancy: repetitions, parallelism, synonyms, antonyms h. understanding complex sentences and phrases 8. Critical Reading a. literal comprehension b. interpreting complex information and presuppositions c. inferring text meaning: drawing low-level inferences drawing global inferences d. transferring information e. distinguishing fact from opinion f. clarifying purpose for reading g. paraphrasing h. recognizing subjectivity and objectivity i. recognizing the authors purpose and intention j. understanding the authors tone and style k. recognizing relevance and persuasion l. summarizing information m. evaluating information n. drawing conclusions o. reacting to the text 9. Extensive Outside Reading a. reading graded readers stories, magazines, reference books b. keeping a reading card to include main events or facts within the story or the article, the story setting and time, the main characters, the resolution and the moral if any c. summarizing the story or article content d. stating personal opinion about events and characters, etc. in the story e. discussing personal opinion and point of view with peers
Source: ESP WORLD (2005-2006)

B) Find the idea the author wants to communicate.

C) Check this link http://kielikeskus.helsinki.fi/erc/reading_theory.html. Here you will find important information about reading strategies. With the information found, complete the following table. (Do it in Spanish, please) Strategy 1.Skimming 2. Scanning 3. Reading for main points in general 4. Text organization 5. Word formation 6. Grammar 7. Annotate Purpose