READING SKILLS

1. Reading:
 It is a process where one looks at and understands what has been written.
 It is a means of getting or extracting information from a written materials or texts.
 Reading is not just the recognition of letters and words and saying them aloud; it involves
understanding what is represented in the form of words and sentences.
 It doesn’t mean to move the eye down over the page but it is active process in which readers
actively involved in interaction with the text.
2. Purpose of reading: people can read for the following reasons

a) For academic purpose: this is to learn something that helps the reader to be successful academically.
For example, reading exercise books, text books and the like to pass exam.

b) For pleasure: to seek enjoyment, excitement, delight etc. For example, reading poems, fictional
materials or texts of melody natured songs.

c) For survival -reading materials that provide us with constitutional information like articles, rule and
regulation so that we know them and live safely. For example, students should read rules and
regulations of university and react accordingly. Pedestrians should read the road signs to use the road
safely.

d) For information: we human beings have strong curiosity to know what is going on around the world
–be it politics, sports etc. For example, reading newspapers, Journals, magazines etc.

e) For communication: this is to exchange ideas with others. People communicate through official and
personal letters, emails. Face book, twitter etc.

3. Main ways of Reading

1.1. Skimming; is a rapid reading technique which is used when the reader wants to obtain the
general idea (gist) of the written text. For example, when you read the news paper or magazines,
you’re probably not reading it word-by-word; instead you're skimming the text.
1.2. Scanning: is the fast reading technique which is used when the reader wishes to get the specific
information of the content of a piece of a given text. Example: finding a word from a dictionary,
names from a telephone directory, see bibliography, table of contents etc.
 1.3. Intensive Reading It is usually carried out slowly and carefully with an objective to get the most
important of what we read. Learning or studying is the major objective of intensive reading.
Therefore, it demands high attention and concentration.
1.4. Extensive Reading: This type of reading is essential basically for longer texts such as novels and
short stories. It is also useful for creating personal pleasure to extract specific information for
global understanding. Its attention is paid to the meaning of the text itself not the language. The
purpose of extensive reading is for pleasure and further information. Thus, extensive reading is
also termed as “supplementary reading.

4. How to guess meanings from a given passage

You can use the following ways of guessing the meanings of unknown words from a passage.

Method 1: using contextual and structural clues

Guessing the meaning from the context means guessing unfamiliar words from the Surrounding Words or
from the sense of the sentence. There are ideas or hints which helps us to guess the meaning of the
difficult word.

 Example: the government is encouraging people to set up new shops, factories and other
businesses. Some are owned by foreigners but most of the proprietors are local people.
(Owners of business)
 Lots of goods enter from Djibouti into Ethiopia by different individuals. Some importers are
foreign or domestic taxed merchants where as other are smugglers. (illegal merchant or
importers)

Method 2: using knowledge of word formation

Many words can be divided into two or more parts that is, prefixes, suffixes and root. Understanding
these parts can lead us to recognize the meaning of unknown words by means of word analysis.

 Example: The mistake he made is unpardonable. (‘un’ is prefix; means not, ‘pardon’ is the root,
meaning forgive or excuse, ‘able ’is suffix; means can). So, ‘unpardonable’ means that can’t be
forgiven or excused.
 Example 2: All the evidences you provide are irrelevant.(‘ir’ is prefix which mean nor,
‘relevant’ is the root word, mean ‘appropriate’ ) so irrelevant means not appropriate
NB. It doesn’t mean that group of letters (like in- and -less) attached at the beginning or ending of a word
are all prefixes or suffixes. Example; invaluable, priceless etc can’t bring a negative meaning.

Method 3; using Definition:

Writers may use words, phrases, or statements to define something. e.g.

 Inflation is a rise in the general level of prices you pay for things you buy. The definition = a rise
in the general level of prices you pay for everything you buy.
 Someone who explores and studies caves is known as a spelunker.
Definition = someone who explores and studies caves
Method 4; Using Restatement:
The writer may use other words, phrases, or sentences to provide the meaning of difficult words.
 E.g. The surface of Africa consists mainly of plateaus, or large flat areas, although these occur at
different levels. Meaning = large flat areas
 The use of computers to handle text, or word processing, was foreseen in the 1950s.
Meaning: handle text = word processing
Method 5; Using Examples:
Examples help us to understand the meaning of new words.
 Use navigation buttons, such as, the Next button, the previous button, the Menu button, and the
Exit button, to go back and forth or jump to other topics while you are using your English
software.
Meaning = buttons on computer program that are used for turn on pages
 Ruminants like cows, goats and sheep bring back the food they eat from its stomach and chew it
again.
Method 6; using surrounding words:
If you cannot find any signal words or key words as stated before, you may look around new words or
unfamiliar words and try to guess them. The surrounding words may help you to understand the new
words. See examples below.
 Children are too young to understand that swallowing gum can cause medical problems and so
they should not be allowed to chew it, doctors’ say. Unfamiliar words: swallowing and chew
What do these words mean?
How do you guess their meaning?
Method 7: using synonyms and antonyms contextual clues

Synonyms are words having similar meanings while antonyms are words with opposite meanings.

 Although Derartu and Letay are very close friends, they are very different. Derartu spends a lot of
money to buy things while Letay loves to economize. (antonym meaning).
 Example: Kebede’s fast new car beats my slow one in the race (antonym meaning).

There’s a stiff penalty for breaking that law, and it’s a fair punishment (synonym meaning).

 Example 2; As far as I know cheetah is a fast animal and tortoise is sluggish. (Antonym
meaning)
 -There is time and situation to Laugh; if you chuckled time to time with no reason, I doubt you
have a problem. (Synonym meaning)

Method 8: using punctuation

 Example: He told me to take lessons from the ‘kaubure’, the village head man, of Tabiang.
(Here the pair of commas shows the meaning of ‘kaubure’. It means the village head man
 Example 2; Ethiopia is a home of tremendous (wonderful) tourist sites. (Here a word given in a
bracket is synonym to the first word)

 Full-color pictures are printed using only black and three colors: yellow, cyan (a light blue) and
magenta (a light purple). Meaning: cyan = a light blue and magenta = a light purple
 Task I: Main ways of Reading

Study the descriptions of the reading activities done by four people (A, B, C and D) below and
answer the questions that follow.

Person A: who likes reading newspaper and journals glanced at the title of an article, “Ethiopians at
war: the battle of life and death’’ in the Ethiopian Herald. Then a question “what war?” came to his
mind immediately he continued reading line by line. However, as he finished the first paragraph he
stopped reading because he had understood that the main pony of the article is about peoples’ struggle
against disease and famine.

Person B: Is a preparatory student. He read a text in detail to answer comprehension questions given by
his English language teacher.

Person C: Is a new student of Samara University who has not known which department he was placed.
He then looked up for his name in the list of names posted under each department.

Person D: Has a hobby of reading short-stories. Poems and plays in the Art sections of the Ethiopian
Herald. Last time I saw him reading a short-story in his section of the news paper.

1. Identify the purposes of these four people? Are the purposes the same or different?
2. What ways of reading did those four people used? Identify the ways each person used?
2.1 Person A: ___________________
2.2 Person B: ___________________
2.3 Person C: ___________________
2.4 Person D: ___________________
3. Much the following styles under column A with the description given under column B

A B

___1. Skimming A. A rapid reading technique where by one reads for

specific information

____2. Scanning B. Reading short text with the help of a teacher and
tasks for detail information

____3. Extensive reading C. A rapid reading technique used to find general

information main idea
______4. Intensive reading. D. Reading longer text independently for certain
purpose, particularly for Pleasure,
information and understand

Reported speech

There are two ways of saying what someone has said. We can do this by using either direct
speech or by using reported speech. In reported speech we report the meaning of what was said,
but we do not repeat the words exactly.

NB: reporting verbs gives us information about the kind of direct speech that was spoken and
how it was spoken. The most common reporting verbs are ‘say’ and ‘tell’ for reported
statements, ‘ask’ for reported question, and ‘order’ for reported commands.

Example: He said, “I’m going to visit my grandmother.” (DS)

He said that he was going to visit his grandmother. (RS)

a) Tense change: all tenses go one step back.

Example: present continuous_____ past continuous

Present simple _______ past simple

Past simple ________past perfect

Present perfect ______past perfect

Future _________conditional

b) Pronoun and possessive adjective changes

 We to they,
 I to he or she,
 your to my/our (singular/plural)etc
c) Changing Expressions of Time

DS RS

Now then

Ago before

Today that day

Yesterday the day before, the previous day

Tomorrow the next day, the following day

Example: “I bought a car yesterday” said Almaz (DS).

Almaz said that she had bought a car the day before (RS).

B. Reported Question

When we change a questions in to reported speech:

 Use a reporting verb like ask, want to know, or inquire

 Use the statement order (subject+ verb)not the question order(verb+ subject)
 Use ‘if’ or’ whether’ when reporting questions which do not begin with words like
‘why’, who, what and when.

Example1 “Can we borrow your football?” said the boys. (DS)

The boys said that if /whether they could borrow my foot ball. (RS)

Example 2: He said, ‘’what is your name?’’ (DS)

He asked me what my name was. (RS)

C. Reported command

 Use a reporting verb like tell or order

  Change the tense, pronoun and possessive adjective as necessary.
 Change the main verb in the sentence to the infinitive (the ‘to ‘form)
 Use not +to +verb in the reported speech, if the verb in the command was negative.
 Generally use the form of reporting verb+ object+ to+ verb.

Example: “Wait for me outside the Director office,” the teacher told us. (DS)

The teacher told us to wait for him/her outside the Director office. (RS)

2.4. Relative clauses

A relative clause usually begins with a relative pronoun, and they are useful way of joining
sentences. These are: who, that, which, whom and whose.

There are two types of relative clause: defining relative clauses and non-defining relative clauses.

a) Defining relative clause: is defines, or identifies exactly, the noun which it refers to.

In a DRC: who, which, that, whom and whose (the RP used in DRC)

 The relative pronoun can be omitted when it refers to the object of the sentence.
(Example: The meat you bought is very tasty.)
 We cannot use comma
 The relative clauses both important and essential

Example: The man who stolen the money has been arrested.

The man who she is going to marry is very wealthy or (The man she is going to marry is
very wealthy).

b) Non-defining relative clause: is simply providing extra information about the noun
which it refers to.

In NDRC: who, which, whom, whose (the RP used in NDRC)

 We cannot use that

 We can never omit the relative pronoun
 Must use comma.
  The relative clauses can be omitted they cannot be affect the meaning of the sentence.
 The clauses are important but not as such essential.

Example: ‘War and Peace’, which was written by Tolstoy, is one of the world’s greatest novels.

2.5. Conjunctions

Correlative conjunctions are kinds of conjunction that join pair ideas or sentence. Some of the
Correlative conjunctions are: Neither—nor, either—or, both—and, whether—or. These are a pair
or connecters connecting alternative words, phrases.

1. Neither—nor: means not one and also the other.(not the other of two alternatives). It’s a
negative conjunction so that make sure that there are no double negatives.

Example1: He doesn’t neither drink nor smoke (incorrect).

He neither drinks nor smokes (correct usage)

Example2: He is not poor. He is not rich. We can say, He is neither poor nor rich.

2. Either—or: means the one or the other, not both and no other alternative is possible.

Example: either Abeba or Selam is blame.

3. Both-and: we use when we want to emphasize (paying attentions) that each of two
alternatives is true

Example: Both Sara and Haymanot are first year students of Samara University.

NB: when we use these conjunctions to join ideasReported speech

There are two ways of saying what someone has said. We can do this by using either direct
speech or by using reported speech. In reported speech we report the meaning of what was said,
but we do not repeat the words exactly.

NB: reporting verbs gives us information about the kind of direct speech that was spoken and
how it was spoken. The most common reporting verbs are ‘say’ and ‘tell’ for reported
statements, ‘ask’ for reported question, and ‘order’ for reported commands.
Example: He said, “I’m going to visit my grandmother.” (DS)

He said that he was going to visit his grandmother. (RS)

a) Tense change: all tenses go one step back.

Example: present continuous_____ past continuous

Present simple _______ past simple

Past simple ________past perfect

Present perfect ______past perfect

Future _________conditional

b) Pronoun and possessive adjective changes

 We to they,
 I to he or she,
 your to my/our (singular/plural)etc

c) Changing Expressions of Time

DS RS

Now then

Ago before

Today that day

Yesterday the day before, the previous day

Tomorrow the next day, the following day

Example: “I bought a car yesterday” said Almaz (DS).

Almaz said that she had bought a car the day before (RS).
B. Reported Question

When we change a questions in to reported speech:

 Use a reporting verb like ask, want to know, or inquire

 Use the statement order (subject+ verb)not the question order(verb+ subject)
 Use ‘if’ or’ whether’ when reporting questions which do not begin with words like
‘why’, who, what and when.

Example1 “Can we borrow your football?” said the boys. (DS)

The boys said that if /whether they could borrow my foot ball. (RS)

Example 2: He said, ‘’what is your name?’’ (DS)

He asked me what my name was. (RS)

C. Reported command

 Use a reporting verb like tell or order

 Change the tense, pronoun and possessive adjective as necessary.
 Change the main verb in the sentence to the infinitive (the ‘to ‘form)
 Use not +to +verb in the reported speech, if the verb in the command was negative.
 Generally use the form of reporting verb+ object+ to+ verb.

Example: “Wait for me outside the Director office,” the teacher told us. (DS)

The teacher told us to wait for him/her outside the Director office. (RS)

2.4. Relative clauses

A relative clause usually begins with a relative pronoun, and they are useful way of joining
sentences. These are: who, that, which, whom and whose.

There are two types of relative clause: defining relative clauses and non-defining relative clauses.

c) Defining relative clause: is defines, or identifies exactly, the noun which it refers to.

In a DRC: who, which, that, whom and whose (the RP used in DRC)
  The relative pronoun can be omitted when it refers to the object of the sentence.
(Example: The meat you bought is very tasty.)
 We cannot use comma
 The relative clauses both important and essential

Example: The man who stolen the money has been arrested.

The man who she is going to marry is very wealthy or (The man she is going to marry is
very wealthy).

d) Non-defining relative clause: is simply providing extra information about the noun
which it refers to.

In NDRC: who, which, whom, whose (the RP used in NDRC)

 We cannot use that

 We can never omit the relative pronoun
 Must use comma.
 The relative clauses can be omitted they cannot be affect the meaning of the sentence.
 The clauses are important but not as such essential.

Example: ‘War and Peace’, which was written by Tolstoy, is one of the world’s greatest novels.

2.5. Conjunctions

Correlative conjunctions are kinds of conjunction that join pair ideas or sentence. Some of the
Correlative conjunctions are: Neither—nor, either—or, both—and, whether—or. These are a pair
or connecters connecting alternative words, phrases.

2. Neither—nor: means not one and also the other.(not the other of two alternatives). It’s a
negative conjunction so that make sure that there are no double negatives.

Example1: He doesn’t neither drink nor smoke (incorrect).

He neither drinks nor smokes (correct usage)

Example2: He is not poor. He is not rich. We can say, He is neither poor nor rich.
2. Either—or: means the one or the other, not both and no other alternative is possible.

Example: either Abeba or Selam is blame.

3. Both-and: we use when we want to emphasize (paying attentions) that each of two
alternatives is true

Example: Both Sara and Haymanot are first year students of Samara University.

NB: when we use these conjunctions to join ideas, we make sure that there is a subject –verb

agreement in our sentences. The verb usually agrees with nearest noun.

Example: Neither the boys nor the girls like the teacher.

Neither the boys nor the girl likes the teacher.