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[Abstract] English is a second language for Chinese students. It is very important for English learners to read English books， newspapers and magazines as much as possible to improve their English. Many English learners have a poor reading ability， which will influence their reading speed. This paper is to look for some efficient strategies to improve college students’ reading speed by examining their regular reading habits， which probably improve senior students’ reading speed.
[Keywords] strategies；reading speed；topic sentences；skimming； scanning
1. Introduction
The purpose of this study is to look for some efficient strategies to improve college students’ reading speed by examining their regular reading habits. If they want to improve their language level， they must read abound of books， newspaper， and magazine and so like. Many college students read in a slow speed. After researching， the author found out that the main reason is they can’t master the efficient reading strategies. What’s worse， they are used to reading in a bad habit， reading slowly and carefully. No matter what kinds of passages or books， they always read sentence by sentence because they fear that some information will be missed. Most of students have a common psychology that they should understand the meaning of the passage completely and learn several phrases and new words in their reading. Otherwise， they may think they can not only accomplish nothing， but also waste time. This study is designed to address three special research questions： What kinds of strategies do they often use in their reading？ What kinds of obstacles do they usually meet in their reading？ What strategies are most influential in improving reading speed？
2. Five Strategies to Improve Students’ Reading Speed
2.1 Scanning
Scanning is a specialized type of reading in which the reader searches quickly for a specific piece of information or a specific word. （William， G.， and L. S. Fredricka， 2005：265） Scanning is a very important reading method， which can help readers catch the useful information in a short time. If a reader’s reading speed is 160 words per minute， then， without interruption or stop， he/she can read 960 words at most. According to this reading speed， he/she needs two more hours to read a piece of Chinese Daily in English， which shows that he/she can only read three pieces of newspaper a day. But this reading speed can’t adjust to today’s development that requires us to get useful information in a short time. Scanning is very different from intensive reading； it aims at catching the main idea of a passage， and understanding the writing purpose in a limited time. For scanning， readers needn’t remember the details or understand the passage completely. A key skill of scanning is to determine what the passage’s important and unimportant points are， what part you should read or ignore in a short time. The reader should be good at catching the key words， and especially pay attention to the first and last sentence of the passage. A taboo of scanning is to arrange time averagely， that is， to deal with per sentence in same time， or spend much time on a certain difficult point. 2.2 Finding out the Topic Sentence
Generally speaking， Topic sentence can express the main information of a paragraph. It is usually at the beginning， some in the middle and the end. But we can’t find out the topic sentence in some paragraphs because the central idea is indicated. In this case， you need grasp the central idea by key words and supporting information. The writer usually has two aims when he/she puts the topic sentence at the beginning： the first is to help the writer develop his thought and avoid digression. The second one is to help readers hold the writer’s thought， know what information the paragraph wants to tell， to come straight to the point. This kind of paragraph is the deductive paragraph. Sometimes the writer puts topic sentences at the end， in this case， he/she aims at enhancing the convince ability so that readers can accept the central idea of the paragraph. This kind of paragraph is the inductive paragraph. When the topic sentence is placed in the middle， the idea of the paragraph is arranged in order like this， unimportant-important-unimportant.
2.3 Skimming
Skimming is a specialized type of reading in which the reader reads quickly for a general understanding of the text， for the gist of a passage. The process typically involves the strategic skipping of segments of the text and the reading of key parts. （William， G.， and L. S. Fredricka， 2005：266） Before reading， the reader should understand what information he/she needs to get from the paragraph， but needn’t to read word by word， sentence by sentence. In another word， skimming requires readers to read by choosing. In order to increase the reading speed， readers can skim some details when they get the main idea. In a word， there are four distinguishing features for skimming.
To read a lot of material at a very fast speed.
To research the main information and certain supporting information.
It is unnecessary to read some parts completely.
To adjust the reading speed flexibly according to the difficult degree and your aim.
By the way， in the process of skimming， readers should pay attention to the writer’s tone or manner of speaking， and transform words. Such as， however， moreover， in addition….
2.4 Guessing Words’ Meaning
It is easier for readers to guess words’ meaning by analyzing words’ parts. First of all， readers should know the constitution of words. There are three parts for a word： root， suffixation and prefixation. Root is the most basic part， which expresses a word’s fundamental meaning. And root is fixed and unchanged. Suffixation and prefixation are placed before or after a word， and they play the part of changing a word’s meaning and its attribute. As a rule， suffixation changes the meaning， and prefixation changes the morphological features. Taking “inspector” for an example， “spect” is the root， means “look”； “in” is the suffixation， means “inside”， changes the root meaning； “or” is a noun prefixation， means “person”. Therefore， to master the constitution of words is good for analyzing words， recognizing words， and increasing reading speed. Then， predicting the meanings of new words is also very important for increasing reading speed. We can predict the meanings of new words by analyzing words’ parts and the hyponymy. In the fast reading， we should be careful because we are likely to be confused by the words with similar constitution. Such as， pilot and plot， frame and flame， tow and two， saw and was， window and widow… then， the sentence meaning may totally change just because of your carelessness.
2.5 Analyzing Sentences
Analyzing sentences requires understanding grammar principle and context. If your understanding is mistaking， the sentence meaning can completely change. So the same sentence can produce different meanings for different understandings. Then， find out sentence stem when you are analyzing a sentence. Sentence stem is the most fundamental part for understanding sentence meaning. When you meet a complex sentence， you can delete its rhetoric and clauses to find out the sentence stem. For example， the temperature rose to such a high degree that people could not work in the field. Its sentence stem is， the temperature rose to a degree. The rhetorical parts are “such” and “high”. The clause sentence is “people could not work in the field”.
3. Conclusion
Reading is important for students， and it is very necessary to master some efficient reading strategies， which can save much time and energy， and help students to find useful information in a short time. When you are reading， don’t forget the five reading strategies. In the end， I want to stress that improving reading speed is a long term business， which requires students to read different kinds of materials. When the students read a material， they can use the reading strategies mentioned above.
References：
[1] Sandra S. 2002.Techniques and resources in Teaching Reading [M]. ShangHai： ShangHai Foreign Language Education Publication.
[2] William， G.. & L. S. Fredricka. 2005. Teaching and Researching Reading [M]. Binjing： Foreign Language Teaching and Research Publication.
[3] Wang Qiang. 2006. A Course in English Language Teaching [M]. Beijing： Higher Education Publication.
[4] 郝振甫，1986，《怎樣提高英语阅读技能》[M]。湖南： 湖南大学出版社。
[5] 张定栓，1986，《英语速读指南》[M]。上海： 上海译文出版社。
作者简介：
李毅（1980-），女，汉族，青海西宁人，青海师范大学外语系讲师。研究方向：英语语言文学。
[Keywords] strategies；reading speed；topic sentences；skimming； scanning
1. Introduction
The purpose of this study is to look for some efficient strategies to improve college students’ reading speed by examining their regular reading habits. If they want to improve their language level， they must read abound of books， newspaper， and magazine and so like. Many college students read in a slow speed. After researching， the author found out that the main reason is they can’t master the efficient reading strategies. What’s worse， they are used to reading in a bad habit， reading slowly and carefully. No matter what kinds of passages or books， they always read sentence by sentence because they fear that some information will be missed. Most of students have a common psychology that they should understand the meaning of the passage completely and learn several phrases and new words in their reading. Otherwise， they may think they can not only accomplish nothing， but also waste time. This study is designed to address three special research questions： What kinds of strategies do they often use in their reading？ What kinds of obstacles do they usually meet in their reading？ What strategies are most influential in improving reading speed？
2. Five Strategies to Improve Students’ Reading Speed
2.1 Scanning
Scanning is a specialized type of reading in which the reader searches quickly for a specific piece of information or a specific word. （William， G.， and L. S. Fredricka， 2005：265） Scanning is a very important reading method， which can help readers catch the useful information in a short time. If a reader’s reading speed is 160 words per minute， then， without interruption or stop， he/she can read 960 words at most. According to this reading speed， he/she needs two more hours to read a piece of Chinese Daily in English， which shows that he/she can only read three pieces of newspaper a day. But this reading speed can’t adjust to today’s development that requires us to get useful information in a short time. Scanning is very different from intensive reading； it aims at catching the main idea of a passage， and understanding the writing purpose in a limited time. For scanning， readers needn’t remember the details or understand the passage completely. A key skill of scanning is to determine what the passage’s important and unimportant points are， what part you should read or ignore in a short time. The reader should be good at catching the key words， and especially pay attention to the first and last sentence of the passage. A taboo of scanning is to arrange time averagely， that is， to deal with per sentence in same time， or spend much time on a certain difficult point. 2.2 Finding out the Topic Sentence
Generally speaking， Topic sentence can express the main information of a paragraph. It is usually at the beginning， some in the middle and the end. But we can’t find out the topic sentence in some paragraphs because the central idea is indicated. In this case， you need grasp the central idea by key words and supporting information. The writer usually has two aims when he/she puts the topic sentence at the beginning： the first is to help the writer develop his thought and avoid digression. The second one is to help readers hold the writer’s thought， know what information the paragraph wants to tell， to come straight to the point. This kind of paragraph is the deductive paragraph. Sometimes the writer puts topic sentences at the end， in this case， he/she aims at enhancing the convince ability so that readers can accept the central idea of the paragraph. This kind of paragraph is the inductive paragraph. When the topic sentence is placed in the middle， the idea of the paragraph is arranged in order like this， unimportant-important-unimportant.
2.3 Skimming
Skimming is a specialized type of reading in which the reader reads quickly for a general understanding of the text， for the gist of a passage. The process typically involves the strategic skipping of segments of the text and the reading of key parts. （William， G.， and L. S. Fredricka， 2005：266） Before reading， the reader should understand what information he/she needs to get from the paragraph， but needn’t to read word by word， sentence by sentence. In another word， skimming requires readers to read by choosing. In order to increase the reading speed， readers can skim some details when they get the main idea. In a word， there are four distinguishing features for skimming.
To read a lot of material at a very fast speed.
To research the main information and certain supporting information.
It is unnecessary to read some parts completely.
To adjust the reading speed flexibly according to the difficult degree and your aim.
By the way， in the process of skimming， readers should pay attention to the writer’s tone or manner of speaking， and transform words. Such as， however， moreover， in addition….
2.4 Guessing Words’ Meaning
It is easier for readers to guess words’ meaning by analyzing words’ parts. First of all， readers should know the constitution of words. There are three parts for a word： root， suffixation and prefixation. Root is the most basic part， which expresses a word’s fundamental meaning. And root is fixed and unchanged. Suffixation and prefixation are placed before or after a word， and they play the part of changing a word’s meaning and its attribute. As a rule， suffixation changes the meaning， and prefixation changes the morphological features. Taking “inspector” for an example， “spect” is the root， means “look”； “in” is the suffixation， means “inside”， changes the root meaning； “or” is a noun prefixation， means “person”. Therefore， to master the constitution of words is good for analyzing words， recognizing words， and increasing reading speed. Then， predicting the meanings of new words is also very important for increasing reading speed. We can predict the meanings of new words by analyzing words’ parts and the hyponymy. In the fast reading， we should be careful because we are likely to be confused by the words with similar constitution. Such as， pilot and plot， frame and flame， tow and two， saw and was， window and widow… then， the sentence meaning may totally change just because of your carelessness.
2.5 Analyzing Sentences
Analyzing sentences requires understanding grammar principle and context. If your understanding is mistaking， the sentence meaning can completely change. So the same sentence can produce different meanings for different understandings. Then， find out sentence stem when you are analyzing a sentence. Sentence stem is the most fundamental part for understanding sentence meaning. When you meet a complex sentence， you can delete its rhetoric and clauses to find out the sentence stem. For example， the temperature rose to such a high degree that people could not work in the field. Its sentence stem is， the temperature rose to a degree. The rhetorical parts are “such” and “high”. The clause sentence is “people could not work in the field”.
3. Conclusion
Reading is important for students， and it is very necessary to master some efficient reading strategies， which can save much time and energy， and help students to find useful information in a short time. When you are reading， don’t forget the five reading strategies. In the end， I want to stress that improving reading speed is a long term business， which requires students to read different kinds of materials. When the students read a material， they can use the reading strategies mentioned above.
References：
[1] Sandra S. 2002.Techniques and resources in Teaching Reading [M]. ShangHai： ShangHai Foreign Language Education Publication.
[2] William， G.. & L. S. Fredricka. 2005. Teaching and Researching Reading [M]. Binjing： Foreign Language Teaching and Research Publication.
[3] Wang Qiang. 2006. A Course in English Language Teaching [M]. Beijing： Higher Education Publication.
[4] 郝振甫，1986，《怎樣提高英语阅读技能》[M]。湖南： 湖南大学出版社。
[5] 张定栓，1986，《英语速读指南》[M]。上海： 上海译文出版社。
作者简介：
李毅（1980-），女，汉族，青海西宁人，青海师范大学外语系讲师。研究方向：英语语言文学。