TOEFL Integrated Essay Tip # 3: IMPROVING READING SKILLS
by: Rose Angelie Lapina
オンライン英会話 マイチューター
▮ 総合ライティング― リーディング力をつける！
IELTSライティングｰ 総合ライティングではパッセージを読んでその内容や著者の主張をまとめる能力が問われます。 「読む」ことと「理解する」ことは別の話です。 ここではパッセージを素早く理解しポイントをまとめる学習方法を紹介します。
In TOEFL Writing Integrated Task, reading is the first part of the exercise followed by listening. You are given 3 minutes to read a passage which is mostly about academic topics. Reading within 3 minutes is easy for most of us. However, reading and understanding is another story. Reading without comprehension is absolutely useless when answering the TOEFL Integrated Task. Reading comprehension is one of the skills that you need to be good at when taking the exam, so it is of utmost importance that you practice reading. Make it a habit to read textbooks, journals, academic passages, research articles, and encyclopaedias. Though you don’t need to know about any certain subjects, it would be useful if your familiar on how the academic materials are presented.
Basically, TOEFL evaluates your skills in succeeding in an American university or college, while some countries that speak English also use the TOEFL score as a pre-requisite for admission. Thus, you should focus on studying the language that you would normally hear in school. It would be very helpful to learn academic English, and one way to do that is through reading.
Now, let’s discuss about how you can improve your readingskills.
-TIPS-
1. To start, choose any article or topic that you find interesting to read. After few reading practices, choose subjects that are not familiar to you. Make it a point to read articles that are 300-400 words long.
2. Always have a pen and paper on hand while reading so you can easily take down valuable information, interesting phrases, or even difficult words.
2. Read aloud and be aware of your pronunciation and intonation. This helps you to slow down while reading, thus you can comprehend more.
3. Avoid distractions by finding a quiet and comfortable reading place where you could spend long hours of reading without any disturbance or discomfort.
4. Define vocabulary words ahead of time through pre-reading. That way, you can give meaning to uncommon words and you’ll understand the context better while reading.
5. Summarize what you just read based on your notes and review your answer by checking the article if you have covered all important information.
6. Re-read. Read the same articles over and over again to gain fluency and better comprehension.
7. Read daily. Yes, make it a habit to read, read, read!
Good luck!
