Reading for Meaning and Reading Aloud
If we are to help students develop reading skills in a foreign language, it is important to understand what is involved in the reading process itself. If we know how “good readers” read, we can decide the particular reading techniques to help learners.
In the reading process, it is important to distinguish (区分)between two quite separate activities： reading for meaning (or “silent reading”) and reading aloud.1______ When we read books, newspapers, road signs, we usually read for meaning. It is what you are doing as you read this text. It involves looking at sentences and understanding the message they convey.2______ It doesn' t normally involve saying the words we read, not even silently inside our heads. 3______
This is because we can guess much of what it says as we read the written text.
4______ Its purpose is not just to understand a text but to convey the information to someone else. It is not an activity we engage in very often outside the classroom. The examples are reading out parts of a newspaper article to a friend, or reading a notice to other people who can't see it. 5______ Because our attention is divided between reading and speaking, it is a much more difficult activity than reading silently. We often make mistakes when reading aloud in our own language, and reading aloud in a foreign language is even more difficult.
3.