Master reading comprehension strategies, understand different text types, and ace your exams with this comprehensive interactive guide
Welcome to the Complete Reading Comprehension Guide! This comprehensive resource is designed to help you master the art of understanding written text, a crucial skill for academic success and competitive exams like ECAT.
Reading Comprehension is the process of making meaning from text. The goal is to gain an overall understanding of what is described in the text rather than to obtain meaning from isolated words or sentences.
As Andrea Gillies wrote in The White Lie: “And I’ve realized something about people who read. People who read: it’s not quietness. It’s not passivity. They are having conversations with the writer, with the characters, are living in that other situation.”
Pro Tip: Approach reading as an active conversation with the author. Ask questions as you read, make predictions, and connect the text to your own experiences and knowledge.
Memory Aid: Use the acronym READ to remember key comprehension strategies:
Reading comprehension involves much more than readers’ responses to text. It is a multicomponent, highly complex process that involves many interactions between readers and what they bring to the text (previous knowledge, strategy use) as well as variables related to the text itself (interest in text, understanding of text types).
In understanding read text information, readers develop mental models, or representations of meaning of the text ideas during the reading process.
The process can be visualized as a complex interaction between:
Pro Tip: Before reading, activate your prior knowledge about the topic. This creates a mental framework that makes it easier to understand and remember new information.
Memory Aid: Remember PVC-SQ for effective reading strategies:
There may be a variety of factors that contribute to reading difficulties for many students with special needs and the underlying causes of their reading problems may be largely unknown. In ECAT context, students generally face problems in English comprehension due to the following reasons:
Students may not have sufficient knowledge of English language even after studying it for twelve years. This is a major factor of difficulty in Reading Comprehension either in a test or general English reading.
Solution: Focus on building vocabulary systematically. Learn 5-10 new words daily with their meanings, usage, and synonyms.
Students must be able to focus their attention to decode words, maintain reading fluency, and understand what they read. Attention problems can range from mild trouble focusing to severe difficulty (ADD/ADHD).
Solution: Use the Pomodoro technique – read for 25 minutes, then take a 5-minute break. This improves focus and retention.
Students who believe themselves weak in Reading Comprehension are often unwilling to practice. Avoiding practice leads to failure in Reading Comprehension.
Solution: Practice daily, even if only for 15-20 minutes. Consistency is more important than duration.
Students must be able to place information into their memories and retrieve it when needed. Different types of memory include short-term, working, and long-term memory.
Solution: Use mnemonic devices and connect new information to what you already know to improve memory retention.
Students without skills like skimming and scanning are less competent readers, especially when solving comprehension-based questions.
Solution: Master skimming (reading quickly for main ideas) and scanning (looking for specific information) techniques.
Some students have a habit of very slow reading, which causes difficulty when given a specific time limit, such as in examinations.
Solution: Practice timed reading exercises regularly to increase reading speed while maintaining comprehension.
Memory Aid: Remember KAP MLS for common comprehension difficulties:
A text can appear in any form or type. Letters, adverts, user-guides, emails, postcards, notes and magazine articles are all different types of texts. Understanding text type helps you know why it has been written and how to approach it.
Narrative texts have to do with real-world events and time. They may be fictional (fairy tales, novels) or non-fictional (newspaper report).
Characteristics: Sequencing of events, dynamic verbs, adverbials like “first”, “then”, “after that”.
Example: First we packed our bags and then we called a taxi. After that we…
Tip: Look for time markers and sequence words to identify narrative texts.
Descriptive texts are concerned with the location of persons and things in space. They provide background information and set the stage for narration.
Characteristics: State or positional verbs plus adverbial expressions.
Example: The operation panel is located on the right-hand side at the rear. New Orleans lies on the Mississippi.
Tip: Look for spatial prepositions and detailed observations.
Directive texts are concerned with concrete future activity. Central to these texts are imperatives or forms which substitute for them.
Characteristics: Imperatives, polite questions, suggestive remarks.
Example: Hand me the paper. Would you hand me the paper? I wonder what the paper says about the weather.
Tip: Look for commands, instructions, or suggestions for action.
Expository texts identify and characterize phenomena. They include text forms such as definitions, explications, summaries and essays.
Characteristics: State verbs and epistemic modals.
Example: Pop music has a strong rhythmic beat. It might be true.
Tip: Look for explanations, definitions, and factual information.
Argumentative texts depart from the assumption that the receiver’s beliefs must be changed. They often start with the negation of a statement.
Characteristics: Persuasive language, claims with evidence, counterarguments.
Example: Contrary to popular belief, video games do not cause violence. Studies show…
Tip: Look for claims, evidence, and attempts to persuade or convince.
Persuasive texts try to encourage you to do something. They often use emotional language, exclamation marks, and present only one side of an argument.
Characteristics: Capital letters, exclamation marks, adjectives, one-sided arguments.
Example: Enjoy an ENCHANTING Holiday in the Maldives! Scattered across the Indian Ocean lie islands with the finest white sand beaches…
Tip: Look for emotional appeals, exaggerated language, and calls to action.
Memory Aid: Remember NAD EPA for the six text types:
Effective preparation for reading comprehension requires a strategic approach. Follow these guidelines to maximize your learning and performance:
Pro Tip: When faced with a difficult passage, break it down into smaller sections. Read one paragraph at a time, summarize it in your own words, then move to the next.
Memory Aid: Remember PART for exam success:
Test your knowledge with these 50 multiple-choice questions covering all aspects of reading comprehension. Try to complete the quiz in 60 minutes to simulate exam conditions.