Here are four different kinds of reading.
- Skimming - running the eyes over quickly, to get the gist
- Scanning - looking for a particular piece of information
- Extensive reading - longer texts for pleasure and needing global understanding
- Intensive reading - shorter texts, extracting specific information, accurate reading for detail.
Types of Reading
Maija MacLeod
In this Page:
Overview:
Aims of the web page:
Several types of reading may occur in a language classroom. One way in which these may be categorized , as suggested by Brown (1989) can be outlined as follows:
A. Oral
B. Silent
I. Intensive
a. linguistic
b. content
II. Extensive
a. skimming
b. scanning
c. global
The first distinction that can be made is whether the reading is oral or silent. This web page will not deal with oral reading, only silent reading.
Within the category of silent reading, one encounters intensive and extensive reading. Intensive reading is used to teach or practice specific reading strategies or skills. The text is treated as an end in itself. Extensive reading on the other hand, involves reading of large quantities of material, directly and fluently. It is treated as a means to an end. It may include reading reading simply for pleasure or reading technical, scientific or professional material. This later type of text, more academic, may involve two specific types of reading, scanning for key details or skimming for the essential meaning. A relatively quick and efficient read, either on its own or after scanning or skimming, will give a global or general meaning.
This web page then will first examine intensive reading. The second part will deal with extensive reading, with a focus on how it results in a general or global meaning. The fourth part gives a short comment on how intensive and extensive reading may operate in the same class. The fourth part examines scanning and the fifth, scanning. A final sixth part comments on how scanning and skimming may be used in the same reading.
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