What do students do when they read?

Maybe you have heard something like this "you guys need to read more to improve your reading comprehension." Of course, it is important that you read but what is MORE important is HOW you should read.

Here, we show the results of an interview applied to ten students at the University of Quintana Roo that may help you have an idea of what you should do in order to be good at reading. You should consider that the people interviewed are: English foreign language learners(EFL), Students of English Language Mayor ,They are in intermediate and advanced level. They are from different semesters: three of them are from 8 semester, the other ones are from six semester.

The interview

• Do you read outside of the classroom?

Five of the students interviewed answered that outside of the classroom they only read entertainment text. The other five students said that they read both types of texts; entertainment and academic, and only the minority answered only academic texts.

• What is the most apropiate place to read for you?

All of the inteviewed students think that the apropiate environment for reading is a quiet, comfortable and brighted place but three of them also think that music can help. What do you think? Can you concentrate on reading by listen to music? If your answer is afirmative, go to the songs entry!

• Before you start to read, Do you read the title and try to guess what the text is about?

Eight of the ten sudents answered that berofe starting to read they do read the title and try to guess what it is about.

• What do you do when you don´t know the meaning of a word?

Five students said that when they don´t know the meaning of a word they try to guess it by context. Three of students answered that they combined both; looking the word in a dictionary and guessing the meaning by context. Only two of them look for the meaning in a dictionary.

• Do you try to find the main idea of the paragraph?

Five of the inteviewed students answered that they usually try to find the main idea of the paragraph.

• What the students do to find the main idea of the paragraph?

Their answers were diverse, but six of the students said that they focus on the beggining of the paragraph where it is usually to find the main idea. One of them said that she/he uses keywords and another one said that she/he just reads carefully the whole text. two of them answered that if the text is academic, they read the whole text at least twice to avoid confussion and then they try to summarize the paragraph into one idea which is supposed to be the main idea.

• After reading, what do you do to remember what you read?

Here the answers of each students.

1. I write down keywords.
2. I read the title.
3. I check, review the text the times.
4. I underline the most important part.
5. If I read an entertainment text, I trust my memory. If the text is academic, I make notes or a mind map.
6. I review what I read.
7. I don´t do anything. If the text is interesting, I remember it.
8. I make a summary.
9. I make a story.
10. I relate the topic with my previous knowledge.
    

• What are the most useful reading strategies for you?

1. Five of the interviewed students answered that skimming and scanning are very useful strategies.
2. The other five answered that what works for them is to concentrate on the reading, to read the whole text, to underline the most impotant ideas, to make notes, and to paraphrase the main idea.
   

The graphic bellow shows how often the students use some reading strategies.