Read to Lead

Introduction

“Today a reader, Tomorrow a Leader.”

Margaret Fuller

An individual undergoing a  process of absorbing new words and retaining them to use on the basis of different contexts is termed to be someone with an impeccable acquisition of reading skills. Keeping all facts in mind, one must know, it is not easy to acquire strong reading skills as it is an inborn talent and not everyone is lucky to have it. Immense reading can improve vocabulary and helps in enhancing language skills.

Importance of Reading skills

“If you are going to get anywhere in life, you have to read a lot of books”.

Roald Dahl

Good reading skills enable people to comprehend certain texts, messages, passages, information in the most appropriate manner. Acquiring a reading habit is important as it is practiced in our daily life. It is advisable for young children to incorporate a reading habit during the pre-teen years as it will help in developing their own personality. When an individual combines the understanding of the written text with their existing knowledge, they are often said to be pro in their reading.

The habit of reading for some develops their mind, helps in interpreting the written word in a faster way, develops patience to listen to the other person, and also leads to the development of language skills. The concept of reading is directly proportional to our functioning in today’s world. Failing to incorporate good reading skills can lead to frustration among people as it becomes difficult for some people to perform their daily chores.

 “Reading is to the mind, what exercise is to the body”. (Joseph Addison).

Immense reading helps to acquire a good job proposal. There are various reports and documents that need thorough reading, and this is only possible if an individual has strong reading skills. Not being able to read well in time takes more energy than required, thus, it becomes difficult to survive in the workplace. Also, reading gives joyful satisfaction in a way that it helps in developing the imaginative domain of our mind.

It is not important for a reader to be a well-educated man, but it is important for a well-educated man to be a good reader. Reading magazines, newspapers, etcetera can help in achieving knowledge and education out of curiosity, no matter what domain it is. However, it is mandatory for a well-educated man to have strong grasping power. In many cases, there is an unobserved improvement in the spellings if we read a lot. Seeing the incorporation of words in different aspects and retaining the new words helps in enhancing the vocabulary.

Components of reading skills

“The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest people of the past”. Descartes 

To be confident in your reading, one must be aware of certain components of reading skills.

Mentioning in detail we first have to understand the way of matching individual letters with the sounds of spoken English. Practicing phonics can help in developing learning abilities and help the individuals to achieve success immensely.

Secondly, having phonemic awareness is important as the amalgamation of sounds, words and syllables helps in developing phonemic awareness. This component helps in the manipulation of the words in the right manner. Also, it helps in enhancing the reading power and keeps the mind alert. The third factor to be mentioned in fluency, therefore,  fluent readers have an appropriate way of expression and read the text at a decent speed. The ability to encode and decode each word depends on the fluency of an individual. Non-readers usually lack the component of fluency among them.

The fourth component to be discussed is Vocabulary. Good vocabulary helps in widening the horizon of an individual. One should be actively adaptive to new words and retain them for further use. Larger the vocabulary, the more it will be easier to comprehend the text. Last but not the least, reading comprehension is central to all the components of reading. Understanding the text of the comprehension requires the fully functioning of the complex cognitive domain. However, the reading comprehension component acts as a building block of the reading skills.

“Reading is important because, if you can read, you can learn anything, about everything, and everything about anything”.

TomieDePaola 

Types of Reading techniques

There are four main types of reading techniques, namely, skimming, scanning, intensive and extensive. Having a basic knowledge of the text or an overall glance of the text is primarily referred to as skimming. This technique justifies a casual reading approach of the reader. The grasping of the main idea any day helps you in saving time as it involves reading bullet points or the headings.

Scanning involves a deep analysis of the text. Making the most out of a simple piece of information keeping in mind specific words and phrases calls for the process of scanning. Scanning of paper-based text has more productive results than the scanning of computer-based test. Furthermore, Intensive reading is a time-consuming process, one needs to keep in mind the chronology of the events taking place in a long passage. This kind of technique is helpful for language learners for better interpretation of context and the information is retained for a longer time. Extensive reading in other terms, involves pleasure reading, with a motive to develop general reading skills.

“It is books that are a key to the wide world, if you can't do anything else, read all that you can.”

Jane Hamilton

Conclusion

Reading in any form raises the deep learning effect in an individual. It helps in gaining information and spreading knowledge. Incorporating reading skills is more important than achieving academic abilities as strong reading skills can help an individual to overcome any flaw in terms of academic intelligence, therefore poor reading skills create problems academically and professionally.

Reference Links

1. ·Quoteinvestigator.com. (2012). Today a Reader; Tomorrow a Leader – Quote Investigator. [online] Available at: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/10/29/reader-leader/.
2. ·A-Z Quotes. (n.d.). Roald Dahl Quote. [online] Available at: https://www.azquotes.com/quote/574312.
3. ·Cruz, E. (2020). Mind food. [online] Medium. Available at: https://medium.com/age-of-awareness/mind-food-765aeff1eb92.
4. ·www.goodreads.com. (n.d.). A quote by Tomie dePaola. [online] Available at: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/738642-reading-is-important-because-if-you-can-read-you-can.
5. ·webs.anokaramsey.edu. (n.d.). Quotes About Reading and Studying Literature. [online] Available at: http://webs.anokaramsey.edu/stankey/Literat/Other/WhyQts.