Making the implicit explicit

Think about your own reading practice.

When you prepare a class, read an article, or look something up, you probably use skimming and scanning without thinking about it — whatever language you are reading in.  

But do your students have the same automaticity when reading in English?

Why the gap?

  • You have internalized these strategies over years of reading practice
  • Your students are often encountering complex disciplinary texts for the first time
  • Without guidance, they tend to read linearly — from the first word to the last, at the same pace throughout — simply because no one has shown them another way

When students know:

  • why they are reading quickly

  • what they are looking for

  • when to slow down

    …they approach a text with purpose rather than apprehension — and are better placed to read selected sections carefully.

Teaching students to read faster is not the only goal. Reading speed without comprehension is worthless.

The aim is to help students read more strategically — knowing when to slow down is just as important as knowing when to skim.