Unit One Efficient Reading Lesson 1 Developing Your Reading Efficiency Graduate students are pressed for time because so many activities demand their valuable time. One of the best ways to handle the demands and pressures of university life is to become more efficientto get more done in less time. Many students think that the only way to become more efficient is to read faster. This is, however, not the case. Reading efficiency means more than saving time by reading rapidly. Reading effectively includes understanding the ideas the writer is trying to send and organizing those ideas logically to remember them. Your reading efficiency will increase as you develop techniques that improve your comprehension and retention. These in turn will enable you to use your time most economically. Analyzing Your Reading Efficiency Are you an efficient reader? Here are some questions that will help you assess your reading efficiency. Answer Yes or No to the questions provided. 1. Do you set goals and time limits for yourself at the beginning of each reading study session? 2. Do you have particular questions in mind when you begin to read an assignment? 3. Do you try to understand the authors ideas instead of comprehending the literal meaning of each word? 4. Do you pay attention to the paragraphs and how they are organized? 5. While reading, do you try to predict or anticipate what the writer will say next? 6. Are you on the alert to words and phrases that signal change or continuation in thought? 7. Do you sort out more and less important details as you read? 8. When you meet a new word, do you try to figure out its meaning from the way it is used in the sentence? 9. Do you regularly use underlining, summary notes, and marginal notations to identify important information? 10. When you finish reading an assignment, do you take a few minutes to review what you have read and the writers purpose of writing? 11. Do you find reading an easy and enjoyable task? If you answer Yes to all or most of the above questions, you are on your way to becoming an efficient reader. Lesson 1World English: A Blessing or a Curse? Reading Selection A CATALOGUEAbout the Author Warm-up ActivitiesBackground InformationLanguage Points Keys Dr. Tom McArthur is founder editor of the Oxford Companion to the English Language (1992) and the quarterly English Today: The International Review of the English Language (Cambridge, 1985 ). His more than 20 published works include the Longman Lexicon of Contemporary English (1981), Worlds of Reference: Language, Lexicography and Learning from the Clay Tablet to the Computer (1986), and The English Languages(1998). He is currently Deputy Director of the Dictionary Research Centre at the University of Exeter. About the Author Warm-up Activities1. Do you think it is good for us to have a world language? Is it necessary? Why?2. If you were asked to choose a world language from the existing languages, which one do you prefer? Give you reasons. Background InformationI. A World Language English has gained status as a world language. Roughly 1/3 of the worlds population has English as its mother tongue. Seventy-five percent of the worlds mail is in English. English is the official language or is widely used in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, India, United Arab Emirates, Canada, the United States, Panama, Surinam, South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya in addition to several other countries. Background InformationWhy has English become a World Language? The British colonized large parts of the world, spreading their language to new areas. The United Kingdom and the United States are both important nations in the world of trade, business and technology. When engaged in trade and business with these nations, knowing English is an advantage. As non-English-speaking countries realized that, industry and business hired people who knew English, or required their workers to attend language courses. English is the international language of technology. Background Information Any negative effects? With English being so widespread, it can make those who come from English-speaking countries already feel that they dont need to learn a foreign language, because the world already speaks English. This is unfortunate because one learns to understand a culture better if one knows the language, and one may also enjoy reading literature in the original language. By knowing only one language (not necessarily English), one misses out on these pleasures. Ones language is a large part of ones culture, and it would be a shame if languages were erased as a result of “the English invasion”. Background InformationII. How Many Languages? There is no agreed total for the number of languages spoken in the world today. Most reference books give a figure of 5,000 to 6,000, but estimates have varied from 3,000 to 10,000. An obvious reason for