Ielts Reading Essay

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A very common question I get from my IELTS students is ‘How do I improve my reading skills?’ Initially I always answer this question with a question, ‘Let me ask you something, do you read or understand every word when you’re reading in your own language?’ The answer is always ‘No’ which means that you already have some reading skills and strategies in your own language for understanding a text even if you don’t read/understand every word. All we have to do now is use these same reading skills when we read in English. The language may be different but the skills are basically the same. So what are these skills? The four reading skills I’m going to discuss in this post are ‘Skimming’, ‘Scanning’, ‘Extensive reading’ and ‘Intensive reading’. Skimming Skimming is used when we want to understand the main idea or ‘gist’. You basically run your eyes over the text and gather the important information. You don’t need to understand every word when you skim read. In ‘real life’, we often skim read newspapers to get the general news. In the IELTS Reading Test, it is usually to get the main idea of the passage as in my post Tips for answering different question task types in the IELTS Reading Test. Scanning Scanning is used when we need to find a particular piece of information. You basically run your eyes over the text and look specifically for the particular piece of information you need. As with skimming, you don’t need to understand every word when you scan read. In ‘real life’, we use scanning for timetables or a guide to an exhibition or conference. In the IELTS Reading Test, it is to get specific information required in certain task types as in my post Tips for answering different question task types in the IELTS Reading Test. The next two types of reading are used to improve your reading skills in general. Extensive reading Extensive reading is
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