 Asalaamu alaikum, welcome to virtual university, I am Dr. Surya Yashofi Meeth, your tutor in English. Today's lesson is going to be about developing your reading skill. It is a very important skill, a skill that you will need for success in your studies. In this lesson, we are going to tell you how to improve your reading skill. If you read accurately, it will help you in your English. If you read inaccurately, you will miss some of the information or ideas that you read. If you read slowly, you will be unnecessarily spending a lot of time reading and that will affect your other work. In order to read English rapidly and accurately, you need a lot of practice. You learn to read by reading and in this lesson, we will introduce you to ways in which you can improve your reading skill. This lesson is in three parts. In the first part, you will learn to identify the topic of a paragraph. In the second part, you will learn to pick the main idea of the paragraph and in the last part of the lesson, you will learn to recognize details which support the main idea given in the paragraph. Now, in your reading lessons, you will come across long passages and these passages are made up of different paragraphs. We are going to begin at the level of the paragraph. If you are able to identify the topic of a paragraph, it will help you in developing your reading ability. A good reader is quickly able to identify the topic of a paragraph. Now, you would like to know what is the topic of a paragraph? The topic of a paragraph is the subject of the whole paragraph. That is what the whole paragraph is about and you can easily express the topic of a paragraph in one or two words. When you read a paragraph, just ask yourself the question, what is the writer trying to say? What is the writer trying to discuss in this paragraph? And the answer that you will get, which might come from your heart or from your mind will surely be the answer. The answer that you get from your heart or mind will definitely be the topic of the paragraph. Now you will see on your screen, three or four paragraphs, they are all taken from different textbooks and we would like you to read those paragraphs and at the end of each paragraph, you will find three or four possible answers given you. Select the answer which you think is the topic of the paragraph. Read the paragraph and then ask yourself, what is the paragraph about? Then look at those three or four options given at the end and select the one you think is the most appropriate. Now you will read text one. Text one, new species of plant are being discovered every year. It is estimated that the yearly average for the higher groups of plants alone is approximately 4700 proposed new species. It is obviously necessary from a practical as well as a scientific standpoint that attention be given to the naming and the proper classification of the vast assemblage of plants both native and cultivated. The scientists who do these things are systematic bottomists or taxonomists. Most certainly it is essential for those working the various fields of plant science, whether they are agriculturists, florists, foresters, physiologists or morphologists to know which plants they are dealing. They must know the proper scientific names and their relationships. Now there are four possible answers given at the end. A, the role of taxonomists, B, new plant species, C, plant science, D, importance of classifying new plant species. In the paragraph you have just read, the author is describing the importance of naming and classifying plants. This is the topic of the paragraph. Of the four choices given you, choice D is the correct answer. Now you had this, we gave you the answer for this paragraph. Now read the next text and see if you can find the right topic. Now we shall read text 2. The term groups has long been a pivotal concept of sociology. A group is any number of human beings in reciprocal communications. It may be well to emphasize certain aspects and implications of this short definition which beginning students as well as some sociologists themselves frequently overlook or do not appreciate fully. First, a group refers only two persons in communication. Mayor physical closeness, if there is not communication, does not make a group. The communication creates the group, not the mayor fact of spatial proximity or physical contact. Second, a group may be of any size to two persons, to theoretically and potentially the entire population of the world. Third, communication need not be face to face or by word of mouth. It may be indirect through writing or at long range through such instruments as the telegraph. Now at the end you will find four possible answers given you. A communication in groups, B definition of a group, C social limitations of a group, D size of groups. Now which would be the correct answer? Which would be, which do you think is the correct topic of this paragraph? I am sure you have chosen the correct one, which is B. The topic of the paragraph is definition of a group, that is the topic. Now read the next text which is from botany, from the subject of botany. This time possible answers are not provided. You will read the paragraph and provide the topic of the paragraph in two or three words. Text three, plants absorb water and mineral salts from the soil. They take in oxygen and carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. They manufacture sugars, starches, fats, proteins and scores of other subjects, sorry, scores of other substances. They respire, they grow, they react to the environment in which they live, they reproduce. In short plants carry on a number of activities, they do work, they have functions. Plant physiology is the area of botany concerned with the study of these activities and functions. Now what is the topic of this paragraph? What have you written down? I am sure you have written the correct topic. It is plant physiology. Now this exercise that we did of finding the topic, we repeat again, but with different passages, so that you get practice in this skill. Now I shall read out text four for you. Text four, many students read too slowly. They continue to read just as they did when in the sixth grade. They move their lips as if pronouncing every word and carry their fingers along the line of print to lead their eyes. It is as if they were reading aloud and had to pronounce each word with care. They have not yet moved to a more skillful level in reading, reading for comprehension rather than for pronunciation. In reading for meaning, tracing each word with lips and finger is undesirable as well as unnecessary. Reading seeks the author's thoughts rather than his words. The phrase rather than the word is the thought unit and the eyes can learn to take in whole phrases at a glance. What do you think is the topic of the paragraph? The topic is reading habits. Now I shall read another text and this is about language. Read the text and you supply the topic in two or three words. Text five, when you learn a language you learn the sounds used in that language, the basic units of meaning such as words and the rules to combine these to form new sentences. The elements and rules constitute the grammar of a language. The grammar then is what we know. It represents our linguistic competence. To understand the nature of language we must understand the nature of this internalized unconscious set of rules which constitutes the grammar. What did you write as topic for this paragraph? Well the topic was the grammar of a language. Now I shall read another text, a very interesting text. It is about writing systems and let us see what you think is the topic of the paragraph. Text six, Chinese writing utilizes a system of characters each of which represents the meaning of a word rather than its sounds. These dictionaries and rhyme books contain tens of thousands of these characters. But to read a newspaper one needs know only about five thousand. It is not easy to become a scholar in China. In 1956 the difficulties prompted the government of the people's republic of China to simplify the characters. They also adopted a spelling system using the Roman alphabet to be used along with the regular ancient system. It is doubtful whether it will replace the traditional writing which is an integral part of Chinese culture. In China writing is an art, calligraphy and thousands of years of poetry and literature and history are preserved in the old system. The topic of this paragraph is the Chinese writing system. Now with this we conclude the first part of our lesson. What did we learn in this first part? We learnt how to identify the topic of a paragraph. Now we begin the second part of the lesson which is how to identify the main idea of a paragraph. Now related with the skill that you learnt in the first part identifying the topic of a paragraph there is another skill which is related to it and that is how to identify the main idea of a paragraph. The main idea is usually directly stated by the author in one or two sentences within the paragraph. The sentence that states the main idea of the paragraph is called the topic sentence and this sentence will tell you what the rest of the paragraph is about. After you have found out the topic of a paragraph look for the sentence that states the main idea of the paragraph. Now the main idea the topic sentence which is the main idea which is contained in the topic sentence can occur anywhere in the paragraph. It can occur at the beginning, it can occur in the middle of the paragraph, it can occur at the end of the paragraph. Sometimes you will find that the main idea the topic sentence is repeated twice sometimes at the beginning sometimes again at the end. So you will now look at four samples of texts in which the topic sentence occurs at various places. First one, example one I shall read it out and you follow on your screens. Example one the good listener in order to achieve the purpose of acquiring information is careful to follow specific steps to achieve accurate understanding. First whenever possible the good listener prepares in advance for the speech or lecture he or she is going to attend. He or she studies the topic to be discussed and finds out about the speaker and his or her beliefs. Second on arriving at the place where the speech is to be given he or she chooses a seat where seeing, hearing and remaining alert are easy. Finally when the speech is over an effective listener reviews what was said and reacts to and evaluates the ideas expressed. Here you noticed that the first sentence of the paragraph is the topic sentence and after making the statement at the beginning all the other sentences that follow support this topic sentence. Now I shall read another example for you another text and you notice where the topic sentence occurs. Text eight, example two whenever possible the good listener prepares in advance for the speech or lecture he or she plans to attend. He or she studies the topic to be discussed and finds out about the speaker and his or her beliefs and effective listener as you are beginning to see takes specific steps to achieve accurate understanding of the lecture. Furthermore on arriving at the place where the speech is to be given he or she chooses a seat where it is easy to see, hear and remain alert. Finally when the speech is over the effective listener reviews what was said and reacts to and evaluates the ideas expressed. In the example that you read just now you must have noticed that the topic sentence here is in the middle of the paragraph. The writer builds or leads to the main idea he begins the paragraph he leads one sentence after another to the middle where he states the main idea and then he goes on to further elaborate his idea with details. Now we shall look at another text, let us look at the third example, whenever possible the good listener prepares in advance for the speech or lecture he or she plans to attend. He or she studies the topic to be discussed and finds out about the speaker and his or her beliefs on arriving at the place where the speech is to be given he or she chooses a seat where seeing, hearing and remaining alert are easy and when the speech is over he or she reviews what was said and reacts to and evaluates the idea expressed. Thus an effective listener in order to achieve the purpose of acquiring information takes specific steps to achieve accurate understanding. Did you notice that in the last paragraph that you read it was the last sentence of the paragraph which was the topic sentence the writer first gives evidence supporting evidence and all the facts that supports the main idea and then at the end he restates the main idea. Now finally, look at this example and in this example you will notice something different. The good listener in order to achieve the purpose of acquiring information is careful to follow specific steps to achieve accurate understanding first whenever possible the good listener prepares in advance for the speech or lecture he or she is going to attend. He or she studies the topic to be discussed and finds out about the speaker and his or her beliefs. Second on arriving at the place where the speech is to be given he or she chooses a seat where seeing, hearing and remaining alert are easy. Finally, when the speech is over he or she reviews what was said and reacts to and evaluates the ideas expressed. Effective listening is an active process in which a listener deliberately takes certain actions to ensure that accurate communication has occurred. You noticed in the last paragraph that the writer states the main idea twice once at the beginning of the paragraph and then again in the last sentence and in the middle of the paragraph he just explains the main idea. Now you will have a few more exercises in which you will practice locating the topic sentence. Read the following paragraphs and state the topic sentence for each. Text 11. In arithmetic it is never possible to add unlike quantities. For example, we should not add inches and gallons and expect to obtain a sensible answer. Neither should we attempt to add volts and pairs, kilo cycles and micro farads, ohms and watts etcetera. So it goes through algebra. We can never add quantities unless they are expressed in the same units. Now what do you think the topic sentence was? The topic sentence was the topic sentence was that we can never add quantities unless they are expressed in the same units. We shall look at another text for practice sake. I shall read the text and you follow. Text 12. Cementary rocks are derived from an earlier generation of rocks and minerals by the geological processes of weathering, transportation and deposition. Typically, they are hard cemented deposits formed in an ocean environment and they contain both primary and secondary minerals. The consolidation of sediments into hard rock results from the accumulation of precipitates that cement lose mineral grains into a continuous mass. Many sedimentary rocks consist almost entirely of precipitated compounds. As for example, limestone formed by lime secreting organisms in sea water. Well, what was the topic sentence of text 12? The topic sentence is the first sentence. Sedimentary rocks are derived from an earlier generation of rocks and minerals by the geological processes of weathering, transportation and deposition. Let us look at text 13. There are basically two types of computers, analog computers and digital computers. Analog computers operate on the principle of a parallel or analog between numbers and physical quantities. For example, a slide rule is an analog device with length representing numbers. Modern analog computers use electronic circuitry to represent physical processes with changes in electric current representing the behavior of the system being studied. Digital computers on the other hand are essentially based on counting operations. Most modern computers are digital computers and it is usually digital computers which are referred to when the word computer is used. For this reason, the explanations in the chapters to follow apply only to digital computers. Well, that was a long paragraph on computers. What do you think was the topic sentence? Simple, it is the first sentence. I shall read another text for you and let us see if you can find out the topic sentence. The study of mathematics may be likened to the study of a language. In fact, mathematics is a language, the language of number and size. Just as the rules of grammar must be studied in order to master English, so must certain concepts, definitions, rules, terms and words be learned in the pursuit of mathematical knowledge. These form the vocabulary or structure of the language. The more a language is studied and used, the greater becomes the vocabulary. The more mathematics is studied and applied, the greater becomes its usefulness. Well, the topic sentence was the first sentence. Now, you have observed in the text that you have read that it is usually the first sentence which is the topic sentence. But this is not always the case. As you have gone through these examples, you must have noticed sometimes the usual position is the first sentence. But it can occur in the middle, it can occur at the end. And now we begin the third part of today's lesson and that is how to recognize details that support the topic sentence, the main idea. We begin the third and final part of today's lesson and that is recognizing details in a paragraph. Now what are the details in a paragraph? The details are all the facts, the ideas, the examples which the writer uses to support his main idea. If you can identify the topic and the main idea, then identifying the supporting ideas is not a difficult task. As a good reader, you must learn to identify the main supporting ideas. To do this, you must learn to separate the main from the not so important ideas. And for this, you will have to sift. Sifts, this is a kind of, they are different things. You will have to separate all the information in the paragraph. Some information you will find is not absolutely essential to the central idea. Some information you will find repeats or restates the main idea. And if you can do this, separate the main idea from the not so important ideas, you will have learnt to understand the paragraph. Now we will look at some samples of text where the topic sentence and the detail are marked. The topic sentence you will find is in italics and the key supporting ideas are underlined. You notice how the underlined supporting details, they differ in importance from the information they provide from the remaining details in the paragraph. Now I shall read the text and you will see this text on your screen. Notice the words, the sentence that is in italics and the sentence or the words that are underlined. And you will realize the difference in the main idea and in the supporting ideas. Now I shall read the text. Text 15. Newspapers are the largest single advertising medium in the nation. They have extensive coverage. Hardly a city or town in the country is not served by a local paper or by one from a nearby larger city. For this reason an advertiser can be highly selective about the markets to which he advertises if he uses them. If he needs a campaign in a limited local area, he can cover just that area by newspapers and not pay for wasted circulation which he would do if he used a magazine or a large metropolitan daily. Because newspapers are printed either weekly or daily, the advertiser can take advantage of local opportunities rather quickly. He can advertise in the paper on a few hours notice. Now here is a short exercise to test what you have learnt. You will find that topic sentences are given and these sentences, single sentences are followed by three statements. Choose the statement that you think or you expect to follow the topic sentence. The first one is done for you. Look at the topic sentence. The Nile, the largest river in Egypt is unique. Now there are three options. A. Describe where Egypt is. B. Explain why the river is unique. C. Compare the Nile with other large rivers. Now you have to see out of these three which sentence should follow the topic sentence. If you read carefully you will notice that the topic sentence says that the Nile is a unique river. So, from the options given A is not suitable, C is not suitable. The correct answer is B. Explain why the river is unique. Now look at a few more examples. The topic sentence is a little known story about MA Jinnah tells volumes about his manner of thinking. This is followed by three options. Describe the passing of the Lahore resolution. Summarize Jinnah's speech at Lahore March 1940 or relate the little known story. Which do you think? Which sentence should follow the topic sentence? It says obvious. You get the clue from the topic sentence. The sentence that should follow the topic sentence should relate the little known story. Simple? Let us look at another example. The topic sentence is if you want to spend your holidays in a truly unique place, the northern areas of Pakistan are just the place for you. You have got three options. A, identify the plan and explain its uniqueness. B, explain the physical and emotional importance of holidays. C, relate the history of the Pashtuns, the people who live in the northern areas. So, as the topic sentence tells you the correct option would be identify the place for you. Place and explain its uniqueness. We will do another exercise in which the topic sentence is followed by a number of sentences which contain details. And these details relate to the main statement. Read each sentence and select one sentence which you consider cannot be a support for the main idea. Let me repeat again. This time you have to choose a sentence which is obvious that it cannot be a support for the main idea. Text 16. The topic sentence is the development of speech in infants follows a definite sequence or patterns of development. And you have been given five options. Out of these five, one does not follow the topic sentence. A, by the time an infant is six months old, he or she can make twelve different speech sounds. B, before the age of three months, most infants are unable to produce any recognizable syllables. C, during the first year the number of vowel sounds a child can produce is greater than the number of consonant sounds he can make. D, during the second year the number of consonant sounds a child can produce increases. E, parents often reward the first recognizable word a child produces by smiling or speaking to the child. As is obvious, it is E. All the other options A, B, C, D are in one way or the other related to the topic sentence. The development of speech it says follows a definite sequence or patterns of development. It is only E that is not following the sequence or the pattern of development. Let us look at another topic sentence. In some parts of the world famine is a constant human condition and exists due to a variety of causes. This is the topic sentence. It is followed by five sentences. Out of those five sentences there is one which should not follow. Which one do you think it is? A, in parts of Africa people are dying of hunger by the tens of thousands. B, famine is partly caused by increased population. C, advances in medicine have increased life expectancies keeping more people active for longer periods of time. D, agricultural technology has not made substantial advances in increasing the food supply. E, due to the growth of cities populations have become more dense and agricultural support for these population centers is not available. Out of these five it is C that should not follow the topic sentence. Let us look at another topic sentence and see if all the out of all those five options which one does not fit in. Topic sentence is an individual deals with anxiety in a variety of ways and produces a wide range of responses. The details are A, anxiety may manifest itself by such physical symptoms as increased heart activity or labored breathing. B, fear unlike anxiety is a response to real or threatened danger. C, psychologically anxiety often produces a feeling of powerlessness or lack of direct control over the immediate environment. D, temporary blindness, deafness or the loss of the sensation of touch are examples of extreme physical responses to anxiety. E, some people cannot cope with anxiety and are unable to control the neurotic behavior associated with anxiety. Out of these five it is B that is not related. The others are all details that can follow the topic sentence. Now, before we end the lesson let me go over what you have learnt in today's lesson. In today's lesson you have learnt three important skills which are related with the reading and to be a good reader you must be able to number one know the topic of the paragraph, number two know what the main idea is and number three you should be able to separate the main idea from the supporting details. Let us hope you will make use of these skills and become a good reader. See you next time. Allah Hafiz.