HOW TO READ: A DIVE INTO THE DETAILS OF READING

EDITHA B. NALUZ

What is reading? If you are understanding the text that you are seeing right now, perfect! You know how to read. Reading is one of the essential skills we need to learn as we grow up, we first learn how to read from our parents by reading to us children’s stories or in school, from textbooks.

Why is it important for us to learn how to read in the first place? Well, almost everything requires reading, we need it for communication, learning, reading the news, travel, and many more. It is a receptive skill that allows us to receive information and learn new things. According to Kelly Ho and Janet Stevens from the article "The Value of Books", written comprehension, vocabulary and knowledge are not the only things that are improved by reading. Other studies have shown that reading has benefits for both the physical and mental health of a person. Like doing yoga and other relaxing activities, reading can reduce stress and has been shown to reduce a person’s blood pressure and heart rate.

How do we improve our reading? In school, reading is a repetitive activity which in-result, trains our reading skill. Much like practice, reading again and again will make us better at reading, activities like reading books, puzzles, browsing the internet, writing is also a good activity as it goes toe to toe with reading, even watching TV Shows, K-Dramas and Movies will help you improve reading by watching them with subtitles. These activities are helpful to improving our reading skills and in addition, we get to learn new stuff from them.

In a classroom setting, one of the main problems is the lack of reading comprehension for students, some students lack the ability to read, and this can hinder their studies. Teachers, parents, and even classmates are the ones who can help the student improve their reading skills. Lack of motivation is one of the factors that interferes with the learning process of reading, that is why motivating someone who needs help with reading is a really good way to solve this problem.

We are surrounded by texts and symbols, so we need to decode these by reading so that we can understand them, it is a way for us to communicate with each other. Knowledge is wealth, and reading is a very powerful tool to gather this knowledge. And remember not to gate-keep this wealth, as other people need it also, and if you are able, teach them.

-oOoTHE AUTHOR IS SST-III AT ARAYAT NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL