How to read - Active Success at Uni

Give it some thought

Now that you’ve read these, write about 2 sentences predicting what the article might be about.
Response: ‘I predict that the article will be about…’

Read and summarise the whole article

Read the whole article. Don’t stop to look up any words or phrases you don’t understand – you can come back to these later. Make a note of them by highlighting them or using ‘sticky notes’.

Read the article twice (or maybe three times) to help your understanding.

Now minimise the article so that you can’t see it and write a short summary – no more than 4 sentences that captures the ‘essence’ of the article.

Response: The focus of the article …’

Figure out those hard words

Go back to your highlighting or ‘sticky notes’ and sort out those troublesome words. Think about the words in their context (that is, look at the whole sentence, or sentences around the words, to look for clues about the sense of the words). What do you think they might mean? Then you can look up each word in your dictionary. Make sure it’s an English-English dictionary (not a translating dictionary).

Professor Smallhausen has found some difficult words and has highlighted these words: adaptation (p. 1) The article says: ‘they encounter many challenges in this adaptation process’; ‘how to make international students’ adaptation proceed more smoothly becomes an important pedagogical issue’. Use the context (the words around our chosen word) to think about the meaning. Then write down what you think the word adaptation means. Answer: Professor Smallhausen says that the context tells him that students have to make adjustments in their new educational environment, so he thinks that it has something to do with making changes. My dictionary tells me that adaptation can be either an adjective or a noun, and gives the meaning: the process of change by which something becomes better suited to its environment.

Correlated (p. 3) The article mentions that ‘language proficiency is highly correlated with international students’ academic performance’. Use the context (the words around our chosen word) to think about the meaning. Then write down what you think the word correlated means. Answer: Professor Smallhausen says that two things (language proficiency and academic performance) go together, so he thinks it means that one thing is linked with another. My dictionary tells me that it is a verb (past tense) and gives the meaning: established a mutual relationship or connection between things.

Obstacle (p. 6) The article says that ‘international students would face several challenges when they tried to adapt to a new environment. The language obstacle for international students was widely observed by the educators.’ Use the context (the words around our chosen word) to think about the meaning. The write down what you think the word obstacle means. Answer: Professor Smallhausen thinks it links to ‘challenges’ and means that something is preventing the students from improving. My dictionary tells me that it is a noun and gives the meaning: a thing that blocks one's way or prevents or hinders progress.