1. COMPREHENSION SKILLS

2. COMPREHENSION SKILLS
• Previewing
• Making Inferences
• Understanding Paragraphs
• Patterns of Organization
• Skimming
• Summarizing
• Critical Reading

3. Previewing an Article or an Essay
• Look at most of the first paragraph, the first
sentence of each paragraph and the
concluding sentences
• Ask youself questions as follows:

4. Previewing questions for an article
• What is it about? What is the title? What do I
already know about this?
• What kind of text is this?Is it a description? An
argument? A narrative?
• Is the text divided into parts? How is it
organized?
• Are there any maps, numbers, italicized
words, or names in the text?

5. Previewing a Textbook
• Read the table of content
• Read the outline of a chapter to find out what
they contain
• Preview the text in a chapter or a section of a
chapter before reading it

6. Previewing a Textbook Passage
• Read the main heading
• Check to see if the passage is divided into
parts
• Read the first few sentences
• Read the first sentence of each paragraph
after that
• Read the final sentence of the passage

7. Making Inferences
In addition to reading the words, a reader
uses his imagination and knowledge about the
world to fill in facts and ideas that are not
stated in the text.

8. Separating Fact from Inference
• Facts are statements of information that can be
verified
Example:
Her election campaign in Chile was based on promises
of social and economic reform aimed at more equality
• Inferences are educated guesses that are based on
facts.
Example:
People in Chile want changes in their society and
economy

9. Understanding Paragraph
A. Identifying the Topic of a Paragraph
- the topic is the word or phrase that best
describes what all of the sentences in the
paragraph are about
- words related to the topic are usually
repeated several times in a paragraph

10. B. Topic Sentence
• usually near the beginning of a paragraph
• Can also be found in the middle or at the end

11. C. Main Ideas of Paragraph
• Topic Sentences and Main Ideas
In addition to stating the topic, most of
sentences also tells the writer’s main idea (the
idea that the writer wants to express about
the topic)

12. D. Inferring the main Idea
In some paragraphs, the topic sentence may not
state the complete main idea. The topic may be
stated in one sentence, and the writer’s idea
about the topic may be expressed in another
sentence or in several sentences to infer the
complete main idea.
Note: To make sure that it is really expressing a
complete idea, the main idea statement
should always be stated in a complete
sentence with a subject and verb

13. E. Connecting Ideas in Paragraphs
• Pronouns as Connector
- Personal pronouns ( He, it they, him, etc)
- Possessive pronouns ( His, her, etc)
- Demonstrative pronouns (this, that, these,
etc)
- Relative pronouns ( Which, who, etc)
• Transition Words and Phrases as Connector)