1. Unit 4 How to be a successful reader? Learning efficiently

2. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested. ----

3. What is Learning Efficiency? Performance Improvement Per Learning Time

4. Definition of learning efficiency Learning efficiency is defined by the performance improvement during a given learning period and the cost to achieve such improvement Learning efficiency is defined by the performance improvement during a given learning period and the cost to achieve such improvement It is a dynamic concept that measures performance improvement, which focuses on process instead of the static assessment of performance, or end results. It is a dynamic concept that measures performance improvement, which focuses on process instead of the static assessment of performance, or end results. The efficiency, therefore, is measured not only by how well it is done, but also how much the learners pay for what is done The efficiency, therefore, is measured not only by how well it is done, but also how much the learners pay for what is done

5. Why Should We Measure and Evaluate Learning Efficiency? Life is a race between slow & fast learners. Life is a race between slow & fast learners. Inefficient learning programs cause slow learners to fall further and further behind. Inefficient learning programs cause slow learners to fall further and further behind. Inefficient programs are expensive. Inefficient programs are expensive. So much to learn, so little time & money. So much to learn, so little time & money.

6. Check Your Learning Efficiency. Try out the following quiz, and then check out the answers provided. Note that in many instances there is no one correct answer that applies to all students.

7. 1 Your routine for homework and study can be described as A Flexible B Somewhat pre-planned but no fixed pattern. C Fairly regular and fixed in structure. ANSWER AND COMMENT: At the risk of being boring, it is best to form habits. That way, getting the required hours done will be less painful, and more likely to happen. The timing and availability of resources is also very important and therefore warrants some pre-planning.

8. 2. In what ways do you optimise your study environment, A. Your study environment varies day by day. B. You know the best study environment for yourself. C. You are careful about your study environment. You have tried things like background music and different types of lighting.

9. ANSWER AND COMMENT: Many aspects of your study environment can make a big difference. Some aspects need to be tried carefully before reaching a conclusion as to their effectiveness. For example music in the background can make a big difference, but unless you try it, you may never understand it's importance. Many other factors will make a difference. If all factors are optimised, especially if you do this in sympathy with a Learning Styles Analysis, you can be sure your study productivity will improve considerably, and it will be more enjoyable as well!.

10. 3 When you have not fully understood something in class do you A. Make it a priority to gain complete understanding ASAP. B. For reasons of efficiency, let these issues cumulate and deal with them at a later date. C. Catch it up when going over the work prior to exams.

11. ANSWER AND COMMENT: Because new (fresh) information fades in memory quite quickly, it is best to build a full understanding as soon as possible, because the effort to do so will be less than having to re-learn it from scratch if you leave it a couple of days or more. Also, letting the backlog of learning required build up makes starting the process much more of a burden. Next thing you know, you will have to learn most things from scratch in the week or two prior to exams. This is the very least effective way to learn. It takes considerably more effort, and the results are never as good as can be achieved with a more timely learning routine. It also invites complete failure due to the burden of work involved, or due to mental blanks during exams which tend to happen when you cram information during the last week.

12. 4. When you have fully understood something do you A. Move on to the next challenge and revise it at a later date. B. File it away and revise it next week. C. Both summarise the information and revise it within a day.

13. ANSWER AND COMMENT: Full understanding is the first and most important goal in the learning process. Once that is achieved, you have other timely steps to take, but the most challenging part is done. It is easiest to retain this understanding if you revise it SEVERAL TIMES - BEFORE YOU FORGET IT. Yes - revising is the key to preserving the success you have already achieved. If you do not, you will have to re-learn everything again at a later date! Definitely a case of save time later by consolidating your knowledge now. (A very clear demonstration of "a stich in time saves nine".)

14. 5. When you study do you A. Do quite a lot of writing, and re-read the text book a few times. B. Only go over summarised or highlighted notes and do problem exercises. C. Allow the information to fade somewhat, and then "re-learn" by re-reading the information.

15. ANSWER AND COMMENT: Full understanding is the first and most important goal in the learning process. Once that is achieved, you have other timely steps to take, but the most challenging part is done. It is easiest to retain this understanding if you revise it SEVERAL TIMES - BEFORE YOU FORGET IT. Yes - revising is the key to preserving the success you have already achieved. If you do not, you will have to re-learn everything again at a later date! Definitely a case of save time later by consolidating your knowledge now. (A very clear demonstration of "a stich in time saves nine".)

16. 6. How careful are you to optimise the learning that takes place in the classroom. A. Do you strive to gain an uninterrupted and clear view of what the teacher does and says. B. The classroom is just where you find out what to learn, and most of the learning takes place elsewhere. C. Do you not worry too much as the learning environment elsewhere is much better than the classroom.

17. ANSWER AND COMMENT: Everything you achieve in class is something you do not have to do later. What is more, reaching the essential point of understanding in class is much easier if you can do this in class. Even if you only reach a partial understanding, completing the task will be easier if your class time has been well used. It is essential to complete the understanding process before the initial (perhaps partial) understanding fades.

18. 7. What is the source of information for your course? A. Teacher hand outs, class notes and/or school owned text books only. B. Includes various sources which are combined to provide a varied learning resource. C. Includes a write-on problems exercise book, and only a limited number of other sources.

19. ANSWER AND COMMENT: In general professionally written texts are easier to understand than a teachers handouts. You should pick the best source of information and use that. This may vary from topic to topic, but try not to use more than one source of theory for any topic. This is because the explanations may conflict conceptually and only cause confusion. You may need to try another text if one text is simply not helping you, but once you understand something, highlight the key points or write summary notes - thereby "freezing" the concepts to be put into your long term memory, and then revise them until they stick!!

20. 8. Three weeks out from exams - what is the state of your preparedness. A. Not well prepared, but three weeks is adequate to go over everything. B. Most information is in summarised or highlighted form, and now it is close to exams I can go over everything. C. All information is in summarised or highlighted form and has been revised a few times already.

21. ANSWER AND COMMENT: When you truly understand how to study, you will know that studying early is in fact much easier and requires less overall effort than leaving study till not long before the exams. The more important issue is that gaining very high marks cannot be achieved thru cramming. However, very low marks can be achieved thru an unexpected mind blank experienced during the exam. This happens much more frequently to students who cram. In fact when information has been established in the long term memory, it will be easily recalled even in the most stressful of circumstances.

22. 9. How do you learn within the classroom. A. You concentrate on taking in (and writing down) the notes and exercises. B. You make sure you understand things before you write the information down. C. You strive to understand rather than write anything, and look up the references later.

23. ANSWER AND COMMENT: Sadly teachers occasionally expect students to write down a lot of information whilst listening to and taking in what the teacher is saying. This is of course impossible. The first priority in class is to know what topic and scope of topic is to be covered, including where the key information is coming from. The next priority is to gain a clear understanding of the subject matter, including any processes that are used to perform calculations or solve problems. The third (and only to be done when a good understanding has been reached) is to highlight/summarise the information. The fourth is to do a quick revision of the key points that were learned during the class. Sometimes these objectives can all be achieved before returning home that day, in which case completing the learning process by a short revision that night and again a week later will be a breeze.

24. 10. How involved are your parents or friends in the learning process? A. They are not involved. B. You often discuss school learning with parents or friends. C. Your parents know how much work you are doing, and you often do homework or study with your friends.

25. ANSWER AND COMMENT: Some involvement with others can be very helpful. If you make commitments to parents or friends then you are more likely to complete them. Studying with friends can be very rewarding, as long as study is not compromised.

26. 11. When you get help with your school work, how do you interact with the tutor. A. You let them decide and follow their advice on what you should be doing to improve. B. You show them your exam results and the tutor shows you how to do the problems where you lost marks. C. You compile a list of questions and concepts that you are struggling with.

27. ANSWER AND COMMENT: Unless the tutor provides you with a specific and well thought out strategy, which you can see the sense of, you should take charge. The priority is to tell the tutor what you have discovered to be difficult, and to present him with problems that you have tried and failed to do. This gives the tutor something to work on. It is the tutor's duty to take these instances and determine the real reason for your struggle. It can be one of a number of things. The tutor should NEVER just do the problems for you. In fact, the tutor should patiently allow you to struggle thru the tasks with a minimum of assistance from himself. How will you ever learn to think thru problems if the tutor uses it as an exercise to stroke their own ego, rather than use the process for you to gain a sense of success and confidence by empowering you to do the task at hand.

28. 12. The way you use tutors is A. As a last resort B. Your first option C. Relaxed - when they are available, you let them call the shots.

29. ANSWER AND COMMENT: A tutor should always be the last resort, not the first. First, you should learn to succeed without tutors. Second, gaining an understanding about a subject is best done as soon as possible after it has been initially presented to you. Third, the more progress you make aside from the tutor, the higher the level you can reach with the tutor's assistance. Having said that, if you are lagging behind, the fastest way to catch up is with the help of a skilled tutor. You should not hesitate. The sooner you catch up and adopt better study habits the better. Just learn from the experience and try to change your learning environment and study habits in such a way as to not need extra tutoring in the future. A good tutor will help you become an independent learner.

30. Complete the sentences in your own words. 1 If there are more than 3% new words on a page of text, 2 You will find reading more enjoyable when 3 The key to success in reading is frequent practice plus 4 Before you start reading a text in detail you will find the text difficult to read and probably won’t enjoy it. you read things you are interested in or that you find useful. good reading techniques. preview the text to find out what it contains and how it is organized

31. 5 You will understand what you read better if 6 While reading, a good reader 7 It is not necessary to understand 8 Learning and practicing efficient techniques will you already know something about the content or organization. thinks about what he/she reading. every word in a text. improve your ability to read.

32. c A good reader read in different ways depending on the purpose for reading. a Before reading in detail, good reader preview the text. D A good reader doesn’t need to understand every word in a text. b. A good reader read actively not passively. 4. Summary 3. Learning the techniques of Good readers Practice makes perfect Make your reading practice enjoyable First reading: Skim the text and complete Ex1.

33. Ex2: Read the text again and summarize it in 3 sentences and then make a poster advising students how to improve their reading skills. Improve Your Reading Do as much reading as possible Practice using the reading techniques of good readers Enjoy what you read

34. Choose the best answer according to the text: 1. How is the text organized?

35. 2. According to the text, the best way to become a successful reader is_____. A. to practise reading for a long time B. to keep in mind the purpose for your reading C. to use proper reading techniques and practise a lot D. to choose proper reading materials

36. 3. If you are reading a newspaper before going on board the plane, you'd better______. A. taste it B. swallow it C. chew and digest it D. look up the unknown words

37. 4. Which of the following is NOT tree according to the text? A. It is much easier to understand a text if you read the title and the sub-headings. B. It is necessary to look up the un-known English words if you are an English learner. C. The reading materials you choose to practise with should be neither too difficult nor too easy. D. It is a good idea to study the techniques that good readers use.

38. 5. Why does the author cite ( 引 用 ) Francis Bacon' s words? A. Because Francis Bacon is well known to the readers. B. Because the readers are interested in Bacon' s words. C. Because the author wants to use Bacon's words to support his own point. D. Because the author wants the readers to keep Bacon' s words in mind

39. Learning about language

40. 1 Sally was so excited that Mary couldn't understand what she was saying~ Mary told her to _________and tell her again. Then Sally told her she had been _________ an apartment close to the university. Mary congratulated her and said she knew those apartments well because her best friend lived there and she was a _________ visitor. She told Mary about them _________ and Sally became even more excited about living there. Complete the following texts with words below in the correct form. slow down allocated frequent in detail centigrade competent allocate booklet recipe in detail slow down frequent consult caption

41. 2 I consider my self a _________ cook so l usually don't _________ a recipe book. I just remember what I did last time. One day my daughter brought home from school a small _________ with easy recipes in it and asked me to help her cook something. There were pictures of each step in the recipe with _________ underneath to tell you what to do, so I let her follow the _________ on her own. When she had finished, she proudly put her cake into the oven to cook. About ten minutes later we smelt bunting. I opened the oven to find my daughter's cake on fire, and it was all my fault. I had heated the oven to 250 _________ centigrade instead of 150 centigrade! competent consult booklet caption recipe centigrade