Importance of
Developing Study Skills
In
developing skills, there must be recycling and revision of the language already
developed in the class, followed by remediation and evaluation. The most important factor for developing
study skills in to create a humanistic environment for study and motivate the
students in language learning. Education
does not mean transfer of information at all, it means indisputably learning to
learn from the learner’s point of view.
At the end of formal education, a person will have to learn in informal
situations, during which the study skills developed by him previously will be
of immense help.
Thus,
study skills are strategies and techniques that enable us to make the most
efficient use of our time, resources and academic
potential.
Ø Developing and
improving our study skills can help:-
1. To
make more efficient use of our study time get more work done in less time.
2. To
make learning easier and help retain what we have learned for longer.
3. To
feel the work and effort involved is worth while it ‘pays dividends’.
Ø Benefit from study
skills:-
Anyone who is engaged in learning
can benefit from developing his/her study skills. Regardless of whether they are preparing for
college or have already started on a course of study, they can always improve
their ability to learn, retain and retrieve information.
Study
Skills are mainly
1. Surveying
the relevant text materials and collecting information with comprehension and
2. Retrieving
the stock of information and knowledge in proper contexts.
Study Skills
have to be acquired consciously and purposefully. It has to be developed in any pursuit of
knowledge. According to theories of
transfer of knowledge, study skills in one subject will definitely have its positive
influence in other subjects also and that we should make use of them consciously. The English teacher has a great role in
developing study skills in English which will be unconsciously transmitted to
other subjects also.
Factors relating
to some supplementary skills are referencing, paragraphing, outlining,
summarizing, note-taking and note-making and reporting.
1. Reference Skills
Information is
to be gathered quickly for which one has to locate what is needed and then
comprehend knowledge of what to refer to or the source available in a
pre-requisite. Dictionaries, Thesauruses,
Encyclopedia, Books etc. are major reference materials. These alone do not mean to be reference
abooks, though they are the most important ones that strike our mind when we
think of referencing. There are other
materials also to be referred like literary works, grammar books, biographics,
books on science and technology, political and economical publications,
diagrams, catalogues, directories, indices and so on.
2. Paragraphing:-
Paragraphing is
a supplementary skill that the students should develop. A paragraph in a section or a piece of
writing usually consisting of several sentences dealing with a single subject. The first sentence of a paragraph starts in a
new time. A paragraph may be an essay by
itself or a constituent of a larger essay.
i)
Paragraph should have a ‘topic
sentence’ which means the first sentence should briefly contain what is
going to be stated in the folloing sentences.
There can be only one topic sentence in a paragraph. It can be in the middle or in the end of a
paragraph.
ii)
A paragraph should have the ‘quality
of unity’ ie. the paragraph should deal with a piece of the total idea of
the essay without mixing with other ideas.
iii)
Cohesion is another necessary quality
that a paragraph should have. It is the
quality of sticking ideas together compatibly.
A paragraph being a unit of
information should be controlled by an idea.
The sentences should be logically and sequentially arranged, especially
in narration of stories or events or processes that happen chronologically.
3) Outlining:-
The
outline is skeletal in character like the bare structure of a building, which
can be made an edifice of architectural grandeur.
The
procedure is generally are:
i) The
teacher chooses an interesting story.
ii) The
skeletal words, phrases pointing to the story are selected and other details
are omitted.
iii) The
outline is presented to the class by writing it on the black board.
iv) A
discussion is conducted with the guidance of the teacher.
v) Students’
imagination and creative thinking are boosted.
vi) They
give flesh and blood to the outlines reforming than to complete and meaningful
sentences which cohere to make a readable story.
vii)
They punctuate the sentences
appropriately and give a suitable title.
viii)
The products are discussed and assessed
in the class.
1) Summarizing
A summary is a short statement that
gives only the main points of something without its details. Summarizing, note-taking and note-making are
complex functional skills which have several features in common.
There
are two traditional approaches to summarizing:-
i)
The text reduction approach
ii)
The paragraph approach
i) The
text reduction approach involves the process of contraction following
the structure & phraseology of the original text.
ii) In
the paragraph approach, the paragraph are closely surveyed and the topic of
each paragraph is identified.
Summarizing is a just a type of
composition. As it requires the use of
several skills like comprehension skills, writing skills and other specific
skills related to the ability to express ideas concisely and precisely. It is a highly functional skill, which
students and adults need to develop.
2) Note-taking and
Note-making
Note-taking
& Note-making are related to supplementary skills like referencing,
paragraphing etc…..They are some of the tasks in language organization set to
enable students to function effectively.
They are not purely language oriented.
The
purpose of note-taking may be examination, later reference or
documentation. But the purpose of note-making is usually to reproduce an essay
or to get ready for a speech etc.
There
are two patterns for note-taking and note-making. They are:-
i)
The Linear pattern
ii)
The Brain pattern
In the first
pattern points are noted down in horizontal lines and so it is called
linear pattern. Tony Buzan in his book
‘Use your Head’ argues that we do not think linearly, but we constantly think
referring back to the central topic just as the different parts of the body
react in tune to the brain. The
various points radiate from the central topic. Hence, the brain pattern is the more apt
one. We can identify two types of texts.
i)
Chronological
ii)
Non-chronological
Narrative,
biographics, instructions, processes etc. are chronological and can
follow linear pattern.
Description,
comparison, contrast, argument etc. are non-chronological and therefore
the brain pattern is more appropriate.
3) Reporting
Reporting is one
of the most widely used items related to the job of professional reporters of
newspapers, journals and other media.
They have their own detailed principles, rules, and criteria for
reporting.
Their reporting
covers major events of the day-to-day world affairs like speeches, meetings,
trials, public hearings, records on tape, riots, rapes, natural calamities,
potential and economic affairs and so on.
Interviews, council meets etc. also will have to be reported. Reporting in the higher level events is very
exciting and at the same time risky and adventurous.
Principles
of reporting
i)
Select summarize and interpret.
ii)
Edit, include important points, exclude
the unimportant.
iii)
Reduce a great many repetitions,
redundancies and wordiness
iv)
Paraphrase where ever necessary ie.
Explain difficult
v)
Use direct or indirect quotations.
vi)
Be aware that the report should give a
brief clear picture of the story.
vii)
While boiling down a text material its tone and
message should not be lost or obliterated.
viii)
The
reporter’s sensitiveness to the text material is crucial.
A good report will have, in brief, reference to focus,
clarity, readability, style, specificity, convincingness, simplicity and
straight forwardness and avoidance of ellipses.
A good reporter will have to be a good listener as well as a skilled
asker of questions with quick thinking and sharp judgment.
Locating information
Dictionary
Teaching-learning of language needs a lot
of improvement. The teacher should
inculcate among the students the right type of attitudes and help them have
good habits of learning. Self-learning
is the best habit. The teacher should
help the learners team by that way.
In the learning of a foreign language, the
student is often confronted with the problem of understanding. Meaning of difficult words can be known by
consulting the dictionary. Dictionary is
a never failing friend of the learner.
It helps the learner in solving the problems of meanings. A good dictionary also teaches him many other
things such as noun, verb, adverb – its forms, conjunegation etc. Even for
teaching stress, correct pronunciation, dictionary helps.
Ø Abbreviations used in the dictionary are
given. The students should learn how to
locate a word in the dictionary. Every
word in the dictionary is arranged alphabetically. Out of a number of a meaning given the
student can gradually find out the exact meaning that is needed by him. Thus consulting dictionary helps the learner
in a number of ways.
Ø Advantages of consulting a Dictionary
1.
A student becomes a better learner of the
language.
2.
The
learner becomes good in spellings
3.
It
improves the knowledge of grammar
4.
It
creates good habit of self learning
5.
Knowledge
of stress is acquired by the learners
6.
It
expands vocabulary of the students
7.
It
helps in the improvement of pronunciation
8.
And
above all, it gives a lot of confidence to the student and he becomes self
reliant.
Ø Precautions while consulting a Dictionary
1.
Only a
good dictionary should be used
2.
For
learning English, English to English dictionary should be used.
3.
Dictionary
for mother tongue meanings may be used whenever need is felt.
4.
In the
beginning, the chief purpose for which it is being consulted should be kept in
mind.
-
Suffer
spellings are to be scan, only spellings should be checked.
-
If
meanings are to be scan one meaning of the world may be taken up at a time.
-
And if
time is available everything concerning the world may be studied from the
dictionary.
-
Dictionary
should be easily available. It should
remain at the study desk of the learner.
Ø Use of Thesaurus:-
A thesaurus in the opposite of a dictionary. It is needed by the student when he/she has
the meaning in mind but the exact word is escaping.
One has many other words which are not appropriate. Thus the thesaurus will help the learner in
every situational need.
A Thesaurus makes a person think more and more.
Using a thesaurus has the following advantages:-
1.
It
expands and enriches the vocabulary of the students.
2.
It
helps the learner have mastery of language.
3.
It help
him to find our synonyms or antonyms of any word.
4.
It
helps him to find out suitable word to express some ideas.
5.
It
provides new ideas on any given subject.
Thus we find that a dictionary and a thesaurus are very good in the
hands of learner of English.
Gathering Information
Skimming and scanning are two very
different strategies for speed reading.
They are each used for different purposes and they are not meant to be
used all the time. They are at the fast end
of the speed reading ranges while studying is at the end.
Ø Skimming :- is one of the tools we can use to read more
in less time. Skimming refers to looking
only for the general or main ideas, and works best with non-fiction (or
factual) material. With skimming, our
overall understanding is reduced because you don’t read everything. We read only what is important to our
purpose. Skimming takes place while
reading and allows us to look for details in addition to the main ideas.
For eg:-
Suppose if we have an exam in a few days. We need to review the material we
learned, but we don’t want to re-read everything. By skimming, we can quickly locate the
information we haven’t mastered yet and study only that while reading, ask
ourself the following questions to help us decide whether or not to skim. If we answer yes to any of these, then
skimming is a useful tool.
v Is this material non-fiction?
v Do I have a lot to read and only a small
amount of time?
v Do I already know something about this?
v Can any of the material be skipped?
If
we have sufficient back ground knowledge or believe we don’t need the
information, then skip it. Skipping
material may sometimes be the best use of our time.
Ø Scanning
Scanning is another useful tool for speeding up your
reading. Unlike skimming, when scanning,
we look only for a specific fact or piece of information without reading
everything.
For scanning to be successful, we need to understand how
our material is structured as well as comprehend what we read so we can locate
they specific information we need. It
also allows us to find details and other information in a hurry.
The material we scan is typically arranged in the
following ways:-
v Alphabetically
v Chronologically
v Non-alphabetically
v By category/textmally
Our peripheral vision can also help us scan
effectively. When our hand moves down a
lost of names, we see not only the name our figer is pointing to, but also the
me names above and below., Our eyes work
for us when searching for information.
While scanning we must keep up the aim that is to find
pieces of information.
For eg:- If we were
doing the research of oral presentation, we could scan the index of books, web
sites and reference materials. We could
discover whether they contain any information that we want and the pages where
the information can be found.
In the past, we probably scanned without knowing we were
doing it. Now we can use scanning more
intentionally and frequently. The more
we practice, the more effective scanning will become. Finally, the most
important benefit of scanning in its ability to help you become a more flexible
reader. Adds another high year to our
reading.
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