SFL/METU Fall

2023
DBE
RHO 1

ELEMENTARY GROUP
Surveying, Predicting, Skimming and Scanning
(Student’s Copy)

Objectives: In this handout, students will learn to

1. Survey a text
2. Predict content
3. Skim a text to identify topic
4. Scan a text to locate specific information

PART 1. DISCUSSION
Discuss the following questions with a
partner.

1. How often do

you read? What

do you read?

2. Why

and how do

you read?

As a university student, you will mostly read academic texts. You will sometimes read to get

the main idea of a text, or you will sometimes need to look for specific information. You should

use the correct strategies in the correct situation. Below, you will practice how to do surveying,

predicting, skimming and scanning.

PART 2. SURVEYING

Surveying means taking a broad look at a text, a chapter, a book and so on.

Purpose  To get an overall picture of an article, chapter, or book

Surveying
Why?  increases reading speed,
 helps you understand the text better,
 helps you decide what to do: Will you skip the material? Will you skim
it, scan it or will you study it carefully?
How?  Look at the cover page and the contents if it is a book. What do they
tell you?
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  Look at the visuals (pictures, graphs, etc.) What do they show?
 Read the titles and the subheadings.
 How many paragraphs are there in the text? How many texts are there
in the chapter?

Practice 1. Survey the webpage in 10 seconds. Answer the questions.

1. What is the page about?

2. How many people are there in the photos? What are they doing?

3. What is the title and the subheading?

4. How many paragraphs are there?

ONLINE Book Club

NEW MEMBERS:
Peter Blake comes from New York. He is
an engineer. He is married and has one
daughter. He likes reading very much.

Ada and Ninoy Manlapaz come from

Manila, in the Philippines. They are
teachers. They are married and they have
two children. They read a lot of books.

www.onlinebookclub.com

PART 3. PREDICTING
Predicting means trying to tell the topic of the text before you read.

Purpose  To get ready for the new information in the text

Predicting
Why?  increases your interest in the text, and it connects you to the text,
 activates your knowledge about the topic and connects the old
information in your mind with the new information in the text,
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  helps you understand the text better.
How?  Look at the visuals, read the titles and the subheadings. Predict
what the text is about.

Practice 2. Look at the pictures and the title of the text. You have 10 seconds.

1. What do you think the text is about?

2. What details about this topic will you read in the text?

Now, go to page 5. Read the text and check your prediction.

SPAIN

Spain is a large
country in the south
of Europe. It has a
long coastline on the
Mediterranean Sea
and a short coastline on the Atlantic Ocean. There are mountains in Spain such as
theCordilleraCantabrica and the Pyrenees, where many peaks exceed 3,000 meters, but there
is a lot of flat land, too. Important lowlands include the Andalusian Plain in the southwest, and
the Ebro River Basin in the northeast.

PART 4. SKIMMING
Skimming means reading very quickly to get the general idea from a text.

 To get a general idea about the text

Purpose  To find out the topic of the text
 To identify the main ideas in a text
Skimming
 increases the reading speed,
Why?  saves time (this is important if you have limited time),
 helps you review materials easily before exams.
 Avoid reading every word. Let your eyes skim quickly over the text.
How?  Read the title and subheadings.
 Read the introduction, or the first paragraph.

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  Read the first and last sentence of each paragraph.
 Read the last paragraph.
 Focus on the CONTENT WORDS (nouns, verbs, adjectives, and
adverbs).

Practice 3. Skim the texts. Choose the topic of each paragraph from the alternatives. Focus on
the content words ONLY. You have 15 seconds.

Text 1. a) managers of a hotel b) a hotel in London

Text 2. a) daily routine of a manager b) a manager’s hobbies
Text 3. a) a bad café in a museum b) a museum of poor-quality art

Text 1. My favorite hotel is in London. It’s called Hotel Camilla and it’s on Bassington
Street, near the centre of town. It’s a small hotel – about ten rooms – but it isn’t very
expensive. The white sheets in the rooms are from Italy, the flowers are fresh every
day, and the food and drinks in each room are free. The managers of Hotel Camilla are
Luis and his wife, Camilla. Luis is Spanish and Camilla is British. The guests are from all over
the world. Rooms are about £80 for one night − that’s cheap for a hotel in London.

Text 2. My manager is called Mrs. Moody. She’s a workaholic. She starts work at seven
o’clock every morning. She doesn’t have breakfast. She has coffee at eleven o’clock and she
has salad for lunch. She doesn’t go to the restaurant – she eats her salad at her desk. She
finishes work at about eight o’clock. She doesn’t have any friends.

Text 3. The museum of Bad Art (MOBA) in Dedham, near Boston, USA, is about twenty
years old. It is in the basement of a theatre, next to the toilet. The museum is open from two
o’clock to nine o’clock and it is free. There are over 400 pieces of bad art in the museum.
Some of the art is really bad. There aren’t any staff in the museum because it’s very small. The museum
doesn’t have a café, but there’s one upstairs in the theatre.

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PART 5. SCANNING
Scanning means going over the text quickly to find specific information.

 To find a specific fact

Purpose  To find a specific word
 To answer a specific question
Scanning
 increases your reading speed,
Why?
 saves you time because you do not focus on irrelevant information.
 Identify what you need to find in the text:
 Do you need a number, a person’s name, a date?
 In questions, underline the question word and think about its
How?
meaning.
 Underline the key words.
 Move your eyes quickly over the text several lines at a time.

Practice 4.

a) Read the sentences. Underline the question words and the keywords in the questions.

1. What do civil engineers build?

2. What do they use to plan their work?

3. What are the three examples of outside workplaces?

4. Why is it difficult to work outside?

5. Why do civil engineers like their work?

b) Scan the text below and answer the questions in Exercise A. You have 25 seconds.

Civil engineers do important work. They design and

build bridges, roads, railways and airports. They

sometimes work in offices. They use computers to plan

their work. They can also work outside in a lot of

different places such as in deserts, on the sea, and in

the city. Sometimes, it is difficult to work outside

because the weather is bad. Civil engineers also work long hours and weekends,

but they like their work because it is important and useful.

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PREDICTING – Practice 2. (page 3)

Now, read the text and check your prediction.

SPAIN

Spain is a large country in the

south of Europe. It has a long

coastline on the Mediterranean

Sea and a short coastline on the

Atlantic Ocean. There are

mountains in Spain such as the

Cordillera Cantabrica and the Pyrenees, where many peaks exceed 3,000 meters, but there is

a lot of flat land, too. Important lowlands include the Andalusian Plain in the southwest and

the Ebro River Basin in the northeast.

Practice 5. OLR 0.5 Text 11 page 23

A. Thinking about the topic: You will read a text about Buckingham Palace. What do you know
about this place? Take notes and share your ideas with a friend.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________

B. Skimming: Skim the paragraphs given below . Match each paragraph with a title. Be careful!
There is one EXTRA. Time: 30 seconds.

Paragraph 1. ________ Topic A. Family members of the Queen

Paragraph 4. ________ Topic B. General information about the
palace
Paragraph 5. ________ Topic C. Rules of eating dinner in the
palace
Topic D. The Queen’s daily routine

C. Checking predictions: Check your knowledge about the palace. Which ones are correct? Which
ones are not in the text?

D. Scanning: Read the statements. Underline the key words. Then, scan the text and find the
information. Then, mark True (T), False (F), or No Information (NI)

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 T F NI 1. The Prime Minister goes to the palace every Tuesday.

T F NI 2. 300 people work on the clocks in the palace.

T F NI 3. Seven people take care of the Queen.

T F NI 4. The Queen has breakfast alone in the mornings.

T F NI 5. Dinner starts at six o’clock in the palace.

T F NI 6. Visitors can see the palace all year round.

E. Reading and thinking: Which information about the Palace or the Queen is interesting to you?
Underline. Share your ideas with a friend.