Teaching secondary
school aged students

Skimming and Scanning

What and Why?

Skimming and Scanning are two different reading skills. These are practised at the start of each theme, using the cover page tasks. Skimming means looking at a text or chapter quickly in order to have a general idea of the contents. Scanning means looking at a text to find some particular information. For example, we skim through a report to have a rough idea of what it says but we scan a page of the telephone directory to find a particular name or number. As the students become more confident of their reading ability in the mother tongue and in English they will learn how to approach texts with different reading skills depending on the purpose of the text and the purpose they have for reading it. Students who find reading in English discouraging may be helped by knowing that they do not have to read and understand every word of a text.

Practical ideas

• Start by explaining the difference between Skimming and Scanning to the students (Give them the example of a telephone directory and a chapter of a history/science textbook)
• Before the students read a text ask them whether they think they need to skim or scan it depending on the task.
• Students often like having races. Occasionally ask students to see who can find the information in a text first.
• Make sure the students realise that understanding every word of a text is not always necessary.
• Allow time for students to read the texts quietly to themselves in class to practise their own technique. Texts do not need to be read out loud round the class.
• Encourage students to practise skimming and scanning when they read in their mother tongue.
• Ask the students who find the answers in the 'Skim' and 'Scan' section at the beginning of each topic unit to write some more questions for the rest of the class to do.