Section 3. Recognizing the main idea.
1. When a teacher or lecturer recommends a student to read a book, it's usually for a particular purpose.
The book may contain useful information about the topic being studied or it may be invaluable for the ideas or views that it puts forward and so on.
In many cases, the teacher doesn't suggest that the whole book should be read.
In fact, he may just refer to a few pages which have a direct bearing on the matter being discussed.
2. On many occasions, however, the student does not come to the library to borrow a book, or even to consult a book from the shelves.
He may well come to the library because it provides a suitable working environment, which is free of charge, spacious, well-lit and adequately heated.
3. Learners of English usually find that writing is the most difficult skill they have to master.
The majority of native speakers of English have to make an effort to write accurately and effectively even on those subjects which they know very well.
The non-native learner, then, is trying to do something that the average native speaker often finds difficult himself.
4. Students, however, often work out a sentence in their own language and then try to translate it in this way.
The result is that very often the reader simply cannot understand what the students has written.
The individual words, or odd phrases, may make sense but sentences as a whole makes nonsense.
The student should therefore, always try to employ sentence patterns he knows are correct English.
5. Many students seem to think that simplicity is suspect.
It is on the contrary, a quality which is much admired in English.
Most readers understand that a difficult subject can only be written up simply if the writer understands it very well.
A student should therefore, organize all his points very carefully before he starts to write.
6. Non-native speakers of English, like their native counterparts, usually find that the opportunity to participate in group discussion is one of the most valuable aspects in their whole academic programme.
But in order to obtain full value from this type of activity, the student must be proficient in asking questions.
If he isn't, then any attempt to resolve his difficulties may lead to further confusion, if not considerable embarrassment.
n. 演讲者,讲师