Departamento de Lenguas

GUIA DE COMPRENSIN LECTORA

Al leer en nuestra lengua materna, los lectores utilizamos estrategias de lectura que nos ayudan a
comprender el sentido de lo que leemos en forma eficiente. En ingls, podemos valernos de las
mismas estrategias. Veamos cules son.

ANLISIS DEL PARATEXTO

Antes de leer un texto, es importante concentrarse en los elementos que lo acompaan,

es decir lo que conforma el paratexto: imgenes, ttulos, palabras resaltadas, etc. Esto nos
permite anticiparnos a la lectura a travs de la formulacin de una hiptesis de su
contenido. Por ejemplo, en el texto que sigue no tenemos ttulo pero con solo observar la
imagen, podemos anticipar que probablemente se trate el tema de una catstrofe
asociada a un paisaje montaoso nevado.
Its been a tough week for residents of Cascade Village, high in the mountains. A
strong blizzard has triggered an avalanche. The Palau family, residents of the village
for 15 years, watched helplessly as their home was crushed instantly by a wall of
snow. They said they were all safe, but that they had lost everything.
Ben Chapman and his rescue crew were busy digging through the snow. Mr.
Chapman said three people were missing.
Red Cross representative Emily Ross said 500 people had been evacuated from their
homes, and that the Red Cross was working to find shelter for those people.

SKIMMING

Otro atajo que podemos tomar para conocer el contenido de un texto es utilizar la
estrategia de skimming, que consiste en leer la primera oracin del mismo. All
probablemente encontremos la idea principal del texto. Veamos:

Its been a tough week for residents of Cascade Village, high in the mountains: a
strong blizzard has triggered an avalanche. The Palau family, residents of the village
for 15 years, watched helplessly as their home was crushed instantly by a wall of
snow. They said they were all safe, but that they had lost everything.
Ben Chapman and his rescue crew were busy digging through the snow. Mr.
Chapman said three people were missing.
Red Cross representative Emily Ross said 500 people had been evacuated from their
homes, and that the Red Cross was working to find shelter for those people.

Con solo leer la primera oracin, podemos saber que hubo una avalancha producida por
una tormenta de nieve. A partir de esta informacin, tambin podemos deducir que el
texto es una noticia periodstica y anticipar qu otra informacin esperar encontrar en el
resto del texto (consecuencias, vctimas, actividades de rescate, soluciones, etc.).
*La palabra blizzard (=tormenta de nive) es parte del vocabulario que aprendemos en el
nivel 5 (Unidad 3).

PALABRAS TRANSPARENTES

Las palabras transparentes son aquellas cuya grafa es similar al castellano y esto nos
permite deducir su significado. Veamos ejemplos en el texto.

Its been a tough week for residents of Cascade Village, high in the mountains: a
strong blizzard has triggered an avalanche. The Palau family, residents of the village
for 15 years, watched helplessly as their home was crushed instantly by a wall of
snow. They said they were all safe, but that they had lost everything.
Ben Chapman and his rescue crew were busy digging through the snow. Mr.
Chapman said three people were missing.
Red Cross representative Emily Ross said 500 people had been evacuated from their
homes, and that the Red Cross was working to find shelter for those people.

Las palabras resaltadas son clave para entender el texto, pero aunque nunca las
hubisemos visto antes, podramos comprenderlas asocindolas fcilmente con sus
equivalentes en nuestra lengua materna.

INFERENCIAS SOBRE EL SIGNIFICADO DE LAS PALABRAS

Cuando nos encontramos con palabras desconocidas, podemos inferir o deducir su

significado a partir del contexto. Por ejemplo, la palabra shelter (resaltada en el texto)
puede ser desconocida para nosotros, pero si la asociamos al resto de la informacin de
esa oracin (500 evacuados, la participacin de la Cruz Roja, la bsqueda de shelter para
esas personas), es posible deducir que estamos hablando de un refugio donde sean
albergados temporalmente hasta tanto puedan retornar a sus hogares.

Its been a tough week for residents of Cascade Village, high in the mountains: a
strong blizzard has triggered an avalanche. The Palau family, residents of the village
for 15 years, watched helplessly as their home was crushed instantly by a wall of
snow. They said they were all safe, but that they had lost everything.
Ben Chapman and his rescue crew were busy digging through the snow. Mr.
Chapman said three people were missing.
Red Cross representative Emily Ross said 500 people had been evacuated from their
homes, and that the Red Cross was working to find shelter for those people.

SCANNING

De acuerdo a la consigna que nos presente el enunciado, puede que necesitemos buscar
informacin especfica en el texto para poder responder la pregunta correctamente. En
este caso, estaremos utilizando la tcnica de scanning. Al escanear el texto, el lector
recorre el texto rpidamente para buscar ciertas palabras o seales que le ayuden a
encontrar la informacin que necesita.

Read the following text. What information is TRUE about it?

Its been a tough week for residents of Cascade Village, high in the mountains. A
strong blizzard has triggered an avalanche. The Palau family, residents of the village
for 15 years, watched helplessly as their home was crushed instantly by a wall of
snow. They said they were all safe, but that they had lost everything.
Ben Chapman and his rescue crew were busy digging through the snow. Mr.
Chapman said three people were missing.
Red Cross representative Emily Ross said 500 people had been evacuated from their
homes, and that the Red Cross was working to find shelter for those people.

A.
B.
C.
D.
E.

The paramedics are helping people injured in the fire.

Two cars were covered by snow as a result of the blizzard.
Some residents of Cascade Village were victims of lightning during the storm.
If the Palaus didnt live in the mountains, they would be safer from avalanches.
A group of volunteers is helping evacuate the victims of the hurricane.

Segn la consigna, debemos seleccionar la opcin que contiene informacin VERDADERA

sobre el texto. Para eso, vamos a necesitar hacer un barrido rpido del texto para
identificar aquellas ideas que nos permitan ir descartando las opciones FALSAS y as
arribar a la respuesta correcta.

INFERENCIAS SOBRE EL CONTEXTO DE LA SITUACIN

Algunas preguntas pueden indagar sobre el lugar o momento donde ocurre una
conversacin o sobre lo que est ocurriendo efectivamente. Para descubrirlo, tambin
estaremos escaneando el texto buscando indicadores que nos orienten.

Where are the people having this conversation?

A.
B.
C.
D.
E.

Wheres Mary? I cant see her.

Shes in the produce section.
OK. Ill get the dairy and then we can join her.
At the supermarket
At a restaurant
On the sidewalk
In an office building
In a hardware store

En el ejemplo de arriba, hay dos palabras que podemos asociar con un contexto
determinado: produce (=frutas y verduras) y dairy (=lcteos).

*Las palabras produce y dairy son parte del vocabulario que aprendemos en el nivel 4
(Unidad 4).