A Quick Word about English Comprehension

I have lost count of the times I’ve witnessed students struggling with English comprehension. I believe that this is the reason why so many students struggle with their exams.

I think that the problem is not so obvious if a question in an exam refers to material that is clearly stated.

For example:  Mary has been working for three years in the local supermarket’

Question: How many years has Mary been working?

Answer: Three years

However if the information is not so clearly stated I have witnessed students trying and failing to find the answers to questions.

For example:  I was talking with John yesterday. He’s just got back from working abroad. He said he really enjoyed the experience of living and working in a different culture. It has always been a dream of mine to do something like that.

Question: How many times has the author (writer) of the paragraph above worked abroad?

Answer:  Never

Ok the previous example is easy if you understand the phrase “has been a dream of mine” but if you don’t understand the phrase “has been a dream of mine” the answer is not so obvious. So in order to assure that there is no misunderstanding “been a dream” refers to something you have done or would like to do. The word “has” before “always been a dream of mine” suggests (because of has) that it something you want to do but haven’t.

This leads me nicely on to how a sequence of words such as “dream of mine” can have one meaning when used in a phrase and a completely different meaning (dream and mine) when they are used separately. For example “dream” refers to something you do when you are asleep and “mine” refers to something that you own. However as you have already seen that when they are joined together in a phrase they have a different meaning. There are word lists on this site covering phrases and their meanings.

A good way of improving your comprehension is to read. Novels are good but if you are like me and don’t really like to read books you could always try reading a magazine. Try to pick a subject that you are interested in and this will make the task that much easier.