You might not notice that you are already using many different reading styles in everyday life. In English learning, reading is normally the first and the most frequently skill out of reading, listening, writing and speaking. However, many English learners still don’t feel confident about reading.
First of all, if you want to use reading as a way to improve, you have to have a reading goal. Depending on what you want to use reading skills for, there will be different strategies to use. For example, reading for school will be different from reading for fun.
When you have a reading goal, the next step is making time to read and finding the right materials. Reading for fun can be done anywhere. If you want to practice reading for study, you need to make a special time for this so you are not interrupted. There are two things to remember in order to find the right material: what you are interested in and what your reading level is. That means you should read things that you enjoy and choose books at the level just a bit higher to learn new things. If you don’t know which book to read, you can find many suggestions on the Internet.
You can read other kinds of texts of any topic as well. Find your favorite magazine or follow some interesting people on websites for their daily news. Something to remember when choosing your goal is if you prefer to read about a single topic to learn a lot of words in one area, or a lot of different things to learn more general words.
Comprehension
1) What is the first and most frequently used skill in English learning?
2) What are the two things to keep in mind when finding the right reading materials?
3) Where can you find suggestions for books to read?
Vocabulary
Match the words to the definition:
1) Notice
2) Skill
3) Interrupt
4) In order to
5) Suggestion
6) daily
a) to stop or be stopped in the middle of something
b) every day
c) observe or pay attention to something
d) the reason why
e) ability
f) an idea
Grammar Highlights
Put a comma after expressions at the beginning of a sentence:
“However, many English learners still don’t feel confident about reading.”
“First of all, if you want to use reading as a way to improve, you have to have a reading goal.”
*This article was adapted from another article to make it more suitable for English learners. You can read the original article here.