You might not notice that you are already using a range of reading styles in everyday life. In English learning, reading can be considered the first and the most frequently used skill out of reading, listening, writing and speaking. However, when it comes to reading for study, many English learners still feel unconfident.
First of all, if you want to use reading as a way to improve, you’d better have yourself a reading goal. Depending on what you want to use reading skills for, there will be different strategies to apply. For example, reading for exams or research will be different from reading for mere entertainment purposes.
Once 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 to avoid interruption. There are two things to keep in mind 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 little bit out of your comfort zone to push yourself enough to learn new things, not to get frustrated with the reading. If you’re still wondering which book you should read then you might want to check Listopia on Goodreads or Jellybooks for suggestions from people just like you.
Besides books, you can read other kinds of texts of any topic as well. Find your favorite magazine, follow some interesting people or inspiring websites for their daily feeds. With this so-called extensive reading by Paul Nation, you can read a wide range of texts and come across various types of words on different themes to broaden your vocabulary.
Something to keep in mind when choosing your goal is if you prefer narrow reading, which is reading a lot of content on a single or specific topic. When it comes to narrow reading, you’ll reduce the total number of different words that you meet, but build up a lot of useful content knowledge that makes reading easier and so will make guessing unknown words’ meanings easier. If you already have a large vocabulary (6000-7000 words) it may be more effective for you to read a wide range of topics to gain more variety of words.
Comprehension
1) What is the most frequently used skill in English learning?
2) What are the two things to keep in mind when finding the right materials for reading?
3) What is extensive reading and how can it help broaden your vocabulary?
Vocabulary
Match the words to the definition:
1) Had better
2) For … purposes
3) Out of your comfort zone
4) mere
5) so-called
6) come across
a) it would be a good idea, used often as a warning
b) outside of the space you feel safe operating in
c) used to show that the speaker doesn’t trust the definition
d) for these reasons, used formally or informally
e) meet or see randomly
f) only
Grammar Highlights
Form verbs in the subject of the sentence with “-ing”
“Reading for fun can be done anywhere”
Verbs after too/enough use the “to” form
“to push yourself enough to learn new things”
*This article was adapted from another article to make it more suitable for English learners. You can read the original article here.