Learning English Part 4: On Improving Reading Skills and Vocabularies
Welcome back to our “Learning English” series! In this part, we will share ways and tips on how to improve our English reading skills. Reading is like the cornerstone of our English language skills. If your reading skill gets better, it is likely that your writing skills will improve, and your vocabulary and conversation topics in your spoken English will also expand.
But there is no shortcut to improve one’s reading skills. Memorising words or grammar structures can only help one to gain fundamental comprehension skills. The mark of a proficient English reader is not that they know all the words or can understand all the ideas in any text they come across, but that they’d be familiar enough with English linguistic patterns to be able to guess what texts mean, or even to predict how the texts will proceed. And this instinct-like ability can only be developed through reading often and reading a lot.
So, what are the fun (and free) ways for us to read more? Let’s have a look at them now!
For beginning readers, you will need to follow a more structured approach to learn basic English vocabulary and sentence structures, like attending an ESOL class or taking lessons on English-learning apps, before you can start reading short stories on your own. (You can refer to the first article in this series for suggestions about ESOL classes and language learning apps.) You can also start on some simpler reading materials. For example, you can find free classical children’s stories on these websites:
The University of Maryland’s International Children's Digital Library: you can find a mixture of older and newer children picture and story books here.
Project Gutenberg’s Books in children’s literature: you can find many electronic versions of classical children picture and story books here.
Easy Stories in English: Beginner: this website provides many audio recordings of abridged classical children’s stories. But you can move onto the transcript part of the story and read the stories instead.
Learn English through Stories: this website offers stories and texts of different lengths and levels of difficulty. You can also download the short stories (and abridged classics) for offline reading.
The British Council provides many good simple English stories, with accompanying exercises and activities:
British Council’s Learn English Kids: Short Stories: you can find videos of short children’s stories here. But if you can scroll down to the “Documents” section and click on “Print the Story”, you can find the textual version of the story instead. You can also work on the story activities to learn the vocabularies in the story.
British Council’s Learn English: Story Zone: you can find stories of various levels of difficulties, with instructions and quizzes so that you can tell how much you are understanding the stories.
So, how to find something that is of the right level for you, especially if you are not too sure what level of reading skill you have? Go visit your local library! It will be easier for you to pick up some books directly from the shelves to check whether you can understand them. If you can understand about 80%-90% of a book, then that book is probably of the right level of difficulty for you. If children’s stories feel a bit too silly for you, you can also extend your search into children’s nonfiction books, like those about animals, plants, astronomy, biology, history, etc.
Tip: Find out how to find a public library near you, and how to register as a library user here!
For advanced readers, there is only one way to improve your English reading skills: to read a lot. But forcing ourselves to read a lot in a short time is a sure way to discourage us from reading more in the long run! So here are some suggestions on how we can start reading regularly, especially for those of us who have not formed the habit of reading in English everyday yet.
1. Set daily reading goals - within reason. Many experts suggest setting a daily reading goal, yet how much you should read per day is really a matter of time and ability. You can aim at 10 pages a day, a chapter a day, or 5,000 words a day. But the goal you set should be practical, flexible and sustainable. If you have a busy schedule, aim at reading for a shorter time instead of forcing yourself to read an hour every night. You can also update your reading goal to spend more time on fewer pages, when you come across challenging reading materials.
2. Read what you are reading, but in English. If you already have a habit of daily reading, why not do that in English so it can become part of your new reading goal? For example, instead of relying on news reports in Chinese, you can switch to English media agencies like the BBC for UK and world news, and follow English social media accounts for news and updates. You can also find out how to do something on English websites and resources, instead of immediately turning to group chats and Chinese websites for advice and suggestions. In this way, you will be reading what you need to read anyway, except now in English.
Tip: Don’t switch everything to English at once, do so gradually so that you will not feel overwhelmed. Start from something small. Like, for Christian friends, maybe you can start with daily short and simple devotional messages from apps like Lectio 365?
3. Read about different subjects and materials. In order to read well, we need to expand our vocabulary. So we have to read widely. Make good use of your local public libraries’ services: libraries typically offer a range of online newspapers, magazines, e-books and books which you can borrow for free. Sign up for free newsletters, follow English news media accounts on social media platforms, or subscribe to blogs and magazines that send you regular updates and articles on topics that concern you.
Below are some of the newsletters we found online, but feel free to look around for more reading materials on subjects that interest you!
The BBC News Email: The BBC offers a range of BBC News newsletters on news and different topics from current news and trends. You can register to subscribe to newsletters that interest you.
The Guardian Newsletters: The Guardian offers daily or weekly newsletters on subjects from world news, finance, culture, sports to fashion and environmental issues. You can find all the Guardian free newsletters listed here.
These are just two examples of the many free media newsletters you can find online. Many organisations also publish their own newsletters, such as Which?, an non-profit organisation working to protect UK customer rights. It publishes newsletters on how to save money, to get the best bargains and reports on the latest scams. You can also easily find lists after lists of free (or paid) newsletters or blog updates on a very diverse range of subjects, like productivity, social media and the tech industries or cooking, by searching on Google or through services like Inboxreads.
4. Read for fun, and at the right level. Nothing is more demoralising to a reader when the book is boring and frustratingly difficult. So, it is very important to find reading materials that you like, and are at the right level for your reading skills.
How can we tell if a book is right for us, in terms of its level of difficulty? You alone can tell. Typically, if you glance through a book and you find about 10% of words inside are unfamiliar, then this book is probably of the right level for you: challenging, but not overly frustrating.
How to read for fun, then? One of the easier ways is to start with what you already like. If you are fans of popular movies or television series, like Harry Potter, Sherlock, Game of Thrones, or The Lord of the Rings, why not make “reading the English original novels” your reading goal? For example, Harry Potter is especially suitable for students of the English language, as it is written for children aged 8 or above, and with a vocabulary level suitable for older primary school to junior high school students.
After meeting this goal, you can then extend your reading list to cover other works in the same genre. Chances are you will find some new favourite books and shows among the way!
5. Have reading buddies. For more fun and accountability, invite your friends or family to read with you! You can decide on a book together and form a mini book club to discuss the text, post your latest reading insights on social media or start your own social media reading challenge and invite others to join. You can also join online reading communities and platforms like Goodreads, where you can find your next books through other people’s recommendation lists and comments on the books they have read.
6. Don’t stop for words you don’t know. Having to reach for the dictionary every time we spot a new word is really annoying, especially when the story is just getting exciting! So:
Before reading, skim the article heading and the text briefly so as to give yourself an idea on what the text is about. If you already spot a recurring word which is central to the message of the text, like "climate change" in an article about climate, look that word up first so that you can enjoy an uninterpreted reading experience afterwards.
Guess what the word means through clues from the context. Very often, the sentence/paragraph in which the new word is found will give you hints of what that word may mean, as the sentences will also be delivering or expanding on the same idea/information. So you can try to guess what the word means with what you learn from other parts of the text. For example, if the article is about a policy debate and this section is about people’s reasons for opposing the policy, then we can tell that this strange, new adjective describing the interviewee’s response is unlikely to mean anything like “supportive of the policy”.
Or just skip the word. Since one word does not make the whole argument of the text, you may actually not miss much of the argument by skipping that word. So try skipping it for now and see if you can still understand enough of the text anyway?
But skipping the word is not the same as ignoring it. Highlight, underline or mark the new words or phrases, so that we can return to them with a dictionary after reading. Collect these vocabulary and phrases and their meanings in a notebook so that you can revisit them easily if you want to.
7. Take notes, ask questions, and summarise. Some experts also suggest that we can come up with questions about the text then answer them as we read, or that we can drop notes and write a brief summary of the text after reading. All these approaches would help one to focus on the task of reading, and they can improve one’s reading comprehension accuracy - because by doing these you will be approaching the text like you are working on a reading comprehension exercise. But if you can only set apart a short time for reading everyday, focus on reading and enjoying the text first. (In short, don’t let the task of learning to read get in the way of reading!)
Now, before we start looking for the right books and newsletters, remember to be patient with ourselves. Set an attainable goal, pick a good time and an undisturbed corner to sit down with a good cup of tea and a book or a newspaper that interests you. Find a way to document your process - it can be something as simple as your public library checkout record. You may not see a drastic change in your reading abilities after completing the first ten books, but you will slowly find that your reading process becomes smoother and you will be able to appreciate the texts more easily, as new words and unfamiliar sentence structures no longer bother you as much. As you keep doing this, this habit of reading will bring you many benefits beyond your improved reading comprehension skills, and it may even become your friend for life.
Have a good time reading, everyone!
