In my previous post I talked about how to improve your English through reading, why it is so important for language improvement, how to get motivation, and how to set up a simple everyday practice. In today’s blog post, I’m sharing some more in-depth advice, with my top tips for developing your English reading skills.
If you have already got to the point that you are reading every day, it has become a habit, and you are enjoying it, then it’s time to move on and start developing your reading skills.
There are different techniques to improve your reading skills. Please choose the ones that you feel comfortable with.
How to speed up your reading
- Try listening to the audio version of the book while you are reading.
In this case you will read at the speaker’s pace. Read out loud together with the speaker. That will help you to improve your pronunciation and listening as well.
- Use a finger method.
Take two fingers, put them outside of the sentence, or at the edge of each line in a text and read down.
Try to see the whole sentence. If it’s too much for you, it’s ok. Just follow your finger or a pencil, do not follow your eyes, follow your finger while reading.
How to get a better understanding
If we look at reading in general and compare it with doing sport or any other physical activity like dancing, yoga, running, or going to the gym, you can notice that they have something important in common. Before running or lifting weights you normally do a warm up, then actually run or do weights, then slow down and stretch. If you follow the same procedure in reading: warm up – read – cool down, then it will definitely help you to better understand and remember what you are reading, stay more focused on your topic, and save a lot of time while reading for your studies. Your reading itself will become much easier, more effective and enjoyable.
There are two techniques to achieve that.
1. The KWL method (Donna Ogle, 1986).
What is the KWL method? – Quick-Advices
The letters K-W-L stand for “Know”, “Want to Know”, “Learned”.
Before reading a text, think about what you already know, read or heard about the topic.
Ask yourself what you would like to know, what you would like to learn, and set up a goal. It will keep you focused while reading.
After reading the text summarise what you’ve learned. Some interesting ideas or thoughts that you find fascinating. You can write your notes in the 3 column chart available here:
FREE 8+ Sample KWL Chart Templates in PDF | MS Word (sampletemplates.com)
2. The method to boost your reading comprehension.
In this strategy you have to read the text several times.
- First reading – read the text quickly, without using a dictionary, getting a general idea and context of the article or story.
Underline some words you don’t know.
- Second reading – look up some words in the dictionary that you think are important for understanding and ignore the ones that seem to be too difficult to remember or you don’t see very often.
Ask yourself questions about what you’ve read.
- Read again if you need and summarise what you have read, paraphrase the text in your own words. This practice will show how much you actually understood.
Take your reading skills to the next level!
The next steps are for those who want to go even further. Are you ready?!
Talk to somebody about the story or book you’ve read
Talk about your reading experience with your friend or your teacher. Tell them what it is about, what the main ideas are, what things touched you the most. Personalise your experience, articulate it. It can even be a dog or a cat you are talking to, or a thing, or you can simply record yourself if you feel shy or uncomfortable speaking to somebody else.
Take some notes
Write down some ideas that you like. Write a review or a blog post on social media.
Practise words and expressions you’ve written down in your everyday life.
Look up any new words and phrases that you encounter in the text. Try to use them in your English conversations at work, with friends, or with your teacher.
Join an online Book Club!
Did you know Intrepid English has a free online Book Club for English learners?
If you’d like to get involved, or have any questions or a suggestion for Book Club, don’t hesitate to contact us at hello@intrepidenglish.co.uk
Well, I hope you enjoyed my top tips for developing your English reading skills. Please share in the comments below if you are using any of them or maybe you have some other tips that you can tell us about. Thanks for reading!