How to Improve Your English Reading Skills 4 Steps to Improve Now
Hi, I’m Stephanie.
Welcome to Oxford Online English!
In this lesson, you can learn how to improve
your reading skills in English.
We’ll show you the number one mistake English
learners make when they try to practice their
reading in English, and how to avoid it.
You’ll see a step-by-step plan that you
can use to improve your English reading skills,
and we’ll give you several suggestions to
improve your English reading level more quickly
and efficiently.
You heard just now that there’s one big
mistake that many English learners make when
trying to practice reading.
So, what is it, and how can you avoid it?
Here’s a situation.
Think about whether you’ve been here before.
You start reading something in English.
You can’t understand a lot of it, and there
are many unknown words.
You start looking up every word you don’t
know in a dictionary.
Thirty minutes later, you’re either asleep,
or you’ve read about two paragraphs.
Of course, this makes you feel bad, and you
start feeling that you can’t read in English,
that it’s too difficult, and so on.
But, this isn’t true!
You can read in English and you can improve,
whatever your English level now.
What’s the key?
You need to select materials at the right
level.
Often, people try to read the same things
they would read in their native language.
But, if your English level is intermediate,
like many of the learners we meet, then you
need to accept that you can’t read all the
same things in English that you would read
in your own language.
If you try, you’ll probably feel frustrated, and
maybe give up.
So, it’s essential to select reading materials
that are the right level for your English
abilities now.
But, how can you do that?
Here are some tests you can use:
One: can you understand the general meaning
of the text without using a dictionary?
Two: can you understand the general meaning
of most sentences without using a dictionary?
Three: can you read the text at a reasonable
speed?
This is subjective, but it shouldn’t take
an hour to read a few paragraphs.
If you can’t answer ‘yes’ to these questions,
then the text is probably too hard.
Of course, you don’t want it to be too easy,
either!
If you can understand everything first time,
it’s probably too easy.
There should be some words and ideas which
aren’t easy to understand.
You’re probably thinking: so where can I
find suitable reading materials?
That’s a hard question to answer, because
this depends on your level, your study goals,
and your personal tastes.
Here’s one suggestion: look for Graded readers.
Graded readers are books adapted specially
for English learners.
They take famous stories, or even things like
Shakespeare plays, and adapt them for different
levels.
Naturally, there are many other sources of
English reading materials: news websites,
magazines, blogs, forums, books, journals,
and so on.
However, whatever you read, it should pass
these tests.
You should be able to read and understand
most of the general ideas without using a
dictionary or spending hours reading a short
text.
If you can get this right, then you’ve done
the most important work.
Remember that you don’t have to finish reading
everything you start.
For this lesson, we’re talking about reading
in order to improve your English level.
To do this, you need to find the right materials
at the right level.
Don’t waste your time trying to read things
which are much too difficult.
So, what’s the next step?
Let’s get one thing clear: improving your
reading skills in English is going to take
a lot of time.
It’s not something you can do in days or
weeks.
There aren’t any tricks which can help you
to improve faster.
So, the best thing you can do is very simple:
read as much as possible.
Spend as much time reading in English as you
can.
Also, variety is important in your reading
practice.
If you read the same kind of texts again and
again, you’ll get good at reading that kind
of text.
For example, if you only ever read news articles
about economics, you’ll get very good at
reading news articles about economics, but
you might find it difficult to read other
styles of text on other topics.
If you’ve seen our video about how to improve
your listening, then you might recognise these
ideas.
That’s because improving your reading and
improving your listening need a similar approach.
Let’s make an example reading study plan
together, but first, we want you to think
about something: how many different things
could you read in English?
Pause the video, and try to think of five
different things you could read.
Make them as different as possible.
Ready?
Let’s make a reading study plan together.
There are two rules:
Do something every day.
If you’re very busy, try to do five minutes
a day.
Five minutes is better than nothing.
If you can do ten minutes a day, do ten minutes.
If you can do more, do more.
But, do something, even if it’s just a little
bit!
Do something different every day.
If you read part of a novel one day, read
something different the next day.
Also, try to find things you’re interested
in, and that you really want to read.
That way, it won’t feel so much like studying,
which will make it easier to do regularly.
Anyway, here’s a possible plan for one week:
Monday: read 1-2 pages of a short story
Tuesday: read a blog post
Wednesday: read a BBC news article
Thursday: do a reading exercise from an English
textbook
Friday: read a film review online
Saturday: read the comments on an online news
article
Sunday: read the lyrics to a song
Of course, you should make your own plan to
suit your own interests and level.
When you’ve made your plan, write it down
and stick it on a wall, or on your bathroom
mirror, or somewhere where you’ll see it
every day.
When you finish each thing, cross it off
your plan.
That way, you can track what you’ve done,
and feel good about finishing your plan.
On the one hand, it’s good to challenge
yourself, so give yourself one or two harder
days, where you’re reading more, or reading
something more difficult.
On the other hand, be realistic and don’t
try to do too much.
It’s more important to make reading in English
a long-term habit, so make a plan which you
can stick to regularly!
Next, keep doing this, every day, every week,
every month.
You might not feel that you’re getting better,
but over time, you will improve.
Now, you’ve seen the most important ideas
you need to improve your English reading.
There are a couple more points to think about.
Let’s look.
Here’s a situation: you’re taking an English
exam, maybe an IELTS exam.
You have a reading text which is difficult
for you.
There are many words you haven’t seen before,
and many sentences which you don’t understand
clearly.
The clock is ticking.
What can you do?
Are there any tricks to make it easier to
understand the text in this situation?
Surely there must be some special techniques
which make it easier, right?
Not really.
If you’re reading a text and you don’t
know many of the words, that’s a bad situation.
If your grammar knowledge isn’t enough to
understand complex sentence structures, then
that’s a bad situation.
At that moment, when you’re in your exam
and you’re faced with this difficult text,
there’s really no good solution.
There are many videos and lessons giving you
‘reading tips and tricks’, including some
of our own!
However, these are only necessary if your
reading level isn’t high enough for a specific
task, like an IELTS reading exam.
These tips and tricks are ways to deal with
having a lower reading level than you need.
Like everything in this lesson, there’s
no quick fix here.
To improve your English reading level, you
also need to improve your vocabulary and grammar
knowledge, and that’s a long, slow process.
But, it’s necessary.
Remember in part one, we said that you should
choose reading materials which you could understand
most of without a dictionary?
Now, we need to look at this from the other
side.
Often in life, you can’t choose the things
you need to read.
If you’re at work, or taking an English
exam, you’ll be given a text.
You can’t choose to read something easier.
In that situation, you need to know most of
the words in the text already.
If you don’t, it will take you a long time
and a lot of work to read and understand the
text, and there’s a high chance that you’ll
misunderstand parts of it.
So, what should you do?
Firstly, your reading practice needs to be
supported by regular grammar and vocabulary
work.
We won’t go into details about this here,
because it’s too big as a topic, but if
you need advice, there are many free materials
and videos on our channel and our website
to help you learn vocabulary and grammar effectively.
Secondly, when you read something in English,
don’t just read it once.
Read it two, three, four or more times, especially
if it’s difficult to understand the first
time.
Vocabulary learning depends on repetition,
so by reading a text many times, you give
yourself more chances to see new words and
phrases in context, which makes it easier
to remember them.
Thirdly, as you practice and as your reading
level improves, increase the difficulty of
your reading materials.
This way, you’ll continuously see new words,
new phrases, new sentence structures, and
so on.
Okay, let’s look at one more useful point
you can use to practice your English reading.
Okay, you’re probably
bored of hearing that improving your English
reading is a long, slow, pro…
Okay, okay, you get it.
We’ve told you many times.
The problem with long, slow processes is that
they’re often boring.
And, when something’s boring, it can be
hard to motivate yourself to do it.
So, how can you deal with this?
The most important point is something you’ve
already heard: read things you’re interested
in.
However, there are a few other things you
can do.
One idea is to set yourself challenges.
For example, use a timer when reading something
and set yourself a time limit.
Try to read the whole text within that time.
Or, get a speed reading app.
There are many available in the Apple Store
or Play Store, including many free apps.
These apps display text at a specific speed,
so you have to read at the same speed.
As you get better, you can challenge yourself
by increasing the speed.
Another good challenge is to read texts without
a dictionary or any help.
You shouldn’t do this all the time, because
it’s useful to learn new vocabulary when
you read, and you need a dictionary for this.
However, sometimes it’s good to practice
without any help.
It’s also useful because this is often closer
to real-life situations, where you might be
under pressure and unable to look up every
word you don’t know.
Follow these tips and your English reading
level will improve.
Remember that you need to be patient!
Do you have any good tips to help others improve
their English reading level?
Please share your ideas in the comments!
Thanks for watching!
See you next time!