How to Improve Your English Reading Skills

One of the awesome things about learning English is the sheer number of resources that you can tap into. This means that improving your reading skills should be a breeze. In this post, the team here at Justlearn wants to share a couple of awesome tips from our English tutors for improving your English reading skills.

Always read level-appropriate texts

One problem that many people have when improving their English reading skills is to read content that is a little bit too advanced for them. The issue with doing this is that you will forever be having to look up words that you do not understand. This reduces some of the fluency in the reading and, ultimately, this means that you will not pick up as many words.

To determine whether a text is good for you, read the first page. If too many of the words are words that you do not understand (a good estimate is between 5 and 10 words) then this book is probably a little bit too advanced for you.

Do not be afraid to read English books aimed at children. While they will not have the most amazing stories in the world, they are going to help you learn English quickly which should take you to the next level of reading faster.

Read books that interest you 

If you read books that are interesting to you, then you are more likely to pick up vocabulary that you will actually end up using at some point. It also means that you do not get bored with the book and stop reading it!

Read different texts

We have only spoken about reading books so far. However, you will want to take your reading beyond this. Try to read English in multiple ways including:

• Websites

• Internet forums

• Books

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• Advertising

• Newspapers

• News websites

If you do that, you will be exposed to a huge number of different words in a plethora of different contexts. This means that you will be able to find your English improving quicker.

If you are unsure as to where you should be looking for English, then ask your tutor. They will be more than happy to point you in the right direction!

Make notes

As you are reading English, make sure that you take notes. If there are any words that you do not understand, then write them down. You can then look them up and add them to a flashcard system (if you are using one). Generally speaking, the same words will crop up time and time again in the same book. This means that after not too long, you will be able to read the rest of the book without having to look up further words. This results in quicker learning! 

Try passive reading

Every so often, you should try to read a book in English where you do understand all the words. This means that you do not have to look anything up. This is highly motivational.

After all, it will show you just how far you have come in your English learning. It also allows you to really drill the words that you do already know into your head!