Dos and Don’ts for Reading in English
#1 DO: Read things you are interested in
What is your favorite genre to read in your own language? Read those genres in English too! For example, if you love reading mysteries, think about reading mysteries in English. Soon in the eSchool Book Club, we’ll be reading The Hound of the Baskervilles – a mystery with the famous character, Detective Sherlock Holmes (Level 5) – so if you love mysteries, you should join the club; also, you’ll want to read about how to solve crimes with the present perfect on Nick’s blog from last week.
#3 DON’T: Focus on Vocabulary First
Reading is a wonderful way to learn new vocabulary words, but you don’t want to focus on vocabulary first. First, you want to think about the story as a whole. While you’re reading, think about these questions:
· What are the main events of this part of the story?
· Who are the characters? What are they like?
· How do the characters get along with each other?
· Where does this part of the story happen?
· What are some ways the writer is describing parts of the story – the people and the place where the story is happening?
· Before you read the next part of the story, try to guess what will happen.
#4 DO: Try reading things that are too hard.
Sometimes, we prefer reading things that are easy for us to understand because it is relaxing and can be more enjoyable, but it is good to try reading things that you think are hard to understand. You want to challenge yourself by seeing how you can take all the English you know to figure out what the writer is saying. As I said in point #3, don’t look up the words you don’t know until you’ve tried understanding the overall idea first.
#6 DON’T: Give up
Keep reading, even if it’s hard. Reading isn’t just good for learning English, it’s also good for your brain. It helps with your memory, it reduces stress, it keeps depression away, it helps you fall asleep and it may even make you live longer.
#2 Do: Join a book club
It is so much easier to be interested in reading when you get to share your thoughts with your friends or with people you meet online or in eSchool classes. Try to find people who want to read with you and make appointments to meet once a week – make a schedule to read certain parts of the book and then discuss what you read with your book club. You can also have themes for your meetings like meeting on zoom and eating special food or wearing costumes related to the book. [We hope you’ll think about joining our book club.]
After you’ve read a part of the story once or twice and understood the main ideas, then you can start looking at the vocabulary words you don’t know.
When you’re looking up words, think about using an online learners’ dictionary. I like these two from Oxford and Cambridge. They’re both free and use language that is easier to understand than other dictionaries.
For information about what to do (and not do) with the words you look up, read this.
#5 DO: Read children’s books
The nice thing about books that are written for children is that the language used in the books isn’t very difficult so they’ll be a little easier to understand. Plus, so many books written for children have great stories – I mean, think about Harry Potter children and adults love reading books about him. In fact, my dad recommended the books to me! In the tour of my bookshelf this week I showed you the book From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankenweiler. This book is so good; I still love reading it after having it for more than 30 years!
