Learning English is a process that happens on many levels and through different means. One of them is reading, which causes your brain to slowly switch to thinking and functioning not only in Polish. There are a lot of rules and tips on what to read and how to read. We have prepared a list of the most important ones for you in this article.
Why it is good for you
Let’s start with the motivation for reading in English. It should come from your eagerness to improve your linguistic skills. Mastering English on the elementary or pre-intermediate level should result in furthering your knowledge, learning new grammar rules and vocabulary and putting them into practice. Reading English texts is a great way to extend your vocabulary range, and get familiar with spelling rules and sentence structure.
All of it allows you to see English from a totally new perspective and is especially useful for visualisers who can easily memorize phrases or even whole sentences that way. Reading out loud hones your accent and pronunciation and thus boosts your self-confidence while speaking. We are sure that if you follow the tips below your reading skills will soar.
What to read?
When choosing what to read take into consideration your current level of knowledge and your interests. The text shouldn’t be too easy for you (make sure it contains some words you are not familiar with) or else your skills are not going to develop. We recommend going for texts on a level a bit higher than your current one - do that and you will start to notice the effects soon :)
On the other hand, don’t neglect your interests. They should play a major role in shaping your reading list. If you are keen on travelling, reach for travel agent’s leaflets and tourist guides and for fantasy fans we recommend their favourite books in English version - either in the traditional paper form or as audiobooks to improve your listening skills. There’s a wide choice of available texts - books, magazines, online articles, social media posts and many others - all published in English.
How to learn while reading?
The most important thing is to understand the general context of the text and grasp the meaning of it. At the beginning you don’t need to focus on individual words or phrases that you are not familiar with. It may be challenging at first but after some time your brain will more automatically switch to reading and understanding English. You won’t feel the urge to pay so much attention to the phrases you don’t understand. You are just going to understand them in the context of the whole text.
Then you can start writing down and rewriting those phrases and reading them out loud for a few times to understand and memorize them. It’s also a good idea to note how they are pronounced and their synonyms. It is important to do it on a regular basis.
