Have you read anything good recently?

 Reading is like a superpower 🌟. It can take you to other places and times and into the heads of other people.

Reading is also one of the best things you can do to improve your English.

And it doesn't have to be a whole book!

Maybe you think reading is boring but it could be because you are not reading anything interesting!!!

Reading can help your English in many ways such as:

• you see words and grammar structures and how they are used
• you can see the correct word order
• you learn new vocabulary
• you can train your mind to concentrate
• you can learn something new about the world or life which may help you in other ways

All reading is good but with just a few techniques you can make your reading a lot more effective. All of these techniques involve becoming more active while you are reading.

1. Choose a text that you think will not be too difficult ( where only about 10 -20% of vocabulary is new) so that you can read comfortably.  It is good to read at your level but it is also good to read texts at a lower level.
2. Read out loud - practise the pronunciation.
3. Use a dictionary to find out new words. If it's an online dictionary you can also listen to the pronunciation. Listen and repeat.
4. Write new words or useful sentences down in your notebook.
5. Read the text two or three times or return to the text later in the week and see how much you can remember.
6. Tell a friend or your class about the text. This helps you practise the new vocabulary and summarise ideas which can be difficult!
7. Find topics that interest you and topics that are new for you. Reading about topics that are new for you help you expand your vocabulary.

Reading ideas

There are thousands of things to read on the internet. Here are five websites which are especially good to help with learning English and the articles are all pretty short so no time for getting bored!

• Wonderopolis has lots of articles about all sorts of things. It even has definitions of tricky words so you don't need a dictionary (but you could still use one 😏)
• English online has articles graded according to levels B1, B2 etc
• Lingua.com has short texts with a few interactive questions to check that you understand
• My English Pages also has short texts with interactive questions. There is a wide range of topics here.
• English Learning has a long list of very short texts but with gap fills to help you remember the text. This is also great for helping your writing skills.

Enjoy your reading 📚