Is your reading getting the job done?

Are you reading – or listening – effectively? If you’re a regular visitor to Successful English, you already know that reading is the key to acquiring language. Here’s a checklist – from two articles I read this week – to help you make sure your reading is helping you get the job done.

The checklist – thanks mostly to Dr. Richard Day and Dr. Stephen Krashen:

Make it easy

Read books, magazines, and comics that do not require a great deal of effort, that are well within your ability. There is nothing to be gained by “working” through texts that are “challenging” and require grim determination.

Lower your standards

When doing recreational reading, there is no need to read classics, no need to read “quality literature.” It’s okay to read books in translation.

Read for pleasure

If you get the greatest pleasure from stories, read stories. If you get the greatest pleasure from reading something else, read something else. But always read for pleasure.

Don’t be afraid to discard

If you discover that what you’re reading isn’t easy or enjoyable, stop! Find something that is.

Read narrowly

Rather than attempting to read widely, and becoming “well-rounded,” take advantage of narrow reading, that is, reading several books by one author or about a single topic of interest. If you really enjoy something, read more of it.

Read faster rather than slower

If you read too slowly, it will be difficult for you to stay “connected” with what you’re reading. And if you stop frequently – for example, to look words up in a dictionary – staying “connected” is almost impossible.

Read as much as possible

The more you read, the more English you will acquire.

Carry a book or magazine with you everywhere

Few people have “time to read.” Carry a book everywhere and assume that you’ll have time to read during the day – standing in line, waiting for a bus, waiting for service in a restaurant, etc.

Remember – most of these rules also apply when you listen to acquire more English.

How did you do? Or rather, how did your reading do? If the checklist describes your reading, you can be confident that your English is growing!

This week, one of my students – who I know well enough to know that his reading is getting the job done – wrote:

“For me … there are two important things in my [English] journey:

First, to talk to you on Fridays;
Second, to put a novel into my rucksack.

The perfect place to acquire language is anywhere…”

He’s right!

Warren Ediger

References: Richard Day (2003), Why Youngkyu Can’t Read; Stephen Krashen (2006), The Autonomous Language Acquirer.