Selective reading – and listening – is the key to better English. Selective reading is reading that you select because the topic is interesting and you can understand the text (even if some words are unfamiliar). Looking for something to read? is your monthly guide to outstanding articles from a large variety of sources around the Internet. Come back often!
Change note: Looking for something to read has been changed to Something to read. You’ll always be able to find links at the bottom of the page.
First things first
There are many ways to collect and organize reading that you find online. One of the best is Instapaper. In addition to collecting and organizing texts for reading, Instapaper makes it possible for you to “carry” your texts with you, on your laptop, iPhone, iPad, or other device for reading anytime, anyplace. Learn more at the Instapaper web site.
These articles will be most appropriate for high intermediate and advanced English learners. Most of them would be very good for students who want to improve their academic English by reading. If you can’t read them comfortably, start with something easier, like the ESL Podcast and their learning guides or intermediate level fiction.
If you’re not sure how to use reading to improve your English, take a few minutes to read Getting the most (English) from your reading.
Something to read
Here are two lists of articles put together by other people – from longforms.org and the IfYouOnly Twitter feed:
1. The Best of 2010 and The 10 Most Ridiculously Entertaining Reads of 2010 from longform.org.
2. If you only read one thing today, make it this.
- IfYouOnly is a Twitter feed that began in August, 2010. Its editors select and tweet a link to one article every day. IfYouOnly now lists about 150 articles and has more than 2,000 followers.
Check out the lists. And come back next month for more articles.
Warren Ediger
Related reading: More reading, less looking
Reference: Krashen (1981) The “Fundamental Pedagogical Principle” in Second Language Teaching
