This post is for beginners. It may be useful for others, too.
For good English you need to read English. Reading English is hard. Sometimes there are words you don’t understand. Don’t quit. You need to do more work when you are starting to read English.
Sometimes you choose to read, sometimes you have to read for work or study. This post will help make your reading more effective.
If you are reading a book, magazine or newspaper, write notes in the book or make copies of the pages and write on the copies. If you are reading a web page, print it out.
- Read the part you need to read. Don’t worry about it. Just get to the end.
- Get a highlighter pen and a pencil. Use the pen to highlight words you know a little but not 100%. Use the pencil to black out words that you do not know at all.
- Try to think of words you might know to replace the blacked out words. Does the sentence make sense? If not, or you still have problems…
- Check the highlighted words. Can you remove them and have the sentences still make sense? If not…
- Erase the pencil from your unknown words. Use an English dictionary to check the meaning. Try not to use a bilingual dictionary. If you do not own an English dictionary, you can buy this one
or use this website. - Write notes for the new words. I think word cards are the best.
If everything is still too hard, put your reading away, take a deep breath, and try it another time.