Well hey there! I'm Emma from mmmEnglish!
Have your English teachers ever told you
to read as much as you can in English?
Have they told you that it's a great way
And to see how words are used in context
Well, I absolutely agree!
But what can you do to improve your reading skills
become a better reader and actually
That is exactly what this lesson is all about!
of benefits to reading English texts.
You're going to build your vocabulary, right?
But you'll be learning those words
so that you can learn how to use them correctly
and the words that they're often used with.
You'll also experience how words
through the interactions between characters.
So tone in writing is the author's attitude
and this is an incredibly useful way to learn
how to choose the right words to express
feeling and emotion in English.
So my first question for you today is
do you like reading English texts?
what English text do you like to read?
what English book are you reading right now?
I'd love to see some recommendations
in the comments so if you've got a good one,
But if your answer to this question is no,
well why do you think that is?
Maybe you don't really love reading
even in your own native language.
Well then, reading in English is probably going to be
But maybe you prefer watching movies or
listening to podcasts - something like that.
Perhaps you get frustrated because you feel like
And you really need to improve your skills
before you can start actually enjoying reading.
Maybe you're an active person and you just don't like
sitting still and reading a book, right?
Audible allows you to listen to books wherever you are.
I listen to my books now because
I don't like to sit still either!
So I listen when I go for a run.
If you want to try listening to English books instead
then I've added a link below in the description
The link's down there if you want to check it out!
But today I want you to stick around
all the way through to the end of this video.
I'm going to be sharing some really useful tips
Hey guys! Just in case you haven't heard yet,
I'm doing the Lingoda Language Marathon
Definitely going to be my biggest language challenge
But I've created a private Facebook group
just for mmmEnglish language students
who are completing the marathon
But you've got to use the link
that's in the description below this video to join.
In that group, I'll be sharing videos about my
and motivation to help you keep going
all the way to the end of that marathon.
So if you're ready for the challenge,
Enrollments close on the thirteenth of May.
Check out that link right there
Before we get started, a little reminder
to turn on the subtitles if you need to - just down there.
I write subtitles for every lesson
so you can turn them on at any time!
And some of my amazing students here
these lessons into their own native language
so that more people can share and learn from them
So if you're up for the challenge to add
subtitles in your native language,
there's a link in the description that will
Your name's going to get shown
Alright that one might seem completely obvious
You're not going to improve your reading without
That's the same for so many things in life, right?
Now this might take you a little effort at first, right?
To get to that point, you might need to say to yourself:
at six o'clock in the evening, I'm going to spend
You know what they say? It takes
twenty-one days to make something a habit, right?
you'll have a good chance of bringing
daily reading practice into your life.
you know, to create a little ritual
do it on the train on the way to work or
I've got a couple of Spanish readers
and I always go down to the beach and practise there
it's one of my favourite times of day.
Now there's a good chance that you're thinking:
choose what you read carefully.
The easy part of this decision is just choosing
topic or a genre that you like, right?
Quit thinking that something has to be educational
for you to learn, right? It's just not true.
Well, try and choose a comic that's got
a little more text in it, right? A little more reading.
Or choose one of those really awesome illustrated
books for teenagers, I've made some recommendations
But the story lines in those books,
in those types of books, are often
fun and entertaining and there's images that help you
to kind of engage in the story as well.
It's going to make your reading practice much less
Nobody wants to drag themselves through a book
Especially one that they don't like.
There's just so much material out there
for you to read that there is absolutely no reason
to be reading something that you're not into, right?
Pick something that interests you,
whether it's the sports section of the newspaper or a
a nonfiction book about plants,
But what does matter is that you enjoy
what you're reading so that it encourages
One really common problem that I see
among my students is that they're
too ambitious with their reading material, right?
A pre-intermediate student reading Jane Austen novels,
I mean, I think that's really a form of torture.
Right? 'Pride and Prejudice' has extremely
It could be really hard work to try and get to the
looking at texts that are the right level for you,
that help you to get through them.
And if you're a Jane Austen fan,
well, I've got some recommendations in the description
because her novels are so popular that they've been
and intermediate level students as well,
so this could be perfect for you.
I'm going to add the link in the description.
And to be completely honest, the vocabulary
in books written for teenagers and younger people is
usually extremely useful for everyday English use, right?
So don't let your ego get in the way between you and
Now I also want to mention to be
If you just can't stand reading pages and pages
Read a daily blog post instead or a magazine article.
It really doesn't matter what you read,
as long as you're enjoying it.
Now if you like to read but you don't want to lug around
a notebook or a dictionary with you,
then an e-reader is a really good option, right?
I just have Kindle downloaded on my phone
so all of my books come with me everywhere that I go.
And this makes your practice really easy, right?
You've got books with you all the time.
And the cool thing is that e-readers help you to translate
words or things really simply, just by
touching the word on the screen.
So that could be a good option and make it a little
easier to get into a reading practice.
I've got a list of book recommendations
and if you still don't know what to read,
then here's another one of my favourite tips.
Read a book that you've already read
Right? Reading a book that you've already read once
or even a few times in your own language
can eliminate a lot of the hard work,
when you're reading a book in English, right?
Firstly, you already know that you'll like the book, right?
And secondly, you don't have to worry about
misunderstanding something or words that you're
unsure of, it doesn't mean that you have to stop reading
and look them up so that you understand
You'll be able to fill in the gaps
So since you already know the story,
you won't get stuck on the details, right?
You'll be able to focus on learning
without having to look up all of the in-between words
which is really great for morale.
And generally just makes the experience
which is what we're all about!
And you don't have to get stuck on the details.
It's great to test yourself and to look up words
and to read out loud sometimes.
If you try to understand every single word in the book,
you might never finish it, right?
It's going to be a lot of work to get there.
You know, you want to make sure that you understand
and if you aren't sure of a word or two,
but you understand the general idea of the sentence,
then you can try and guess the meaning of the word
and move on, you don't have to know
And that's true, even when I read books in English,
there will be words that I don't recognise or
words that I don't use that often,
words that are used by Americans that we don't
but I don't have to stop and look up the meaning
read through the story, try to piece it together.
Unless it's something that is really, really, crucial
I don't need to know the exact meaning.
Now for you as an English learner,
if there are too many unknown words on the page,
and you really don't have a good idea of
what's happening in the story,
then it's possible that this text is too advanced for you.
So try reading something with less unknown words first.
Right? If a word seems really important
but you've still got a bit of an idea of what's
and move on, you can come back to it
Okay so the first tips that we went through
will help you to get started, I want you to just
to dive into a book and to really just focus on enjoying
the journey. As we said before,
reading in general is already going to be
improving your English skills, right?
But if you want to take a more proactive
then the next few tips are going to help you to push
your English skills a little further.
One of the most effective ways to learn
anything is to combine different styles of learning
right? This is how we supercharge learning.
So for example, if you are reading something
so choosing your favourite book and then
Audible's got over two hundred thousand books there so
the chances of you finding your favourites is pretty high.
But then you could take it one step further. Read it
and say the words at the same time.
Doing all of this is supercharging your learning.
There are so many good things that are happening
here at once. Your mind's taking in information
your muscles in your mouth are remembering how to
pronounce or how to make the sounds correctly
because you're listening to them at the same time.
Now this might not be the best option if you are
reading in a quiet library or on a bus on the way to work,
that kind of thing. But you'll find a way to make it work!
My last tip is to test yourself.
I've given you quite a few tips already today
but I want to give you a tip that's going to help you
take your reading from pleasure into study.
And there's a time and a place for this, right?
Sometimes we just want to relax and unwind,
but other times you might be ready to like
roll up your sleeves and really dive in and understand
how the language is being used.
Even if you're not reading next to a teacher
it doesn't mean that you can't pause
to ask yourselves questions about the text
and check that you've understood it correctly, right?
one way to do this is to open a book at a random page,
write down some of the key points that you remember
and then go back and study it in detail.
Did you miss anything important?
This is a really good way to practise
it is possible for you to do this.
that you've not have heard of before.
You don't know the meaning of it.
But instead of looking it up straight away,
look at the words around it and try and guess
what the meaning is before you check.
but you haven't seen it used in that context before, right?
Try writing a sentence with this new definition.
These types of questions that you ask yourself
are going to help you check your understanding
and then also go a little deeper into the text.
And really make sure that you've understood it correctly.
Well I hope that the tips that I shared in this lesson
have given you some inspiration
to keep working on your reading skills because
there are so many benefits to regularly
exposing yourself to English through text.
And through different types of text as well.
And above all else, I really want you to have fun
with your English reading skills, right?
I've added a whole bunch of recommendations
in the description below, plus the link to Audible
so if you want to supercharge your reading practice