Improve Your English FASTER by Reading (It really works!)

Hey, E. What's the topic for today? Ah... Ladies and Gentlemen, today I will

be presenting to you a secret not known by many people called reading. And

you're going to say "What is the secret?" Well, this is the key to help you

learn language faster. Surprising, because most people think: well I should

talk more, get more talking practice, and I need to get vocabulary, and I

need to listen better. And I need to learn how to write! And I'm going to

show you today, with the help of magical E -- he's looking surprised because

he doesn't want to be involved -- don't know why, you have a book! How this

is going to help you with this, this, and this. Let's go to the board. The

first word I'm going to teach you is a word not many people know, but you have

to understand: this is an important factor of how our eyes work. So I'm going

to use some language that might be really high. I'll explain it. And just

be patient. You're going to learn a lot... about you, and improve your language

skills at the same time. Saccades. "Saccades" is what I'm going to say.

It could be "saccades". This is what we call the way the eye moves. You see,

when we look at things in nature, and this is important, because reading

isn't natural. There are no books in nature.

There are birds, and trees, and cars. Our eyes

were designed to look, look, look, look, look,

look, look. It kept us alive, because if I

just kept looking ahead, a tiger could come and eat me. So, my eyes would look, look,

look, look, look, but I would see everything.

Now, a saccade is kind of a fixation. Our eyes

jump, and a fixation means to stay in one

place, but our eyes jump around. Now, if you

think about a book, a book has lines, and if

you jump around, that makes it very difficult

to see. So, we're going to, with our understanding

now what a saccade is, we're going to learn

to train that to help you with reading. You know, okay, well, how does this help with

language? Hey, grasshopper, one step at a time.

Now, reading is interesting. You might have

noticed I mentioned vocabulary, and many students

say to me, "Oh, I need vocabulary." Here you

go, vocabulary on the go. There is one little

trick that makes all of this work, so I'm going to mention it now and at the end. You

must pick material for this to work that you

know at least 85% of the vocabulary. So, don't

pick up a book on physics if you don't read physics; this will not be helpful.

So, saccades are how our eyes move. A little uncontrolled, they jump around. And you may

have noticed this when you're reading, sometimes

you're reading and you go, "Oh, where was

I?" Because your eye has jumped. So, the first

trick I'm going to teach you, see, this is

three S's, and if you want to know what the

three S's are, smooth pursuit, sub-vocalization,

and sustained. And I will explain each one for you now. Well, smooth pursuit is this.

Yeah, some of you are going, "What are you doing?" But you followed my finger,

didn't you? You notice my finger did not do this; it went like this.

Well, if we can control the saccades, we can control how we read, and it makes it much

easier for us to learn. Why am I starting with

this for language learning? Well, you're not

going to read the book, and most people don't

read, to be honest, because it takes too long.

And now you understand if your eyes are jumping around, that makes it worse,

especially if it's not your language. We're going to use the idea of smooth pursuit,

which is using our finger or a pencil to move

across a line to help us focus. That focus will

actually turn our brains on so we can learn

more. So, the first secret I'm going to give you

is use your finger for smooth pursuit to move along the line to keep you focused,

so you can keep the ideas in your head. That's

number one. And in doing this, because you stay

on the line, it will help with vocabulary, because in many English sentences we do...

We use synonyms. We'll use one word and a little

later use a different word to keep your interest,

so you're actually picking up on vocabulary.

So, smooth pursuit is your first secret

to helping you with language learning. So, what's the second one?

When you were a little child, your mummy

would go like this. "The cat is on the chair."

And she would usually point at one word and say "the". You would look at the word,

she would say it, you would say it. Now, you're a

big, grown person. Right? You eat your Wheaties,

you're strong and good. You don't do that. But you do. We all do. Sub-vocalization,

"sub" means "under", "vocal" means "speak".

In science, they've done tests and they notice

when people are reading, when they put electrodes, you know, things on your head,

they were noticing people actually making the

sounds. Do you remember I said this reading will

help you with speaking? Well, once you... This

is why you need to know 85% of the language.

Once you're reading, you're repeating these words verbally inside with your throat box,

or your throat here, and in your head. Sub-vocalizing.

So, you're practicing speaking without speaking.

When we get to number three, you're going to go,

"Oh my gosh, these all go together." I'm like,

"Yes, they do." So, by reading, not speaking,

you're actually getting your brain to vocalize.

And remember I say it would help with listening?

Well, who's listening to you, sweetheart?

Who's in your head? You. So, when you're saying

"the cat" in English and you speak German,

"das Katzen", right? You're actually saying "the cat" in your head, repeating,

helping you learn and getting familiarized.

That means getting to know the word over and

over again. Now, here's a secret about reading.

The more you read, the faster you read,

the more you comprehend. Let me read... Read.

Let me say that again. The more you read,

the faster you read, and the more you comprehend.

Now, this has happened because... I'm jumping

ahead to number three. Should I go there?

Let's go to number three. So, before I do that,

sub-vocalization is the voice that's in your head

helping you to understand, because sub-vocalization

helps with comprehension. Comprehension means

to understand. So, not only are we practicing

speaking without speaking, we're practicing

listening without listening. Please check it

out. It's brilliant stuff, the research they're

doing on reading and language acquisition or

learning a language. You are actually getting

better at understanding, because written material

must be written in a way for someone to understand when the writer is not there.

So, you're learning the logic of the language or

comprehension. So, you're learning to comprehend,

you're learning to speak, you're learning to

listen. Cool, huh? All right. So, how is this...

These two working with this thing called

"sustained". I've got three S's. Ah, the secret

isn't what I told you. When you read... I said if

you read, you read a lot, you're going to end up

reading faster and you're going to comprehend.

The reason why this mechanism works, which isn't

discussed a lot, is this - recognition. When you

were a baby, okay, there were these two strange

people who would come in the room and go out of

the room. Sometimes bring you food, sometimes

change you, sometimes say, "Mommy, Daddy", strange

people. But after a while, you kept seeing them

again, and again, and again, and you recognized

them, and then you would say, not sub-locally,

you'd go, "Mom? Dad?" They'd go, "Junior!" Yes, you recognize us. And after a while,

you don't have to keep looking, you just go,

"Mom, Dad. Mom, Dad. Mom, Dad. Mom, Dad." And

then you tell other people, "This is my mom,

this is my dad. This is my dad, this is my mom,

this is my mom, this is my dad." Because you've

seen them so many times. Well, I said when you

read, you speed up, it's because you recognize

the words, and every time you read something,

like the word "the", "the", or "car", "car", your

brain after a while goes, "I recognize that. I

don't need to think." And that's why you get

faster. Your brain doesn't have to go, "What is

a car?" "Car is four wheels." Okay, now we

understand. It goes, "Car is car." That's how

reading speed picks up. So when we say "sustained",

you must read and keep reading, and keep reading,

and keep reading. But now, think about what

I told you about in the secrets, here. Well,

if you keep reading and you get better, you get

faster reading, meaning you can read more books,

your recognition of words goes up. And I know

this is true for years of being a teacher.

I can say many words, but I can say this and

almost every student gets it if they've been

in Canada for two weeks. "How's it going?" I can

say, "How is it going?" But after they've been

here a month, I go, "How's it going?" And they all

understand because they've heard it so many times

that their brain goes, "I know what that is",

and I can respond, "I have comprehension."

When we go back to here, we need this smooth pursuit to keep you on track

to recognize the words. You have to read

again and again, and you'll notice many words,

2,000 of them, in fact, are repeated over and

over and over again. And by using smooth pursuit

so you can focus on these words, you get to see

them, you learn them, they become recognized to

you or recognizable, and then you will comprehend

them faster so you can read more, which is

important, and now you'll understand why I say

that, because as you speed up... Because most

people don't read because it takes too long. But

as you recognize these words, you can read faster

so you can understand faster so it becomes

easier. This is why you need that, that's why I

started here. It may seem weird, but, like, that's

why. You need to focus so you can catch these

words so they become, I want to say ingrained,

but in your head permanently. Yeah? As you're

doing that, remember what I said is happening,

the sub-vocalization. So every time you say "the",

your head's going "the", "the", "the", "the", "the".

Some of you still say "de", and I know you don't

read, because if you did, you'd be going "the", "the",

"the", "the". And this line alone, I'm sure I could find

that 50 times on this page, so you get lots of

practice without doing it. And you get better

to listening to it because you're repeating it,

both happen. Remember, when you're reading "the

cat", well, who's hearing? You, because you're

not saying it to anyone, so you get conversation.

Right? Speaking skills improve, not mine. And listening skills, recognizing the word,

so when people speak to you, you hear "the",

oh, I know that word, boom, I recognize it.

And finally, using... Sustaining it helps speed

up the whole process. So these three go together

to help you with, like I promised, listening...

Oh, let's start with the best one. Speaking,

then listening. And reading, of course, and you're

going to say, well, how does this help me with

writing? I'm not the first to say it, and I will

not be the last. Any good writer will tell you,

if you want to learn how to write, you've got to

read a lot. Why? Because the language is on the

page with all the grammar, all the spelling,

and I did mention, for those of you, like,

I have a hard time getting vocabulary there's

no one to talk to. There are millions of people

to talk to. They're from different ages,

from a thousand years ago to just yesterday,

and they're in books, and they have slang, and they have technical language, they have

the language of l'amour, all there. All you have

to do is pick them up. And they have them at

different levels, from a kid's level, to language

learner level, to expert. So the one tool you need

is something that's sitting right beside you

right now, and you just have to read and grab it.

Now, following these three paths, use your

finger to help you focus for smooth pursuit,

because part of your problem is your eyes jump around. And I should have explained,

your eyes jump around for exciting or something

interesting, which you're catching on the page,

which is great when you're an advanced reader,

and you're wanting to learn to do the next thing

I'm going to tell you, which is a secret. But it's

not so good when you're learning the language,

and you're trying to get the ideas, because

remember, a sentence is a full idea that will

explain the vocabulary that you're learning. So

you need to do this first. Then, as you're doing

it, you don't have to practice; it will happen.

But make sure the material you're reading,

you know at least 85% of the words. That will lead to what's called the flow state,

where it's easier to learn, because it's just hard enough that you don't get bored,

but easy enough for you to absorb new information. Okay?

Sustained, we need to do that to get that speed

up to go back in the circle again and again.

Now, the last thing I want to tell you is a

special trick, because people say there's no

such thing as speed reading, and other people

say you can speed read and learn and learn.

The fact of the matter is, when you're learning a new language, you will speak...

Oh, sorry. Read not as quickly as a native speaker. It doesn't matter the language,

simply because you're not familiar. This is what we're talking about here. Yeah?

So, if you want a trick about speed reading that

kind of works, it's called "skimming". And many

of the courses that they're going to ask you to

spend, you know, $200, $300, they're asking you to

skim, which isn't really speed reading, because

if you read too fast, you lose comprehension,

and comprehension is understanding, and that's

the reason why you read. Right? You want to

understand. But sometimes you can use this skimming that they teach to your advantage.

Now, this is more for an intermediate to an

advanced person who has very good comprehension

and can read a lot of stuff, because if you're

going to school and your English isn't your first

language, post-secondary, like university or

college, you've got to read... You've got to...

You have to read a lot of information. And this

trick I will teach you will help you do that,

get the most out of it as you're working on these

three to get a deeper level of understanding.

Okay? Now, this comes from writing. When you write, or when we're taught to write,

we're taught to write an introductory sentence

and an ending or a conclusion sentence.

In these two sentences, the first one tells you what we're going to talk about,

and the last one tells you what you should have

learned. See, if you have to speed up something,

and you can use your smooth pursuit, here's a

trick to get you to speed read through books.

But remember, you're going to miss going through all those vocabulary and getting

the repetitions in. But this is if you have to, and this is a trick. Remember?

It's not a lesson. You can always go to a book, open it up...

Nonfiction, it's best to do this with. Read the first sentence of a paragraph,

then read the last sentence, and it will give

you the idea of what's happened in between.

And remember we talked about the saccades? Then you can use that, boom, boom, boom,

to jump around to "When did Johnny get killed? Ooh, interesting. I like this."

So, you can use that little trick to help speed or boost you up. But remember,

it's a trick. You want to do actual learning. Use

your finger for smooth pursuit, smooth keeping it

going from line to line so you see all of the

words. If your brain begins to recognize it,

or as that's happening, sub-vocalization goes

in so you're actually practicing and speaking

without doing so. And yes, for those people who

go, "Well, you're going to speak and you never

mentioned that", I didn't say you don't. This

is to get that extra practice when you're not

talking to people, and especially in countries

where there are not a lot of English speakers,

this is a tool. Okay. Sustaining and doing that,

your memory will pick up that you've seen these

words before with the sub-vocalization, that

will help you with future pronunciation,

and because you've done that and you have it in your memory, you can read faster,

therefore you can read more. And we're working on

listening, speaking, and writing. Why? Because,

as I said, commas, exclamation marks, all of that

is there to give you the idea of how the world...

of how the language is used when people speak.

And if you're in school, and that's why I said

it's a little bit of a trick and I sped up, I should have slowed down. First sentence,

last sentence of a paragraph will give you some

basic understanding of what the paragraph's about,

and you can use your little saccades power there

to go in and find the important information and

move from there. Anyway, that was a quick lesson

for me on how... Me and E-tap on how we can use

reading to help increase your vocabulary, your

listening and speaking skills. Yeah? And writing

to boot. Who knew? Look how small this thing is,

see? It's like one dollar, all this information

for one dollar. You want this one, right? Anyway,

you have a great day. James from engVid. Oh,

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Have a good one.