Improve Your Reading Skills / READING Tips

Hey guys! Welcome back to our channel!

Today’s video is going to be very helpful, hopefully

for those of you who like to read

or who would love to improve their reading skills in English

or for those who are thinking of starting reading in English.

And I’m going to be sharing my tips and , advice and experience.

Oh boy, do I love to read.

I can easily be lost in a good book. But that wasn’t always the case.

When I was a teenager I hated reading,

I would usually either fall asleep or want to sleep so much after just like two pages of any book,

couldn’t concentrate and then couldn’t recall the information.

And of course I have got to tell you I only read in Ukrainian and Russian.

And those weren’t the most interesting books. So probably that was one of the reasons.

I really wanted to read in English, but that was in a time when almost nobody here had internet,

I didn’t even have a computer. It was impossible to order a book in English

and the ones that were sold here were too expensive for me, and well, not even something that I would want to read…

Thank God the situation is different for us these days and we have excess to almost anything.

When I read my first book in English that I loved I was like “Man I like reading”!

Of course when you’re a beginner or the level of your English is intermediate

but you have poor vocabulary or when you are just starting out to read at all - it’s hard.

. Because you have to look up literally every other word.

But after some time as your vocabulary improves it becomes easier.

And it improves very much when you read a lot.

And, also it’s so much easier nowadays to look up words because we have the Internet.

It’s fast, and you can listen to the pronunciation of a word right away.

I remember back in the days when I would read something in English, some articles.

It was so exhausting to look up words in a physical dictionary. Remember those?

It took so much time, and they didn’t have all the words.

Some were older, and some were just cheaper and thinner.

Another reason why I’m making this video is because I’m going to be making book reviews

on the books that I’ve read and that you guys ask me frequently about

because you saw them on my table in my videos or on my Instagram.

It’ll be our little book club.

So, for starters let me tell how I love to read and how I do read.

for me it’s not about quantity it’s about quality! What I mean by that?

I don’t care if I’m reading slowly or that I didn’t read 20 books in half a year.

I’m not taking part in some race or competition. I like to enjoy my books.

And, also it’s important for me to understand everything as well as to assimilate information,

so I look up every single word that I’m not familiar with

and I always check the pronunciation,

because I usually read out loud. And, this is another way for me to practice my pronunciation.

So if you’re not in a hurry and like to enjoy your books

but also you want to improve your speaking skills and pronunciation and really upgrade your vocabulary

take your time. Don’t be lazy to look up words, check the pronunciation,

read out loud and try to practice your intonation.

when you’ve read a paragraph or a piece of interesting information stop and think about it and analyze it.

It’s going to help imbed that information into your memory.

When you’re doing this you’re really focusing, going in depth, concentrating on details.

Now, another way of reading that I of course use as well is to read with your eyes.

Meaning not out loud but rather just follow the text with your eyes.

Because it’s not always possible and comfortable to read out loud.

But make sure that you’re focused and not skipping anything and really understand and analyze information.

Because it’s very easy to start mind – wandering. You know

when you’re kind of reading something and then you catch yourself that you’re not reading anymore, like

you’re on the beach in your mind. So basically you’re thinking about something

absolutely unrelated to the book - your mind has wandered.

And this rarely happens when you’re reading out loud. So keep this in mind.

I’ve read a couple of articles on reading techniques and some call this method active reading,

some call it intensive or extensive reading.

You call it whatever you want. The point is to enjoy what you’re reading and

retain that information for a long time.

And I advise you start with this method, so that you can really learn to analyze,

retain and recall this information in your brain before you start using those other

methods that I’ll tell about. Or start using it if you’re not using it yet.

It’s important!

Also there’s another very effective way of reading.

And it’s especially good for someone who wants to work on their listening skills,

who wants to know how to pronounce words correctly and for whom pronunciation matters,

You can buy an audio version of the book that you’re reading.

And you can listen to it being read while you’re following the text with your eyes.

One interesting thing. Over time as you learn - you progress.

And if you take a book that you read a year ago for instance and read it again.

First of all you’ll see that it’s a lot easier.

And that this second time around you notice some new phrases and vocabulary

that you just didn’t pay attention to the first time around

because your brain was busy with trying to understand the essence of the book.

Reading these days is not an easy thing to do, because we have so many distractions

and why read if we can watch a movie, right?

But it’s so beneficial for our brain.

I made a rule for myself! If I started a book I have to read 30 pages a day

no matter what till I finish it

Of course it’s not a super rigid rule, if I have a lot of other stuff to do that day

or I’m beat I can skip one day.

And I’m saying this not to brag or to show how smart and awesome I am.

It’s to show that discipline matters

and is very important in achieving goals, even as simple as to read a book.

Now let’s talk about Speed-reading – everybody’s dream.

Everybody wants to do and to accomplish everything fast.

So the name “speed-reading” speaks for itself! It means to read fast. But not just fast, also effectively.

And it’s actually a wonderful and super efficient and useful method.

Especially for students and people who like to read and learn new things.

As long as you’re doing it right, because it requires training.

Of course you’re not going to read out loud, because it takes twice as long as you could read following with your eyes- silently.

Don’t read to yourself, don’t sub-vocalize. If you’re aiming for this method,

and you want to kind of start off slowly and first use the active reading method

that I just talked about, make sure that you don’t read out loud.

Because right now it’s very hard for me to stop vocalizing,

it’s a hard habit to break. So keep this in mind!

It requires you to have a pretty vast vocabulary, because you’re literally running

through lines and just getting this general idea of what you’re reading

rather than deeply analyzing it.

That’s why I’m telling you to start off slowly. But you surely can use this method to

read in your native language

And you know as a lot of people say you don’t have to know every single word,

you can figure them out based on the context.

You really can train yourself to read super-quickly and efficiently,

because the human brain is capable of doing amazing things!

To be honest that’s what I’m trying to do right now.

I also feel that the reading method you choose must depend on the book.

For example if it’s a work of fiction or novel - it doesn’t require you to memorize all the information.

But if it’s about science, self-development, psychology these academic types of books

that are really trying to teach you something then you surely want to kind of absorb

and digest that information. At least that’s how it is for me.

And since you’re learning a foreign language and probably want to improve your vocabulary

I’d prefer first method over speed reading.

So that’s regarding reading books.

What about reading articles on the internet, small texts, descriptions, posts?

There are such called techniques as scanning and skimming. So

basically we all use them. It’s when we’re reading something quickly

briefly and just getting this main idea or some specific points.

There’s nothing really much to say about this.

But I know that you’re going to ask me about IELTS and TOEFL exams,

specifically about their reading section.

I’m sorry to tell you this one more time but you have to prepare for this.

Read a lot using different techniques and do those types of tasks that are in this section.

There’s no way around this, nobody can do this for you or instead of you.

And there are so many teachers and programs that can help you with this and as many channels on YouTube.

my personal recommendation on the types of books to read.

I suggest you read some modern-day books,

some modern self-development types of books where

the author shares their experiences, thoughts and opinions,

and teaches you something.

You’ll learn lots of up –to-date vocabulary, slang and the most commonly used expressions.

And they’re usually written in an easy to read, conversational form.

And also you’ll see examples of sentence structure and question structure.

Ok, and one question that I get asked a lot

“What type books do I recommend for beginners?”

Well If you really want something easy then that would be children’s books.

But to be honest, read whatever you want to read,

as I told you it can be modern self-development types of books or novels.

Yes, there will be a lot more words that you might not know,

but if you don’t challenge yourself – you don’t grow.

A lot of people are having a hard time concentrating on reading at all.

So if you’re interested in knowing how I’ve learned to concentrate

let me know in the comments and I’ll make a video on this as well.

So what I want is your take-away from this video

If you’re only starting out- start slowly,

look up words to increase your vocabulary. Plus if you want to train your pronunciation – read out loud.

Want to learn to read fast - practice.

And the most important thing – be consistent.

Being a good reader takes practice just as with everything else.

So that was my experience, my point of view. I hope you found it useful.

Thank you for taking your time and watching this video.

Don’t forget to subscribe and hit the notification bell if you haven’t done it yet.

Give this video thumbs up. Take care. And I’ll see you in the next one.