How to learn English through reading?

Reading gives you an insight into thinking. While reading in a foreign language you are transferred into another world, you discover different mentalities and explore different perspectives. Reading not only enriches your vocabulary and the use of structures, but it provokes your thinking in a foreign language as well. 

What to read?

It depends on what you are searching for. If you wish to improve your vocabulary on certain topics, you should choose thematic magazines and generally the press. However, if your aim is to get inside the language itself, reading fiction would be more advisible to you. If you want to learn something apart from the vocabulary and the phrases, you should reach for non-fiction books, manuals or guidebooks. Being a beginner start with simplified versions of popular books and magazines especially designed for the learners. If you prefer something more advanced, read the full versions without simplifications. 

How to read?

First of all, try to equip yourself with your own copy of a book or magazine. I am a kind of person who prefers to underline certain phrases or use a felt-tip pen to mark something important. This builds a closer contact with a book and its content. If you disapprove of such practices or use mainly books from a library, a good idea would be to read with a notebook where you could write some useful or original expressions. Of course, do not do it too frequently not to distract yourself from the pleasure of reading. 

If you use the magazines for learning a foreign language, first learn the vocabulary given and then try to read and understand the text. The glossary gives you a chance to become familiarised with the words necessary for comprehending a given article. 

Why to read?

There are several benefits why you should focus on reeading while learning a language:

  1)     It is full of cultural, literarary, political or social connotations that gives you a necessary background about the country the language of which you are learning.

 2)     It provides you with vocabulary, expressions and structures in natural contexts, which you can learn automatically (and you remember them even without being aware of it).

  3)      It gives you an opportunity to learn new perspectives and ways of thinking.