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STUDYING TIPS

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READING

THE CONTENTS OF THIS PAGE

• Reading Skills

• Recommended Reading Matter

• Publications Containing Formal or Plain English

• Publications Containing Jargon

• Publications Containing Difficult Vocabulary

• Bi-Lingual Dictionaries

More Tips by Bibi Baxter

• Speaking Tips

• Listening Tips

• Reading Tips

• Writing Tips

• Exam Tips

• Grammar Overview

• ALSO:  Free ESL/EFL Exercises & Vocabulary Lists by Bibi

(Copyright of Author:  Bibi Baxter)

(With gratitude to Mark C. Ross for pointing out an error on this page)

READING SKILLS

1.   Choose your reading material carefully, so that you see suitable vocabulary being used in context.

2.   Start off with reading material which is not too overwhelming. either in size, or with vocabulary which is too difficult to guess the meaning from the context.

3.  When reading a new book, read one page without looking at the dictionary, then summarise that page in your mind before continuing to the next page.  If you cannot summarise it satisfactorily, look up a maximum of ten words in the dictionary to confirm that your guess is right.  If you cannot do this, look for an easier book.

RECOMMENDED READING MATTER

NEWSPAPERS

• Easiest for non-native speakers to understand:  Quality English Newspapers, eg: The Times, The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Daily Express

• Well-written, but often difficult due to liberal use of phrasal verbs:  The Daily Mail

• Often difficult due to slang content and phrasal verbs:  The Mirror, The Sun

PUBLICATIONS CONTAINING FORMAL OR PLAIN ENGLISH

• Encyclopaedias

• Traditional Books

• Books by Somerset Maugham can be read by students from intermediate upwards.

• Books by Charles Dickens, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie contain a lot of difficult vocabulary and are only suitable for Advanced students.

PUBLICATIONS CONTAINING SPECIALISED JARGON

(Ideal for learning specialised vocabulary, but unsuitable for general reading practice)

• Medical, Technical, D.I.Y., Cookery Books, etc.

• Instruction Manuals

• Specialised Magazines

NOT RECOMMENDED

PUBLICATIONS CONTAINING DIFFICULT VOCABULARY

• Teenagers' Magazines & Tabloid Newspapers contain an abundance of slang and phrasal verbs

• Comics often contain fabricated words to illustrate explosions, crashes and other noises or actions, eg: Batman (eg: biff, splat, etc.)

• Most children's books contain nonsense words.  (Exception: Enid Blyton books are well-written and will be reasonably easy to read, especially the Mystery Stories and the Famous Five, which contain similar vocabulary in each story which would aid reading proficiency.)

• Books by Shakespeare & Chaucer are suitable only for very advanced students who are required to study works by these authors.  (Shakespeare uses a different word order and old English exponents, whilst Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales' contains spellings  which bear little resemblance to the spellings of today.)

• Poetry books.

BI-LINGUAL DICTIONARIES

Some bi-lingual dictionaries contain obsolete English vocabulary.  Check the editing date before purchasing a new dictionary.

Many Arabic/English bi-lingual dictionaries contain biblical words which are not often used in everyday English.

VARIED READING PRACTICE PROVIDED BY OUR CONTRIBUTORS

• Stories, Poems, Viewpoints

EXTERNAL LINKS TO READING PRACTICE

• Film Scripts/TV Scripts (Script-o-rama)

• Reading Comprehension Exercises for all levels

• Funny News Stories  (Hold the front page)

• Dictionary of Slang (Ted Duckworth)

More information will be added to this page from time to time