How to Improve Your English Reading Comprehension

Suri Do
Suri Do
Jul 24, 2017 · 4 min read

It’s easier to read English than you think! Here, we will discuss how you can improve your reading comprehension by following a few simple steps.

Study skills are ways to learn properly and efficiently (without wasting time). Effective study skills are very important for students to acquire good grades, and are also useful skills to improve learning throughout your life. During classtime at Scots English, your teacher will help you improve many essential skills such as skimming, prediction, summarising, paraphrasing and understanding different question types that you will need if you wish to study further here in Australia. There are some basis strategies that you can use in your own time to improve your English skills, including reading comprehension.

Reading comprehension means understanding what is written, and even some native English speakers struggle with this skill.

The reasons can be different for everyone: you might get distracted halfway through and forgot where you are, you might find it hard to understand a text with many words you don’t know, or maybe it’s just a boring text.

If you’re have trouble with your reading comprehension, these steps below may help you improve and find reading is easier and more enjoyable.

1. Choose the right books for your skill level

Choose something that you are interested in and read about it. Find books, magazines or newspaper articles that suit your current level of English. You will find new words every time you read, you will start to understand the ‘tone’ of the writer.

2. Make time for your reading comprehension

Reading can be done anywhere — in bed, at the office or on the train. Still, if you’re reading to improve your comprehension, focus and study are necessary. Making time for reading comprehension will let you focus well without being distracted. This time should be quiet and about 30 minutes every day, and the space should be comfortable with enough light.

3. Pay extra attention to the first & last paragraph

The first paragraph of an article usually lays the ground for what the author wants to say and the last paragraph often sums up the author’s ideas. So paying extra attention to it will help you understand the overall lesson.

4. Improve your fluency

Imagine when reading an article, you stop after every word. It would be difficult to understand, wouldn’t it? Indeed, it’s hard to understand what you’re reading when you read word by word instead of a full sentence. That’s why it’s important to improve your fluency (how smoothly you can read) in order to improve your understanding. When you read in your head, there are some words you should pay more attention to than others, and some common words that you will know by sight without having to think about them. The common words are called are ‘slight’ or‘fry’ words’ — for example, ‘the’, ‘of’, ‘and’, ‘will’.

5. Have questions while and after reading

Asking yourself questions is a good way to make sure you understand what you’re reading. Questions like ‘What just happened?”, ‘Who/What is this paragraph about?” can help keep you focused and follow the story flow. You can write down questions that come to your mind while reading on post-it notes and stick them in the text. Answer them after reading. If there are any questions you still don’t know the answer to, read the part of the text again and try to find the answer.

6. Underline what you want to remember

Underline or highlight words, definitions, structures that you want to remember. Instead of reading them silently in your head from time to time for memorisation, you can read them out loud. This way not only helps you memorise them quickly, improve your English vocabulary but also helps with your English speaking practice.

7. Don’t worry about what you don’t understand

Good vocabulary will make it easier for you to understand what you read. Still, even if there are many words in the text you don’t know, don’t worry. This turns out to be a good chance for you to guess the word and sentence meaning based on the context. After reading, check your guess and note down new words and phrases.

8. Read it again

Sometimes reading an article just once isn’t enough to understand it. Re-reading something can help you understand it much better. Seeing new words again when reading again would help you remember them.


Originally published at scotsenglish.edu.au.

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