Reading is a necessary ability that helps you to absorb information with a single glance. Given that the majority of the learning tools you’ll encounter on your path to English proficiency will be mainly text-based, it’s no exaggeration to say that you should prioritize this ability.

Let’s take a look at why it’s important to focus on improving your reading abilities first, as well as the four types of reading you’ll need to master.

How Reading Boosts Your Overall English Proficiency

-Improves Your Conversational Skills

Reading English-language stories or novels assists you to obtain a better sense of how English speakers speak, whether the characters are native or not. Nonfiction books are also wonderful tools to use if you’re more interested in studying professional or business English.

In comparison to simply watching movies or TV episodes, no matter which genre you immerse yourself in, you’ll undoubtedly discover more new stuff. New idioms (like the one in the above sentence), frequent expressions, and formal or informal speech patterns are just a few of the essential things you can pick up while reading. Exposing yourself to them on a regular basis will eventually lead to you retaining such information in your long-term memory, which will undoubtedly improve your conversational abilities and boost your goal to sound like a native speaker.

-Enhances And Develops Your Writing Style And Ability

If you’re not well-read, writing and expressing oneself in English in an entertaining or even fascinating manner can be a struggle. This work becomes considerably easier once you’ve gone through bookshelves of literature and paperbacks.

Reading allows you to become acquainted with a variety of authors’ writing styles while also allowing you to observe grammatical rules and concepts in action, putting your knowledge to the test. Furthermore, the use of punctuation in such writings allows you to observe how periods, commas, quote marks, and other punctuation are used properly outside of instances. Overall, reading is an important part of enhancing your writing, and doing more of it will improve the quality of the texts you write.

The Four Reading Types To Master

There’s a lot more to reading than simply that. In general, there are four ways to read a book, each with its own set of goals and purposes. Take a look at the list below to familiarize yourself with them.

-Intensive reading

Intensive reading necessitates your entire attention and focus while reading a text or page, which is frequently required throughout your English course in Singapore. This style of reading is required when you want to extract as much information as possible from each word in a sentence, which often necessitates reading between the lines.

With this goal in mind, it’s critical that you understand every single word. As a result, it’s important to keep a dictionary on hand in case you come across a word you’ve never heard before or can’t recall the meaning of. When practising your intensive reading skills, choose a short yet engaging read or, if you’re up for the task, a longer piece that will keep you engrossed until the end.

-Extensive reading

Extensive reading is more informal and easygoing than rigorous reading. You don’t have to get into great depth, and you can read at your own pace. When you want to obtain a general concept about a topic or merely read for enjoyment, extensive reading is typically used. Regardless of its seeming lack of ‘essential’ objectives, extensive reading is required if you wish to improve your reading speed.

-Skimming 

Skimming is the best course of action if you don’t have a lot of time and only need the core idea of a text. This type of reading entails only reading deeply enough to get a text’s main idea or message. Improving your skimming abilities is very important while taking exams, like as simulated tests in an IELTS course.

-Scanning

Scanning works in a similar way to a search engine query in that you only need bits and pieces of specific information and nothing else. You’ll need to flit between sentences and scan for certain keywords and phrases in this style of reading, discarding anything that doesn’t assist you in finding what you’re looking for. When you’re out and about, you’ll most likely use this reading approach to get to your destination, order food from a menu, and so on.

Conclusion

Without a question, mastering the English language relies heavily on one’s reading abilities. Learning the four primary types of reading will help you not only in an academic or professional setting but also in everyday situations.

As one of the top English Language Centres in Singapore, English Explorer offers a structured program that is taught by tutors that are CELTA and TESOL certified to help boost your speaking, listening, reading and writing skills. Contact us to learn more about our range of courses today!