CHAPTER 17
The Power of Pleasure Reading
You are using the Effortless English™ system every day. You focus most
of your time on listening to compelling stories. You listen to point-of-view
stories to learn grammar naturally. You learn deeply. As a result, your
English speaking is improving. Each month you speak more easily and
effortlessly. Your confidence is growing. You are mastering the core, high-
frequency English used most commonly by native speakers.
As you continue improving, eventually you will want to advance to a
higher level of English. Perhaps you want to study abroad in America or
Canada. Perhaps you want to work for an international company that
requires English. Perhaps you need to pass an exam such as the TOEFL,
TOEIC, or IELTS.
When you reach this point, what is the best way to improve your English
reading? How can you learn to read faster? How can you use reading to
learn more words faster? How can you improve your reading
comprehension? What’s the best way to combine reading and listening?
Most schools teach reading using an academic skill-building approach.
Typically, students read difficult articles and then answer questions about
them to test their comprehension. Students are taught how to identify the
main idea of the article, how to answer multiple choice questions about the
article, and how to guess the meaning of unknown words. They are then
graded on their performance.
During my teaching career, I have found that most students are bored by
this approach. Worse, a tremendous amount of research shows that this
method is inferior to one that is much more enjoyable and natural. Students
who use this natural method write better, have better vocabularies, have
