Kill Two Birds With One Stone
The very best approach to pleasure reading is to combine it with listening.
When you listen and read at the same time, you “kill two birds with one
stone.” In other words, you accomplish two goals at the same time: you
improve your listening (and thus your speaking) and you improve your
reading ability.
Whenever possible, get the audiobook version of the book you are
reading. Be sure to get the “unabridged” audiobook. The unabridged
version will have every word of the book — in audio form. You’ll then be
able to listen to each chapter as you read along at the same time. By doing
this, you’ll automatically learn the correct pronunciation of new words you
encounter. You’ll also learn to read a bit faster as you must follow along
with a native speaker who is reading the book aloud for you.
Combined listening and reading will build both your written and your
spoken vocabulary. You will continue learning new English phrases from
real natural materials at a more advanced level. As your English ability
becomes more advanced, novels, nonfiction books and audiobooks will
become increasingly important. At the advanced level, you’ll spend most of
your time reading and listening to books that are compelling to you.
It’s as simple as that! Read what you love and read a lot. Listen to the
audiobook version whenever possible. This is the fastest and most
enjoyable way to improve your English reading. As we’ll see in the next
chapter, it’s also an excellent way to improve your writing.
For Practice
Go online and buy an English language novel for young adults. I
recommend starting with a series of books such as “The Hardy Boys” or
“Nancy Drew.”
Read one chapter in the book each day. On a calendar, track the number
of pages you read.
