English reading encompasses a variety of skills that can imbue many aspects of life. Although, having strong reading abilities enable you to find and interpret the meaning of what you are reading. However, continuously developing and improving these skills will help you to communicate effectively through your writing. Literacy impact so much in possessing critical skills and your progress in your career as well in your personal life.
Here, I’ll walk you through the steps to take a variety of ways that can improve your reading skills.
1-• Practice each day:
Practice is one of the most effective techniques to build your skill. Set aside 15 to 20 mins each day for reading. This will ultimately help in developing your reading skills. Moreover, read about any interesting issues whether it can be fictional stories, news articles, magazines, or any hot topic. This practice will help you in polishing your reading skills.
2- Set your goal:
Setting an aim for yourself helps you to achieve your goal. Your aim can be as simple and consistent in maintaining your goals, and they must be realistic and achievable. However, focus on the SMART approach (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound). Once you set a goal for yourself, it will improve your ability to make links between things you read, and your ideas and perspectives.
3- Trailer the text you read:
Scanning and previewing text can be another step in improving reading skills. However, you may also apply this strategy to previewing titles, headlines, captions, and other text features to get a picture of what you are reading. It will help you to form a central idea about the phrase before you start reading.
4- Confine the purpose:
It is significant to determine the purpose while reading different contents. Think about understanding the theme, title, and hidden meaning behind the topic you are reading. Additionally, knowing the purpose of reading help you to get ideas and information that support your objective.
5- Annotation and highlighting:
Another effective method for improving your skill is to make notes and mark them while reading. Moreover, writing down important points & highlight them enables you to understand better whenever, you read about something. You also jot down new vocabulary words to enhance your speaking power.
6- Fluency:
Fluency is an essential part of the whole process of language learning and its utmost priority for learners. Fluency is something you refer to as a mixer of various factors. An effective way to improve fluency is that we must listen to English talk shows & broadcasts. Firstly, it focuses on a person’s ability to speak distinctly. It also helps you to decode new vocabulary words quickly while reading. These activities not only enhance our vocabulary but also improve our accent. Secondly, selection of words, reading long speeches, and communication, are the techniques that help us a lot in English learning. Lastly, fluency directly impacts your ability to comprehend what you read.
7- Summarize what you read:
During reading any context, summarize the reading selection in your own words. Whenever you use your own words to describe what you have read, it makes it more relatable. Thus, this technique also helps to store information in your long-term memory and makes it hard to forget.
8- Background knowledge:
It’s an essential to know about the background of what you are reading because it enables you to understand the storylines easily. When you have a broad knowledge spectrum, it’s easy to make analogies and conclusions from what you have read. However, this can be through listening to podcasts, visiting a museum, or reading books and articles to enhance your knowledge.
9- Stay focused and motivated:
If you want to concentrate on your reading, step away from any gadgets that cause distraction. Try reading in a quiet, well-lit place with a desk and comfortable chair. A healthy environment keeps you motivated and also helps you to stay focused during reading.
Lastly, it’s a thorough process of improving reading skills that takes time and effort. You will utilize reading skills throughout your life, so go at a pace that works for you. However, it is essential to build the habit of reading for dedicated improvement and for the sake of pure pleasure. As you begin to read daily, it will be more fun for you to comprehend the sentences.