And we're live! Kelly, what's going on?
What's going on?
Not much so, I found this really awesome article that I wanted to discuss with you from UK College of English. You can go check them out, guys. UK College, ukenglish.org.uk, and the article was called 8 Easy Ways to Improve your English Reading Skills and I thought Kel would be the perfect person to have on the podcast.
Because I love reading?
And because you've gone through IELTS and you had to prepare for the reading on IELTS, but also Kel is a fricking machine, guys. When Kel was learning English in her first year...
Yes..
She went she read over 1000 books.
No! It wasn't that.
How many books did you read?
Probably around 30 books?
Animal. That's probably everything I've ever read in my life.
That's a combination of unemployment and embarrassment. Because I coudn't speak English properly, I was like, you know what? I'll do it.
And so before we get into this, tell me about that, you got to Australia and you didn't have a job because you didn't speak English.
Yes.
You weren't studying here, you were a partner visa at the time. How did you use reading to improve your English?
So, I used to have free English lessons at the library in Townsville.
And so, to mention that quickly, most libraries around Australia tend to have this kind of set up, right? Where you can actually have free English lessons.
I believe so, in Townsville it was actually... I think two or three different libraries would have the same sort of service.
I heard about it quite a few different places.
So, if you know, it's worth looking for it if you want free English lessons because they tend to be really good.
Yeah and there'll be a whole group of people, right? And you guys can discuss things.
From all over the place, yeah.
Good way to socialise and meet people too, right? If you wanna make friends in Australia who are learning English as well.
So, I used to attend those lessons and I got a library card as well so, I would go every Monday for the Free English Lessons and then stay for the whole day, I didn't have a job, so I would stay at the library for the whole day.
And just read?
And just read.
And obviously the books were free, because you got a library card and you could borrow anything you want, just don't write in them.
Yes, I try not. So, yeah that was it for a long time and then when, because to be honest the English lessons were... They quickly got too simple for me, because I was like most people have jobs and you know they have different interests and the level of English I wanted to have was high like higher than the library could offer, I would say.
So, not to toot your own horn, but you were kind of advancing quickly because you were doing so much reading and studying at home, that's all you did every day.
Yes, I had more time, literally. Yes. So, I decided to stop going to lessons for a while. I would go to the library normally, but then I realized that I could help the teacher with the other students just like, you know, now that I can communicate a bit better, I can help you and I just offered and she was like oh yes. So she would, we would have a like a normal English lesson and then I would suggest some books or just read to them or just, you know, do activities with them. So, that's how I got into reading very quickly and yeah I really helped me.
So, how did you work out what books to borrow, though? When you first were starting as well. Did you just ask for help whilst you were there?
Not really. At first I looked for books I had already read in Portuguese so, I like Paulo Coelho is a Brazilian writer and I found one of his books, I don't like him, but anyway, I was like ok I'll read that in English because I already know the story in Portuguese. That was hard. Then I decided to read children's books. Like, I think Harry Potter was one of them.
We've all done that. I've read that both in French and Portuguese.
Craziness.
It's an easy one to find in many different languages.
If anything I didn't read Harry Potter in Portuguese.
Oh, really?
Yes, just in English, no all of them., but in English.
You haven't read all of them? You serious. Damn it, Kel!
I've seen all the movies.
Hey, Kel, have you seen Game of Thrones?
No. I don't like it. No, not my thing.
Alright, a, right back to the topic, anyway, yes.
So, yeah it was just children's books and then fiction, like novels and things like Yeah, that was it.
We'll get onto this I guess, but you really started basic and you just leveled that up and you found that very, very useful as opposed to diving in the deep end and just getting really difficult novels to begin with.
It was a really good measurement as well like for me to analyze my own improvement like oh, I can't understand, this is the book I want to read next week so, I work really hard on the basic ones and then when I feel, you know, that I can do it, I'll get this book and read it and then oh, well, like I can understand it properly. So, it was really like a measurement for me to see, ok, now I know my, you know, abilities with English.
Let's get into it, number one: practice reading English every day. That is a no brainer to me. If you guys are serious about your English. And the good thing is here doesn't matter what you're reading, right? It could be that you are reading books, comics, online articles, subtitles on films, whatever it is, obviously if you want to improve something you need to be doing it regularly and every day if possible. So, what are their suggestions here? Find a quiet place where you won't be disturbed. Turn off all electronic devices so, obviously that's if you've pulled out a book, make sure the room is well lit so, you can read clearly, have a dictionary nearby so, you can look up words you don't understand and write unfamiliar words into a notebook to revise it later. So, this I want to pull, I want to pick your brains about. What did you do with looking up words you didn't know when you were reading these books?
I would...you say underline?
Exactly, underline the words.
And I wouldn't stop my reading exactly at the same. I would be like ok, I'll find a meaning later, because I didn't want to stop the flow.
Well, you don't want to be stop/starting constantly. Oh, ok, I have read a sentence and I've got five words I have to look up in the dictionary.
It's not really encouraging, is it? Like if you reading something, like two paragraphs and I can't understand like 10 words, it's just like what's the point? So, I would just keep going. Try to understand them, like the context.
Based on context.
And then later get the definition.
I think that's a really good way of learning too. Quite often, you're obviously going to get through and you're going to have some words that you don't know. But then the good thing is once you've looked them up and you've learnt them you have to then go back and I would always suggest going back to find where they were in the text to understand the context again. So, you kind of test yourself the first time do I understand this new word based on the context? Because I don't know the word. Then you look up the word, learn it, see some examples go back and read that same sentence again where you've underlined that word and you can be like ahhhh, now I understand clearly what they were, what the exact context was and you can assess, were you right or not, right? Actually this is the gist of what I thought was going on, but the good thing here too is I would say write them down and revise them later. The act of writing the word down too will help you remember it, especially if you write out the definition of the word and the sentence that you read where that word was used and then you can revise those whenever you want. You know, in the book you can write them out. You can have them on your computer whatever it is, but yeah I would also suggest, sorry to interrupt, don't don't go too long without looking up the words. So, you can get carried away sometimes and read a few chapters, but I would usually do 10 pages or a chapter at a time so you'd finish a chunk of the book, a chapter and then go look up all the words you didn't know because the context and the sentences will still be in your mind. Whereas if you read the entire book and then you go back and trawl through. One, you probably won't do it because you can't be bothered, two; you'll get lost and you won't really remember it so break it down into manageable parts.
Yeah that's it. I think for me because I started with small books and children's books are not really difficult. It was less off at the beginning, but then as I progressed definitely I had to look up some words and even today like I think is very, very difficult to read something and understand every single word, depending on why you're reading, right?
Well, that even happens to me, I might recognize the word, but may not necessarily understand it, even today I have to look up something the word was parochial and someone who used this and I was like ok, I hear this all the time or at least occasionally from intellectuals when they're using very sophisticated language, but I didn't know the context in how to use it and to be honest I can't even remember right now the definition so, I'll have to look it up again, but that was an example where even I heard this word being said and I was like crap, I hear this all the time but I don't know how to use it.
Yeah, synonyms. You might know one word, but there are so many synonyms to these words, it's impossible to know all of them so...
A good trick to do that I would suggest obviously you can use Google Translate where you will put the word in the English side and then have it translated into your language so, that you get a solid idea of what it means, but then it will also show you synonyms for that word in English, but also synonyms in your language so that you can really get a good idea of it. But another trick is using Google Search and typing in the word definition and then the word that you want to search, right? So if I was looking up parochial I would type in definition parochial and it will usually give you the Google dictionary definition of the word with example sentences, with synonyms and everything just the first result. So, that's a really good trick, using the word definition and then the word or the expression that you're searching.
Alright, number two. What's number two there, Kel?
Choose books that interest you.
Another no brainer. This is an obvious one, obviously...
Very obvious.
So, it may be that you get a bit overzealous, you get a bit excited and you're like I'll just pick the first book that I find, but it's much better to read something you enjoy that you're going to want to do more of, right? Then to pick something that you're going to hate because then you have the added difficulty of not only, you know, sitting down and learning or reading in a different language, but reading something you don't like and you wouldn't read in your own language.
Absolutely. I have this problem that I had read in a book and if I don't like it, like the first two chapters, I'll stop. Some people have to go to the end and I'm like no, I don't like it.
It better to do that, it's better to do that. That's better, much better I think, because you're more likely if you drop the book there after two chapters and find something you like, you're probably going to do more reading in the same amount of time than if you continued with that book you didn't like, right? You said oh, I'm only going to get a new book when I finish this one. So, I think that's much better. But I would suggest searching for books online and reading reviews of them or reading what they're about usually, obviously, flip the book go over and find out if it's an interesting story and if you go to a library and borrow books, don't be afraid to take them back if don't like them. Find something else, most importantly as I always say to my students is enjoy the process of what you're doing. Pick something you would read in your own language, otherwise it becomes a massive chore.
Because for me, reading wasn't only a way to learn English, it was... I didn't want it to become a task, like oh, I have to learn grammar and usually it's not enjoyable, right? It tends to be quite difficult and you just get confused and everything. So, with reading I was like ok, now it's my spare time, I want to do something I enjoy and then I would just choose a book and read it.
That's a good sign. If you're seeing it as something you're going ok, I want to read this book now and relax.
And then you're studying at the same time.
Two birds one stone. You're doing two things at once and that's a good test, a good what we'd call, what would we call it, litmus test if you're going to like it or hate it so, if you see that you're trying to avoid this thing, obviously, get a new book. If you see that you're doing this thing because you really enjoy it, you're doing it without effort and for a long period of time without thinking about it, good on you, keep going. So, what's the next one, Kel.
Read books to match your literacy level.
That is really important I think. I was kind of... I when I was learning French I was often thinking about this and calling it sort of riding the wave. So, for instance you need to get a book that is at your level or just in front of you so, that you're more likely to continue on, you're going to be... you're going to be able to understand enough to want to keep going and for it to be effortless as if you were surfing on a wave, right? It's much easier to catch a wave and go from out in the deep ocean into the shore because the wave kind of pushes you, as opposed to having to swim or paddle the whole way in by yourself without that added push. So, if you can find something at your level, that you find easy to read, that you enjoy, that will act as a sort of push and it'll advance you quicker and then if you pick something that's either too hard and really difficult and boring because you have to look up every second word or too easy where you're not getting pushed at all.
Yeah. It has to be a challenge, but it can't be too hard that you can't overcome it, that you can't accomplish it. Like, if you... I wouldn't choose scientific sort of articles, you know, just because that's out of my depth.
Personally, yeah. If it is relevant to you career and it's your interest, do it for sure.
For me, personally, it was just pointless to try to read those very complicated medical articles.
And if you have no reason to, and you wouldn't do it in your own language anyway, what are you doing?
Absolutely. Later on I had to get my into academic articles though, like for IELTS. Because I did academic, the academic test. So, they have, they do have a more complex language, but yeah just start with something you like and make sure it's not too hard that you can't... make sure it's a challenge, but not to hard that you can't do it.
That's it, I sort of see this as the... how far in front of the donkey are you holding the carrot? So, this is a weird kind of analogy, right? But you imagine that if you're sitting on a cart and there's a donkey pulling the cart, you all know that kind of image of the man on the cart holding a fishing rod with a carrot on it, in front of a donkey to get the donkey to move forward. Now, if the carrot is too close to the donkey, that is if your materials that you're reading are too easy, the donkey is just going to eat the carrot and it's not going to move forward so, you're going to consume the material but you won't improve. If the carrots too far in front of the donkey, the donkey is going to flip you off give you the rude finger and say I'm not moving it's too difficult, too far. I can't be screwed. This is impossible and so if you pick something that is way too difficult for you to do in English, you're going to just avoid it because it's going to be too hard. So, the key here is getting the carrot at the right distance in front of the donkey's face to get it to move forward and so, that's why you need to pick something that is difficult, but not too difficult that you don't want to do it and not too easy that you're not improving that's it.
So what tricks do you have, Kel. If you're trying to work out whether or not a book is sort of at your level. I remember this from primary school. I think it was 10 words on every page you need to look up, it was that kind of thing. So, they would say if you need to look at more than 10 words on a page, the book's too hard find, find another book. I mean, this is for kids who are fluent in English so, maybe make more than 10, but was there a trick when trying to find things at your level?
Not quite. I would definitely if it was too hard for me to keep the flow sort of going, if I had to stop many times and if it was like too complex I would probably put it down, wouldn't keep reading it, or wait until I had improved enough to get it again and read it, but I would just... I think for me personally would all be about what interested me. Like if there's my favourite writer, for example, and I really like a reader like a book this person has written, I would be like ok I'm much more willing to give it a try and even if I don't like the story at first, I'd just keep pushing. That was pretty much my my trick, I think. Just see how I... see how it would go, I would say.
And then assess how much you're enjoying it or not. That's good, it was the same for me. I remember reading Harry Potter in French. I think I read one, two, three four, four of the books and I remember the first one having to look up probably 20 words every page, but I liked it and I liked the book and I like the process so I kept going. And then by the second book I was only looking at a handful of words every page and by the time I got to the fourth one it was like one every page. So, it doesn't take long for that to kind of wear off and if you're enjoying the process just keep going here.
Number four Kel, what's number four?
Read many different kinds of texts.
So why is that important?
I guess it expands your vocabulary, right?
Exactly. You're going to get exposure to many different things. If you only read Harry Potter, you're going to get a basic understanding of English, but your exposure is going to be pretty limited. You're going to get conversational English, probably a whole bunch of words that are pretty useless. You know, expecto patronum, whatever it is, all of those random words that are related to the casting spells and magic. So, that's why it's really important to kind of mix it up and this is where I would suggest reading different things like online articles, blogs about, you know, interesting facts about history, about science, about current affairs, different news stories because you're going to get all sorts of different vocab thrown at you that you will learn and have to look up and it's just a very quick way to round off your English and get a good comprehension.
It's interesting and like as you improve your interests kind of expands as well. So you might I personally started with, you know, non fiction or children's books and then I was reading other things that, at first, if I had started with them, I'd be like oh no, that's too hard or like I don't really like it, but as you progress and you see oh yes, I can do it. You'll get more like, I think willing to try different things and read different things as well. So, yeah.
So when did you make the switch? Did you notice a point at all in your English level where you suddenly started reading a whole lot of different things or was it just a continuous kind of expansion?
Probably a continuing expansion. But I remember the best feeling was hearing a word, I don't know if it was someone who said or I've read it somewhere else and I knew of the meaning because I had seen it in a book. I was like oh, so good.
I love that.
Like, I already know it!
That's a good point to make too because it does bleed over into your listening comprehension and your speaking, I think. You know, if you... all of these, you don't improve your reading and listening and speaking and... what's the one that I'm missing?
Writing.
Writing, independently. Every time you improve one you improve the others are passively, right? Without necessarily having to doing them all independently. So that's a good thing. The more you read, you are going to to see these new words when people use them or say them, you're going to understand them, you're going to try and use them yourself when you're speaking and then even when you're writing, you'll probably use more of these your words as well.
So, they all, all boats rise as the tide comes in, right?
Especially synonyms, I'm always talking about synonyms because it's such a big thing on IELTS and it's so good when you can...because you have a limited amount of time to do your writing test, for example, and you can't really be repetitive. So, if you write the same word a few time, it will be like...ok...
It was very big, it was very tiring, very annoying.
So reading really helps you to get the sense of ok, how can I say it in a different way? It's a really good.
And it is just constant reps of seeing well thought out sentences. So, a lot of the time they get to be sentences people probably wouldn't say, unless it's reported speech, but you're going to see good grammar all the time. So, the you read the more perfect or the better your grammar is going to be getting because you're seeing perfect grammar all the time because it's been edited by a lot of people.
I'm not sure if it's worth mentioning, but because I... not so much nowadays I'm not reading as much as I want to. I don't have time and that's so many other things to do, but probably because I was reading so much I speak a little bit funny, I usually say they context text first and then I go to the point. You always complain about it. I might say " one of the things I find like more attractive, and again, blah blah" and then I say...that's usually...
You got to tell me what the thing is that I'm thinking about before you set up the whole scene!
There's usually a sort of literary, sort of a way to explain things because when you start you're reading a novel you see that all the time. And I got this sort of issue because I speak like that and I shouldn't.
It's not the end of the world.
Yeah I know, but that's where I got it from, from reading so much.
Alright, number five. Number five here: ask yourself questions as you read. Now I don't remember specifically doing this myself.
Me neither.
That's what I was going to ask, did you ever do this? So, they've said here, as you read ask yourself questions to see if you really understand what's going on.
I would definitely... what I would do, I remember this book, it was so hard to go through it, it was so confusing and I had to go back a few chapters to understand what was happening. I was like ok, that's the story, but who is this person? And I would go back. I wouldn't necessarily ask me questions, but let me read this again and might have, you know, misunderstood something.
See, I think that is probably what I did as well and a much better way of doing it. If you find yourself reading something and you're lost, don't just keep going and I do this all the time in English where I'm reading an article and I'm daydreaming, I'm thinking about something else and I'm like how the hell did I just read a page of something and I don't even know what they said? I'm sure you guys have done the same thing in your languages. So, the important thing here is, I guess, if you notice that you're getting lost or you don't know who's the main character, where's the story set, what's happened so far, just go back and read it again and you're going to reinforce, you know, all the vocabulary you just went over anyway. So there's there's no losing by doing that. I mean, I know in your native language you tend to not want to go back because you're like I've already read this, I don't want to read it again, but the good thing is you need to reinforce these things in English so, don't feel bad for doing that.
Yeah. Number six, Kel.
Read words and sentences again and again.
There you go! There you go! I didn't even notice that until just now.
I know, not so much with reading, to be honest, but for me listening to podcasts I would listen to like a 30-minute episode and then write, listen again, writing everything down. It was really time consuming, I have probably like four or five books, like notebooks full of podcasts that are just transcribed, but it really helped.
This is why she's so good at transcribing podcasts, guys.
But I don't like with reading just read it will read it over and over again. I like writing so, I would... if I was like oh this is a really interesting phrase I would just write it to someone else and write it again. I don't know, just to have exposure. I don't know.
I think it's good, I think I would say that too, read words and sentences again and again and I would probably add to that read them out loud. You don't have to do it for the entire book, but every now and then I would do it to test my pronunciation or fluidity of speaking. I remember in French like you feel like in your head you're reading everything really well and it's very fluid, but you need to say the words out loud to really test sometimes you know one word will be followed by another one and if they stick their heart that pronounce, the fluidity isn't there. And so I have to keep testing myself and saying these things out loud, you know, reading these sentences and you'll even hear that with native speakers when you're reading something that you aren't creating in your own mind like, I'm speaking right now. I know what I want to say, when you're reading something it can be stop start and you know it's good to just practice that aloud.
It's good if you have someone to correct you as well. Like a native speaker, to be like, oh, contractions...
Yeah, we can talk about that later. Number seven is use flash cards. Now, this is something I'm a massive fan of, I really, really like flash cards. Did you use flash cards at all?
Not really. No.
So you can do this feat with physical flash cards, where you have what are pieces of card or paper with two sides that you can write one and then so, for instance, you write the word you've just learned on the front and on the back you write the definition and maybe an example sentence, that would be a flash card. So, you can flash it in front of your eyes, right? You you look at one side and you go ok, what's this word? I can see the definition and the example sentence. This is it. Or you can do it the other way around, show yourself the word and then try and guess what it means. I did this a lot for French and I found that it made the words stick in my head a lot quicker, you can do with a computer program I use the program called ANKI, which is ANKI, it's free download it, look at the YouTube videos online on how to use it, but if you're interested in flash cards for learning vocab and sentence structure it's really good.
It is interesting. I think you're a very visual learner and I have a little bit of that as well like with writing, I would write a whole sort of podcast just to have it. Now I can see it, it's much easier for me. I didn't really use flash cards, but I was definitely writing things over and over again and the funny thing I would remember where in the book the word was, like that I had written before, I would be like ok, I don't remember the meaning, but I know where to find it so I would go back and your mind starts working like a camera so, you're kind of like yeah...it helps.
It's really funny I remember with French that I was learning all these abstract words from a TV series I was watching and funnily enough I can't remember the words anymore, but I remember learning the word for a dam. Like the thing that holds water back, a dam, in French and I had a friend who is speaking to me who is French and I used the word and she was just like what the hell? How do you know that word? That's so random! And I was like ah because I just learned from this TV series and the flashcards taught me the word.
That's good. It's so good when someone recognizes like because it's usually, it's easier to be hard on ourselves. Oh, I'm not improving and then someone comes to you and say wow how do you know that? And again, I know I'm going over synonyms over and over again, but that's why it's so good to know them because you, at some point, you'll be saying things in a different way and people will be like wooow, that's it!
And I try to do that, you'll notice that in the podcast quite often, regularly, generally, I repeat words in different ways because I want to expose you guys to how I would say things with synonyms and so I do that here in the podcast to teach you new words, but quite often native speakers will do that and you probably do that in your native language where you will say oh the thing was really big, it was enormous, it was humongous. You'll use multiple words like that which is something to think about doing on the island whether writing or speaking trying to describe things in multiple ways. You can do that as a practice sort of thing on your own as well When you're just sitting in your room and describe things around you and try and use multiple words or multiple ways of describing those things.
So, the last thing here is a work on your fluency.
Yay!
So, what are they said here (?). Hesitating after every word can make it really difficult to understand what's going on in a text. For this reason, it's worth improving your fluency. One way to do this is by revising sight words, not sure what they mean there by sight words, I guess that's words you can see, there are common words such as the and him and her that you should know at a glance. OK, words that you see and you instantly know what the word is. So, this is where I think reading it out loud really comes into its own, where it's going to be very helpful.
And again knowing different ways of saying the same thing will help your fluency as you why not. I don't remember the meaning of every single word I want to use every single time so, I'm like okay how can I explain that's a different way. That's it and so it helps you, I guess, both ways.
And you will have noticed this Kel and I, well, were when we were sitting up in bed late at night I used to practice my flashcards, I used to practice my French flashcards and my Portuguese flashcards and she was always like are you casting a spell on me? Because I would be there whispering, you know, I'd be saying the things aloud because I would be using it as a practice for reading and then I would try and speak at the same time to get the muscles in my mouth used, to those structures those sentences, even if I'm not really saying it very loudly, I would kind of try an utter or mumble or just quietly say those words in the sentence as another way of practicing.
I don't know if other people experience the same, but when I started learning English I was really embarrassed of listening to myself speak in English. I was like I sound horrible. I don't know enough things correctly, but it's something you have to get used to.
The only way to overcome that is by doing more.
Yes, I sound completely different Portuguese. You kind of have to find your... I don't know, it's hard, it's hard to get used to it, but that's the only way to improve, right?
Exactly. So, I guess we'll finish up there, guys. There are 8 really good ways. You've got anything else that you want to add to that list, Kel? Are there any other ways that you improved your reading skills when you were learning English in Australia when you first got here?
I'll just just doing a lot of reading, but with out specifically, there are lots of samples, IELTS samples online and for the reading test is really important to understand how the test works and to time yourself so, you won't have time to read a two page article, you just won't have time. So, you have to practice, you know, like scanning, those things when you're reading and you just try to get the gist, is it right?
Exaclty, get the gist of something.
Yeah because you just won't have time. So, as you improve with your reading even if you are doing, planning on taking IELTS just have a look and see what your can do about it.
Well, I think it's important for any exam, right? Whether it's Cambridge, IELTS, PTE, don't just think oh, I read a lot of books, so I'm going to nail this exam. Think I need to learn what they want on the exam for the reading components and then practice that thing actively and whether it's PTE, Cambridge or IELTS, you're going to find example or sample questions online for sure for all of them. So, just typing, you know, sample questions reading IELTS, Cambridge, PTE, whatever it is, and then practice the actual questions themselves.
And reading techniques as well. Just Google it and see what you find because as you're saying it's a very different thing, it doesn't matter if I had read 30 books. Ok, I'm ready for a IELTS. Probably not. I'll probably get a really low mark because it's all about knowing how to do this.
Ironically, I'd probably get a lower mark than I would, if I didn't look at what was required and what they were expecting on the test. Even as a native speaker, if I went in and took my time reading this article and didn't realize how much time I'd get and don't finish it I'm not going to get a very good score. As if I had known ok, I get five minutes and it's likely to be this long, it's likely to be this kind of topic, you know, just make sure you prepare.
Awesome. Alright, well, that's it. I hope you guys have enjoyed this English reading skills article. Remember to go check it out. There'll be a link in the transcript and it is ukenglish.org.uk and the name of the article was 8 Easy Ways to Improve your English Reading Skills. See you next time, guys.
Bye!