Welcome back to Learn Academic English today's video I'm continuing my series about how to read
better in English last week I taught you about reading speed including why reading speed is
important and how to calculate your reading speed in today's video I'm sharing six tips
to read faster in English tip one know your reading speed that's the first step I always
say that you can't solve a problem if you don't know what you're dealing with so if you haven't
figured out your reading speed yet check out this short video and even if you already calculated
it you might want to do it again just to make sure that it was accurate the first time second
what you do before you read is really important if you spend just two or three minutes
previewing the reading you will actually find that it will help you understand more and read faster
think about it this way if you have to read an article for school or work it's probably
not very easy reading right probably you will need to read it two or three times or maybe more
in order to understand everything but if you spend a couple minutes previewing it actually helps
you to feel more comfortable with the reading and then maybe you won't need to read it so many times
how to preview well just follow these simple steps first flip through the reading and notice how many
pages is it are there headings or sections look at the title does that give you an idea
what the reading is going to be about read the headings and look at the pictures and the charts
those are there because they represent some of the important ideas in the reading and ask yourself
some questions what do you already know about this topic and what do you think the reading is going
to be about thinking about these questions before you read will help you feel more comfortable
and that will help you to read faster trust me it just takes a couple minutes but it's worth it
so try it next time and see if it helps you next you may want to preview the important vocabulary
for this purpose you don't need to know everything about the words you just want to know what the
important words are going to be and know the basic meaning so that when you see them in the reading
you can continue reading without stopping to think or look them up this should not take
more than a couple of minutes and if you're in a hurry you can skip this step but how to know
what the important vocabulary is well your book might have a vocabulary list or a glossary either
before or after the reading take a quick look at it and you might want to take a picture of it
keep the list near you so that you can check it if you need to but only do this if you get stuck
if your book doesn't have a vocabulary list don't worry about it you probably won't need it you may
be able to guess the meaning of the words or skip them while you read finally if there are
questions to answer based on the reading like these take a quick look at them because the
questions usually refer to the most important ideas in the reading and that will help you to
focus on those main ideas while you read so again for step one know your reading speed and step two
preview the reading let's go to step three step 3 don't pronounce the words while you read
keep your mouth closed don't move your lips and don't say the words to yourself
it might seem like a good idea to say the words to yourself but it actually makes you read slower
and understand less reading with your voice is a nice way to practice pronunciation but it's
not a good way to read if you're trying to read faster a similar tip is not to
use a pencil to point at the words while you read this is not necessary just let your eyes
move over the page naturally step four read words in groups not one word at a time if you
think about the way that the brain understands language we don't think about one word at a time
instead we think about words in groups or phrases think about this example
I have been living in California since 2002. I have been living in California since 2002.
when you read that sentence your brain doesn't think about each word one at a time you don't
think I have been living etc instead your brain processes groups of words I have been living in
California since 2002 in this sentence your brain focuses only on the important words I living
California since 2002 and your brain skips some small words that are not important you want to
do the same thing when you read focus on groups or phrases and don't read one word at a time tip 5 is
about vocabulary what should you do when you see new vocabulary while you're reading to read faster
you want to skip new words if you can understand the main ideas then you actually want to skip new
words while you're reading sometimes the new words are really important to the meaning of the reading
we can call these key words that we see again and again you will probably notice that if you
continue reading you will get more information that will help you understand the meaning of those
new words if you do this you will not interrupt the flow of your reading and you will not waste
time stopping and looking up words at the end of your reading if you still feel that you don't
understand those words then you can spend some time looking them up tip 6 is to read more if
you're serious about improving your English you want to read for at least 10 minutes a day this
will not only help you read faster but it will also help you improve your vocabulary spelling
grammar and writing the important thing here is to read something that you like
look for websites that have articles about topics that you enjoy reading and check that they are at
the right level you don't want to read something that's too hard or too easy try to practice
reading at least 10 minutes a day and then check your reading speed once or twice a month to see
if you improve if you don't see improvement then increase your reading time so that you
read about 20 minutes a day or more the more you practice the better you get that's it for today
let me know in the comments below what websites you like to use for reading practice and I will
share some of my favorites in the comments too if you found this video helpful please share it
with your friends so that I can help more English learners like you thank you and see you next time!