How can reading improve your English What reading strategies can you use to improve your vocabulary pronunciation fluency and enunciation In this instructional and motivational video I tell you how picking up a book can not only help you to improve your vocabulary but your speaking confidence and presentation skills as well Watch the lesson and let me know some of your favourite books in the comments section everyone Im Alex Thanks for clicking and welcome to this lesson on How to Improve Your English By Reading So it might be very obvious how reading can help you improve you know your speaking in English particularly your vocabulary but there are a number of reasons and a number of things that reading regularly and reading in specific ways can actually help you to improve your English and also not only like your reading English but your ability to speak properly or to speak confidently And again this applies not only to English as a second language learners but also to English speakers period So pick up a book and heres how picking up a book can help you to improve your English
So number one You can improve your English by picking up any book reading out loud and exaggerating what youre reading You might think This sounds ridiculous but if you are a second language learner this is a fantastic way to improve your enunciation your pronunciation and presentation skills Even if youre not a second language learner English as a second language learner
So for example it doesnt matter what type of genre you like what type of books you like Me personally I love science-fiction I love fantasy And I can turn to you know pages in any of these books and read out loud exaggerate what Im saying and just the act of doing this of speaking out loud what Im reading makes me feel again more confident speaking in front of an audience for example
So Ill just open to a random page here and Okay so in this book just so you know theres a horse his name is Artaq And it says Artaq did not hesitate He veered toward the Silver River The wolves came after soundless fluid black terror Will was sure that this time they would not escape Allanon was no longer there to help them They were all alone
Now what you notice is Im Im trying to exaggerate They were all alone Even like my ls And focus on every letter when youre reading because this type of reading reading out loud exaggerating if you are a professional this is a great way to build that clarity in your speech when youre speaking in front of people and pacing yourself how fast you speak as well is important obviously when youre giving a presentation
This second part Again this one can apply to both native speakers of English but its more specifically geared towards English as a second language speakers and that is Paying attention to word endings And especially ed and s endings So specifically past tense words like wanted okay Or plural words like hawks instead of one hawk because a lot of again English as a second language learners sometimes forget the ed ending when theyre reading Ive taught classes where you know students have to read out loud and theyre so focused on reading and getting the words correct but the pronunciation they just drop the ends of words sometimes especially ed especially s
So let me see if I can quickly find an example Okay heres one When he stayed on his feet When he Oh why am I pointing You cant see that You cant see that So When he stayed on his feet this is one part of the sentence Again you have the verb stayed so some new learners of English will sometimes read that as When he stay When he stay and they just drop the end So please please please focus on those ed and s endings and this will really help your fluency the ability of others to understand you as well as your enunciation Stayed okay
Number three Pay attention to punctuation Now punctuation refers to the use of commas periods question marks exclamation marks when youre reading By paying attention to these things you can actually focus on improving your intonation and your fluency two specific things So the intonation refers to the up and down movement of your voice when you are saying something or reading something So for example you know raise In the second part I said Raise intonation for yes or no questions So if you notice when youre reading that you know this person is asking a yes or no question then your voice should be moving up at the end And you know in speaking this also improves that
So for example in this book there is Okay heres a yes or no question the question is Did you find her
