3663. Another Person who Learned a Lot by Just Reading Books

 Quite many students learn and acquire a second or foreign language by reading books. Me myself. 

Well, as you know you need to practice all four language skills, namely listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Ok. I always have a book in English which I’m reading. Now, two: a graded reader plus Jeremy Harmer’s The Practice of English Language Teaching. 

I’m learning and re-learning quite a lot from this latter one. Well, also from the graded reader. From Jeremy Harmer I’m learning a lot of insightful points for teaching my English lessons. 

Now we have summer vacations, but I’m taking lots of mental notes for those classes I’ll teach in fall. And the graded reader, well, basically it’s B2 level, yet it serves the purpose for me for reviewing lots of expressions and ways to say such and such things in English. Remember that level is upper intermediate. 

When I come across a new phrase or word, I stop reading, study and take like a mental photo of it. In that way I can tell you I’m enriching and enhancing my vocab. 

Many people learn English that way. And when you’ve read quite many books … you may be piling up a lot of lexis. 

You may remember expert Stephen Krashen used to say that reading is a language learning booster, especially novels – also non-fiction is okay, but novels may bring about everyday English. 

When I finish that graded reader I’ll continue with David McCullough’s The Wright Brothers – just awesome and an unabridged book. 

In class I encourage and insist my students to read books, on their own, despite we also follow a textbook or coursebook. 

There are different styles about learning through reading, and some learners face up books which are somewhat above their levels, and other learners look up some words in the dictionary, or try and figure out the meaning from the context. 

Anyway, we’re in summer and may be on holiday: reading is a stupendous way of enjoying that rejuvenating period plus keeping on learning and acquiring a second language. Have a nice day.

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