Reading is the best way of improving parts of your English such as your vocabulary and feel for what sounds right and wrong. However, it can be difficult to find the time, energy and focus to read in English, especially nowadays with so many other distractions. This article suggests twenty one challenges to set yourself to provide the motivation to do more and more useful reading.
Read a paragraph, page or chapter without a dictionary
As well as providing a good challenge, this should make reading faster and more enjoyable. If you still want to look up the words, this can be done after finishing that paragraph, page, etc.
Read something every day for a month
If it might be difficult to read much on some days, you can prepare a back-up source such as a website with very short news stories to read on busier days.
Read more quickly
Although reading quickly doesn’t test how much you understood (and so can sometimes lead to quickly not understanding), it can sometimes be good to time how long it takes you to read 500 words, an IELTS reading passage, etc, and then try to do it a bit more quickly next time.
Read for longer and longer
For example, you could start at five minutes a day and go up by at least ten seconds a day, seeing how long you can continue that streak can go before the next day is shorter than the day before. You could then start again at six minutes a day.
Read more
This is similar to the tip above, but trying to read at least five more lines each time that you read, then going back to one paragraph whenever that streak is broken.
Read until you have found ten things to learn
As well as making more sense that reading a certain number of pages, this should mean that you can read more and more each time as your level improves and/ or you get further into the book.
Finish one graded reader per week
This should be possible if you choose the right level of easy reader, as that should only mean about fifteen unknown words or phrases per day of reading. If that will be hard to do regularly, you could aim to do it for a certain number of weeks in a row, e.g. four graded readers in one month of your summer holiday.
Go up a reading level in six months
If you regularly read graded reading materials, you should be able to go from A2 level to B1 level, from B1 level to B2 level, etc in around six months (even if your other skills like speaking haven’t improved quite as quickly). For example, after six months of reading Level 5 graded readers, you should be able to cope with at least some Level 6 ones.
Start on beginner graded readers then step it up
Another good graded reading challenge is to start by reading one A1 level book, moving onto an A2 level book, then doing so as far as you can up the levels until the next book really is too difficult to get much from.
Start on baby books then step it up
This is similar to the challenge above, but starting at books for native speaker babies, trying ones for two-year-olds, moving up to ones for three-year-olds, etc, until you find your level (perhaps with books for teens).
Try a new source of reading every week
Although it is easier and better revision to mostly read the same kind of thing, e.g. the same newspaper column every week, also trying two new websites, new magazines, etc, can provide more range of language and an interesting challenge.
Do two reading tests a week
Doing a whole TOEFL Reading test, whole Cambridge Advanced Reading test, etc twice a week should be the right level of challenge for most people, providing enough time to analyse things you didn’t understand before you try the next one, but without forgetting everything by then.
Get higher reading test scores
Even if you don’t need to take an English-language exam, practice exams for TOEIC etc can provide a good way of judging that you have made progress in your reading scores.
The next level of reading test within a year
Similar to the tip about the next level of graded reader above, with enough reading practice you should be able to step up from Cambridge KET to First Certificate, from Cambridge Advanced to Proficiency, etc in about 12 months (even other skills like writing take longer to improve that much).
Step up the intellectual level
As well as moving to the highest level and age range that you can manage, you could also start at a book for beginners in that topic and see how far along the education system you can get before the reading is too difficult, e.g. starting with British Key Stage 1 textbooks and seeing if you can get up to undergraduate degree level on the same subject.
One book you’ve always wanted to read
Although regular reading of a variety of graded texts is better for most people, for some the challenge of reading the original texts of Harry Potter, The Notebook, etc, provides enough motivation to make up the extra difficulty and less useful language in them.
More days a week with authentic texts
Although it’s best if most of your reading is done with carefully graded texts, it can be interesting and motivating to mix in some materials that were written for native speakers such as magazine articles.
Step up the percentage of English
For example, you could follow two new English language accounts on social media for every new one in your own language that you start following.
Read something about every country in a year
One of the great things about reading in other languages is to be able to find out things that you wouldn’t be able to learn in just one. You can exploit this by trying to read a travel guide, a Wikipedia page, etc on each of the around 200 countries in the world over a year (a very convenient number to cover in 364 days).
Use more and more English subtitles
For example, you could aim to only use English subtitles within a year by only switching to subtitles in your own language when you really can’t follow what is happening, with that length of time hopefully increasing week by week.
Change one thing to English per week
For instance, you could change your TV menu page to English this week, your smartphone operating system next week, your browser opening page the week after, etc.