Reading is one of the most useful things to do in a foreign language, especially for learning vocabulary such as common collocation, and for getting a feel for correct grammar. However, reading is often something that is difficult, and even more difficult to do consistently and to make sure you learn from. This article gives some tips on how to overcome sixteen typical challenges with reading in a second language.
I read too slowly
There is another whole article on this site on reading more quickly, with tips like getting out of the habit of reading slowly, predicting before you read, and leaving help like dictionaries until later.
I don’t read enough
Perhaps the best way to make yourself read more is putting away all distractions such as electronic devices. For example, while commuting, you could put your phone in your bag and read on paper or a dedicated device like a Kindle. Other good tips include setting aside a particular time to read every day, rewarding yourself if you read enough, and setting challenges such as one graded reader every week. There is another article on this site with suggested reading challenges.
I don’t enjoy reading
Tips to boost enjoyment include reading something more entertaining such as a comic, giving up and trying something different if you get bored for more than a page or two, sharing your feelings about what you read, and maybe listening to music while reading.
I give up on reading in English
If a text turns out to be boring and/ or too difficult, you should definitely give up on it and find something better. If that keeps happening to you, you should think about reading materials which exactly match your level (e.g. graded readers like Oxford Bookworms). You should also choose materials that you will definitely be interested in such as texts related to your favourite movies, or stories about your favourite celebrities. You might also want to read things which are shorter.
I fall asleep while I’m reading
People who often read at bedtime can find that the two activities becoming associated with each other and so all reading leads to sleepiness, even at other times of the day. You should therefore make sure that much of your reading takes place far away from your bed and/ or when you sleep. Other solutions to sleepiness include cold rooms, uncomfortable chairs, or even standing up to read. If sleepiness persists, you should change the reading material to something easier and/ or more stimulating such as a murder mystery.
I drift off while I’m reading/ I lose concentration while reading
It’s natural to sometimes pay less attention to some passages of texts, especially if there is a long description, or if what you read makes you think of something. In such cases, there is usually no need to re-read, as long as you can still follow the rest of what you are reading. However, if you still have problems focussing, you can use the techniques on fighting sleepiness above. In addition, you could read when you are most awake, e.g. before breakfast if you are a morning person. For some people it can also be useful to read out loud, although you will need to check that it doesn’t lead to the common problem of not really registering the meaning even when the sounds are coming out of your mouth.
I can’t scan when I’m reading
Although scanning for particular words, numbers, etc is a useful skill in situations like finding relevant parts of an academic paper, you need to be realistic about when it is possible to scan. Scanning only really works for numbers and for words which are very distinctive, such as words which have capital letters or are very long. In addition, it’s often impossible to scan the text for words that are in comprehension questions, as the words in the text are usually synonyms, etc, not those actual words. If you still want to practice scanning, good online practice of this will concentrate on looking for numbers and names, as in the IELTS Reading “who said what” matching tasks.
I can’t skim when I’m reading
There are two almost opposite typical ways of failing to skim well. One is trying to quickly skim the whole text, and the other is only reading the first sentence of each paragraph because you assume that it will state its topic. Instead, you should read the beginning of each paragraph until you are pretty sure you know what the topic is, then do the same with the next paragraph. You can understand and remember this technique by thinking about the meaning of “skim” in “skim a stone across the surface of a lake”, during which the stone jumps across the surface like someone jumping through a text.
I can’t find the right part of the text/ I can’t find the information I’m looking for
In addition to using good skimming and scanning skills, in many reading tasks you can assume that the questions are in order. If that is the case, you can read only between the answer to question 4 and question 6 to find the answer to question 5. It’s also worth thinking about how the wording in the text might be different from the question and searching for such similar words.
I get confused by long sentences/ complex sentences when I’m reading
Although you shouldn’t get into the habit of doing so with every sentence, it can sometimes be useful to mark the parts of a sentence with S for subject, V for verb, etc. You can also underline and link parts of the text that go with each other. For instance, it can sometimes be useful to underline and link verbs and nouns that make collocations but are not next to each other in the text.
I don’t understand the main message when reading
Even students who have completed every detailed comprehension task can sometimes have problems getting how positive or negative the writer is being, what the writer wants the take-home message to be, etc. There is specific practice of this available online and at the end of some IELTS Reading tasks. However, perhaps the best solution is lots of non-fiction reading for pleasure, as during such reading your main purpose will naturally be to get the main message of the writer.
I don’t understand nuances when I’m reading
This is obviously the most difficult part of reading, sometimes even for native speakers. The most obvious solution is to avoid texts which have lots of nuances that you could miss like humorous writing, and instead choose graded texts. It’s also best to use a good English-English dictionary instead of translating words in the text, as nuances of the meaning are often lost during translation. When you use a dictionary, you should pay attention to the part where it says if words have a positive connotation, negative connotation or mixed connotations. It’s also worth googling particularly strange collocations to see if they are references to specific things like quotes, famous jokes, or advertising slogans.
I don’t understand the cultural background/ cultural references when I’m reading
When I was regularly reading my second language of Spanish in Spain, the problem increasingly became not the vocabulary but rather not knowing the people, movies, products, etc that were being referred to. I therefore started reading with a dictionary on one side of my desk and an encyclopaedia on the other. It’s also sometimes worth doing a Wikipedia deep dive on any topics that often prove problematic like past prime ministers and local pop stars from that country.
I keep getting multiple-choice comprehension questions wrong
Typical traps that readers fall into include just concentrating on key words which are the same between the option and the text (instead of thinking about what it means in context), and missing the way that the correct option is rephrased in the text. Although there won’t be time to do so every time that you read, it can be worth spending some time underlining key words in the questions and then brainstorming how they might be worded differently in the text before you actually read it.
I take too long to answer reading comprehension questions
Typical mistakes include reading every word when looking for the answer, looking for key words which are actually phrased differently in the question and text, and searching for information which isn’t there such as a wrong multiple-choice option that simply isn’t mentioned. Tips above on skimming, scanning and thinking about different wording should help with this too.
I don’t understand what is being referred to in the text
If you often have problems understanding what “it”, “that”, “these…”, “which…” etc are referring to in the text, it is worth doing some specific practice of this. The missing text sections of Cambridge exams such as in Cambridge C1 Advanced Reading is useful for this. Alternatively, you could simply spend some time underlining those kinds of reference expressions and the other parts of the text that they refer to.