Reading and Study Skills: Becoming a better reader

Tips for a better reading experience:

• read more fluently

• expand your vocabulary 

• put aside time to read

• read for pleasure

Improving your vocabulary counts

Science shows that the more words you know, the easier reading is and the better you become at it. The relationship between vocabulary knowledge and understanding a text is so strong that by merely testing a person’s vocabulary it is possible to determine how easily that person can understand a text (Grabe, 2009).  The most essential skill required to read fluently and understand what is read is the ability to recognize words quickly and automatically (Grabe & Stoller, 2011).

When do you know a word?

You know a word when you know : 

• its spelling and pronunciation; 
• its part of speech (e.g., noun or verb);
• some of the other forms of the word, or the "word family";
• some of the other related meanings, such as synonyms and antonyms;
• how it is used, e.g. if it is formal or technical.

Dealing with unfamiliar words

Particularly when English is your second language unfamiliar words in a text will jump out at you.  Research studies have shown that for second language learners to understand a written text, they should understand between 95% (Laufer, 1989) and 98%  (Hu & Nation, 2000) of the vocabulary.  So keeping a dictionary close by when reading a text in your second language improves reading comprehension.  However, to avoid looking up too many words, which can slow down your comprehension, focus on the more key words  of the text,  such as: 

• Words in headlines 
• Words in the first sentence of the text 
• Words you see more frequently in the text

Tips for improving your vocabulary

Start a vocabulary notebook: 

Start a notebook, digital or paper, listing the words you had to look up while reading course materials. Keep it as simple as you choose, to just include the meaning, or also add  in the part of speech, an example of its use in a sentence, its pronunciation, synonyms and antonyms, etc. 

Focus on word families:

Many words in English are built around a root to which prefixes and suffixes are added to create new words. For example, if the prefix multi- and the suffix ­-al are added to the root culture this results in a new word, multicultural. 

Prefixes go before the root of an existing word creating a new word with a different meaning; e.g.- unbalanced (balanced); disconnect (connect); nonsense (sense); unhappy (happy); befriend (friend).

Suffixes go after the root of an existing word creating a new word that is often a different part of speech than the original. e.g. – friendly, friendship, friendliness (friend); happiness; happily (happy);  decoration, decorative, (decor).

Recognizing the root of a word helps to increase your understanding.  

The following sources provide some more examples of word families:

What Are Word Families?

Word formation

What is a Word Family?

Word Family: Definition and Examples in English - 

This website provides exercises for the practice word-formation.

Check out some of these vocabulary games / apps

Google Word Coach 

Words with Friends

Vocabulary Builder from Magoosh

Improving your reading fluency

Just as you can be fluent in a language, you can also be a fluent reader. A fluent reader is able to read a text at a good speed, with a good understanding of what is being read and without having to interrupt their reading to look up vocabulary meaning or background.

Among the benefits of improving reading fluency is to be able to keep up with your course requirements, even surpass them and to generally enrich your educational experience.  As with everything, the more you read the better reader you will become.

There are exercises you can do to improve your fluency; one is offered below:

Re-reading a text 

1. Take a text you haven’t read before.  Set a timer for 2 minutes and read the text at your normal reading speed. It doesn’t matter if you don't get through all the text. 
2. When the timer is up, markthe point you got to in the text. Grade your understanding of the part of the text you read with a score from 1 (little or no comprehension)  to 10 (full comprehension of everything you read).
3. Start the 2-minute timer again and read the text from the beginning. When the time is up, mark again the point you got to in the text you got and grade your understanding of the part of the text you read. 
4. Start the 2-minute timer one more time (last time!) and read the text again from the beginning. When the timer rings, indicate how far you got and assess how much you understood.   
5. Look at your markings. Did you make it further into the text each time? Even being able to read a few more words is progress! 
6. Now, look at the scores you gave yourself for your understanding of the text. Did the scores increase with each reading? Hopefully, your comprehension increased somewhat at each re-reading. 

[Source: https://libguides.uvt.nl/academic-reading/getting-better-at-reading-2 (direct quote)]

Further information sources:

Speed reading made easy with Spreed. (2014). Administrative Professional Today, 40(6), 4.

A note on formal and informal writing

Formal language is used in academic texts and other for more serious situations. Informal language is generally used in more relaxed and familiar situations. 

The Cambridge Dictionary provides some good examples of each.