Reading Strategies Practice 

Practice the reading strategies and skills you will need for various purposes with the varied reading selection links below.

Guided practice like this, using a variety of texts, will help you master the different kinds of English reading you'll need to do.

It’s also excellent practice for English reading tests.

Use the pre- and post-reading suggestions and comprehension questions in the reading links below as models to guide your independent reading.

You can ask yourself similar questions on your own to help you get the most from each type of reading.

To learn more about the value of these questions and other useful reading strategies, see Reading Comprehension Strategies.

For a discussion of the different purposes of reading, and how to adjust your reading speed and focus for each, as well as other hints for reading better in English, see ESL Reading Hints and Reading for Specific Purposes.

For skills to help you read better, and some practice with those skills, see Improve Your Reading Skills for Better Reading Comprehension and Check your Reading Skill.

Reading For Different Purposes

• For guided practice using scanning and skimming to find specific information, see Practice Skimming for Information (on Mental Health)

• To practice reading critically, to evaluate the author’s point of view, authority, or biases, see Critical Reading Exercise, a quiz asking you to decide which interest group made each of the statements given. This is good practice in looking for bias.

• Reading for Pleasure and Fluency: The best way to practice reading strategies and increase your reading comprehension (and vocabulary) is to read a lot. So find English readings-- long or short-- on subjects that interest you. 

Choose readings that aren’t too difficult, so you can enjoy them without looking up too many words. As you read them repeatedly, you WILL learn the words, and have a better understanding because you have learned them in context.

• To prepare for a multiple-choice reading test (including the reading sections of the TOEFL or TOEIC), see Practice for Reading Tests (a reading and quiz on American agriculture before the Civil War) and A Practice Reading Test (on one type of mental health therapies.) 

        More test-prep reading (or listening) practice with questions to check your comprehension: 

-- Reading Comprehension Test (on a reading/talk about 'Where Ideas Come From'), 

-- Reading Comprehension Practice (on TED talks about 'Nature's Genius' and a 'Clean Energy Proposal'), and

-- Comprehension Worksheet (a TED talk about new ways of looking at cancer)  with  links on those pages to the TED website which provides the written scripts to read directly under the videos.)

For the pdf versions of these pages, see Listening and Reading Comprehension Exercises.

Practice Your Reading Strategies 

Talk about books and ideas with your friends (in English whenever possible). Join a book club or discussion group. Find quizzes and games connected with various books or topics-- the more the better!

Read the news or blogs online and do any related reading activities provided. (For many you can read and add comments, or even complete a survey.) 

The more you read in English, the more enjoyable you’ll find it. For reading suggestions, see Finding English Reading Materials,  Online Reading, & Listening & Reading Comprehension Exercises. You might also enjoy these articles on various topics that have been discussed in more depth in the English Detective newsletter:

• Tony Hillerman and his Navajo Detectives,
• Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective,
• New Years Resolutions, and
• Learning from Failure.

Home> ESL Reading> Reading Strategies Practice.

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