Reading Comprehension Skills and Strategies  

Improving your reading comprehension skills and strategies can help you build your English vocabulary and fluency-- and even share your thoughts more effectively in English.  

You can learn about a language by studying its vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. But to understand and speak it, there is no substitute for reading, listening, and speaking practice. Here are some hints for using reading skills and strategies to quickly increase both your vocabulary and your fluency in English.

As you read, concentrating on understanding meaning, not just words, your mind makes new connections. You start to recognize the normal patterns of English 

Hints for Improving Your Reading Comprehension

1. Don't look up every new word.

Concentrate on understanding the meaning of the passage you are reading.

You don’t need to look up every unfamiliar word. In fact, experts suggest that it’s better not to look up too many words. It interrupts the thoughts and makes it harder to understand the author’s point. When you aren’t sure of a word’s meaning, try to guess from the context (the main idea and the surrounding words.)

IF you still feel unsure and the word seems important (or if it occurs often in your reading), then look it up. Was your guess close? As you improve at guessing from the context, your reading comprehension will develop fast.

Once you understand enough English to focus on the author’s ideas, you will absorb the words and structures you read almost unconsciously.

Remember, the point of reading is not to recognize a lot of words, but to understand what the author is saying.

     2.   Adjust your reading speed to your purpose.

Not all reading is the same. When you are looking for one piece of information you can scan quickly for the right section. To read difficult academic text or study for an exam, you must concentrate. Look for the main point and the most important details. If you are reading for pleasure, you can relax. Read at a comfortable pace, without stopping to look up every unknown word. See Reading for Specific Purposes for more suggestions on effective reading.

     3.   Try these strategies:

English Reading Comprehension Strategies suggests ways to increase your reading comprehension skills, strategies, and retention (what you remember from what you read).

How to Improve Reading Skills talks about the value of learning several skills. It tells how to

• scan and skim for information, 
• analyze word parts,
• decode words, 
• recognize context clues, and
• make inferences.

Check your reading skill has a practice reading and questions so you can see how well you can use these skills. 

Reading Comprehension Worksheets and Listening Comprehension and Reading Comprehension Exercises link to more ways to practice.

Find English Reading Materials, Online and Off ...[give a reason to follow these links incl T3 article pg]

The Internet has lots of fairly simple reading selections as well. See Online Reading and Reading Articles to Improve Your English for some suggestions of good places to start.

Practice More Reading Comprehension Skills and Strategies

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 EnglishReading 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 Reading for Specific Purposes.

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

Reading For Different Purposes

• 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.) 

• Other 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.)

• 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.

More Ways to Practice Your Reading Skills and 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 Comp and Reading Comprehension Exercises. 

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