This is Jack from tofluency.com, and this is episode 10 of the To Fluency podcast. Learn English with me, Jack. Now today I'm going to talk about a powerful reading method that will help you improve your English. And I'm going to go through this step by step.
So today you're going to learn the difference between intensive and extensive reading, Intensive versus extensive, how to find books in English that are going to help you, and a reading method that ensures that you enjoy reading and also that you learn new words and phrases. So this is perfect for you if you enjoy reading to learn English, you're not quite sure about the best way to do this, and also you're not sure which
books are going to help you. Now before we talk about intensive and extensive reading in the books, etcetera, I do want to say if you want to get a free book, then go to tofluency.com. There will be a link in the podcast description and you can download that for free. It's going to give you a plan of action so that you can actually move forward with your language learning.
And also if you enjoy this episode then please share it with your friends and if you are feeling very generous, leave a review below. OK, so let's start with intensive versus extensive reading and why this is important because there are two types of reading when it comes to language learning. In intensive is where you read to learn new words and phrases and you analyse the text and the grammar. So you pause. You stop if you don't know a word and look this up, or you
pause. You stop when when you want to have a look and think about a sentence. So you're really focusing on the words and the phrases and the grammar and not the book in general. Now, extensive reading, this is spelt EXTENSIVE. Extensive reading is when you read for fun and you are reading just to enjoy the story or the book in general. So you don't stop to look up new words and phrases. Instead you just continue reading like you would in your own language. So that is a difference.
Intensive is when you're focusing on the words and phrases. You're focusing on learning structures and grammar. Extensive is when you're just reading a book and you don't stop, so you're trying to get the general meaning of the story or the book in general. Now you might be thinking, which method is best? Which one should I focus on? Well, it depends on a few factors, and soon you're going to learn how you can do both at
the same time. But first, let's discuss which books in English are best for you. Which books you should buy or read to help you learn English. Now, my answer to this is very simple. There is no one book that is perfect for everyone. So there's no book that is going to be perfect for everyone. A book that suits you. A book that is perfect for you probably won't be perfect for another learner listening to this podcast. So with that in mind, I recommend that you find books that first.
And there are three categories here. First, books that interest you. Books that interest you. Don't waste your time reading something that you find boring. If you find it boring, put that book down and find a different book. There's no reason to read something that doesn't interest you. Because we have access these days to books from all over the world. We can loan them, we can read them online, we can buy them. We have access digitally to so
many different books. And we can also think about this in ways of this could be an article online or it could be a magazine. So read things that interest you. And the main reason for this is that firstly, it's more fun because why read something that you find boring? But secondly, if you find it interesting, then you're likely going to use the language that the book uses in everyday life. You want to talk about this
book. It's on a subject that interests you, and if a subject interests you, then you're likely to talk about it. Now #2 find a book that you can understand. Find a book that you can understand. There is nothing more frustrating than reading something that is too difficult. So this means that you should find something, a book that isn't going to be too complicated. And this is going into the area of something called comprehensible input. This is where you get input.
You listen to things, you watch things, and you read things that you can comprehend, that you can understand. Because if something is going to be too difficult, you're going to be frustrated by reading it. And also, it's difficult to learn new words and phrases when there are so many new words and phrases to learn or when you're not understanding what is going on in the story. Now, a quick tip for that is a graded reader. A graded reader.
Now, these are books that have been adapted for learners like you. So you can say, OK, I have a lower intermediate level or a higher intermediate level and you can find books that have been written specifically for your level. Now if you want to learn more about this, just search for graded readers. And I'll leave these tips in the description if you want to know how to spell this. And what's important to know is that basic English is good. So basic English is good.
This is how you are going to learn new words and phrases in a more natural way. So, so far, we have said that you should find books that interests you, things that you enjoy, and books that you understand now. The third tip is to find books that are specific to how you use English now or how you want to use English. So books that are specific to how you use English now or how you want to use English in the future, for example.
Here is a very specific example. If you're going to take the IELTS exam, read IELTS sample papers or IELTS reading model answers because that is what you need to focus on. Or if you need to learn business English, then find books that are related to business. If you want to be able to have good everyday English where you can use small talk and have conversations, then read books that have conversations in them.
This is just getting a little bit more focused so that you are really maximizing the type of book that you're going to read. And what I recommend you do as well is go to a website that allows you to have a look inside a book. For example, I when I'm looking at a book, I go to Amazon.com and it says take a look inside Kindle and e-book. And I start reading a few pages if it looks good, if it's interested me, if it's comprehensible, etcetera, then
I'll buy the book. But if not, then I'll move on, find a different one and get that one instead. So feel free to go on Amazon or whichever website you use to get audio books and, and ebooks and just start reading a book and see if it's right for you. Now, I mentioned audio books there. I think it's also smart as well to find books that have audio books because what you can do is a few things. You can read the story 1st and then listen to it afterwards, or you can even read and listen at
the same time. Now, you might not like audiobooks, so it might not apply to you, but a lot of people want that audiobook so that they are able to listen and while they're reading or listen to an audiobook after they have read the story. OK, so let's now say that you have your perfect book and you understand the difference between intensive and extensive reading. What's next? So how best read a book?
This is what I think is a really good way to make sure you're getting extensive and intensive reading at the same time. And it also cuts down on it reduces the frustration. So this is a method that will include both both intensive and extensive reading. And there are three steps here. It is firstly, read extensively. So read the book without stopping, but highlight vocabulary and grammar that you don't understand or any phrases that you want to learn.
So you don't stop when you're reading, but either on your e-book reader or on a piece of paper, a paper book, you highlight words and phrases that you don't understand or words and phrases that you want to learn. You keep reading for a chapter or a certain number of pages, and again, you don't stop to look anything up yet. But once you have read a chapter or once you come to a stage where you think, OK, I'm going to go back now and have a look
at these words. You can go back, look at the highlighted words and phrases, and then use a dictionary or whatever tool you want to use to understand what these words and phrases mean. So again, Step 1, you read extensively, but highlight vocabulary and grammar. You read for a certain amount of time and then you stop, go back and look up these words and phrases that you don't understand. So this allows you to read for fun, but also to learn something new at the same time.
And you're not stopping every time you don't understand something. Instead, you're reading and understanding what is happening in the story or in the non fiction book. And if you find a book that's comprehensible, that's not too difficult for your level, then this should be relatively easy to do. So you're reading for pleasure, you're highlighting language as you go, and then one, once you reach a really good point, you can go back and look up the words that you have highlighted.
Now this method doesn't stop there because there is a way that you can remember the vocabulary and grammar that you've just learnt and a way for you to internalise this. Now this is my favorite method and I've talked about this before with the LRRC method, but it's more specific, this one to words that you have written down or read. And this is what I recommend you do because it's going to help you learn new words and phrases, vocabulary, grammar, and just
English in general. There are three steps to this. Firstly, you take the sentences that you have highlighted and copy them. Now you can do this with an e-book. There's a way to do it if you go to the description. I have a link where I give a guide on this, but you can copy and paste them from your kindle or your ebook. Then you paste them into spaced repetition software and create digital flash cards.
OK, so you take the sentences, put them into software so that you can create digital flash cards and then you repeat the sentences over a few weeks so that you internalize the words and phrases and therefore the vocabulary and the grammar that you have learnt. This is a very simple thing to do and it only requires a few minutes of your time every day, but it will do amazing things for your English.
Now, once you have done this, once you have gone through each chapter, take in the words and phrases, put them into software, learned them or repeat them over the long term. Go back in about a month and read the book again and you'll be amazed at how much you have learned and how much more you understand. This time you won't need to
stop. You'll be able to fully focus on extensive reading because what you've done is you have taken the words and phrases that you didn't understand or the ones that you wanted to learn. You have repeated these using software. So it's a very efficient way to do it. And then you go back and you see these words and phrases and you just know what they mean. Now, this method, this whole method might sound quite complex, but it's very simple once you learn how to do it.
So again, what you need to do is find books that are perfect for you, read extensively so that you can enjoy the book. But while you read the book, highlight words and phrases. Then go back after a chapter or two chapters and look up what these words and phrases mean. Then take those highlights, the highlighted sentences, put them into software, repeat them over the long term, then go back and read the book again.
This is how you can use one book to learn so much English, but also have fun reading at the same time. OK, I hope you have enjoyed this episode. Before you go, be sure to check out the description because I'll link to the blog post that I wrote on this method so you can follow it more step by step. And you can read the method too. And I've also got a couple of videos in there as well.
And then while you're on my website, click the link where it says free book at the top and download my book, The Five Step Plan for English Fluency. And please like and share this podcast and leave a review if you really enjoy it. Thank you so much for listening and I will speak to you soon. Bye bye.