How To Improve Your Reading Comprehension

CC subtitles available in English.

Reading comprehension is crucial in language learning and in life. The faster we can read, the more quickly we understand what we’re reading, and the faster we learn. There are tricks we can use to improve our reading comprehension. I discuss them in this video.

0:00 The rich get richer and the poor get poorer with reading comprehension.
1:17 To improve your reading comprehension you need to read a lot.
2:14 How I'm improving my reading comprehension in Arabic.
3:42 For me, 15% unknown words in a piece of content is ideal.
5:32 Don't neglect your listening comprehension!
___

My Podcast:

#reading #readingcomprehension #polyglot

[Thelinguist]

What helps you to improve your reading comprehension?

[bed]

According to some neuroscientists; when you read, your brain is shooting signals to your vocal chords and the muscles are moving as if you are speaking, just at a level that cannot be heard. So people who are well read tend to be more articulate. I guess this applied to language learning means that when you finally get to the output phase, you can improve at speaking quicker than you might expect due to plenty of reading input beforehand.

[jsjourney]

I’ve struggled with reading all my life. At one point I just avoided reading because the comprehension would confuse me and I would get irritated with myself. As an adult I realized I learn better by listening and seeing . Audible and speak text have really helped me. I forgot how much I actually enjoy reading when I don’t have to keep going over the same paragraph over and over again 😅.

[jpknijff]

Great talk as always. As a language teacher working increasingly with reading over the years I see all the time how crucial it is, but also how important it is for students to hear me read (or speak freely) in the target language. Even people who believe they need grammar grammar grammar calm down when reading a nice book at their level and simply start to enjoy learning the language.

[FOXMAN]

I love how Steve answers the question in literally under the first 2 seconds

[tedc]

Thank you. Very helpful. When I practice reading (Mandarin), I've been reading a sentence and then listening to it. I'll try listening to it first and then reading. That might help a lot -- if nothing else, it will help me remember those "I've seen it before, what does it mean?" words. As you said in another video, vocabulary is learning, forgetting, and seeing again.

[rubentriana]

Dejo constancia que este es el primer video que pude escucharlo sin la nesecidad de subtítulos. Por fin siento que estoy progresando con mi inglés

[haitiancreolewithluciano]

Love your videos. You're an inspiration for the community!

[AHMEDAIDROUS-rrhj]

Good morning from Saudia Arbia right now, Let me say thanks God bless you for everything you do for us, You are amazing teacher ever

[anajaqueline]

Thank you for the video Mr. Kaufmann, it’s very important !

[brettchristopher]

Thanks so much Steve - helping us all - you're awesome. - helping us all - Brett from the land down under!

[wjtffyv]

You are addressing the heart of my problem. That is amazing. Thank u

[khalilahd.]

I just bought LINGQ to help with this in my Japanese studies and it’s already helping so much! 😊

[ShamsDawran]

Hello Mr. Steve I hope that you feel fine and great.
I always appreciate your ideas and information about languages as well as your flair in a variety of languages.
Thanks from your effective videos.

[pauld]

I think the best way to start reading in the target language is to read graded readers.

And because they come with the audiobook, you can listen while you are reading.

[Tighris]

I find like 10% new words in LingQ to be my sweet spot. So I can guess a lot of words by context while still finding new words to learn. And I can actually enjoy the reading instaed of it being like a chore.

[gamenailed]

Great advice. I suffer from exact problem with German. I can read relatively well now, but my speaking and listening skills definitely need a lot of improvement.

[luzimarmendessouzavisintin]

Thank you for the video, you made me realise that I'm in the right way.

[mojganzzarif]

Very informative, especially I like that 15% .
BTW, it’s interesting that you are learning Farsi and I am a Farsi speaker. بسیار ممنون از ویدیوهاتون

[sarahibrahim]

I'm glad that you're learning Arabic 😍