Why learn English from textbooks? Choose a book and read
In this article, I talk about my experience of reading unadapted literature in English in order to expand my vocabulary to the level of fluency.
The approach can be used starting from the Upper Intermediate level. The approach is ideal for those who want to finally take a break from studying and just “chill” for a month or two reading a good book.
Briefly about the style of presentation: it may seem strange that I wrote the article in the third person. It just helps me to maintain the role of a researcher and the objectivity of my judgments.
So, let's begin…
A little background
In 2021, the author of the article took a language course to prepare for the Cambridge C2 Proficiency exam to confirm a high level of English proficiency, but did not want to bother taking the exam on-site.
Among other things, the course showed how far the author's vocabulary lagged behind the C2 level. Cramming such a mass of words was useless – no methods would help. It was necessary to make English a part of everyday life. A decision was made to read unadapted literature in English, to read a lot and regularly. And all that was left was to get interested in reading.
Reading and rereading
As is known, for educational purposes it is useful to read English books aloud, and also to supplement it with listening to audiobooks in English and Russian.
Rereading is often used to consolidate material, including when studying foreign languages. (Further in the text, any repeated reading or listening will be called “rereading”.)
You can speed up the memorization of new words by choosing the right “rereading” intervals:
Leave a delay of at least 1 day between “rereadings” so that the words are erased from short-term memory. The goal is to store the words in long-term memory
“Reread” quite often (for example, once every 7-14 days) in order to remember the text well enough
“Reread” at least 1 chapter to always work with a certain complete semantic picture
“Rereading” is convenient to use as an additional interval repetition of words, in which memorization occurs directly in the process of reading/listening against the background of mental images and empathy with the feelings of the characters.
“Rereading” has obvious advantages over reading it once:
New books contain many new words that require extra time to learn.
Audiobooks in English are indispensable for correcting the pronunciation of exceptional words, proper names and numbers
Low frequency words, no matter how you teach them, are forgotten if they are rarely used.
Audiobooks in Russian translation are in themselves a great way to spend time with friends, not to mention the opportunity to explain some interesting points from the original book
Books with intricate plots and references to future events are simply interesting to reread
And for the future: using “used” books, you can learn a second foreign language… a third…
A few words about the universal sequence
There is simply no universal sequence for “rereading”. Depending on the situation, it could be the original in English, a translation into Russian, a printed format, or an audiobook.
Choosing the optimal “reading” sequence for a particular book depends on many factors, such as:
What is the purpose of reading?
Who do you read with?
How long does it take to read the work?
How long is the piece and how long have you been reading it?
Have you read this work before and how long ago?
Have you read other works by this author?
How much time can you devote to reading every day?
In what environment do you read?
The only universal rule is that you need to “read” every day. Whether it’s 15 minutes of an audiobook or 1 page of printed text, but every day.
Selecting the optimal sequence
When choosing the optimal “rereading” sequence for a particular work, one essentially has to solve two interrelated problems:
Maintaining interest in “reading” within each iteration
Learning new words and phrases in the context of a “re-read” book
Interest in “reading”
To maintain interest in “reading” at each iteration, you need to:
Have a clear picture of the meaning after the first “reading”
Supplement the semantic picture with new details after each subsequent “rereading”
As a rule, it is enough to first read the printed book in English, then listen to the audiobook in Russian, then listen to the audiobook in English.
If the initial reading in English seems uninteresting or incomprehensible for some reason, then you can completely switch to listening to the audiobook in Russian. Perhaps you will want to read this book in English later, or perhaps not…
Learning words in the context of a book
The highest rate of replenishment of passive vocabulary is ensured by the following “reading” sequence:
Reading unadapted text in Englishwhen unfamiliar words are written down, the next day they are “translated”, on the third day their interval study begins
More about translations and word study:
As a “translation” it is recommended to copy the definition of the word in English and, if available, a picture, for example from Cambridge Dictionary. The Russian translation can only be used if the English definition is not clear without it
Spaced repetition of words is a daily work that goes hand in hand with “reading”. For intensive expansion of vocabulary, we recommend the AnkiDroid mobile app and the method described in the article Rapid replenishment of passive vocabulary of a foreign language by the method of interval recall
Listening to an audiobook in Russianwhen the correct semantic picture is finally formed, all incorrect translations are corrected, the first interval recall of new words in the context of the book occurs
Listening to an audiobook in Englishwhen incorrect pronunciation is corrected and a second interval recall of new words occurs in the context of the book
Figure 1 shows an example of what an optimal rereading sequence might look like for a short book like The Godfather.
As conclusions
Choosing the right rereading sequence allows you to kill three birds with one stone: increase your interest in reading, speed up the expansion of your vocabulary, and develop basic language skills.
And all that remains is to choose interesting books again and again.
