What stops so many English learners from reading more in English?
What should you choose to read?
And why is reading so great for you English? It helps with your speaking, with your writing.
All this and more in the Speak with Nick podcast.

I’m Nick Simcock, a certified language coach. I help Italians to unlock their English. Se sei italiano e vuoi capire ogni parola di questo podcast, vai sul mio sito speakwithnick.it podcast: potrai ascoltarmi mentre segui la trascrizione completa. In più, troverai la sezione “Language Focus” (qui sotto) per scoprire le frasi più particolari che uso. Go on my website, don’t miss it.

Today, as I’m speaking, January is drawing to a close. It’s a moment when I sometimes feel the need to slow down. 
A combination of cold weather and nature in hibernation, it makes me desire warm drinks, early nights … and a good book!
And this is exactly why I want to talk to you about reading in English, as an enjoyable and natural way to acquire English, not as a study technique.

Reading shouldn’t feel like studying!

When we think about reading many of us immediately think:
“I must understand every word.”
“I’ve got to stop and translate.”
“I have to finish the book!”

But approaching reading in this scholastic way blocks our enjoyment, quite simply it’s not how our brain assimilates new language.

Remember that reading is the important thing, not finishing the book. Many people have a stress that they need to read and finish quickly. And this is an idea that we learned at school, but reading should be relaxed and enjoyable, even just a few pages at a time.

When you read for pleasure with no stress or expectations, you become curious, relaxed and emotionally involved. Your brain releases dopamine, a magical feel-good chemical that helps memory, learning, and connection. Quite simply, pleasure helps language stick.

What should you read?

Well it may be obvious, but choose what you want to read, not just what is recommended for English learners. Desire and curiosity are the most important things.

One idea is to read in English something that you have enjoyed reading in Italian or read the book of a film that you already know.  

You can research potential books online. Is it written in modern or old fashioned English, for example? The famous detective novel writer Agatha Christie wrote some of her stories 100 years ago and while they are still fantastic, a lot of the expressions are no longer commonly used in today’s English – something to keep in mind. 

Before you buy, read some reviews online or see if there are some free pages that you can read to get an idea if the book is for you.

Remember that it doesn’t have to be a book. You can read magazines or articles online, for example on the Wikipedia Simple English website. The important thing is to choose topics that are truly interesting and meaningful to you.

Reading for pleasure helps your English, without you even noticing

When you read regularly in English, you:

• meet vocabulary and expressions in context
• have the time to pause and explore words and meaning online
• start to recognise patterns in a natural way
• start to build an internal “feeling” for the language

And this is why reading also helps your speaking and writing. You are feeding your brain new English in context. It’s an experience.

It’s really important to remember that you don’t need to understand everything!

In fact, trying to understand everything can block your learning, because it stops the natural flow of reading and it starts to feel like studying.

While you’re reading a rule of thumb is:

Stop and look up a word or phrase only if
a) you don’t understand the general meaning of what you are reading, or
b) you are curious and happy to stop and look up the word,
otherwise: just keep reading and enjoy!

Not understanding everything is completely normal, just like when you listen to English and miss a few words.

What about audiobooks?

Well, listening to books is a great idea and they’re available on various platforms online, especially if you want:

• to improve your listening skills,
• to listening while doing other activities like walking, cooking or driving,
• to combine listening + reading, if and when the text is available.

If you have the audio and the text, a powerful approach is:

• listen first without reading
• then read the text or read while listening again

Which is something you can do with this podcast. If you go to my website speakwithnick.it and go to ‘podcast’ you can listen to this podcast and read the transcript.

Reading together is something you can do. You don’t have to do this alone!

You can join any book club. For example, in my English speaking community, reading for pleasure in English is something we share. We have two groups, there is:

📚 The Book Lovers Club where people who already enjoy reading, choose a new book every couple of months and discuss it in English.

📖 Simple Books and Aphorisms where members who are new to reading, share short texts, quotes, poems and discuss them in English.

Like anything, the most important thing is to start. So, I’ve got a few  questions to help you to start reading! 

If you’ve got a pen and paper to hand make a note of these questions and ask yourself: 

• What kind of stories do I really enjoy? 
• Do I know a book or film in Italian that I could now read in English?
• When could reading become a small, pleasant ritual in my day?
• Am I ready to stop treating English like a school subject and start enjoying it?

To improve your English you don’t need more rules, you need more exposure and reading is a great way to get real exposure. It’s an experience, open yourself to it, dive in with curiosity and passion. And don’t worry about not understanding everything it’s normal.

If you’ve enjoyed my podcast today, then I invite you to visit my website speakwitnick.it where you can listen to this podcast and read a full transcript. Stay in touch with me by signing up to my newsletter on the same page.Well done for your English. I’ll speak to you in the next podcast. Ciao for now!