How to learn English by reading books

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Many of us love to read and many would like to improve our English. This is a story about how to combine business with pleasure, reading books in English or English-language sites using a free service. The service is built on the simple idea that regular reading, and especially reading aloud, dramatically speeds up language learning.

First, the book provides a “sense of language,” of how language constructs and grammar work in practice. Secondly, when new words are found in texts, it is much easier to remember and learn them than repeating them separately, writing them out on cards or in a notebook. Note that reading aloud accelerates language acquisition doubly, since speech, auditory and linguistic centers of our brain are closely connected with each other.

So, how to use the service.

After a simple registration, the user can choose to read one of 10 texts in the basic collection or upload his own text in.txt format.

For people with beginner and intermediate English, it is recommended to start with simple texts. For example, from specially adapted books.

After loading the text, open it …

… and get down to reading.

Let's say you come across an unfamiliar word hawk. By clicking on a word, you open a form where you can set the meaning of the word.

Here you can view the translation of a word and quickly set the necessary values for learning by clicking on the fragments of the dictionary entry.

Now the word hawk is included in the study. Until you learn this word, meeting it in the texts, you will see it in highlighted color.

The color of the highlight depends on the score and the corresponding status of the word; the score changes during the study. For example, when you read a page with a word and do not ask for a translation or a hint, the score goes up. If you forget a word and click on it again, you first get a hint in the form of the previous sentence in which you encountered this word.

Although such an indirect hint helps to remember the translation, it requires some effort, which activates the memorization process. If you can't remember the word, you can see its meaning and the full translation, although a larger penalty is charged on the knowledge point.

The points policy can be adjusted for yourself in the settings.

In addition, all words encountered during reading, even if no translation was requested for them, are remembered, and after reading a sufficient number of pages, you can find out your vocabulary with word accuracy.

For any text, you can get statistics: how many words are new to you, how many are studied, and so on.

In addition to reading, the user can learn words using simulators.

The Writing simulator requires the user to enter a word, giving a hint in the form of a translation and, optionally, the length of the word and its first letter.

“Option” requires you to choose the correct option from several alternatives.

In the "Dash" simulator, the correct word must be inserted into the sentence.

If the existing simulators are not enough, the user can use the popular Anki simulators by exporting words in Anki-supported format.

All site functionality is also available in a free Android app:

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The application also has additional features. For example, you can use the built-in Android speech synthesizer to speak text, or view and listen to words in flashcards mode.

A plug-in for the Chrome browser is also available, integrated with the service.

The plugin allows you to read any sites in English, getting translations of words easily and quickly, while unfamiliar words are entered into the user's dictionary on the WordMemo site.

Remember that attending courses and classes with teachers and tutors is certainly important, but only regular and systematic independent work will allow you to master the language perfectly.

Read books in the original language, surf English-language sites with pleasure and benefit using a free service.