Reading is the best way to learn

[JeremyinFrance]

I have been teaching English for 19 years. I have seen many students try to learn grammar, try to learn long lists of vocabulary, but where does it get them? It is like trying to study people by looking at body parts in a mortuary! A student needs to be in touch with real English. The simplest and most enjoyable is to read, read read in English. Start with books that you find easy (Graded readers). The more you read, the more you will understand. Then you can progress to 'real' books. Just choose books you enjoy and read wherever you can - on the train, in bed, sitting on the toilet.
I have written 14 readers and I know they work with the people who read them. I have some free stories on my website and you may like to look at my books as well.
Happy Reading!
Jeremy
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/jeremytaylor
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When you're sitting in your car, complaining about the traffic, don't forget - you ARE the traffic.

[Mosteque]

Welcome to the forum:)
I can't do anything more than agree That's the way I've been learning english and I can't complain about the results
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obsequium amicos, veritas odium parit

[Carbonarius]

Hi Jeremy,

I'd like to know if the readers you've written are original or not. I've seen many shortened and simplified versions of classic literature, and I even started reading some of them. I must say that I didn't like it. That's why I tried reading children's stories, as the vocabulary was more likely to be understandable for me, and the stories were original.

I've also read some "Reader's digest"s shortened tales, and I always was very dissapointed.

So, could you please tell me if you write your own stories? Is it hard for you to have to stick to just an amount limit of vocabulary, or to a basic grammar?

[JeremyinFrance]

Just like you, I don't like simplified readers. Charles Dickens wrote wonderful literature and it should remain wonderful - not turned into Janet and John. All my work is original - simple stories which, I hope, are a pleasure to read. I normally write a story and then decide with my editors which level it belongs to. I have just done some work for a British publisher where I had to write stories of just 140 words using no more than 40 different words... That was a real challenge!
Jeremy
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When you're sitting in your car, complaining about the traffic, don't forget - you ARE the traffic.

[Andreana]

Hello Jeremy! I visited your website and I like the way you have written about your bicycle trips. It's almost like a picture story. And I have a question: Can you tell us the 40 words you used in the story you have written for that British publisher? Maybe we can use those words to to write sentences too?
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A smile will open doors

[JeremyinFrance]

Hi Andreana,
I am sorry I can't tell you the 40 words - I had to sign a contract of secrecy. I'm glad you liked my 'picture stories'. I had fun on the journeys - and writing about them.
Besitos
Jeremy
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When you're sitting in your car, complaining about the traffic, don't forget - you ARE the traffic.

[Andreana]

Hi again Jeremy! You have answered so fast. Thank you. OK, I understand you are not allowed to reveal those 40 words to us. It surely is difficult to write a story with only 40 words. On the other hand many people don't know that many words anyway Speaking of words. Where did you learn the expression besitos?
An.
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A smile will open doors

[Simon]

I'm a beginner and you write that reading is very preferable. But there is a lot of new words and I can't take all new words in. So do I have to write it down every time? it takes a long time. And maybe I should only look words up in a dictionary and after some time I will remember it. I don't want to cram some words because it is the worst way to understand words logically.

[Torsten]

Hello Simon, many thanks for sharing your experiences with us. How exactly do you define the term 'beginner'? I think your English quite good, you can express your thoughts in English exchange ideas. That's a very important and useful skill. As for your question, what you could try is the following. When you are reading a text that contains new vocabulary you should select those words and phrases you find interesting. First you write each phrase or word down along with the sentence it occurs in. You can use a notebook that you carry with you when you go shopping or for a walk. For example, when you are sitting in the tram you can take out your notebook and read the sentences you wrote down earlier. Take a look at them and try to memorize them. There is no need to write down every single new word at once. First it might appear to you that there are so many new words but the more books you read the more words you will learn and the number of new words will decrease over time. As a matter of fact your vocabulary will grow to a point at which it will be fun to you to find new words.
Let me know what you think.
Regards
Torsten
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Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[Guest]

Yes, you are absolutely right. For the time being I have been learning English using some English books for adults and students. There is a lot of exercises in but there are lots of cases when some word occurs only once in the whole book. It's very hard to remember that word, even if I write the word down. I think that the best way to learn new words is simply to read a lot, and I will catch some word if it recurs several times in different contexts. I often look the same word up in a dictionary once, twice and even five times to understand it. But I think that the context is very helpful and the most of all the ability of association. For example if a word "clutch" turns out in some technical context and you know what the clutch in a car is for and some time later you read a sentence for example "He (the disabled) clutched the stick for support" you gotcha it completely. Then you remeber it constantly because there are lots of links in your mind refering to the clutch (such as a part of a car engine or a verb to tight, to seize, to grab etc.). If you only write some word down, there is only one way to remeber it - you need to repeat it several times (I don't like it, however I repeat about theree hundred words a day).

[Simon]

I'm sorry, I have forgotten about registering above.

[Narayanan Krishnaswamy]

It is heartening to find so much on getting a hold on the language.
But why should you?
The present focus is only on communicatve skills.
The beauty is, England may not suffer from any economic difficulties as long as this language lasts, since as on date the language happens to be the best seller. Computers and software fall behind.
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Teacher, writer and editor.
'The moving hand writes and having writ moves on.'
'All that glitters is not gold.'

[Alan]

You have made some rather curious comments - at least maybe I haven't got the point. What do you mean exactly when you say: It is heartening to find so much on getting a hold on the language. ?
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English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Saying It Twice

[Nicole]

I think reading books in English is a good way of learning the language. But the problem with English is that you often don't know how to pronounce a word. That makes reading texts with new words in them quite difficult.
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Life is for living.

[JeremyinFrance]

But Nicole, you don't need to know the pronunciation in order to be able to understand. I am sure you want to as you are keen to learn English but why not accept that reading is a very enjoyable way to learn lots of English - and you can pick up pronunciation in other ways, listening to music, radio etc.
Jeremy
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When you're sitting in your car, complaining about the traffic, don't forget - you ARE the traffic.