Top 10 tips to Practice English Reading in 2026

Overview

Enhance your English reading skills with our top 10 tips to practice in 2026. Discover effective strategies, recommended materials, and techniques to improve comprehension and expand your vocabulary. Unlock the joy of reading and take your English language skills to new heights.

Are your English reading skills holding you back? What does being able to read English quickly and accurately mean for your studies and career? The habits and study tips in 10 Ways to Practice English Reading: Tips for ESL/EFL Learners are designed to improve your English reading quickly and easily.

Krishnatrya has nearly 15 years of experience teaching ESL/EFL. In this blog, he has organized the advice he has given countless students to help them reach their English reading goals, from improving a test score to getting a job to reading English novels to being able to travel confidently.

Key Points to Remember

What This Guide Covers

Are your English reading skills holding you back? What does being able to read English quickly and accurately mean for your studies and career? The habits and study tips in 10 Ways to Practice English Reading: Tips for ESL/EFL Learners are designed to improve your English reading quickly and easily.

Krishnatrya has nearly 15 years of experience teaching ESL/EFL. In this blog, he has organized the advice he has given countless students to help them reach their English reading goals, from improving a test score to getting a job to reading English novels to being able to travel confidently.

Repetition

“Use it or lose it.” This is a popular English idiom. It means that you have to repeat something many times or you’ll forget it. This is the case when learning a language. You probably won’t remember if you study something only once. You have to use it many times before you’ll remember it forever. So, learn new vocabulary or phrases and then use them! Try them out in your English diary or when talking to a friend.

Make some flashcards and quiz yourself. Write a few sentences with the word and check with a native speaker whether or not they’re correct. Do whatever you can to keep using the new grammar and vocabulary that you learn!

Here’s an example of what NOT to do. Begin reading a novel and understand only 50% of it. Give up and never read again! Instead, read once and understand 50% of it. Read again and understand more (70%). Read one more time and understand almost all of it (95%). Reading a novel may not be relatively that easy, but keep at it, bit by bit. Then, don’t worry about the rest. You understand the main ideas. That's the most important thing.

Study Vocabulary

Studies show that if he knew 2,000 of the most popular English words, he could understand 95% of what he heard or read. You’ll also be able to have a conversation or read about almost all general topics quite easily. The key is how you learn these 2000 words. Do it the smart way.

Many students love to do busy work. They write a million words on paper and repeat them over and over again. They then feel like they’ve accomplished something while learning English. They haven’t. They’ve mostly just wasted their time. Remember that being busy and being productive are two different things. Make your study time effective rather than simply active. If you are serious about learning English vocabulary, you must make flashcards. Write your native language on one side and English on the other side. Then, start with ten new words daily and ensure you know them 100%. Then, keep adding ten more every single day. Mix them up randomly, forcing your brain to learn them independently from each other. Go from English—>Your Language, but also the much harder Your Language—>English every single day. You need to be thinking about these words in your sleep! Make sure you’re using these words in your daily writing and conversations and keeping your ears and eyes open for them in whatever you’re listening to or reading.

Check out this list of the 5000 most popular common words in English. Check out Quizlet or Anki if you want to do it online or on your phone. Websites like WordHippo make it easy to take your vocab study to the next level. You'll quickly find definitions, synonyms, antonyms, and, above all, example sentences showing how to use the word.

For something a little different, give Idiom Generator a try. This website will quiz you on your knowledge of common idioms in four categories.

Context Clues

Context clues are hints in a text that can help you define words you don’t know. Some common types of context clues are:

Synonym or antonym

Definition

Example or description

Pre-Reading Activities

Before you start reading, take the time to complete some basic pre-reading activities. Look at the title and any images. What do you think this sentence is about? Is it fiction or nonfiction? If it is fiction, think about the genre and what you know about that genre. For example, a mystery will have a main character solving a problem.

There will probably be a crime and police vocabulary. If the story is romantic, there will be a lot of dialogue and terms about feelings and relationships. If it is nonfiction, you may want to read a related text in your first language to orient your mind to the topics and ideas that may be covered. Or you could go straight to brainstorming vocabulary.

Post-Reading Activities

It's not over 'til it's over. Once you've read the text, it may feel like you're done, but there are a few different activities you can do if you want to get the most out of your text. You can write your answer, but you don't have to if you don't have time. If you are reading fiction, here are some ideas to think about the characters more deeply. This will help you understand the text and predict future reading.

1. Make a fact file about the main character. Some information you can include: appearance (What colour eyes does the character have? Hair? Is their hair curly, wavy, or straight? Long or short? Is the character tall or short? How old is the feeling? Who is in their family?

Compare and contrast two main characters in the story. How are they the same? How are they different?

Consider a situation that is not in the book. What would the main character do in this situation? Why do you think so?

A Simple Practice Plan

Frequently Asked Questions

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