Reading out loud / Learning English
Read aloud!
As an English teacher, I always recommend my students to read as much as they can. Reading is very important part of learning a language. However, when I ask my students to read the text that we have in our course books aloud, they are not so eager to do that. They don't know how important it is to read the texts loudly. Today, I would like to talk about the importance of reading aloud.
Many scientists have suggested that reading aloud is very important for people to remember the things later when they want to use them in their lives. When you read something aloud, it helps you to visualize the things that you are reading in your mind so that you can get a better feeling of what is told in the text. That's why, it is very useful to read the texts aloud to improve your understanding and have a long term memory.
Pronunciation
When you are reading a text aloud, you naturally learn how they are pronounced in the language you are learning, so reading aloud is not all about reading, it helps you to improve your listening and speaking as well. As I have mentioned in my previous posts, these skills are all linked to each other. I usually ask my students to read the text aloud first before I read it by myself so that they can learn correct pronunciation of words.
Learning how to pronounce the word is achieved by practicing a lot. When you are reading text aloud, you automatically do these exercises again and again. It might be hard to read aloud in front of other students, but it surely helps you to get better at the language you are learning. If you are not enthusiastic to read aloud in front of other students, you can also do that when you are at home by yourself.
Visualize!
Reading is the art of visualizing objects in your mind. If you read something in your inner voice without letting you hear the words that you are reading, you can't manage to create the scenes in your mind. Each text and book has got a story which can widen your imagination. When you read the text in English, you are able to create the story in your mind by depicting in a new language, that really boosts your learning progress.
It is also important to improve your grammar. Let's take this example. When you are reading a text which is made of lots of past time verbs and phrases, you repeat them again and again, having your ear used to it. When you are doing an exercises which is like filling in the gaps, you are just like a copy-paster. However, reading those words and structures aloud will help you to learn them better.
Boost your speaking!
Reading aloud also helps you to boost your speaking skill. When you read the texts aloud, you actually copy them in your mind. As there is a limited number of words that we use in daily life while speaking a language, you start reacting to situations in conversation automatically. For example, when you read the sentence which says " I don't know", you actually get used to it with repetitions and start using it in your speaking as well.
As some English learners are shy in reading texts aloud, it can also help them to improve their self-development. Confidence can be gained by being courageous with the things that we are afraid of. Even though it seems quite hard at the beginning, they will surely get better at doing that with the help of teachers and their friend. They might make some mistakes, but people learn best with the mistakes they make.
When you read a text aloud, you can also feel more focused on the text. As you need to move your lips to make the sounds, your body is more active. While reading something in a deep silence, you are actually a passive reader which urges you to read the text really quickly and you can't understand the things in details. When you are reading a text aloud, you become one of the characters in the text that you are focused on.
Get better
Learning a language is the combination of many skills together. Reading aloud is one of the key points that affect your other skills because of the reasons that I have mentioned above. Reading aloud is liked to listening which also produces your speaking skill, so it is a good idea to educate your students in this issue.
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Reading out loud is indeed very important to improve the pronunciation, but its understandable some people might not want to do this, especially if they know their pronunciation is bad because they might be embarrassed about how they pronounce the words.
Of course, in order to improve, people must practice, so that's when discipline comes in handy.
I agree with this. When I was still in college, I would always speak the words when I was using my Latin flashcards and it seemed to work pretty well.