Effortless English: Learn To Speak English Like a native

Online English Dictionary and Word Saver
As you use your English lessons,
you’ll sometimes want to look up new words in a dictionary or find a
translation in your language. Online dictionaries are simply great – much
faster than text.
You will need two types of dictionaries. The first is a standard dictionary.
This can be a translation dictionary for your own language or you can use an
English-only version. The other type of dictionary you need is an idiomatic
dictionary. As you might guess, this type of dictionary contains the common
English idioms (phrases) you won’t find in a standard dictionary.
Audio and Video
The Internet is a buffet of authentic audio and video material.
As I noted in a previous chapter, you can find podcasts and audio books on
virtually any topic with a simple Internet search. You can watch American and
British movies and television on a variety of websites as well.
More advanced students can listen to copies of actual conversations. These
are best for learners who need to understand casual speech.

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CHAPTER 17
The Power of Pleasure Reading
You are using the Effortless English™ system every day. You focus most of your
time on listening to compelling stories. You listen to point-of-view stories to learn
grammar naturally. You learn deeply. As a result, your English speaking is
improving. Each month you speak more easily and effortlessly. Your confidence is
growing. You are mastering the core, high-frequency English used most commonly
by native speakers.
As you continue improving, eventually you will want to advance to a higher level
of English. Perhaps you want to study abroad in America or Canada. Perhaps you
want to work for an international company that requires English. Perhaps you need
to pass an exam such as the TOEFL, TOEIC, or IELTS.
When you reach this point, what is the best way to improve your English reading?
How can you learn to read faster? How can you use reading to learn more words
faster? How can you improve your reading comprehension? What’s the best way to
combine reading and listening?
Most schools teach reading using an academic skill-building approach. Typically,
students read difficult articles and then answer questions about them to test their
comprehension. Students are taught how to identify the main idea of the article, how
to answer multiple choice questions about the article, and how to guess the meaning
of unknown words. They are then graded on their performance.
During my teaching career, I have found that most students are bored by this
approach. Worse, a tremendous amount of research shows that this method is
inferior to one that is much more enjoyable and natural. Students who use this
natural method write better, have better vocabularies, have better grammar
comprehension and perform better on the TOEFL test than those who use the
traditional methods found in schools and textbooks.
Just what is this powerful natural method? The research is clear that simply
reading for pleasure is the most effective reading method of all. In other words, all
you need to do is read interesting and fairly easy books in English. No exercises are
necessary. No tests are necessary. No complex reading strategies are necessary. No
lessons are necessary. No required books are necessary.

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