Imagine if you had to read the same story every day for the rest of your life. For an avid reader, this might sound like a horror story!
The joy of reading is being able to consume all forms of written material unrestricted. Whether you’re worried about your reading speed or your ability to grasp concepts quickly, you can become a proficient reader with practice. Develop the habit of reading everything from novels to business reports. If you want to get the most out of your reading experience, you should practice extensive reading.
Extensive reading is a type of reading where you engage with different types of reading material. It can be fiction, non-fiction, work-related documents, newspaper articles or even statistical data.
At work, there are complex business reports to read, numbers to make sense of and emails to write. With extensive reading, you can skim large amounts of text and get a general idea of what it’s trying to convey.
Let’s explore the meaning and definition of extensive reading.
What Is Extensive Reading?
The meaning of extensive reading is reading widely but not necessarily focusing on only one text. You can read from different sources to develop your reading skills. It’s not about finding layers of meaning, grammar rules or other critical aspects of a text.
Extensive reading has been used for beginner-level language learners. It helps to familiarize them with reading material and build the cognitive ability to understand new words, frame sentences and make sense of the text as a complete unit. You’ll get a general understanding of the text and improve your language skills.
Whether you’re a beginner or a proficient reader, extensive reading will help you polish your reading ability. You can try to read as much and as widely as possible. It’s better not to restrict yourself to the same type of sources. Some examples of extensive reading are newspapers, blogs and e-magazines.
Advantages Of Extensive Reading
Say that you want to learn the French language. Even if you don’t understand all the grammar and vocabulary, reading a text in French will help you get an idea of how the words connect with each other and how the text flows.
Whether you want to learn a new language, read quickly to save time or make sense of large amounts of text, there are many advantages of extensive reading
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Develop an Interest in Reading
Many of us find reading to be a chore; an activity that may even make us fall asleep in an instant. But it may be impossible to avoid reading altogether. If not for pleasure, we still have to go through work-related material like reports, minutes of meetings and emails. (hotcanadianpharmacy.com) Extensive reading will help you develop a healthy interest in reading. You’ll be able to approach texts with more enthusiasm and attentiveness.
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Improve Reading Comprehension
You’ll find your reading comprehension significantly improving with practice. You’ll be able to make sense of text right from the get-go. Sometimes it’s hard to focus on a sentence if it’s too complex. Reading extensively will help you get used to different types of written material. This way you can learn to focus on the text itself without losing yourself in its structural makeup.
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Read Widely
Start small and choose short articles and online blogs to develop the habit. Read a little every day, but make sure you read across genres. You can improve your reading speed, saving time at work.
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Improve Vocabulary
When you read from multiple sources, you become better at picking up new words. For vocabulary, the most important thing is context—the setting where each word is used. As you continue reading, you’ll be able to understand the meaning of different words as well as connect them to the general idea presented in the text.
Extensive reading will help you tackle complex sentences and words that are hard to understand. Even if you don’t become an avid reader or a book lover, you can still develop reading skills to improve your performance at work.
Harappa Education’s Reading Deeply course will teach to apply the three-step reading process—pre-reading, reading and post-reading—to improve your skills. You’ll learn to interpret texts and make sense of complex reading material. It’s got high-impact concepts and frameworks for professionals and students who want to enhance their reading ability. These skills will go a long way in improving your work performance!
Explore topics such as the Importance of Reading, Types of Reading, What is Pre-Reading, How to Improve Reading Skills & What is Intensive Reading from our Harappa Diaries section and improve your reading skills.