Thank you, Logan, for your kind words! That’s so good to read 🙂

Thanks, Brownie, for these important reflections! Being mindful of the dual challenge faced by young multilingual learners is undoubtedly the first step. Only with recognition of the problem can we start to find improvements.

It is a big challenge for young age students who use languages which are not the language in their school to read and understand the meaning of textbooks, especially for immigrant students or students from minority communities. Their L1 is not strong enough to be the foundation to develop their L2. As an adult learner and reader, I can easily understand the meaning by using translation tools. However, young age learners cannot understand the meaning even in L1, so it’s really hard for them to understand in L2, and it may lead to both languages are underachieved. I think the multilingual schools should provide them some linguistic supports to fill the gap between L1 and L2 such as create bilingual environment or activities in which they can practice and improve their L1 and L2, or based on their language proficiency, the schools can provide some bilingual books so that they practice both languages.

You should start a new novel and try it out 🙂

Thanks for sharing your experience, Em. I could relate to the lack of opportunities for unintentional English reading as in my country in the 2000s, before the social media era. Foreign books were also a luxury at that time, so our exposure to English was quite limited to textbooks. But those classic textbooks were how I learned to read in English. I remembered the frustration when not being able to understand a text despite already looking up all the words, but I guess it is normal when learning to read in any foreign language.

I only started picking up some English-language literature during my bachelor’s degree, just because it was required in the course. A strange experience, I’d say – as the teaching and learning of the literature was done in much a Vietnamese education style, although our lecturers talked in English in the lesson. I couldn’t feel much the value of the works. Nowadays, while I feel comfortable reading anything in English, literature is the only area that does not give me enough excitement to pick up a book. I’m just wondering whether this feeling may change if I start reading a new novel now, in our current rich English environment.

Hello Jaehoon, I have found some interesting information from you. I did not know that Chinese had and still has such significance in the education system of Korea. I know Korean celebrities know basic Chinese or Japanese but I thought it’s because of their contract or something. But after reading what you said I understood that it’s not celebrities but all Korean students who learn Chinese. I guess it’s because some areas of Korea was once colonized by China, so to learn the history you need to learn the language? I know about the Japanese invasion of Korea but I have no idea if something similar happened between Korea and China. Thank you for sharing this fascinating information. I might look into the reason behind why Korean students need to learn Chinese since you have roused my curiosity.

Hi, Pineapplebun. Your experience proves that extensive reading is very useful for developing receptive and productive skills. When I was reading your comment, I was thinking about some Japanese people who argue that their speaking skills are low just because of poor English education and the lack of opportunities to speak English in Japan. Their opinions may be true, but your comment has made me ponder another reason for their low English speaking proficiency: the lack of reading for pleasure. Many Japanese students only read English textbooks and the amount of input is quite limited. They might not realize the significance of reading to develop other skills including speaking proficiency.

Also, as you said, your personal experience demonstrates how ‘learning to read’ was transformed into ‘reading to learn’. I think the important point is that you developed habits of reading books through the process. You became used to reading in high school and you still read books that attract your attention to learn. Increasing such students must be one of the jobs English teachers should do.

Crime and punishment has been the start of many reading careers, that’s for sure. Novels like these not only foster the love of reading but, as you say, the reader’s moral development. Hope you continue to enjoy ☺️

Thanks, Siyao! You are right – the process you describe is a time-honoured way to learn to read in a second language. The only drawback is that it can get really tedious and students may not experience much joy with reading … also, so glad to hear your keep using the OED database ☺️

Thanks, Logan! A well-stocked library is such a blessing!

However, there was a turning point that I am profoundly indebted to, and that was my encounter with “Crime and Punishment” by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Despite stumbling upon terms that my teenage self found unintelligible, Dostoevsky crafted a mesmerizing masterpiece that completely immersed me in the reading without allowing interruptions from doubts regarding my lack of understanding. I found myself connecting with thcontext, the characters and feeling the profound sense of emptiness of reaching “the end.”

Subsequently, I revisited the text, both in Spanish and in English, with greater confidence and the belief that meaningful experiences and successfully meeting basic needs are essential achievements for all human beings looking forward to thinking outside the box.

Thank you very much for your article. English is my second language, so I want to share my experience of learning English in English reading. As the Chinese Education Department attaches great importance to English teaching, especially the cultivation of students’ reading and writing skills, the textbooks include simple reading tasks since the introduction of English classes in the third grade of elementary school in many areas, and I am no exception. Primary school is the basic stage of English learning, so we only need to master basic English vocabulary and grammar. There are no difficult words and complex sentences in reading. The teacher asked us to read short articles from the recording and recite them, so as to cultivate our sense of English. We also need to memorize the spelling and meaning of basic vocabulary in reading and the teacher will dictate them the next day.

When I entered secondary school and high school, reading become the largest part of the English test. The length is gradually longer (each article is about 200-400 words), and there are some difficult words. We need to read quickly within the specified time passage, understand its content and complete reading comprehension questions. The teacher usually requires us to prepare a word book, read the article carefully after answering the reading comprehension questions, copy the unfamiliar words in the word book and look up their meanings, and also need to sort out some fixed phrase collocations and grammatical sentence structures. I still think this is a very useful way to improve English literacy.

After I came to Macquarie University to study Ingrid’s Languages and Cultures in Contact unit, she introduced us to a website for searching etymology, which is very helpful for me to learn English vocabulary. In the subsequent English reading, I often use this website to search for the etymology of some words. I also hope to find some useful methods for me from the comments of other students on learning English through reading.

Thanks, Arghavan! Interesting reflection about learning to read in a 3rd language. For me, English was my 3rd language and similar to your German. The way I remember it, it was nowhere near as hard as learning to read in Latin … same for Spanish and French, but very different with Persian – trying to develop fluency with a new script is really hard, once the content of primers and easy readers is boring but you don’t have the skills to read anything more interesting 😔