HIDDEN DANGERS OF READING
Can reading be dangerous? Yes, it can – if you are trying to improve your speaking and listening skills. Think about how fast children learn a new language. Do they do it by reading? No. They do it by listening and repeating.
Speaking is the most important language skill of the four, followed by listening. When you apply for Canadian citizenship, the government wants to know if you are able to SPEAK English – not to read it.
Reading for most people is easy, while speaking and listening are hard. Reading can by like a crutch – it’s helpful in the beginning but at some point you need to throw it aside and start walking on your own.
Do you want to improve your Speaking? Then stop reading all the time!
Why?
If you were learning some other language, reading could be very helpful. But not so much when you are learning ENGLISH. English is a very special language – spoken and written English don’t match! That’s the reason reading cannot help you learn how to speak it.
You can know how to read English but be unable to understand it while listening. When native speakers learn this language, they learn by listening and repeating. When children of immigrants learn this language, they do the same. Adults make a mistake of trying to read a lot and that’s why it takes them so long to succeed.
So the danger here is that you would lose valuable time on reading while you need to spend that time to improve your speaking and listening.
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