A Tip for Sleepy Readers

In this episode for language learners, I talked about the common problem of how a lot of students feel stuck or sleepy whenever they read English novels and how they can overcome it by reading smarter.

Hello everyone!

This is your host, Sayar Henry, and I’m so…. glad that you are listening to my podcast right now.

And if you have been listening to my podcast over the past few weeks, you would know by now that I intend to deliver my episodes in English as well as in Burmese.

I started with 4 episodes continuously in English and then switched to Burmese in the next 2 episodes.

So this week, I’m going to switch back to English so that you can practice your listening skill and get some ideas that you can use to improve your reading skill as well.   

But first, I want you to think about the ending of the previous episode.

Do you remember that I described writing journal or dairy regularly in English as an activity that can heal your mind and improve brain activity?

Yeah?

Good!

Now, it’s a good advice, yes.

But… if you are not used to thinking and writing in English, it would be a challenging task to work on.

You might just stare at the blank page of your notebook and feel completely blank, not knowing where to start.

Well, in my experience, the driving factor behind output skill in language is the willingness to describe something.

If you have nothing to think about, or if you have no desire whatsoever to describe anything in your mind, there will be no writing or speaking.

In a social situation, this problem can be easily overcome as we, human beings, tend to ask questions about each other’s life.

There’s a constant stimulation that makes you think about something and respond accordingly.

But.. when you are trying to sit down alone and write a journal entry, nothing is stimulating you to start thinking unless some emotions are already set in your mind before picking up your pen and paper.  

That’s where many students struggle.

So.. my suggestion to overcome that problem is to read some stories before writing.

That way, you always have something to think about as you write down even if there was nothing special or memorable about that day.  

And that is why reading is important not just for improving reading skill itself but also for writing and speaking.

Unfortunately, that’s not the end of the problem.

Usually, when students start to read English books such as novels, they often find themselves bored after a few chapters and they start feeling too lazy to continue reading.

Or sometimes, they just feel burned out after the first few pages.

It’s quite a common problem for language learners, isn’t it?

Do you know why?

Well, it’s because many students tend to head for the heaviest piece of literature they can find and try to dive into that.

In another word, they chose the wrong book!

When someone reads a novel that has a much higher vocabulary range and complexity of sentence structure than he is capable of, he will definitely find it boring.

Not surprisingly, feeling bored or sleepy happens to anyone who tries to keep doing what he or she can’t really comprehend.

But the main concern is that if bad experiences like that keep happening, it might lead to the worst case scenario where the learner loses excitement for reading books. 

That’s quite a concern.

So, it’s absolutely crucial to choose your novel wisely.

My suggestion is that students should be able to comprehend at least 70 – 80 % of the book they choose in terms of words, sentence structure, context and cultural references.

It’s because Comprehension comes in conjunction with these four factors.

Now I want you note these four factors down on a piece of paper as I repeat these.

Are you ready?

Here it comes.

Words.

Sentence structure.

Context.

Cultural references.

Did you get that?

Good!

Whenever you feel stuck while reading something, it doesn’t mean you are not good enough. It just means that you’re missing one or more aspects from these four factors.

As soon as you can figure out what you are missing, you will be able to comprehend better.

So, don’t worry about that too much. Okay?

Now, let’s assume that you have the right book in your hand and you are reading through that.

I’m going to tell you about two ways you can read that book.

Extensive Reading.

And Intensive Reading.

Let me explain the difference between the two.

Extensive reading is all about quantity.

It doesn’t focus on how deeply and accurately you understand a sentence or a paragraph.

The purpose of extensive reading is to keep reading forward as further as you can with the limited knowledge you have.

In another word, your goal in extensive reading is to focus mainly on the words and sentence structures that you have already learned elsewhere and skip the ones you don’t know.

Now, the second way is to use Intensive reading.

With this one, you have to focus more on what you don’t know or are not familiar with, because the goal here is to acquire and understand as many new words and sentences as you thoroughly can.

It’s all about quality.

It’s definitely a more time consuming and energy demanding task than Extensive reading.

But it is also much more rewarding.

Now you have two ways to read.

So.. what is my recommendation?

Should students read extensively or intensively?

Well, my recommendation is to use both.

But you have to be smart about that.

Okay.. this is what you do.

First, I want you to find out how long you can read extensively until your mind gets tired.

Let’s say you can read like that up to an hour.

Note that number down.

Then, on a different day, read these same pages, but this time intensively and see how far you can go in one sitting without burning out.

Let’s say you can read intensively for 30 mins.

Note that number down.

Now what do we have?

 We have two sets of numbers. Right?

60 minutes for extensive reading and 30 mins for intensive reading.

What do we do with these numbers?

Well, these are your upper limits for extensive reading and intensive reading.

In another words, these are your breaking points.

And when you go beyond your breaking points, you will break.

And when you break, you will no longer enjoy the process of reading and you will not come back for more the next day.

That’s why it’s so so important to know your limit.

Now that you know what your limits are, what do you think you should do?

Well, if I were you, I would read 30 minutes with extensive reading first.

And then I would repeat these same pages with intensive reading for about 15 minutes.

Do you see where I’m going with this?

I’m intentionally using only half of my mental energy on extensive reading so that I can spend the other half on my intensive reading.

Oh yeah..

This way, even if I combine the time I gave for both extensive reading and intensive reading, the total does not exceed my upper limit of 1 hour.

So I don’t feel exhausted.

As a result, I’ll always feel fresh to come back for another reading session.

These numbers are just examples here.

It doesn’t have to be exactly the same as I suggested just now.

You can always play around with your limits, like doing 45 minutes of extensive reading in the morning and 20 minutes of intensive reading at night. It’s all up to you.

The key here is to read below your upper limit so that you don’t feel tired or completely depleted by each reading session.

And that way, you will always feel fresh to read again the next day.

Simple, right?

So, in a nutshell, whenever you decide to write diary or journal, make sure you have something in your mind that you really want to describe on paper.

If you don’t have that, you’ll have a hard time with writing or speaking.

And in such cases, you can think about a story you have recently read to generate ideas and emotions that can get you started.

And when you decide to read something in English, you should always consider vocabulary, grammar, context and …?

Yeah, cultural references.

Always remember to find a balance between difficulty and interest while choosing what to read.

After that, you have to experiment yourself to know your upper limit of extensive reading and intensive reading.

Then finally, plan your reading sessions accordingly so that you don’t get exhausted after each session.

Well, that’s how you trick your mind when you intend to read long form content such as English novels.

If you like this trick and want to figure out more tricks like this, why don’t you grab a book and experiment on your own right now?

You know… “Experience is the best teacher”, they say.

You might find another way that suits you better or even become someone like me! 

Thank you so much for tuning in to my podcast. It means a lot to me.

I hope you learned something from this episode and come back for more in future.

Stay safe and healthy wherever you are.

I will see you in the next one.

Goodbye.