You say that you want to develop your English language skills to the proficiency point where, for you, English is an effective, productive working language in your day-to-day life... a proficiency level English proficiency examinations are designed to certify, if present in your examination performance?
You say that you can't find enough interesting articles to read?
- Articles that vary from 1,000 words in length to 3,000 + words?
- Articles that always use academic level vocabulary that you need to know for tertiary level studies or for business English applications?
- Articles that cover a multitude of social issues and themes that frequently find their way into reading, writing, listening and oral examination content themes?
- Articles that are full of ideas, arguments, information, and just plain good writing? Articles that are meant for the aspiring, tertiary-level learner?
- Articles that are not “canned”, but are real?
- Articles that are for real people who live outside of the four walls of a school?
- Articles that are powerful examples of, and exercises in, good, authentic English language communicative skills?
In many ESL schools students are obliged to subscribe to the local printed daily newspaper. For instance, in Hong Kong, many of the secondary school students pay for a subscription to the South China Morning Post (SCMP). The South China Morning Post is an easy read, but that is not the test you need to pass in an English proficiency examination such as TOEFL, IELTS, SAT, GRE, GMAT or other similar English proficiency assessments. The English used in many local newspapers is too simple. The range of vocabulary is not designed for an academic audience. Frequently almost all of the vocabulary used in such newspapers can be found in the list of the 2,000 most frequently used words in English.
There is a high cost of lost opportunities if you spend most of your reading-study time coasting through such material. The time you spend in such reading means you lose opportunities to expose yourself to more suitable vocabulary, more appropriate grammatical range and structure, and the higher level coherence and cogency found in first year tertiary level English medium academic texts.
In other words, you need something more rigorous. Something that, day in and day out, does not deviate from Academic level vocabulary and grammatical structure and range. Something richer, deeper and more diverse. Something that is far more original, resourceful, reliable and useful for your needs.
There are hundreds of good online sources that can meet your needs. Here is but a small representative sample from five countries. The following eight links connect you to over 500 free, well-written, original, current articles per week. Hey, that’s 25,000 + original articles per year! Free! (Why buy a monthly magazine subscription that charges you about $1 HK for each stale article !)
The topics in these freebies are diverse, timely, cogent and helpful to your language skill development.
The sample sources meet the Academic vocabulary proficiency standards tested in the A-S Level examinations. But for starters, if you want to read something less demanding, there are thousands of choices available. Choose what you want to read. If you don't use this power, the process of developing your English language skills will remain stagnant.
These newspapers are produced by huge, reliable, resourceful organizations, in a highly competitive environment, and are read worldwide by millions.
Tapping into these sources, connects you to cutting edge commentary about what matters in the world today. It loads you with information and ideas you can draw on later when you are tested in reading comprehension, writing and speaking in your AS English Examinations.
All you need to do is find a way to integrate daily contact with these sources into your schedule, so that you can and will consult them on a regular basis. Reading five articles a day, every day, is a reasonable goal. You can do it if you really care as much as you say you do about developing your English language communicative skills.
Paste these links to your home computer, as favorites, or desktop shortcuts. I hope you use them all the time.
These links, and others like them, enable you. They empower you. Now it is up to you to use them. The more you do, the more your second language communicative skills will develop.
You need to migrate now from a state of passivity to a routine of self-generated, self-tailored learning activity that can help you to get to where you want to be language-wise. Go for it...you have what it takes !
These links (which represent only a small sample of what is available online), of sources of appropriate level text "streams" I referred to above are as follows: Just click on the link:
Los Angeles Times www.latimes.com
The Economist www.economist.com/printedition
The Times of London From Britain www.timesonline.co.uk/global
The Chicago Tribune www.chicagotribune.com
Novosti (From Russia) www.en.rian.ru
Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com
The Toronto Star - Canada www.thestar.com
These links could be bookmarked or saved to your desktop to facilitate frequent access to well-written, short-length, veracious articles that deal with social and business issues of international importance, using vocabulary that is appropriate for the upper intermediate and advanced ESL learner.
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