How to get the most out of story-reading as a learning technique

Question

I am going to look for a native speaker on Italki to practice my English in this way:

First I get a story, which is new to me. This story is a little bit hard for me like I can understand 80-90 percent of it. And then I read the story to him, if I come across something I don't understand quite well, I will try to give my understanding. If I can't get it I will ask him to explain for me. I also will make a couple of sentence if necessary to make sure I enhance the new phrase or new word. Then we go on with it.

This is something like ESL podcast, the difference is that I take the narrator part and can at the same time practice my spoken language. The reason for that is the process of this way is similar to the way we learn our mother tongue when we are kids.

However, I have not tried this method before.

Can anyone offer suggestions on how to best use this method? Are there any particular habits or other pitfalls I should avoid? What can I do to get the most out of this?

Answer 1

I'll outline a workflow I've used in the past and discuss its merit.

• Read the story aloud slowly.

This is invaluable because it helps pronunciation skills flourish. It also will help you see the language and ingrain these patterns when speaking. This will help your reading and speaking skills.

• Try to paraphrase the story.

Think about the story and describe it in different words. Even if you make a mistake in your paraphrasing, this is helpful because you know immediately if the native speaker corrects you. This will help you to think in the language and it will help your speaking skills.

• Ask the native speaker to ask simple questions about the story.

This will encourage you to remember the story. You will have to think about the story and remember the newly acquired vocabulary. It will also help you with a question/answer pattern while improving your listening skills.