Understand What You Read in English (Reading Comprehension)

In this English lesson, I explain in detail how you can understand what you read in English. Make sure you follow all the steps. If you have any questions, leave a comment for me. If you have questions not related to reading comprehension, ask me on the engVid Forum.

Please leave a response below.

85 Responses to “Understand What You Read in English (Reading Comprehension)”

  1. Azifri :

    Thank you su much for the helpful tips =)

  2. chidem :

    Are you really married, James???

    Just, you are so young! :) Cool :)

    Anyway, thanks for the tactic! It is really smart! I will do it personally!

    Thanks again for the help and such a beneficial site!

    I wish the thing which will never miss on your face be your smile! :)


  3. JamesESL :

    Azifri, thank you for the compliment!

    Chidem, you are very kind… I look forward to smiling for you in the future, but don’t be shy — come out and chat with us on the forum as well.

    — James

    • George :

      Hello james,

      Your lesson about reading comprehension was very informative and i expect more lessons about the IELTS speaking section.

  4. MariaCaroH :

    Hi James,
    It help me a lot, I am practicing for present the Toelf, I have practice with the toelf guide, but my score has not been as good as I want. I will appreciate your advice.

    Kind regards


    • JamesESL :

      Hi Maria,

      You did not tell me exactly what you are having problems with, so I can’t give you the precise advice you are looking for.

      If you can let me know what you are having difficulty with, I can give you some advice.

      Rebecca, who is also on the site, teaches TOEFL. She may be able to help you. Drop her a note!

      • mho1002000 :

        Can you help me pls about how can i keep the words in my mind and its pronunciation? cause its seems hard to me.

  5. freindship :

    Thank you James. I really enjoy your lesson. I’m studying english now but I have a trouble with english speaking . please tell me how can I improve my english speaking. I would like to chat with you on the forum but I don’t know how to chat with you


    • JamesESL :

      Hi Friendship,

      Just go to the forum and leave your questions and I’ll be happy to get back to you and answer them.

      James

  6. Crystal :

    Cool! Im gonna try it out! Thank you so much ^^

  7. Butt :

    Hi James

    I am glad to find something good regarding writing in your video, i am preparing for IELTS exam, i would be really greatful to you if you please guide me or could suggest something practicing material for ‘Writing’ part of IELTS.

    Thanks & Regards
    Usman Butt


    • JamesESL :

      Hi Usman Butt,

      Check back and watch the video on writing the five-paragraph essay.

      James

  8. haidar habib :

    Hi James

    I am new student.I am preparing for IELTS exam.My exam will be next week,actually I have a big problem with reading I cann’t do it very well so what should I do?

  9. Cisse Mouhamed :

    thank you very much James you are doing a great by helping people to understand English well . my question is, how you can help me for my reading skill ,because i can not read quickly.looking forward to getting your reply.

  10. kimbod90 :

    hi Rebecca, hi James

    It’s my first in this website then I want to thanks you for good job. I sure that your advices will help a lot. Sorry for my bad English,… I’m sure that in this way I could improve my English.
    Thank you so much

  11. diego10.01 :

    Hi James I´m Diego, I´m new in this web site…. thanks for your advice about the reading comprehension but I have another doubt and it is about may and might, please help me.

    bye

  12. sivarajan :

    Hi James.,

    I am sivarajan.V from India, I am new to this forum, yesterday i saw some of your videos am very much impressed, i need your help to improve my speaking axcent, can you able to give some steps to improve my speaking axcent

    Thank you.,

  13. danphung :

    hi! this is the second time i visit this website. it’s very useful. thanks lot. however it’s just focus on some points in grammar. can u make deeper fields in speaking and listening?
    i think it’s hot for any student who learn E as second language

  14. vanessa :

    This place is awesome. I’m really impressed. I have laughed so much with the BATMAN lesson, I found it very interested and fun, no so many teachers dare to do it. Thanks very much for your dedication.

  15. fowz :

    hi james how r u doin? 2 night

  16. fowz :

    hi james its my firs time in here i have a problem in speaking can you tel me the easy way to know

  17. marcos :

    Hi, thanks for the lesson
    Should I do the same thing either reading an english book with more than 80 pages for example or just to small articles?

  18. thejatanuja :

    Hi James,

    I need some tips from you to improve my English as i am preparing for IELTS.

    Here are my weakpoints..
    1) While speaking i will be getting breaks & Gaps in the words….and it makes for the people wo are listening to me makes to understand a little bit difficult.

    2) While reading i am not aware of the meanings for many of the words ( I will your video on this as u said to do read the before & after words and try to understand the meaning of the word which is not known,) Any other ways u have to improve.

    Please suggest your advice for my 2 points.

    ok then Thanks ….. for the Videos…bye for now.

  19. thuan :

    hi Jame ! my name is Thuan I’m frome Vietnam , this is second time in this website. I want too say thank you . You are good teacher and how I get another lesson
    thank you so much for helpful

  20. weer :

    You are so nice

  21. vandna3j :

    hi Jame.. Thanks for providing such a information to all the needed people including me. I want to share my problem with you. I am not good in reading, writing, listing as well as in speaking. But I want to improve myself in all fields that why I have seen few of your vedios today. I am not able to understand about pause that are required during , . ? ! etc. & donot know anything about this during reading & speaking. I don’t know difference between high tone & low tone that is required to express your feeling in more natural way. I don’t know which word need to speak slowly & which one more loudly. I believe these all are not only my problems some other persons may be also facing the same problem. Can you give me some suggestions to improve myself. And can you help me in any way.

    Thanks once again Jame.

  22. Juju91 :

    Hi James

    I already took the TOEFL test and my score is not so good, I thing is not difficult but it is so long text and you don’t have time to understand everything or summarize. Now I saw your class and I will make what you said , read more than one time and after you understand better and with pratice after I will read quicky .
    Thanks for the leasson .

  23. dolly :

    thanks sir james its so nice to this site

  24. lolly :

    I already took the TOEFL test and my score is not so good, I thing is not difficult but it is so long text and you don’t have time to understand everything or summarize. Now I saw your class and I will make what you said , read more than one time and after you understand better and with pratice after I will read quicky .
    Thanks for the leasson thanks sir james its so nice to this site

  25. 007maxy :

    James,
    I am trying to find out how to leave a comment for you in your box when is not related to the lesson, please help me out.

    Thank you
    Maxy

  26. 007maxy :

    Hi again james,
    It would be much practical if you had an example for us. People learn through examples. You should had a small article to demonstrate your lesson.
    Thank you
    Maxy

  27. nagxi :

    Your videos are really helping…thank you so much!!!

  28. hendra :

    Thank you James, I do believe your video will make me more understand reading comprehension.

  29. Leonardo :

    Hi!

    Let me say that your videos are great. I have been trying learning English from 14 years ago, jajaja!

    I can read or understand something like 70% (I think!) of English language, but when I have to write or speack in English, I am a disaster.

    Bye.

  30. Cheryl :

    Hi, I’ve been out of school for 6 year and now I just stated taking a Master’s degree class. Its a lot of reading and some in boring. How can I read the boring books and make the knowlege stay with me?

  31. leila :

    thank you so much james for this lesson i’m new in this forum my native language is not english. and i need realy to improve my english,my english pronunciation,vocabulary and all things about english, i hope that i dont made any mistakes in this paragraph, please correct it to me.
    think you very much

  32. Jin :

    Thanx so much James!

  33. baktash amini :

    hello mr james this is baktash i realy like to be your student i like your teaching and i have aproblem in my listening will you help me thank you

  34. Jase-so :

    Hey James
    That was an interesting video but i don’t think it fits my real comperhension problem. I hesitate to read huge text because im afraid that i won’t understand it. Then when i start reading it it makes no sense to me. But smaller text with similar words im fine with. I’ve had this annoying habit since i started school. Any solutions to this??

  35. mstfaglr :

    thanks you james!
    you re surely making good job!
    i m in turkey and trying to pass toefl paper based,but i did not find any information about structure part of it.
    can you help me,
    see you,thanks a lot!

  36. Ser :

    thanks James! I like this website…
    But, Please…can u give me some ideas to do Toeic…
    I have to do more than 600 and I have some problems about listening.
    Toeic has many traps and I always fall down…Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeease…..help me!

  37. sara :

    hi james,
    i have a seriose problem. i have to do ilts exam the next month,but i haven’t got any idea how to do it. i’m good at grammer and listening,but not so good at reading and speaking.i’d like to ask you for giving us more lessons about speaking skills and how i can answer reading questions when i can’t understand the whole articl.finally you’re the best

  38. maninder kaur :

    hello james .
    i m from california and i am preparing for Gmat.i visited this site via youtube and i find it very useful in preparing for my test .but can u plzzzzzzzz provide me some more lessons on reading comprehension with the help of some examples.
    anyways ur way of teaching is fantastic.i appreciate u .

  39. Satish Kumar Gande :

    HI JAMES IT IS SO GOOD TO SEE YOU EXPLAINING THIS TACTICS FOR US……AND I AM FOND OF YOUR TEACHING….I HAVE GONE THROUGH A LOT OF LISTENING CLASSES TAUGHT BY YOU…..

    THANKS AND REGARDS,
    Satish..

  40. Bhavya :

    Hi james
    I saw your so many videos. They all are really awesome. Your explanation is really funtastic, but in this video you didn’t explain with putting any example, so I didn’t understand properly. Actually I am preparing for TOEFL. I think there is no more time of reading so many paragraphs many times because of the time limit, so in this situation what should I do for understanding axactly? Please reply me. Thanks

    • Odmar Spada :

      I’m Brasilian and when I saw James explain how to do to understand what we read, I realise that we have to find a logic, it is the way to understand a text
      actually, werever you are, or language you speak, you have to think in the logic way.
      Did you undertand me?
      see you.

  41. hamidj :

    hi james

    can you please tell how do to do quiz on this website
    thanks
    can’t find it
    and your a good teacher

    • engVid :

      Hi hamidj, James hasn’t added quizzes for his lessons yet, but you will find them for most of the lessons of the other teachers on the site. You should see the quiz just below each of the lessons, above the comments.

  42. Tayyib :

    Dear james,
    Thanks a lot sir Actually the big problem for me in ielts preparation is reading. and now i am following this method i hope it will improve my skill or reading.if u james any other best tips for me so please post it me.
    Best wishes
    Muhammad Tayyib

  43. AhmedKhairy :

    hi james i’d like u to upload some samples on ielts exams it’s really gonna be helpful thank u
    u’re really doing something

  44. kalyan :

    This site is really helpful for the poor people. I have problem reading paragraphs as I dont know to follow the punctuation . Can you people please send some to my mail id kalyanf1@gmail.com. I am indian and I liked the tutors in this engvid.com

  45. kalyan :

    Hi James,

    This site is really helpful for the poor people. I have problem reading paragraphs as I dont know to follow the punctuation . Can you people please send some to my mail id kalyanf1@gmail.com. I am indian and I liked the tutors in this engvid.com

  46. Neto from Brazil :

    Hi James, I am Neto from Brazil and I need your help, please. I am here in Canada (Vancouver) studying english…I can write, I can understand all your classes, but why I need to think in Portuguese before to speak in English??? I am afraid, because I will start working in October here in Canada and I am not comfortable about my speaking skills….help me please.
    Love your classes, thank you very much my friend.

  47. Alena20 :

    Bugagaga

  48. Majid :

    Wow it’s really helpfull

    thanks my teacher I really haven’t seen a lesson like your lesson before
    it’s not a compliment I’m honest I understand them easily

    I have a suggestion

    I think it better to allow students downloading the lessons

    I would like to download them but I’m not allowed to

    thanks teacher again
    waiting for more

  49. Raddy :

    My 9yo son has difficulty reading and comprehension, so thank-you so much for this – we are going to try the technique out.

    A teacher many years ago gave me this tip :

    Most of what a paragraph is trying to say is in the opening sentence. The closing sentence usually summarises what the paragraph has said. So, for the purposes of getting through (a lot of) reading he advised
    1. read the first sentence
    2. read the last sentence
    3. If you need more information or understanding then read the whole of the paragraph. Doing 1 and 2 has given you the context and a pointer as to what the writer is trying to get across and usually contains supporting arguments or facts.

  50. Eric :

    i have a seriose problem in my life i have been out of school for 6 years now , i want go back to school becose without school your are finish please i need your help my problem is i cant read perfect some prounciation is very hard for me to read and understand. how can i improve my english speaking, read and understanding without education your finish in this world where can i start please i need your help. thank you very much.

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