English Short Stories for Beginners and Intermediate Learners: Engaging Short Stories to Learn English and Build Your Vocabulary (2nd Edition)

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK
To simulate extensive reading better, we recommend keeping things simple
and using the short stories in the following manner. Read through each story
just once and no more.
The words that have been written in bold appear on a vocabulary list at
the end of each story. Whenever you encounter a word you don't know, try
to guess its meaning using the surrounding context before going to the
dictionary. Alternatively, you could make the reading easier by first going
over the vocabulary list and looking up any words unknown to you.
After completing the reading for each chapter, test your knowledge of
the story by answering the comprehension questions. Check your answers
using the answer key located at the end of the book.
Memorization of any kind, however, is completely unnecessary.
Attempting to push new information into your brain forcibly only serves to
eat up your time and make it that much more frustrating when you can't
recall it in the future. The actual language acquisition process occurs
subconsciously, and any effort to memorize new vocabulary and grammar
structures only stores this information in your short-term memory.
If you wish to review new information that you have learned from the
short stories, there are several options that would be wiser. Spaced
Repetition Systems (SRS) allow you to cut down on your review time by
setting specific intervals in which you are tested on information in order to
promote long-term memory storage. Anki and the Goldlist Method are two
popular SRS choices that give you the ability to review whatever
information you'd like from whatever material you'd like.
Uploaded by S. M. Safi

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It's also recommended to read each story silently. While reading aloud
can be somewhat beneficial for pronunciation and intonation, it's a practice
aligned more with intensive reading. It will further slow down your reading
pace and make it considerably more difficult for you to get into extensive
reading. If you want to work on pronunciation and intonation, take the time
to do it during SRS review time. Alternatively, you could also speak to a
tutor in the foreign language to practice what you learned.
Trying to actively review everything you learn through these short
stories will slow you down on your overall path to fluency. While there may
be an assortment of things you want to practice and review, the best way to
go about internalizing new vocabulary and grammar is to forget it! If it's
that important, it will come up through more reading and listening to more
English. Save the SRS and other review techniques for only a small selected
sample of sentences you feel are the most important. Languages are more
effectively acquired when we allow ourselves to read and listen to them
naturally.
And with that, it is time to get started with our main character John and
the ten stories about his life. Good luck, reader!
Uploaded by S. M. Safi

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