Reading is to Writing as Oil and Gas is to a Car Engine

“I kept always two books in my pocket, one to read, one to write in.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

Why is it important for ESL learners to read if they want to learn to write?

I started learning English when I was almost 6 years old. My family had emigrated to the UK a few months before I was dropped, with little preparation, into a classroom. I probably knew the words ‘hello’ and ‘thank you’. I certainly didn’t know the word ‘toilet’ or ‘bathroom’ as we would say in Canada, as one of my clearest memories from that first day, was squatting on the floor to demonstrate my need.

And yet, by the age of 9, I had caught up with my peers and in many ways surpassed them. How? As soon as I learnt to read, I devoured books. I read through the entire primary school bookcase. Then the head teacher obtained permission for me to borrow books from the middle school library. She suggested to my parents to take me to the city library. What a magical world that opened!

I didn’t know it then. But looking back now, I realise that the books which fueled my imagination and allowed me to live countless other lives, were also the instruments of my instruction, the teachers of my learning. Reading is to writing, as oil and gas are to a car engine. It is difficult to broaden our vocabulary and develop a variety of sentence structures when we have not read.

Reading will introduce you to words in context. You can read how another writer has used those words. It’s far easier than learning them from a vocabulary list.

Reading will show you idioms and figurative language in English. ESL learners often learn functional language and when they are introduced to the creativity and art of English, they are unsure how to understand language that isn’t literal. I remember one of my students reading about ‘the sea bed’ and thinking that there was a literal bed in the sea. Without understanding figurative language, English can be very confusing.

Reading will give you models of sentence structures and how to use them with impact.

So what do you have to do? READ, READ, READ!! Vary your material. Read novels, read newspapers, magazines, textbooks, poetry. Our minds are like our bodies, they need a variety of nutrients to thrive and grow and be healthy. But I don’t have time, you say…….

What can I say ….. Would you drive a car without oil and gas?

Read! Don’t expect to be able to advance your writing effectively without reading.