Reading newspapers is important for students learning a foreign language including English. In this article we will look at some of the benefits.

1. Expanding vocabulary.

When you read a newspaper article you will inevitably see new words and phrases e.g. phrasal verbs that you may not understand. This is good because after seeing these new words and learning their money you will have expanded your vocabulary. Newspaper articles cover different topics including politics, sport, science and other subjects.

In the future for example if you want to do the IELTS or TOEFL exam you will need to be prepared to write articles or speak about different topics which could include:

• transport
• shopping
• education
• travel
• health
• sports
• culture
• leisure
• others

You can acquire the vocabulary for these different topics by reading on a consistent basis. It is better to read a little regularly rather than to read a lot occasionally. So even if you spend 10 minutes a day reading an article for 3 months than that is better than reading 3 hours once a fortnight.

2. Improving your understanding of tenses.

Newspaper articles use different tenses including the past simple, present simple and future simple.

In English newspaper articles often use the present perfect. The present perfect is used in different ways but one of the ways it is used is for actions completed recently. Here are some examples.

a. ‘The famous actor {name} has died recently due to heart failure’.

b. ‘The government have announced they will ban the use of plastic straws in all government buildings.’

c. ‘Apple have released their new Iphone, the Iphone 200.’

Watch this video to learn more about the present perfect.

However the difference between the sentences in newspaper articles and in grammar books is that these sentences are real sentences written by actual native speakers and read by millions of other native speakers. They are called ‘authentic texts’. ‘Authentic’ means real. They are real in the sense that they are used by real native speakers and not created specifically for non-natives purely for learning English.

You will see how different grammatical structures and tenses are used in a real context.

3. Improving your grammar.

In addition to learning more about tenses pay attention to other aspects of grammar such as:

• which prepositions go with which verbs or words. For instance whenever you learn a verb in English you also need to learn which preposition goes with it.
• For example in English we cannot say “He insisted to sit next to the window”, we have to use the preposition ‘on’ after the verb ‘insist’.
• It also helps us acquire a greater familiarity with collocation and context. Collocations in English refers to specific words being used with other words. A basic example is for instance we cannot say ‘do a bath’ but we must say ‘have or take a bath’. The word ‘do’ does not collocate with bath. More advanced and complex examples of collocations are for instance the fact we cannot say ‘finish a law’ but must use the verb ‘abolish’.

Things such as these are important in helping to improve our writing.

Here is a video with the word ‘abolish’ and example sentences on how it can be used.

4. Be able to understand the news and internet.

If you develop your vocabulary from reading lots of newspaper articles this then enables you to understand the same words and phrases when they are then used in actual news broadcoasts or used in documentaries or Youtube programmes. There is of course a difference between reading something and being able to understand it orally when it is said by someone. Sometimes you may be able to recognise a word when you see it but not be familiar with how it is pronounced. However you can use Google translate or any other software to see how a word is pronounced when you are learning it.

This also helps you with IELTS or TOEFL listening later on if you decide to take either of these exams or any other English language exams such as the Cambridge exams.

5. Be aware of the world.

Reading the news regularly enables you to be aware of what is happening in the world and to be more informed. This means that if various people are discussing an important topic in class or in a cafe you do not feel uncomfortable and unfamiliar with the topic. You are familiar with the topic and can follow and understand any discussion between friends and even contribute your own personal opinion.

6. Improves your reading skills of different texts.

This may seem obvious, but there are different types of text in all languages. Someone who can read medical texts easily because they are a medical student may not be able to understand texts about history or politics as easily. However due to the fact that newspaper articles focus on a wide variety of topics and can have different styles e.g. a report on political events will be different to an obituary or to a travel article, you will be improving your ability to read different types of texts. The various types of texts in a newspaper can include.

• Report on national politics e.g. US, UK politics.
• international politics
• travel articles
• show business articles
• obituaries
• editorial
• Opinion pieces.

7. Improving your analytical and critical skills.

Reading newspapers can also be very useful in developing your analytical and critical skills. However in order to be able to analyse or criticise anything you need to have relevant information on that particular topic in the first place. Once you have some basic understanding or awareness you can then feel comfortable to develop a stronger and deeper understanding of it by reading or studying it in greater depth. You would then be able to have a more qualified opinion on that topic.

Newspapers sometimes feature different opinions from different writers on the same topic. Or within an article a journalist may present opposing views on an issue from different people. That way you become aware of the different opinions on a topic. What is also useful is if you read the letters section of a newspaper or the comments section of a news site to find out different thoughts, ideas and opinions.

This is useful for IELTS because you can see how different people view things in different ways. In IELTS writing task 2 you are often required to examine opposing views on one topic, present both views and then give your own conclusion.

8. Improving your writing.

Naturally after consistent and extensive reading of newspaper articles it will have an impact on your writing. The greater your vocabulary and the better your understanding of how words are used and in what context and also similar recurring phrases such as ‘it is popularly believed’, ‘there is widespread debate’ etc, you can then use all of these words and phrases in a more skillful manner to produce better writing.

This can help you in IELTS, TOEFL or Cambridge writing exams.

Conclusion.

Reading newspapers is very useful for improving your English and these days with the internet it is free. You can also use translation software to translate words you do not understand or sometimes provide you with a rough translation of certain sentences or paragraphs. Newspaper language can help you develop some of the vocabulary and reading skills you need in order to pass exams like IELTS or TOEFL.