Can Reading Books Improve Vocabulary?

Being an avid reader, I obviously enjoy reading books as well as writing. Ever since I was little, I was quite gravitated towards the language classes especially English as compared to other subjects. It’s not uncommon for my friends to ask me to read over their essay’s and other writing assignments because they think I’m quite “good with words”. I will attribute my knowledge of English language and vocabulary to reading books, a lot of them every year. Although I prefer reading books for my personal enjoyment, I cannot deny the fact the I get to know more about different people and their cultures, which helps me to stay grounded and open up my understanding towards the bigger world surrounding me.

My habit of reading books has through the years helped me to decipher the words and pick up on contextual clues easily. However, is someone presented me with a math problem with a complexity transcending beyond simple addition, subtraction, multiplication or division, then I would be at a loss to find a solution. My struggle or inability to find out the solution to the math problem may possibly have nothing to do with my intelligence instead it could be because of less exposure to that type of material.

That is why I accredit my vocabulary to the habit of reading that I had from my childhood days. This habitual reading has helped me to improve my vocabulary as well as the cognitive reading skills such as reading, spelling, word recognition and critical thinking. No doubt, the number of years I was engrossed with reading books has helped me with my academic growth as well. To put it across in other words, the time spent on reading books and the level of my cognitive skills has a correlation.

There was a study conducted by Anne Cunningham and Keith Stanovich in the year 2001 which was designed to test whether or not reading novels have an impact on the advancement of a person’s vocabulary over time as well the type of medium in which children were exposed to most words. In this study, the first-grade students were asked to write how often they read every day in a journal. The scientists then followed up with the same group of students when they reached the eleventh grade and had them complete the tasks involving reading comprehension and vocabulary. The scores from those tasks were then compared to each of the students’ journal from first-grade to find a correlation between the number of hours each child documented when they were in first grade and the score of the tasks in current grade i.e. eleventh.

  

The results showed that being exposed to reading at an early age helps to predict those children who will be likely to read more over the years. Because the longer experience with reading books these children did show an increased vocabulary and cognitive reading skills. The scientists also proved that reading novels exposes children to more words than any other source such as magazines, television, conversations, etc.

So, this study proves my point accurately, that consistently reading books does improve vocabulary irrespective of inborn intelligence. However, the above study doesn’t mention about the difficulty level of the novels that lead to an increased vocabulary. Also, it doesn’t explain how these students learned the new words, I mean by using a dictionary for the definition, searching online, asking someone about the meaning of the word, or by using contextual evidence to make an inference. Also, does a formal or informal definition of a new word help a child to commit the word into their memory. 

Did You Know? 

An average American has a vocabulary in thousands. Whereas Indian children are rarely guided by their parents to form reading habits. I don’t want to underestimate anybody as we Indians have a lot of variety when it comes to reading books, I mean we have books being published in different languages other than English or even our official language Hindi.

  

So, without ranting about why few Indians are in to the habits of reading books, I’ll discuss below about how we can try to get into the habit of reading books. 

1) Read books to your children or use your tablet to read books

This will be beneficial for both parents and children as it will improve your vocabulary. This winter, read bedtime stories snuggled under the covers. According to the professor of Childhood and Literacy Education at Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development at the New York University, Susan Neuman, “The words present the in most children’s books are usually beyond the realm of an adult’s daily life, which is why even parents can learn more words by simply reading it to their children.”

Reading books on your tablet or Kindle will provide you with an altogether different experience. Next time you are reading an e-book and come across a word you aren’t familiar with, try highlighting it with your finger and the built-in dictionary will come to your rescue. The best part is you won’t lose your place or have to switch between googling the meaning of the word and your novel. 

2) Join a book club 

Book clubs are a wonderful strategy to help you learn new words. It will not only force you to set aside time in your day to read, but it’s a good way to discover new books I mean new genre of books that you might not be normally drawn to which in turn will expose you to new words thereby improve your vocabulary. 

3) Read, Read and Read 

I can’t stress enough but try making a little time every day to read. According to Neuman, “Reading on a regular basis is tied to improved cognitive functioning throughout life because you are always learning.” Even if you stop looking up every single foreign word, chances are that you can simply improve your vocabulary by figuring out its meaning based on the context they are used in or by coming across them again down the line. 

Share your thoughts and experience of book reading so far.

Until next post, this is Nyasa signing off. 

Can Reading Books Help You Become a Better Person?

We already know that the more people read books, the better their verbal skills including their vocabulary. According to Professor Keith Oatley at the University of Toronto, “Literary fiction works best, especially fiction where the character is the center of what it’s all about.” Over a decade ago, graduate students in his lab started a series of experiments to explore whether reading fiction could help people understand each other. They found that fiction, especially the narrative fiction directly improves our social skills such as reducing the bias and improves our ability to understand other’s beliefs, intentions and desires. Later on, the brain scanning experiments supported those findings showing how stories and vivid imagery activate the hippocampus, a hub of our brain for emotion and memory.

Professor Oatley attributes that as we immerse ourselves in a story involving complex characters and unfamiliar circumstances, it is like working through a simulation, where we absorb and practice new emotions and perspective. We experience what it is like to be in someone else’s shoe. Reading literary fiction helps us understand the human rights of others by improving our empathy toward people in other parts of the world we may never visit, who seem quite different than ourselves. For example, in the Khaled Hosseini's "The Kite Runner", we wade through the lives of Amir and Hassan’s childhood days in Afghanistan and Amir’s life in America with twisting experience of his return back to the Afghanistan under Taliban control. 

Different types of fiction provide different social stimulations. Romances guide us through how a person picks a partner such as in "Me Before You" by Jojo Moyes. On the other hand, mystery stories involve navigate the relations between oneself and the antagonist as in the work by thriller author Ruth Rendell or crime writer P. D. James.  

Reading fiction is not just passing the time, it has societal implications about how we human beings live with each other and how we understand each other. Reading books can help you fall asleep, escape from reality, lower your stress through laughter or tears and also offer exposure to perspectives that are different from your own.  

Let us now discuss about the other ways how reading books can make you a better person, according to science. 

1. Reading Books Make You Feel Happier with Yourself and Your Life 

In a survey conducted by Josie Billington at the University of Liverpool on 4,164 adults found many interesting differences between those who read regularly and those who don’t. Readers have reported being less depressed and less stressed and having higher level of self-esteem and a greater ability to cope up with challenges. When compared to the non-readers, they had stronger awareness of social issues and cultural diversity and scored higher in terms of feeling close to friends and their community. 

2. It Raise Your Intelligence 

As per the researchers at the University of Edinburgh and King's College London who tested 1,890 pairs of twins five times from the ages 7 to 16 for their IQ and reading ability, found that the kids with better reading ability compared to their twins had higher verbal and nonverbal cognitive ability. The authors speculate that while reading books help you to remember facts, it also helps them practice in abstract thinking through the process of imagining a book’s plot and putting yourself in place of the characters.

3. Reading Books Protect Your Memory 

According to the study published in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, the brain-stimulating activities like reading books help your brain as you age. They conducted tests on the memory and the thinking ability of 294 people every year for about six years before their deaths, which on an average occurred at age 89. Those who reported doing mentally stimulated activities like reading early and late in life had a slower rate of memory decline compared to those who hadn’t. The rate of decline was reduced by about 32 percent in people who were mentally active in their later years as compared to those with only average mental activity. 

Don’t worry if you aren’t a big reader- because studies have also demonstrated an improved empathy after watching television shows. I’ll be discussing about Reading Books Vs. Watching Movies Based on Books: Which is Better? in my upcoming posts. 

Now, some evidence suggests that reading literary fiction broadens our mind and also improves our ability to empathize with others. In words, reading books not only impacts our IQ (Intellectual Quotient) but EQ (Emotional Quotient) as well. To conclude, reading a good book can make you a better person. 

Until then, this is Nyasa signing off. 

I will highly appreciate sharing your love by leaving your thoughts below.