Intensive vs Extensive Reading: Which Is Better?

In this post I'm tackling a fantastic question from a listener to the StoryLearning podcast about intensive vs extensive reading.

Let's explore which reading approach will serve you best, especially if you're at that tricky intermediate stage.

If you prefer watching videos to reading, hit play on the video version of this post at the top of this page.

A Great Question From Marcel

Let me share Marcel's question with you:

“Hey Olly, hey everyone, it's Marcel from Brazil. I've been learning English for the past two years and my question is: now that I am at an intermediate level, which one is better – intensive vs extensive reading, and why? That's it, thanks!”

First off, congratulations to Marcel on his English! For just two years of study, he's done a really good job.

Intensive vs. Extensive Reading: What's The Difference?

This concept comes from the classroom – it's a teaching concept that talks about the different kinds of foreign language reading that students can generally be asked to do.

Extensive Reading: The Wide Approach

Extensive reading means reading widely on topics that interest you. Maybe you enjoy novels, so you read lots of novels. Perhaps you're fascinated by ships, so you read books about ships. Whatever captures your interest, the key is that you're covering a lot of material.

The advantages of extensive reading are huge:

• It fosters a kind of independence because you have to learn to deal with a lot of text and unknown words
• It gives you exposure to what you'd call the “whole language” rather than just looking at a few example sentences of grammar
• You're actually looking at the entire thing – an entire chapter or book – so you get a very complete picture of the language you're studying

Generally with extensive reading, you would probably try not to use a dictionary for most of it. The idea here is that you're developing the skills you need to actually deal with a lot of language and cover a lot of ground.

Intensive Reading: The Deep Approach

Intensive reading is the complete opposite – the polar opposite of extensive reading. This is typically what happens inside a classroom, where the teacher would ask a student to read a small or short text in lots and lots of detail.

With intensive reading:

• You might only read one paragraph or one page
• You examine the text closely to understand the language being used
• You might answer what's known as “comprehension questions” – have you understood these different points? Do you understand the grammar and all the different vocabulary in the text?

Which Approach Should You Choose?

The reality is that obviously both of them are very useful. With extensive reading, you become much more independent and get exposed to a lot of the language.

With intensive reading, you get to know the nuts and bolts of the language more and discover more detail.

But here's the thing: in Marcel's case, he's an intermediate level English learner, and this applies to lots of people. If you're at that intermediate stage in any language, then you might be familiar with something called the intermediate plateau.

The Intermediate Plateau: A Common Struggle

This happens to virtually everybody when they learn a language and when you get to that intermediate stage it's very difficult to break through and move from intermediate to advanced.

I know personally I've been stuck at that intermediate level with lots of different languages, and it can be frustrating.

The main point is that when you are at that intermediate plateau, it's very difficult to break through and really make progress with conversation and speaking alone.

Why? Because in daily conversation there is a very limited amount of language that we use compared to written language.

When we're speaking, it's restricted – very small amounts of language – and we tend to repeat ourselves a lot and use only very familiar words or language that we think the other person is going to understand.

So if you find yourself, as Marcel does, at an intermediate stage right now and you're wondering how you can really take your language to the next level, then the best solution of all is to start to read a lot.

This essentially implies that you need to be doing a lot of extensive reading. It's a great question to ask because extensive reading is exactly how you're going to break through the intermediate plateau.

Three Essential Tips For Effective Extensive Reading

Now, there are a few caveats because, you know, it can be difficult to pick up a book and try to plow your way through it. So you need to make sure of a few things:

1. Choose Material That Genuinely Interests You

The first thing you need to make sure of is that whatever you choose to read, you have to make sure that it's interesting to you.

If you're not interested in the topic, if it's something in a textbook or something that a teacher gives you or whatever, then you're just not going to be able to make it through because it's going to be too dull for you.

Make sure you choose to read stuff that you're actually interested in, and ideally something that you would read in your mother tongue at the same time.

2. Try Not to Use the Dictionary

The next thing is try not to use the dictionary as much as possible. That can be tough because we have this natural tendency to want to understand everything that we're reading.

But you see, the point of extensive reading is not to understand every word – the point of extensive reading is to try to take in and soak up as much of the language as you possibly can. The reality is that by using a dictionary, you slow yourself down far too much.

So you really need to try and not use the dictionary and develop the skill of being able to cope with lots of words that you don't understand. Try to infer the meaning and try to understand anyway. It's one of the best things you can possibly do.

3. Read Slightly Below Your Level

The other great thing you can do with extensive reading (and it's not always possible, it depends what you can find) is to find texts that are slightly beneath your current level – that's the best thing to be reading.

For example, if you're an intermediate learner, then if possible, you should try to look for texts that are around a pre-intermediate or even an elementary level. The best way to do that is by looking for what are called “graded readers.”

I've created a whole series of “graded readers” – my short story books which come in beginner and intermediate levels in a range of languages.

Graded readers deliberately limit the amount of new vocabulary inside the book. Lots of people actually criticise graded readers because they are seen as not being completely natural language.

But the thing is that at an intermediate level, it can be tough to read native speaker natural language in a book.

So a lot of people find that by using graded readers and reading material that's slightly on the easy side for you, that's perfect. What you can do then is read a lot and cover lots and lots of ground and read an awful lot.

Finding the Balance

I'm not saying to ignore intensive reading.

The thing about that is that in reality, if you're reading a lot of books, then you're going to find yourself reading certain passages intensively because some passages you're just going to want to understand.

So you're going to find yourself going back over them many, many times.

Moving Forward With Reading

If you're serious about breaking through that intermediate plateau, extensive reading should become a cornerstone of your language learning routine.

Choose materials that spark your interest, resist the urge to check every unknown word, and consider using graded readers to build your confidence and reading fluency.

Remember that the goal is to expose yourself to as much of the language as possible.

By soaking up large amounts of comprehensible input through extensive reading, you're giving your brain the raw material it needs to make those critical connections and move your language skills to the next level.

Intensive vs Extensive Reading FAQ

Olly Richards

Creator of the StoryLearning® Method

Olly Richards is a renowned polyglot and language learning expert with over 15 years of experience teaching millions through his innovative StoryLearning® method. He is the creator of StoryLearning, one of the world's largest language learning blogs with 500,000+ monthly readers.

Olly has authored 30+ language learning books and courses, including the bestselling "Short Stories" series published by Teach Yourself.

When not developing new teaching methods, Richards practices what he preaches—he speaks 8 languages fluently and continues learning new ones through his own methodology.