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As a passionate language learner, I have a lot of experience in language acquisition. Either it be mother tongue or second language, reading actually is an integral part in any language learning process once one acquires the fundamentals of a language to combine sentences. Without any doubt, reading, speaking, listening, writing are the four basics to learn a language. I believe, however, reading has the greatest impact on a language learner determining how proficient one can master a language and also on improving one’s writing ability. Just as a small child starts to learn with story books, reading creates an invisible and more profound influence on developing almost every aspect of his/her mother tongue as far as to learn about or even use advanced vocabularies in a most comprehensive and systematic way, meanwhile to cultivate the way of expressing oneself in both speech and writing. When it comes to second language acquisition, reading appears to show stronger effects in improving the overall language ability. Reading is an important mean to arise interest in language learning and accrue knowledge. As one’s reading ability improves and language knowledge increases, it renders more readings possible. With less difficulty in words, the attention can be diverted more to the content of the reading materials. Once interest is arisen in any probable genre or area, the learner is likely to feel fulfillment of his/her progress in language learning, which in turn prompts more interests. Language sense can be cultivated by reading. In other words, language sense is the thinking ability to the target language, which means we do not need to decode every part of a sentence to understand the meaning. By reading a lot, a language learner can strengthen his language ability so that he is able to understand a passage with many new words. To take myself an example, as an English as a second language learner, passion towards English learning motivates me to read original novels, magazines, and various themes of newspapers while I don’t get an opportunity to immerse myself in a complete English-speaking environment. This habit of reading original materials does not show immediate and obvious effects at the beginning. But after a certain period of time, something good started to happen when I realized that I am capable of remembering most of the new vocabularies from what I read without memorizing them. I am aware that I am able to understand an English article faster than my peers, and even the English subtitles on movies that appear on the screen. Reading does not just boost knowledge and build vocabulary, but also can be an efficient way to learn about language culture. When reading original materials, a learner, inevitably, will learn about culture including the country’s history, literature, customs and religion. As we say it, learning a language is learning a culture. The more you read, the more you know about its culture. All the benefits brought by reading also can greatly enhance one’s writing ability and gain more vocabulary. Meanwhile, speaking and listening would be of no doubt improved by comprehension ability. In my opinion, reading is the best way to enhance overall language abilities.
