Reading and the EFL student.

Most EFL students consider reading in English anathema. Reading a book in a different language seems to be an intimidating, daunting task. However, most of them don't realize that they've already won half the battle: They already have a moderate understanding of the language. This obviously doesn't apply to the very basic beginners, but for intermediate learners and those above, it is very much a reality. They read English pretty much everywhere. From social networks, to advertisements to the materials they use to learn the language, English is present everywhere. 

Most of the course books used to teach English include short stories, dialogues, magazine or newspaper articles or even letters to characters in the context of a lesson. Reading those texts is not at all different from reading a short story, a poem or even a novel. Furthermore, lack of extensive vocabulary shouldn't be a problem. There are many simplified versions of books of all sorts, also known as "learner literature". What is a "simplified version", though? These are stories that have been adapted and edited to reduce their word count and to take the essentials of the story and put it into simpler writing. These types of books are perfect for EFL students, and have been designed with them in mind. They even have glossaries with short definitions of the less known words at the bottom of each page so the reader doesn't have to disengage from the story to look for a dictionary. So EFL students shouldn't feel intimidated by books. They just need to find a story that pikes their interest, grab a comfy seat, and enjoy the ride.

For those interested in knowing a bit more about this sort of books, here's a link to a very informative article: http://www.antimoon.com/how/reading-beginner.htm