Listening While You Read: Combining Audio with English Books
What research says about reading while listening in a second language: a study of listening gains, a study of word retention, and a meta-analysis.
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StudyX Devlog: ABC George
StudyX Devlog articles tagged "ABC George".
Is It OK to Use Translation When Reading in English?
Is it OK to open a translator while reading English books? What studies found on reading machine translation first or last, and on first-language glosses.
Reading Children's Classics as an Adult: Oz, Peter Pan and Anne of Green Gables
Are children's books too young for adult learners? Word counts for Oz, Peter Pan, Anne and The Secret Garden, with the passages that trip adults.
The Past Perfect in Novels: What Happened Before the Story's Past
Novels are told in the past tense, so had takes you further back. How to find the story's now, where a flashback starts and ends, and what 'd stands for.
Start Extensive Reading with English Fairy Tales: Grimm, Andersen, Aesop
Stories you already know are an easy way into English books. Word counts for Aesop, Grimm and Andersen, a reading order, and which translation to pick.
What Are the NGSL and NAWL? Free Word Lists for English Learners
The NGSL and NAWL are free frequency word lists for English learners. Who made them, from which corpus, their sizes, coverage, versions and licence.
How Fast Should You Read English? Measuring and Improving Your WPM
Reading speeds for native speakers and learners from research, a one-minute way to measure your WPM, speed versus comprehension, and how to read faster.
What Is the Leitner System? Spaced Repetition That Brings Back the Words You Miss
How the Leitner system works, what spaced repetition research says, how to run it with paper cards, how it differs from Anki, and how ABC George uses it.
When to Start Using an English-English Dictionary: Getting Used to Plain-English Definitions
When to move from a bilingual to a monolingual dictionary, what learner's dictionaries do well, how they differ from WordNet, and when translation helps.
Does Extensive Reading Help with IELTS, TOEFL and TOEIC?
What research says extensive reading does, which parts of IELTS, TOEFL and TOEIC it helps with, what it leaves out, and how to split time before a test.
Reading Alice in Wonderland in English: Where the Wordplay Trips You Up
Reading Alice in Wonderland in English: puns that are easy to miss, such as tale and tail, how to treat lines a dictionary cannot explain, and the sequel.
When to Move from Graded Readers to Original Books
Signs an English learner is ready to move from graded readers to unsimplified books, how to choose a first original book, and why to keep reading both.
Classic Ghost Stories to Read in English for Halloween: Poe, Sleepy Hollow, Jekyll and Hyde
Five classic scary stories for learners, ranked by length from Project Gutenberg word counts: Poe, The Monkey's Paw, Sleepy Hollow and Jekyll and Hyde.
Which Words Should You Look Up When Reading in English?
Looking up too many words stalls your reading. Counts from Alice in Wonderland show why to look up words that repeat or carry the plot, and skip the rest.
Build Your English Vocabulary Notebook from Your Own Reading
If ready-made word lists don't stick, build a vocabulary notebook from the books you read. Why to keep the whole sentence, and how to do it on paper.
Reading Sherlock Holmes in the Original: Which Story to Start With
Why The Red-Headed League makes a good first Holmes story, why short stories come before novels, and how to read Watson's old-fashioned English.
How Many English Words Do You Need to Read a Novel? Vocabulary Size and Coverage
Research says reading English unaided takes 8,000 to 9,000 word families. What 95% and 98% coverage mean, and what to read until you get there.
How to Finish an English Book: Why Learners Stall and What Helps
Learners often stall halfway through an English book even when it isn't too hard. The common reasons, and practical ways to break a book up and restart it.
Choosing English Books by Level: How Beginners Can Finish Their First Book
How to read graded reader levels, and how to judge an unlabelled English classic by length, age, dialect and wordplay, plus famous books to save for later.
What Is Project Gutenberg? Finding Free Books and Checking Copyright
Project Gutenberg is a free library of books out of copyright in the US. How to search it, which file to get, and why US public domain is not worldwide.
How to Do Extensive Reading in English: Dictionaries, Difficulty and How Much to Read
Should you use a dictionary, how hard should a book be, when should you quit it, and how much should you read a day? A plain guide to extensive reading.
30 Free Classic Books for English Learners (Project Gutenberg)
Thirty short, plainly written classics for English learners, all free on Project Gutenberg, with an honest note on what each book is and how hard it reads.
Who Is ABC George For?
Who ABC George suits: learners ready for their first whole English book, readers stuck at the intermediate plateau, students preparing to study in English, commuters, and people who used the 2019 app.
Practical Tips for Reading with ABC George Every Day
Habits that make ABC George work: choosing a book below your level, using Chat view on tired evenings, not looking up every word, keeping the daily quiz small, and downloading before you travel.
ABC George vs Other Ways to Read English Books
How ABC George compares with Project Gutenberg in an e-book app, Kindle's Vocabulary Builder, graded readers and LingQ, and when each fits better.
Getting Started with ABC George: Your First English Book
New to ABC George? Find a first book on the Start here shelf, download it, pick a reading view, look up words with a long-press, and take your first quiz built from your own reading.