Reading is a wonderful skill. And there are different types of reading.

You can read silently to get information or you can read silently for pleasure.

What about reading aloud?

This is called oral reading.

Often when I write a letter, an email message, or a blog post,

I read my text aloud to make sure it sounds good.

When I read my own writing, I 'm checking for mistakes

or I 'm looking for ways to make my ideas sound better.

With my children, I read aloud almost everyday.

I read to them. They read to me.

They 've become better readers and listeners because of this.

Oral reading, though, is not just helpful for young learners.

As language learners, adults can benefit from oral reading, too.

When you learn to read a text, smoothly and clearly, you become more confident as a speaker.

Your pronunciation improves because you 're taking the time to form each word and say each phrase as one thought.

You become more aware of new words and how they 're used.

And because you 're reading more slowly than you would if you read silently,

your understanding of sentence structure can deepen because you 're paying attention

to how words are put together and how punctuation is being used.