You know how you feel you know something in your gut but have a hard time proving it? Underused as they are, I always thought my reading, writing, and editing skills in English have been good and have improved over time. And though I have dabbled in 9 languages with varying degrees of proficiency, Hindi being the next closest in overall proficiency to English, I felt like my skills in the latter arose from the prolonged and varied interest I have had in reading all manners of fiction. I have even tried to read a couple of romance novels and just could not get into the genre.
Essentially, I have read a variety of fiction, and I have tried to dabble past the genres that generally interest me. I always had this gut feeling that fiction is very good at improving language skills. It turns out there is now some evidence that fiction actually does help you learn and be more proficient at a language.
First, the motivations
Most people get to language skills improvement only when it comes time to take standardized tests or write college/graduate school application essays. Even then, people rely rather heavily on study materials, cramming, mnemonics, and such. Some get away with great scores, some with average scores, and some struggle quite a bit. Clearly, it is the wrong time to get started.
Some, like me, spend their childhood consuming fiction voraciously. Mine included Enid Blyton, Dickens, Agatha Christie, Erle Stanley Gardner, Dick Francis, and later P.G. Wodehouse, among several others. Wodehouse is among the best in taking English and bending it into poetic pretzels, which he then stuck into prose. If I started quoting my favorites here, we’d run into a few thousand words, so let’s move on.
So, when it came time to take the GRE and write not just my essays but review those of several others, first my classmates and later several dozens through a non-profit I informally ran, the language just flowed. And I had this nagging feeling that it is a consequence of reading fiction, not non-fiction. I just never dug into doing research of any depth into this particular aspect of erudition and expression.
Non-fiction Vs Fiction
Now, don’t get me wrong. I have co-authored non-fiction books and papers. It is just that, we can all admit, fiction is a LOT more interesting. And it turns out this is true (Research summary article attached below). Even when there is a deep-seated intent to read non-fiction, reading non-fiction will not help improve language skills much.
We also saw this with the Harry Potter series, before J.K. Rowling revealed herself to possess unforgivable biases towards transgender members of society. Children who could not wait to get their hands on the novels were sharpening their language skills at a pace rarely seen around that time.
If you then go back to motivations, to do well in standardized testing, and even in critical non-fiction exercises such as college and graduate school essays, research publications, class work, and beyond, you actually need a healthy dose of both fiction and non-fiction. You especially need to practice the latter.
Going beyond the research
I am writing this more purposefully for people with one or both objectives:
- Folks who will clearly depend on study materials, such as SAT and GRE word lists and other such study/test materials.
- Folks who need to improve their language skills for reasons that go beyond just tests and study exercises.
Sandwiching Language Study Methods
For the first case, it helps to do a sandwich technique. It is okay to read non-fiction, study word lists, make and peruse flashcards and other study aids.
Then, and this is the critical step. Read fiction. Get into it as much as you can. It is never too late, and nothing is too little. Remember, listening and reading are different in their effects, including with retention. You are better off reading more than listening, though a mix of activities might not be bad. It is also good practice to have a dictionary at hand and understand how authors use words, their sentence structures, and so on. Don’t be shy to note examples, make flashcards and create other study aids that will help you.
Closing the sandwich
Following this, if you revisit your study aids from before, the last portion of your sandwich act, that is, you will have a much better handle on the English language. This can also be especially true with exams such as SAT and GRE, which also have a reading comprehension component to them. You should also take quizzes and engage in word games, such as those found in Reader’s Digest, Hangman, and any others that you find educational, informative, reinforcing, and, more importantly, entertaining.
Lather, Rinse, Repeat 
If you mix your habit of reading non-fiction and going through your study materials with reading fiction, you will have an excellent chance at improving your language skills. Also, mix in listening, watching, and reading, as well, to get the best results. Years ago, when I was preparing for the SAT, the listening section was seen as a bugaboo among test takers. Even though I used to spend a lot of time reading back then, I didn’t spend much time watching or listening to shows, talks, news, etc., in English. I started listening and watching things – mostly movies, haha. In a very short while, I was able to improve my proficiency farther than just reading had taken me. Anecdotal? No. There’s research on that as well, and a general write-up is referenced below.
What about tools such as Grammarly?
Given my penchant for getting things right, I have been heavily using Grammarly, the premium version. There is, of course, a free version you can use as well. That said, I don’t agree with the tool quite a bit, as it is still very poor at understanding context, especially in informal and semi-formal writing such as blog posts. For example, it doesn’t really understand the differences in writing using “chance at” and “chance of”. So, you should screen every single recommendation such a tool makes before implementing the recommendations. Otherwise, you could end up with poor quality writing as a consequence. This principle extends to any and all software tools used for language improvement.
There are many other sources of evidence to support all this. You are more than welcome to dig deep. Pragmatically speaking or writing, and maybe in your case reading, the evidence should be enough to get you going on the path to enhanced language skills.
References:
- Reading Fiction to improve language skills: https://theconversation.com/reading-to-improve-language-skills-focus-on-fiction-rather-than-non-fiction-179552
- Listening Vs. Reading Fiction: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/friendly-interest/201812/why-listening-book-is-not-the-same-reading-it
- Watching: https://theconversation.com/watching-foreign-language-tv-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic-can-help-you-learn-a-new-language-141170
- Grammarly: https://app.grammarly.com/
- Cover image: https://pixabay.com/photos/typewriter-vintage-old-1248088/
- Image of Bruschetta Sandwich: https://www.pexels.com/photo/appetizing-bruschettas-with-fresh-vegetable-slices-on-plate-4969892/
- Dream Big Image: https://unsplash.com/photos/U2eUlPEKIgU
- Image of a person washing dishes: https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-person-washing-a-white-bowl-in-the-sink-4440618/