Why Reading Beats Television for Language Learning

The Impact of Reading vs. Television on the Mind

Some people subscribe to the belief that reading helps enhance language skills and creativity, whereas watching television does very little for these abilities. Personally, I support this opinion for several reasons, which will be detailed in this essay.

How Books Stimulate the Imagination

As we all know, books use text to convey ideas, and quite often there are no images or illustrations to picture the scenes described. Therefore, we must use our own imagination while reading. For example, when reading a fantasy novel containing mythical creatures, one typically visualizes the appearance of those characters in their mind while following the plot. In contrast, movie heroes on a TV screen are usually created for the viewer by directors and producers. Watching TV substitutes the need to develop one’s own imagination because the characters and their surroundings are explicitly shown on the screen.

Expanding Vocabulary and Linguistic Skills

Furthermore, it is argued that reading is the best way to expand one’s vocabulary. The reader learns the correct spelling of a word by seeing it printed in a book, and they grasp its meaning from the context without having to look it up in a dictionary. Not only new words but also numerous sentence structures can be learned from books. To take advantage of these benefits, English teachers in many schools utilize English novels as teaching materials. Students are asked to read the story and identify keywords to answer exam questions. In comparison, learning new words while watching a TV show is not always easy because the viewer’s attention is drawn to the action on the screen. If there are no subtitles, the spelling of the words is not obvious. All this makes a book a more effective tool for a language learner compared to television.

The Superiority of the Written Word

In conclusion, I believe people who love to read tend to have a more active imagination and advanced linguistic comprehension than those who watch television. This is because readers are required to imagine the story and learn the meaning of new words from the context.

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