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I have been learning English ever since I visited United States for the first time when I was 15, and since high school, the desire for perfect acquisition and integration of English language skill has been constantly driving me to study English whether it’s casual or slightly more professional in level, and mastering English has been a constant goal for me to reach.

I acquired the context and the knowledge of English through English tests like TOEFL or SAT,

but I wanted to make it perfect in every level whether it’s reading, listening, writing or speaking. so this year, i decided to purchase some 2nd hand books for me to casually study by going over each one of them.

I find those books from known, famous publication to be reliable and very entertaining. College level books like ‘American ways’ from Longman is pretty decent level book that contains a lot of reading materials through which you can study English reading and acquire skills to interpret English language and texts under the context of English environment.

and the ‘Pathways’ series from Heinle and National Geographic Learning is also very entertaining for me.

What are some other good books and materials for learning English that are famous that I can use to study English more professionally?

could anyone from English teaching community or those who know about English education very well tell me?

thanks.

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    Welcome to ELL - I've migrated this over to our meta site, because resource requests are out of scope for the main site. We have a list of Resources for Learning English that might be helpful.
    – ColleenV
    Apr 17, 2019 at 11:46
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    Thank you for the link. I think this is just about the exact type of source I was looking for. the list contains pretty much every form of medium by which you can learn English including newspaper, podcasts and online chatting. I’ve been doing that since beginning of the year, but this link will even enhance and accelerate my English learning to a great level. Thanks again.
    – Mark
    Apr 17, 2019 at 12:56
  • Mark, are you Taiwanese by chance? Just a guess or feeling. I'm from the US living in Taiwan.
    – Jim Reynolds
    Apr 18, 2019 at 8:02
  • @Jim Reynolds. Yeah, we look alike quite a bit don’t we? I don’t think I’ve gotten Taiwanese though. mostly mistaken as hispanic or italian and occasionally Japanese and other ethnic groups in E.Asia. No, I was born and raised up in South Korea.
    – Mark
    Apr 18, 2019 at 8:03
  • @Mar Right. Come to think of it, I wasn't so much guessing you were Taiwanese as wondering, in part because I'm here and I'm always thinking about making some kind of reading or activity groups.
    – Jim Reynolds
    Apr 18, 2019 at 10:22

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There are several kinds of scientists who study the processes by which we acquire languages and develop proficiency and literacy.

You might enjoy reading about this in English. I am a fan of Stephen Krashen's work, most of which is available for free at sdkrashen.com.

The best thing for you depends on your precise goals and situation, but I have a sense that it would benefit you to stop "studying" English, and look for more experiences in which you are using English to do things that you find highly interesting (compelling) or that you love.

Another guess: You might benefit from reading more fiction and at a level such that you can read almost completely without thinking about English. In other words, so that you are experiencing what some people call flow.

I believe this will help make you a more flexible and smooth user of English. You have a great skill. Now, perhaps, you can learn how to achieve a more native-like fluency. The best road to that is, counterintuitively, by figuring out how to stop working at it, and instead letting it happen!

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  • Sorry for the really late feedback. i really appreciate your answer. I tend to like people answering to random questions like mine with honest and personal opinions that provide some sort of character of direction which i can compare my situation to in order to develop more accurate sense of experience in the intellectual environment.
    – Mark
    Sep 21, 2019 at 2:56
  • I eventually ended up studying bunch of boring and tedious vocabulary published both in English and foreign publication. The only other major problem i have when understanding English as a 2nd language acquirer is that unlike native speakers, when i read any sort of lengthy English texts, i tend to have to focus a lot on a lot of grammatical stuffs like whether the adjective that was used prior to the noun is used in order to modify the character of the noun (referring to the ‘boring and tedious vocabulary’) or whether it is more properly used in the action which is not specified.
    – Mark
    Sep 21, 2019 at 3:13
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Based on your writing, I have to ask if there is a reason you are not focusing on authentic reading material at this point. I agree with Jim Reynolds. The books you mentioned are great, but they are written for learners. You seem to be at a level that would benefit from reading material written for native speakers. Perhaps you are doing this as well? If not, I recommend incorporating reading material that interests you but that is intended for native speakers. This will provide you with idiomatic language and aspects of the culture that are often edited out of learning textbooks. It also allows you to see the way English is used by native speakers, which is often different than the simplified forms you find in textbooks for non-native speakers. I hope this helps! - Trey p.s. I'm also in Korea. I'm currently teaching Tuesdays with Morrie to my Lifelong Learning classes.

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  • Sorry, i happened to check this answer quite late. To tell you the truth, getting the authentic reading material was extremely difficult for few reasons, mainly because i didn’t know exactly what kind of materials were considered ‘authentic’, and my ability to get the right context and interpretation of English reading outside the English speaking environment sort of threw me a hurdle for accurate interpretation ever since I left the United States.
    – Mark
    Sep 21, 2019 at 3:49
  • It would help a lot to me and my effort to learn the language more efficiently in the aim of obtaining the language more in the native context if you could give me a list of sources that you recommend.
    – Mark
    Sep 21, 2019 at 4:01

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