Research Guides: English Language Practice: Reading Material

Choosing Reading Material

This guide is intended to help users find reading material for English language practice for college-level students.

Tips:

Many databases offer the ability to sort search results. Look for limiters like Lexile Score, page count, or short/medium/long to help narrow down results.
Choosing material from magazines and newspapers can be beneficial since the type of writing used is more common and easy to understand.
The Lexile Score is the amount of difficulty a text will be to read. The higher the score, the more difficult the text.

Databases

Read It! This link opens in a new window
Adapted reading material in many subjects for English Language Learners with a basic foundation in English grammar.
Good to Know
- To create a free EBSCOhost account and access additional features such as saving preferences, research organization and sharing, saving and retrieving search history, etc., click on the Sign In link in the upper right corner of any page.
- The search results default to ELL (English Language Learner) Articles. To view all available articles, uncheck the box next to ELL Articles in Source Types on the left.
- Articles in HTML format can be read aloud by clicking on the Listen button on the left side of the results page.
Search Tips
- Enclose terms in quotation marks to search for exact phrases: ìcomputer scienceî
- Use the asterisk (*) to find variant endings of a root word: comput* will find computer, computers, computing, etc.
- Use the options in the Refine Results section on the left to further focus your results.
- For more search tips, click on Help in the upper right corner of the database page.
Academic OneFile This link opens in a new window
Full-text articles from scholarly journals and other resources in the sciences, engineering, business, as well as humanities and social sciences areas. Includes newspapers as well as news transcripts.
Good to Know
- To save documents you will need to have a Google Account to save to a Google Drive.
- To create a Google Drive account, click on Sign in with Google at the top of the page.
- To hear a document read aloud, click or tap Listen to expand the player and begin playback.
Search Tips
- Click on the links along the top of the results list to limit to: Magazines, Academic Journals, Books, News, Images, Videos and Audio.
- Use the filters to the right of the results list to narrow results further.
- Enclose terms in quotation marks to search for exact phrases: “mission to mars”
- Use connectors AND, OR, NOT to separate terms and phrases: "mission to mars" AND spacecraft
- To locate a complete issue of a journa or magazinel, select Publication Search.
Gale eBooks This link opens in a new window
Specialized reference sources such as almanacs, encyclopedias, and books on a variety of topics.
Good to Know
Always clear your searches after printing, emailing, or saving.

Search Tips
- Use an asterisk (*) at the end of the root of a word to find all variants: pilot* will find pilot, pilots, piloting, etc.
- When two or more words are entered, the database will search for them as an exact phrase. If you wish to avoid this, place AND between the words.
- Browse books by clicking on one of the subjects in the center of the page. Click on a title to view the book then choose Table of Contents to access chapters of the book.
- For help using and searching in the database, scroll to the bottom of the page and select Help from the menu.

English Language Practice

Search Limiter Menu Examples

Content Level Limiter

Page Number Limiter

Lexile Level Limiter

Choosing Reading Material

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