I think reading books about writing would help if you are talking about writing. I'd recommend Elements of Style by Strunk and White. I'd also recommend How to Read Literature Like a Professor and How to Read Novels like a professor. Both explain how to decode literature and I think they will help you.

For exposure to beautiful prose, but English which you can understand read short stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald and his great novel, The Great Gatsby.  James Joyce from Ireland also writes beautiful prose that is not complicated, however.  The  stories of O. Henry and Saki are also delightful reading.

If you are trying to improve your English language skills through reading, I would suggest that you read anything that interests you.  Read as many books, magazines, and newspapers as you can.  Each author will have a different style and possibly a different dialect of English.  The more you read, the more proficient you will be with the language.  Read as many different types of sources as you can.  A novel will use a different style of language from a newspaper.  An editorial article will use different language than a magazine article.  Pick the things that interest you.  You will be more likely to stick with it and try to really understand the words if you are interested in the topic.

It depends upon whether you want to be proficient as a writer of English, a speaker of English, or both.  If you want to improve your skills as a writer of English, you can't go wrong by reading The Elements of Style, by Strunk and White, which is a classic discussion about writing simply and clearly. If you want an excellent model of English prose, you might want to take a look at the works of George Orwell. Two other people who shared the ability to write very lucidly were C. S. Lewis and Christopher Hitchens, who otherwise had little in common.

I would suggest reading books which use proper English, ones that stay away from slang or ones that rely heavily upon regional dialects (but, this will be hard).  Examples of good books would be: A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, The Miracle Worker by William Gibson, and/or Call of the Wild by Jack London.

It would also be helpful to watch English/American television with English captioning turned on. By doing this, you could both read and gear the words pronounced at the same time. Also, some books have been recorded to audio and you could use the audio while reading a book at the same time. This would deepen your understanding (and ability to identify words and say them properly).

(You may have many more suggestions if this post can be moved to the Discussion Board.)

See eNotes Ad-Free

Start your 48-hour free trial to get access to more than 30,000 additional guides and more than 350,000 Homework Help questions answered by our experts.

Get 48 Hours Free Access

Already a member? Log in here.