A very good morning I bid to the honourable judges, time-keeper,

teachers and fellow friends. Today, I will deliver a speech entitled,

“Advantages of Reading”.

Today, teenagers do not read as many books as a teenager even

10 or 20 years back used to. Why is it so? Is it because other forms
of communication, learning and entertainment have taken over the
ever popular “book” or is there some other reason? What do you
think?
Well, in my opinion, reading is very important to today’s
teenagers as it not only provides them with entertainment, but also
with knowledge. Nowadays, all teenagers ever do is hang out with
their friends, laze around playing with their mobile phones or just
glue themselves to a computer. They have no idea how reading can
benefit us. To some teenagers, reading is probably a waste of time.
So, for some books that have been made into movies, most teens
would just wait for the benefits besides the obvious “increase our
vocabulary” advantage. Did you know that reading also helps us relax
and improve our concentration?
Reading helps develop vital language skills and is needed in
our school lives, as well as our adult lives. The ability to learn about
new subjects and find helpful information on anything, be it
academic research, depends on reading. Reading exposes us to
proper grammar and phrasing. It enhances the development of our
spoken language skills and our ability to express ourselves verbally.
As technology today is very advanced, most teenagers may not read
from books very often. Instead, they would read up from the
internet. Internet has made reading more and more a part of
teenagers’ daily lives. Internet itself is an enormous source of new
information and recreation.
Next, reading provides teenagers with enjoyment. The more
they read, the better they becomes at reading. The more enjoyable
the things they read are, the more they will stick with them and
develop the reading skills that they will need for full access to
information In their adult lives. Therefore, reading should be viewed
as a pleasurable activity - as a source of entertaining tales and
useful and interesting factual information.
For me, reading opens up our world and enriches our lives.
Reading exposes us to the world around us and develops an
understanding of and concern for the people around us. It also
provides us with knowledge on today’s world and increases our
factual knowledge about the world. Reading is important as it
develops our vital language skills, provides us with entertainment, as
well as opening up our world.
Whenever you pick up a book and start reading it, all you do
is concentrate on the story and nothing else. Thus, you forget
whatever stress you had in the first place. This is also the reason
why some people chose reading as a hobby - for relaxation purposes.
Also, I believe reading improves our concentration, as we have to
concentrate while we read or we would not catch the story at all!
Therefore, reading trains our concentration, which helps us in our
studies or whatever that we do.
Hence, I strongly feel that reading is important to today’s
teenagers. Thank you.