Lesson B of each unit in World Link includes a reading on a topic related to the unit theme, along with several accompanying activities. A pre-reading question or activity introduces the topic and gets students to consider ideas and vocabulary they may encounter. The readings are set in a real-world context, and have a variety of formats such as articles and web pages. The readings build in length over the course, and reach 350 words in length by the end of Level 3. Post-reading exercises serve as a comprehension check, and also give students a chance to think about and discuss the topic they've read about. The Teacher's Edition contains suggestions for a range of follow-up activities for each reading section.

Throughout the course, the Reading strand develops various reading skills, including skimming, scanning, predicting, identifying topic sentences, summarizing, deriving word meaning from context, and critical thinking.