🌸

#my firstGif .

#my firstGif .

Hi! I’m learning French and Spanish, and I have found that reading tends to be my strongest skill. I thought that I would try providing some advice on how to practice reading in a foreign language.

Figure out what you should read! For an absolute beginner, stick to textbook exercises and content made for learners. Stay away from native material for now, since it will generally be quite unhelpful, and will just damage your confidence and motivation without actually improving your skills. For pre-intermediate learners, read articles and social media posts, since the language used in them are widely used, but not too complex. I remember that after 2 months of studying Spanish semi-regularly, I could make it through an article about language learning without really needing a dictionary to understand it. Articles like that are made to be accessible, so the language will be more simplistic.  For intermediate learners, now is a good time to hit the books! Language used in books is usually a lot more diverse and complex, so it will be challenging, but helpful. I recommend sticking to things that interest you, like translations of your favourite childhood books (I read a translation of Harry Potter in French and it was sublime). Upper intermediate learners will be more comfortable with YA books, while lower intermediate learners might prefer fanfiction and children’s books. Don’t go for something which has a bunch of jargon or old fashioned vocabulary like fantasy books or old classics. Go for something which will include vocabulary related to every day life and your interests, like romance or coming of age novels.  Alongside this, keep reading articles, social media posts and Wikipedia pages about whatever interests you! You can also read graphic novels, manga and webtoons as well, if you want, just as long as it sticks to the no jargon rule and actually challenges you. For advanced learners, this is the time for you to go for something really difficult, like the classics, advanced newspapers or academic journals and essays. Jargon doesn’t matter. In fact, jargon is good! At this point, you are trying to graduate from a fluent reader, to an educated reader. Maybe you could read textbooks up until high school level so that you could understand the average person’s level of vocabulary in certain fields, like science. Read Marx, read political theory, read whatever you want! This is the most intellectually stimulating stage of language learning, since it is the time that you can truly appreciate what you are reading. Also generally, across all levels, you can read the subtitles of videos, films or YouTube videos in French.

Figure out how you are going to read! There are two ways to practice reading: reading intensively and reading extensively.  Reading intensively means that you look up every word that you don’t understand (and maybe turn them into flashcards to learn later). I recommend writing all these new words down, and make sure to record it in its unconjugated form to learn it later, unless you want to learn that particular irregular verb or past participle.  Reading extensively means reading a lot without looking up words. I do NOT recommend beginner/lower intermediate learners to do this, as it is only useful if you can understand at least 70% of it. I am able to do this with French, but not with Spanish, since it is only useful if you are at the stage where you can understand most of what is being written. I think this is better for upper intermediate/advanced learners.

Know your literary tenses! If you don’t understand literary tenses, then you will need to learn it. You can do this using a textbook, or an article, or a YouTube video. Make sure whatever you use has practice texts for you to get used to seeing the tenses with. Also, make sure that you know some of the most common irregular verbs too, since these will come up a lot.

Read the article/chapter/post once without looking up vocab at first! Try and see how much you can understand, and write down all the words that you do not understand, even if it is a lot. Take it slowly at first, and just try and work through a couple of pages. Then, translate the vocabulary, and try to learn the most important words. Then, reread what you were reading again. This method works very well for me, so I hope it works for you too!

Read out loud! This helps your pronunciation AND your speed. Make sure you have audio to compare your pronunciation with. I had tajweed lessons for Arabic since I was a child, and all that practice has given me native like pronunciation and a very good accent. This is helpful, trust me!

Read and listen at the same time! Subtitles of videos/films/shows and audiobooks are the best for this. After about 10 minutes of listening, replay what you were listening too and make sure you can catch every word. This improves your listening AND reading skills.

Reread! I promise that after a while, your reading skills WILL improve the more you do it and the more you expand your vocabulary. I’m about a third of the way through my first YA French book, and I can already understand so much more than before. After you have learnt the new vocabulary in whatever you are reading, then reread it. This time, you won’t be stuck on what you don’t know, and will be able to enjoy the contents much more.