Studying a Language: Reading

Reading skills are ESSENTIAL when learning a language. It is also, in my opinion, the least daunting of the four skill areas to master. When you read, you (usually) have the time to try and decipher unfamiliar words, to recognise the spelling of something which you may have difficulty understanding when pronounced in the language. Whilst recently in a French GCSE classroom I asked some students practising for their oral exam "Qu'est-ce que tu vas faire demain?" and was met with an array of blank expressions. However, when I wrote down the question in front of them, they recognised the words that they had not understood and were able to answer. Reading allows the language learner the luxury of taking their time, returning to unsure or unfamiliar words and phrases, speculating on meaning from spelling or similarity to other languages. Here are some ideas to make the most of your reading tasks and practise reading skills in your own time.

1. Firstly, READ READ READ. As much as possible. find Newspapers, books, online articles, textbooks, poems, song lyrics, appliance manuals, emails ANYTHING. For this skill, really, Practice does make perfect.
2. Read a text through several times. First ascertain the general meaning, maybe using Skim reading (letting your eyes skim over each sentence only picking out key words) not worrying too much about words you don't know. In exam conditions, you have limited time to spend on reading, so focus on reading for gist (using Skim reading) rather than understanding every single word of the text. Focus building up Speed and Understanding, and then attention to detail.
3. If you feel that you are struggling to understand, use the trick of highlighting or underlining everything you DO understand, and you will see that invariably there will only be a handful of words or phrases that you don't.
4. When dealing with unfamiliar vocabulary or expressions, before heading straight for the dictionary or teacher, try guess what they mean. Use clues from the surrounding words, i.e. if the sentence is speaking about what you do on holiday, the unfamiliar word is unlikely to have something to do with the Middle Eastern Peace Process or Molecular Biophysics (if there is such a subject...). Try to work out whether the word looks or sounds like any word you know in any other language, e.g Spanish embajador = English Ambassador. You would be surprised how many words in Latin and Germanic based languages are similar in this way. Note down your guesses for each word and then check it with a native speaker or a dictionary. For an extra push ;) give yourself points or rewards for each one you get right!
5. If a sentence is long and you are losing the gist of what is meant then break it down. Insert full stops and make it into small sentences, that way, you won't lose your train of thought.
6. Use colour, post-its, drawings etc as much as possible. One student devised her own marking system where she underlined certain types of words, circled key terms, highlighted unfamiliar grammar etc. Others colour code i.e blue for new vocabulary, orange for terms they may want to use later, green for everything I understand.
7. There is a dysfunction of the eyes in some people, often in dyslexics (like myself) where black text on white backgrounds is difficult to see. This is called Visual Stress Syndrome(see this website for more info http://www.visual-stress.com/what.htm). I struggle with this, and for this reason always try to use blue pens, many colours and coloured paper. It really makes a world of difference! Research also shows that people with Visual Stress benefit from using Coloured Overlays over text when reading, which can be bought from most reputable stationary stores.
8. As your language skills become more advanced in all areas, try reading increasingly challenging and diverse texts. At University level you should be comfortable reading journalistic articles, academic writing, narrative, poetry etc. Read and make note of what makes these different styles so distinct; is it the choice of words, the grammatical constructions, the themes being dealt with, the use of literary devices etc? Cultivating a critical awareness of different types of text will greatly benefit your reading AND your writing skills in the target language .
9. Read aloud. Once you have an understanding of the text (or even if you don't), read aloud to yourself or someone else and focus on your accent, pronunciation and intonation. Strictly speaking, this is of more benefit to you Speaking skills but it will definately help built confidence and hopefully, your reading speed.

For more ideas, consult your teachers and/or fellow learners about how they learned to read in the target language. Ask them for advice and resources if need be. The internet, once again is a wealth of written resources, as is travel if you should be so lucky!

Acknowledgements to Dr Patricia Romero de Mills (2008), Emese Racz (2009) and the University of Southampton Centre for Language Study.