5 Ways To Improve Your Spanish Through Reading
If you want to improve your fluency, the best advice would be to read every day as this will help you improve greatly. If you want to continue learning new vocabulary and work towards expressing yourself fluently in Spanish, either orally or in writing, the best idea would be to read stories or novels in their original text.
Many people think that the gift of learning languages is needed, but this is not true, you only need encouragement and determination and much, much practice! Just start reading your favorite book, for about 20 minutes every day out loud, accompanied by a friend or native teacher so that you can help him pronounce the words correctly and to help you correct your mistakes. You will also need to obtain a general understanding of a 400-word text from any book or document that is of interest to you. Avece the best thing would be to have it in your mother tongue and in the ones you are learning. From the first weeks of learning a new language, you can start to benefit from this wonderful tool of reading!
Remember: you are reading to build vocabulary and improve what you already know, and this is your case or if you are a beginner this habit could greatly improve your general skills.
5 ways to improve your reading quality:
1. Take some time off for reading
Reading for fun can be obtained anywhere, but reading to improve the understanding of a language will be necessary to do it in a place where one can concentrate, read calmly, without distractions and without being interrupted. It is necessary to read at least 30 minutes per day so you can see remarkable and good results. Anyway, the longer you read the more you will improve.
Motivational tips:
- Find a quiet, comfortable place with good lighting
- Have everything you need before you sit down, so we avoid interruptions
- Determine how much time we are going to read (20 or 30 minutes is a good amount of minimum time)
- Have all electronic devices in silent or off mode.
2. Read books of personal interest.
When we are going to choose a book, one must take into account what interests you and the level of reading that you have. It is important to read about things that one likes but also that they are within the level of Spanish that you have, that is, that puts you to the test if you understand what you read and also if this article has words that you could use in your vocabulary and if you can learn new things but not enough to feel frustrated with reading.
3. Ask questions
During and after our reading we can ask ourselves some questions that will help us to understand the text better. Before reading, one option is to search the text, that is, to look at the information quickly without reading each word (see if you have bold words, italics, titles, subtitles, names, dialogues, paragraphs, etc.). During the text, it will be good to think about what one is reading. After reading, you can navigate through the text again and summarize what you remember. This is to say quickly what are the most important things you read in the text or to make a summary that describes the percentage of understanding you got in reading.
4. How to improve fluency
Reading comprehension becomes more difficult when reading word by word, therefore, to improve comprehension it is important to read complete sentences. Fluency is the skill with which you can read. When reading, the words should have a certain rhythm and should flow naturally, as when someone is talking. Fluency can be achieved by choosing simpler texts to read. Many times, when fluency improves, it improves reading and also speech. Also, fluency will make reading seem more fun and natural.
5. Once you have learned to read, the rest will be natural.
After you have acquired the ability to read more fluently, you can stop worrying about speed with reading and begin to think about the text and its meaning. When you can read quickly, it's time to start reading more slowly and take time to think about the meaning of the text you are reading. One way to do it is to read aloud. In this way, you are not only practicing reading and comprehension, but also pronunciation.
May 7, 2020
