If you’re learning a foreign language, and you don’t read regularly…

If you’re

learning a foreign language, and you don’t read regularly…

STOP!

You should

be.

But do you

know how to read effectively in another language, without getting overwhelmed

by unknown vocabulary and complex grammar that doesn’t make sense?

In this article

you’ll learn how to use reading to quickly learn new words and boost your

fluency in your target language, even if you’re just getting started, and even

if you’ve tried and failed before.

Let’s get

started.

Why should you bother reading?

You’ve

probably heard before that reading helps you to learn language.

But why?

What are

the benefits of learning a language with stories, as opposed to with a

textbook?

Understanding

what reading is, and why you would do it, is the first step to becoming an

effective reader.

The main

benefit of reading is that you gain exposure to good quality, natural language.

But you can read in different ways.

If you read

a lot (for pleasure or study), this is commonly known as extensive reading. You

read large amounts, and are concerned with enjoying the story or learning from

the contents.

It might be

natural for you to read a lot in your mother tongue, but this is very different

from the kind of reading you might do in a foreign language textbook.

In your

textbook, you read short passages of text, which you study in detail with the

aim of understanding every word.

This is

known as intensive reading.

With

intensive reading, because you’re reading in so much depth, you can’t get

through very much material.

Both

approaches have value and are an important part of a balanced approach to

language learning.

But it’s

extensive reading where all the magic happens.

By reading

lots of books, websites, magazines or newspapers (whatever you enjoy) in

another language, you’ll quickly build up an innate understanding of how the

language works, because you cover so much material.

Can you see

how this is very different from what you get from your textbook?

So what’s

the catch? 🙂

Well, in

order to take full advantage of the benefits of extensive reading, you have to

actually read a lot!

Easier said than done.