(I hope this post is appropriate for this sub…)
I've been studying Spanish on Duolingo for a while, but recently I feel I've hit a plateau where I'm not actually improving in my fluency. I decided to try reading a book in Spanish instead of just doing Duo's isolated sentences videogame style. I'm starting with Esperanza renace by Pam Muñoz Ryan, thinking it might be easier going with a middle-grade book instead of jumping in to an adult novel (that's my long-term goal, though!).
Does anyone have tips to share to help me make a success of this adventure? For example, when I hit a new word, should I stop then to look it up or just try to figure it out from context and keep going? Read in short bursts or try to finish a chapter?
My daughter gave me the book for Christmas, and I think I finally have the courage to jump in, haha. Thanks for any suggestions! ¡Muchas gracias!
by emzpiney
34 Comments
I do a lot of reading in my second language, but I think you really need to be at a C1 or, ideally, a C2 level to better comprehend a book.
I haven’t reached fluency so take this with a grain of salt—I keep going and then at the end look up the words I didn’t know. Then I let my memory work in order to remember what that word was on the rereads, review if forgotten, and repeat
As a language teacher, I feel it’s important to stress that when reading in a foreign language, you’re not meant to stop and look up a new word every time you encounter it.
Seriously, don’t do it, or you’ll grow bored and frustrated and it’s going to ruin the whole reading experience 😀
With new words, definitely try to figure out their grammar category first (is it a verb/noun/adjective/adverb? If verb, do you recognize the tense? If noun, what type? If adjective/adverb, who or what is describing?). This, together with context, can usually give you enough info to move on with enough understanding. And the more you go on, the likely you’ll see that word again and have a little “aha!” moment. Still, if it feels essential to understand a crucial sentence, I’d say look it up. As long as you remember that you’re not supposed to understand 100% of what you’re reading, especially if it’s your first time!
I’ve been wanting to do this. Curious if you got the spanish language version on kindle if you could touch words you don’t know and the definition comes up like with English versions. Might need to download a spanish/english dictionary. Not sure if that is possible. Regardless i think this is a great idea. Probably a common way to improve fluency at least in reading speed.
It would be more helpful if you look it up at that moment so you know the entirety of the context, then maybe write it down somewhere with the meaning and try to use that same word on your daily life, or just repeat that sentence a few times until it’s clicked with you. My first language is Spanish and when I was learning English that’s what helped me. 🙂
But also, whatever helps you best to continue
What really helped me in the beginning was choosing a book I had already read in my mother‘s tongue, so I understood the story as a whole. Maybe get a translated version of your book as a „companion read“ this way you can compare the sentences and grasp the meaning as a whole. Have fun 🙂
I like to listen to audiobooks in my target language, especially of books I already know. Most audiobook players have options to slow down the playback speed, which makes it much easier for my brain to keep up!
As someone who’s studied a couple languages to high fluency (Persian and Japanese) and read many novels and poems in both, there’s a couple strategies you can take.
For one, if you want to learn the most you can use deep study where you look up every single word and add it to an Anki deck. This reinforces your learning very well and you’ll advance quickly. However, it can cause you to burn out and lose motivation. To overcome this, sometimes looking at a plot synopsis can be helpful so you get less lost. Also try to use this approach with shorter works so you’re making steady progress.
The second method is to read something more on your level with less stumbling blocks, and let the words go by if you don’t know them. Eventually if you see it a lot, and still feel confused, look it up. This way you’re getting passive exposure without expending too much energy studying.
You’ll find too that each author/subject tends to use similar grammar and vocabulary, so with time it does get easier. You’ll cover a lot of ground and learn a ton of new vocabulary in short time. Just stick with it. Sometimes it’s a slog in the beginning, but it does get easier.
Something that helped me was finding books or series that I had some degree of familiarity or interest in already. My second language is Japanese, so I went further with a series I had already enjoyed in English. I chose one of the untranslated novels so the story was new, but involved recurring characters and a setting I was already familiar with. For Japanese this was kind of key, because I’d seen these characters’ names before in romaji and was now learning how they were written in kanji.
I’m studying German and what I’ve been doing is underlining the words I don’t know as I go. After a few pages, or when I get to a stopping point in the story, I go back and write down the words with the definitions. If it’s a verb, I conjugate it so I recognize the variations as I continue the story.
Oh and another thing that was really helpful to me when reading a second language is listening to the audiobook while reading along at the same time. This way you‘ll also learn pronounciation and rhythm!
I think starting with childrens books is a good idea, as they tend to have simpler structures.
When i was learning german as a kid i tried to figure out based on context. Theough i was learning from tv amd not books, so i had visual cues to help me out.
My mom is a voracious reader and learned English with the help of a translator pen! So you can keep your book open, scan the word, and the translation will pop up on the screen. This was back in the 2000s so it seemed incredibly futuristic.
These days I find it’s really nice because I don’t want to go through the faff of putting my book down, picking up my phone, unlocking it, opening a translator app, typing the unknown word. It breaks my flow of reading. I get distracted by notifications etc. And I often read to get a break from the evil pocket computer anyways, so it’s doubly annoying to use my phone as a translator. So I’d recommend a translator pen. Unfortunately technology has changed so much since the dinosaur era 2000s one we had so I can’t recommend a brand.
A top tip I had was to start with kids books. It is how they learned and it really helped me.
Don’t stop to look up words. Underline them or jot them down and look them up later. It’s best to just try to make sense of the sentence as a whole just by context. You’ll have fun with the vocab list later. I studied Spanish Lit in school and this helped me.
Most importantly, there is no substitute for speaking the language with a native speaker in a natural setting.
I supplemented with an adult level reader that’s in both languages, English on one page and Spanish on the opposite page. The selections are taken from well known works you’ve probably already read or at least familiar with (the Bible, Shakespeare, Dickens, etc) and the passages are pretty short, a page or two. It makes for nice bite-sized chunks for when you don’t have the time or attention to commit to the novel.
I read in 3 languages: my native one; English (which has become my dominant language); and French. I recommend looking up words as often as you’re comfortable. For English, I stopped as often as I could to write down a new word. Over time I ended up no longer needing a dictionary at all (I may occasionally find a word I don’t know and I’ll look it up because it’s not overwhelming to do so). For French, I have a less broad vocabulary. So I stop often to check words, but if I get the context I may skip a few, just so that I don’t disrupt the flow of reading too much. Give it a shot and see what works best for you.
And hey, I sometimes need to look up words for my native language too, even though I studied in that language all the way up to a master’s level. There’s no shame in dictionaries.
This is exactly the right move. Duolingo is great for building a base, but real progress happens when you start consuming real content. I’m glad you’re making progress!!
I’ve been doing the same as you! I started reading children’s book in spanish to increase my vocabulary. Depending on the book and how much text was on per page, I would either read one sentence or few sentences or one paragraph, then translate it by using first dictionary to find meaning for words that I don’t know. And then I would use google translate to translate the full sentence, especially if I had problems to translate or if the sentence I translated doesn’t sound right.
Wiktionary is also very helpful because you can just search any conjugated verb and it will tell you it’s infinitive and other conjugations. I’ve found that very helpful alongside Duolingo.
Also if the book I’m reading is translated or originally in my native language or in english, I try to get it also so I can use it also with the translations. Of course not all translations are exact but you can get the idea what the text is trying to say if you have hard time translating it.
I’ve been fearing to start reading older children’s and young adult books next in spanish since I fear I’m not ready, but some of the younger children’s book in my library are too easy for me. So I’ve mixed in some YA comics (like Heartstopper).
Also an recommendation! If you can get your hands on Idoia Iribertegui’s children’s book “Desdichas de una familia victoriana” I highly recommend it. It was so funny and I think it works better for adult reader than children. I’m not actually sure if it even meant for children but it was in the children’t part of the library in my city. The author is an illustrator and has illustrated the book also.
One of my old Latin professors recommended reading a paragraph or two carefully looking up everything you don’t know, then read several more pages rapidly, looking up as little as possible. Then repeat this process through whatever you are reading.
I did this with French. I would underline any word I didn’t know and go back to look them up later so I could maintain some flow. I found that over time I underlined fewer and fewer words.
Seconding those who suggest reading a book you already know well in your first language. Harry Potter worked well for me!
It’s not about reading one novel, it’s about reading multiple books one after another. Read as much as you can, try to figure stuff out from context if you can, DON’T stop unless you find yourself unable to understand a text.
English is not my native language, but I’ve been reading literature in it for over twenty-five years now. Definitely beats translated versions… 🙂
I read easy books when I was learning Norwegian. I found that children’s books not good because they often used too many little kid words, like bunny and nick names for things like bunbun for bunny. By going to books for kids age 10 to 14 I had more standard language and that made it easy for translating.
I did stop and translate every word to start with. TO me it was getting down the basic vocabulary needed for this level of book. I took it as learning words and sentence patterns. I put enjoyment of the story as a goal for later. Do not let someone tell you to pick an easier book. If you want to struggle with it, go for it.
When I started I looked up every word. Then it reduced to 5 words per page. Then 3 words per page. Etc. At some point I could keep reading and still understand the story. Now I was reading for enjoyment. A year into my language learning I was reading adult novels for enjoyment.
Based on my experience with reading in a second (English) and third (French) language – there will always be words you don’t know but you can usually guess the meaning of from the context. In fact, this happens to you in your first language too from time to time but you just don’t notice it as much.
Obviously, looking up every single word you don’t know is not really necessary for text comprehension and also, if you move on to have real conversations with Spanish speakers you really need that skill because you can’t pause them and get out a dictionary every time they use an unknown word.
On the other hand – I’m currently working on expanding my French vocabulary, so I do underline unknown words that stand out to me. Like, when a word is used multiple times, it feels significant or like something I should know. I usually go back afterwards and look up everything I underlined.
And as a Duolingo user myself, I think reading a book or even just an article or watching the news or something like this is absolutely essential because the app does not teach you context. The best it can do is give you a story with like ten sentences that are more or less connected but that’s it. You don’t learn to read and understand longer text or conversations.
I never stop as long as I understand the context, having Kindle with internet connection is a huge plus because you can just tap on the word to the the definition.
I did the same thing as you a few years back with the r/fantasy yearly book bingo reading challenge. I had been reading in English and my native French but I challenged myself to read a book in Spanish by the end of the bingo. To make a long story short, I managed to do it and it motivated me to keep going and my Spanish is at a pretty good level now. It even lead to me meeting my wonderful GF and we mostly talk in Spanish but I digress. Here are my tips:
– You’re not going to get the same type of enjoyment from reading as you do in your native language. That’s ok. You might miss a few beats and the beauty of the prose might be lost on you. Focus on enjoying individual scenes and being happy about the parts you do understand.
– Don’t be afraid to DNF a book if it turns out it’s beyond your level. On the other hand, don’t play it too safe, either. If you understand 100% of what’s going on, you’re not challenging yourself enough. Free samples of ebooks are great for gauging how difficult a book is.
– I think there’s a happy medium for looking up words. I tend to look it up when it feels important to understanding the scene. Nouns and verbs more often than adjectives and adverbs. Words that are used more frequently. Consider keeping a notebook of things you learn.
– Have fun with it. Reading in a language you’re learning is more mentally taxing so I often alternate between reading ~10 pages of a Spanish book and something in my native languages.
-Short story collections are great. The overall plot is generally simpler and even if you do end up being confused, you’ll be moving onto another story soon.
-A lot of popular authors have more flowery prose that can be more difficult to understand as a learner. I’m not saying avoid popular authors but it’s something to keep in mind.
Espero que le vaya bien con su aprendizaje!
I’ve done this some in a similar way, native English reading Spanish and starting with material meant for younger people. I generally let context guide me in understanding new words or at least to get the gist of a sentence or section. However, if a particular word seemed pivotal and I couldn’t get past it, I looked it up in a Spanish dictionary, not a Spanish to English one, to keep the language immersion.
Want to try this
I learned English by reading like that. The first book I read was excruciatingly slow if you’re talking about getting through the book, having to look up 80% of the words, but the speed of gaining language mastery was so much faster than doing word memorizations.
Think of it this way – you’re doing the same word memorizations, but this time the words actually give you a story and are highly used words, not just random words, so it’s a much more enjoyable investment of time. Also, you just need to understand the sentence’s meaning and move on without trying to memorize the words like you do with word memorizations.
By the third book the speed had drastically improved for me, allowing me to get a good sense of the word’s meaning just from context rather than looking up every word.
My advice would be to find something that you’d actually enjoy reading even in your native tongue. I would say that trumps trying to find book of appropriate difficulty. The brain memorizes words way more efficiently if you actually want to understand the meaning of the given word.
Teaching tools are great early on, and you need a good way to build and retain vocabulary, but eventually you need to start practicing!
I never felt more confident in Vietnamese than when I first started tackling novels (starting with easy stuff, like The Hobbit).
It’s kind of funny how you start out looking up multiple words per sentence, then you start looking up one word every couple of sentences, then a couple per paragraph, and eventually just a few per page.
Edit: The Hobbit is not easy *at all* for someone just starting out in a new language. It took me a couple of years of daily Anki reviews and conversations with a native speaker before I felt ready for it, so don’t misunderstand me or think I’m bragging! It’s only “easy” compared to other novels. (In some ways, it’s easier than easier novels, though. More words means more context, plus you learn more. I hate trying to figure out what the heck a children’s book is talking about!)
I find I do better with books I’m already familiar with in my primary language. It means I can follow the plot and start to pick up on the new vocabulary.
Edit: I also like to alternate between my first language and my new language. AabBCcdDE, etc.
This is what I did when I was learning English about 35 years ago.
Back then I was able to get “simplified editions” of books on various levels. Each level had certain number of core words from a frequency dictionary used. It meant that a certain level had the story written using something like 2000 most frequently used words in English. Plus, it had a small dictionary of more advanced words that are absolutely necessary to tell the story. The books also had a very simple grammar.
When starting to read in a new language you have to pick certain skills, like the ability to find where you stopped reading on the page when you put the book down last time.
I was not looking up the unknown words in dictionary as I read the story. When I borrowed a book from the library (there were no e-book readers back then) and found out somebody was underlining the words, or writing translations in pencil, I was not nervous that I do not like such modifications, they very rarely lasted beyond page 20. Usually they did not get even that far.
Today, similar kind of books are called Macmillan Readers, or Penguin Graded ELT Readers.
The AI told me that
——————–
“The Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) levels for simplified English books generally correspond to the following approximate headword counts, based on publishers like Oxford Bookworms and Cambridge English Readers:
* **A1 (Beginner/Starter):** 250–400 headwords
* **A2 (Elementary):** 700–800 headwords
* **B1 (Intermediate):** 1,000–1,400 headwords
* **B2 (Upper Intermediate):** 1,800–2,500 headwords
* **C1 (Advanced):** 2,800–3,800 headwords
——————
There must be something like that available in Spanish**.**
Plus, today you have many other options, like following an audiobook as you read the text or running a “text to speech” as you read that used to be a feature in some e-ink readers a while ago. PocketBook had such feature.
Oh … one more thing. The strategy worked. I improved my English immensely in comparison with my classmates AND I had a blast while learning the language, and I have been reading in English ever since. The difference is, it is much easier to get the reading material in “foreign” language nowadays.
When i was a kid learning english, i read a lot of short stories suitable for my level at that moment. i recently come across one of these “books”. Every word is annotated with translation. It made me chuckle. 🙂 Thanks, mom!
In middle school we were encouraged to try to figure out the unknown word by it’s context but I have a feeling it made me develop some kind of a bad habit – it didn’t make me try to figure out word, but just skip it.
Another strategy you might try is to read news or magazine articles in the language you are studying. Great sources are available online in practically any language. News articles tend to use plain language — no metaphors or slang — so that removes a couple of obstacles to your understanding. You can choose articles that interest you. They don’t have to sustain your interest for very long. Many websites have buttons you can click to see the article in English. If you use Google Chrome, this option is built into your browser.