English is not my first language and I started reading more English literature. I’m interested in Edgar Allan Poe but can barely understand it yet. I tried looking up words directly after reading them and noting them in a little notebook to learn for later. The thing is, it stops me many times in my reading session and I can’t seem to enjoy the book. Is learning vocabulary is something you do by reading the same word over and over again? What’s your strategies?
by bloodywellright-
2 Comments
You should be able to understand around 90-95% of a content for comprehensible input in language learning. Otherwise it will be way too tedious and you might want to pick something easier, gradually increasing the difficulty.
Even if you can’t understand each and every word like dictionary meaning, you should at least have an idea what it might mean in that context. Over time, with more exposure you just end up learning the word anyway.
Something like a kindle can be helpful. Every word you don’t know you can just touch to get a definition, translation between languages, or a Wikipedia entry, and you can install multiple dictionaries to help (for example if you are reading old books an unabridged dictionary might be able to help understand the original meaning of words who have changed over time). There is also a feature called “vocabulary builder” that keeps track of every word you look up and lets you make flash cards to help you learn.