What do you think is the "best" way to read in a target language?

[lavengro]

I really like "whodunit" mysteries, but only while the "who" part is still a mystery. I am usually disappointed in the reveal at the end.

So, how about the following: read 80% of 25 murder mystery novels (intensively, extensively or huddled under the covers at night reading with a flashlight in suspense), ending each time before the denouement to move onto the next book, just to preserve the sense of mystery.

That's what I have done with Agatha Christie's Assassinio sull'orient express - roaring good tale, but as I stopped 4/5 of the way through the novel, I have no strong opinion as to who amongst the train passengers is the killer (though I have to this point ruled out suicide).

[drp9341]

On the kindle I look up words if a good dictionary is available for that language, (the polish one is horrible.)

If it’s a language like Spanish, I’ll only look up a word If...
1) Even after I finish the paragraph I feel I’m missing something by not knowing that word.
2) I understand all the words but I don’t get what the sentence as a whole means, even though I “know” all the words. Usually this is because one of the words has multiple meanings.


I think intensive reading is good if it’s done with the right text for you, and it’s at the right level. If you have a problem with colloquial Latin American Spanish, then “intensively reading” Arguments in the YouTube comments section that are full of spelling and grammar mistakes can teach you a lot. You might not want to replicate this, but it’s one of the few ways to get your brain around the simple often “grammatical incorrect” Spanish that millions of people people use on a daily basis other than immersing yourself in that kind of environment.

Another example of intensive reading, could be breaking down, and reading an editorial piece from a public intellectual, to get yourself used to the way one can concisely articulate complex ideas within the restraints of that language.


It’s the same as any other sort of learning activity. It’s most efficient to intensively learn most of the subject matter, then reinforce it through lots of extensive exposure.

Whether this is getting used to a new accent, or learning to talk about Historical topics, getting all the new stuff out of the way upfront, then using extensive reading / listening is usually more enjoyable than throwing yourself into the deep end and trying to learn everything from context alone.

Before I went to argentina I spent 2-3 weeks reading about the phonology of rioplatense spanish, slowing down videos, half-memorizing hundreds of common words and expressions, and listening to short 2 minute clips to really get it all into my head. Then I watched like 50 episodes of an Argentinian Telenovela, which reinforced all the stuff I had learned. By episode 4 or 5 I understood 95%+ if I had just jumped straight into that TV show, I would have eventually learned to understand 95%+ but it would have taken waaaay longer, and I wouldn’t have had so much review, since the time I spent watching and reviewing would have been spent learning new stuff instead.

With a language like Polish, intensive reading is necessary in order to really wrap your head around how they use declensions to convey meaning. Breaking down a paragraph of a book a day helped all aspects of my Polish tremendously.

[MorkTheFiddle]

Do you ever look up unknown words?

On the kindle, yes. Though I try to figure it out by context first. With a physical book, rarely. Takes too long. I've also noticed recently that I sometimes have a compulsion to want to click on unknown word when reading a physical book though I've yet to actually do it.

If you ever try this, and it works, be sure to let us know. Er, sometimes I have the same impulse.

[tarvos]

I hate intensive reading and only do it with textbook materials when I have no other choice. Otherwise, it's extensive every time for me.

[Sayonaroo]

The answer depends on the language. For Spanish because it’s similar to English so far I’m reading stuff that have an English translation. Currently, my level is that I can know all words and not understand the sentence ( it happens fairly often) so I feel like I’m wasting my time if I’m reading something I don’t understand. So it goes without saying even if I look up the unknown word in the sentence, there’s a high chance I still won’t understand it. I love my kindle but my Spanish is not good enough to use it. I find the translation more helpful than the dictionary

I try to make it as easy for me with the hopes of transitioning to a point where i read in Spanish and just look up unknown words. What I’ve been doing is listening to the audiobook while reading the book. However I open the mp3 I got from YouTube in workaudiobook so it can repeat short lengths like 10 seconds over and over again. In the beginning, I read the English while listening to the spanish, compare the Spanish to English, understand the Spanish, make an Anki card If it seems useful (I don’t struggle with the desire to add every unknown word to anki fortunately. I have a txt of the book so it’s easy) . I don't do proper anki reviews though since I put EVERYTHING on the front which is how Steve Kaufmann does his flashcards on lingq that he does either before or after reading something (I just don't feel like reading Spanish I don't understand then reading English on the back of the card. I just want to give myself the option of opting to read the Spanish first or read the English first.). I still feel a benefit from doing anki "reviews" since I'm getting comprehensible input. Also I use lingoes pop-up dictionary.

At first I was gonna read a sentence or phrase in Spanish then read the English but I just felt like I was wasting time reading something I don’t understand since most of the time I would do the steps I mentioned above after I read it in Spanish. It’s just faster me to read the translation then read Spanish. I am hoping eventually it’ll be faster for me to read Spanish and refer to English for the unknown word etc ( a point where I understand Spanish grammar well and I refer to the English translation for confirmation and vocab) than read in Spanish after reading In English. I’m halfway through the book Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor and it has definitely gotten easier. In case anyone is curious, my background in Spanish consists of getting straight As during high school and middle school. I took Spanish classes to the level before AP Spanish.

[Jean-Luc]

For the web, using an app like readlang.com https://readlang.com is really efficient.

My review:
https://labdeslangues.blog/2019/04/01/readlang-le-lecteur-du-web/

[Serpent]

EDIT: Since people may need to change their reading strategy as their abilities progress, for the sake of the poll, assume it is for a person with a B2 level in the target language.

In this case I consider "20 books extensively" at least equally viable. At this stage it's more of a matter of personal preference. If you believe that the right way is to read carefully, looking up all the unfamiliar words, checking all the grammar, possibly read aloud/listen to the audiobook/shadow/etc, and you're waiting for a perfect moment to sit at your desk and do all that, you're better off adjusting to (your) reality.

I also think it's a bit of a false dichotomy because at B2 you will definitely miss some crucial words - and it's okay to look them up. The key is to avoid doing that every 2 minutes. (btw, I find that once I open a dictionary - including an online one - I immediately start noticing more and more words I want to look up) Well, sometimes it's okay to look up everything, but you also need to gain momentum and read without thinking. My view is that (assuming books are not your sole resource) you can survive without intensive reading but not without extensive.

We also have a wikia article btw: https://learnanylanguage.wikia.com/wiki ... ding_Books

[Sayonaroo]

For the web, using an app like readlang.com https://readlang.com is really efficient.

My review:
https://labdeslangues.blog/2019/04/01/readlang-le-lecteur-du-web/

have you used this site recently? I can't login with my gmail and lost the 5 words I collected lol. I think the site is defunct?? I found a way to collect words using efficiently using authotkey so it's not a big loss. I usually dump spanish into deepl and sometimes reverso contexto translator for generating anki cards (to have an additional reference to the english translation of the book since they don't always do literal translation since that's not the point of translating)
https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 5&start=60

[Jean-Luc]

For the web, using an app like readlang.com https://readlang.com is really efficient.

My review:
https://labdeslangues.blog/2019/04/01/readlang-le-lecteur-du-web/

have you used this site recently? I can't login with my gmail and lost the 5 words I collected lol. I think the site is defunct?? I found a way to collect words using efficiently using authotkey so it's not a big loss. I usually dump spanish into deepl and sometimes reverso contexto translator for generating anki cards (to have an additional reference to the english translation of the book since they don't always do literal translation since that's not the point of translating)
https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 5&start=60

Yes, I did use. Reverso, Deep, Promt and others are tools I used too but for me "to read" in learning language is first one way to acquire quicker more vocabulary. Readlang or Lingq https://labdeslangues.blog/2016/12/03/lingq-la-surprise-du-chef/ have in common this tool (translation and definition of higlighted words) that speeds up the process.

[Gordafarin2]

For the web, using an app like readlang.com https://readlang.com is really efficient.

My review:
https://labdeslangues.blog/2019/04/01/readlang-le-lecteur-du-web/

have you used this site recently? I can't login with my gmail and lost the 5 words I collected lol. I think the site is defunct?? [...]

Readlang isn't defunct, I use it almost daily The developer is no longer actively working on it (he's on the Duolingo team now, I believe), so new features aren't being rolled out, but it's still my #1 tool for reading with "training wheels".