7 Strategies for Learning a Foreign Language from Books - GUEST POST

Hallo. This is a GUEST POST about READING to learn German (and other languages).
Nicht ich schrieb den Text, aber der Text gefällt mir gut!
Ich sage NICHT, dass preply die besten Tutoren hat, oder
dass eine andere Firma bessere Tutoren hat.  
  Not written by me, but by the founder of preply.
(One of several websites that help you find a paid online-tutor. As I wrote in my last post.)

Reading is a very important practice for anyone learning a foreign language, and it is a very easy one, too: you can read wherever you want, and whenever you want. Kirill Bigai, co-founder and the CEO of platform for online tutoring Preply, shares his strategies so that reading foreign language literature brings you pleasure and boosts your language skills.

Start with the easiest

The biggest mistake when learning a foreign language from books is choosing the wrong literature. Some students assume that they should start with the classical authors of the language, and so they choose famous novels, stories, and plays. In fact, for your first attempts to read in a foreign language, it is better to choose adapted literature, or some easy newspapers or magazines. The risk of beginning with classical works of literature or poetry is that you can get overwhelmed and you might give up halfway through.

It is important that you know what is going on, and that you can guess the meaning of unfamiliar words from the context. You will be able to read through a short piece of news, a newspaper column, or even an adapted short story in one sitting, and it will be interesting and captivating. But reading one page daily of a huge novel, which might have a hidden subtext and be full of complex writing strategies, will soon leave you bored.

When choosing adapted literature, keep your language level in mind. The following 7 levels have been identified:

• Easy Starter — 100–200 unique words
• Beginner — up to 400 unique words
• Elementary — 600–800 unique words
• Pre-Intermediate — 1000–1200 unique words
• Intermediate — up to 1600 unique words
• Upper-Intermediate — up to 2000–2200 unique words
• Advanced — over 2500 unique words

You can find out what your level is, or rather the size of your vocabulary, with the help of a test. The Internet is full of free tests, or you can ask your teacher for advice. When choosing a book it is important to look exactly at the number of unique words. Some publishers use their own labeling systems. That is no problem: just “translate” their system to your level based on the number of unique words.

Get yourself a pencil

Of course, you need a pencil when reading paper books. Use it to make notes while you read. If you are reading a text in electronic format, you can use a highlighter or make comments, depending on the features of your ebook application. What is important is that you’re comfortable.

Underline new and difficult words, interesting idioms, or simple phrases that you liked and which you would like to use in conversation. Write the translation above the words whose meanings you find difficult to remember.

Make flashcards

Right after a reading lesson you can move the words and phrases onto flashcards. This is a well-known study tool where you write a foreign word or phrase on one side of a paper card, perhaps accompanied by some synonyms, and on the other side, you write all the possible meanings in your own language.

You will be able to go over vocabulary with these flashcards wherever you want: at a cafe, on the metro, stuck in a traffic jam. You can look at the English word to recall the equivalent in your own language, or the other way around.

Get down to the very essence of the text

When you read, you must be sure that you truly understand the text. After you have read a sentence or two, pause to make sure that you have understood all the words and you have guessed the meaning of the new words from the context. If you were not able to guess, look up the definition in a dictionary and write the word down on a flashcard. If you were able to guess, underline it anyway, and you can check yourself later to find additional meanings or synonyms.

It’s true that this will make the process much slower, but our goal is not to break speed records, it is to learn new words and phrases.

It is important, however, not to tire yourself by searching for absolutely all the words. Otherwise you will lose your interest in reading. Practice your logical thinking and intuition. Look in the dictionary only when you cannot guess the meaning of a word from the context, the pictures included, or analogy.

Read aloud

I also recommend that you read aloud. Of course you need to understand how correct your pronunciation is. For this purpose you can take a paper version, or an electronic version of the book, and in parallel an audio book. This way you will be able to listen to the text, and at the same time follow it with your eyes, and then to read it again, aloud.

There is a more fun version of this exercise too. Take a song that you like, find the lyrics on the internet (you can find the translation as well), and sing along. The music and the rhymed nature of the text will help you remember new words even better.

Read regularly

It is important that you practice your reading regularly, for example, during your daily commute. Or make it a habit to read while you are waiting for someone. Five minutes a day, 10 minutes, half an hour, it all depends on your opportunities, but you should practice at least every two days. But even this schedule requires that on the other day, you practice your other skills: writing, speaking, listening comprehension. You can’t learn a language in an ad hoc fashion with just one two-hour lesson a week, or spending a whole day on learning once a month.

Find a partner

The effect of reading will be much better if you practice the material through conversation. It is highly recommend that you tell another person what you have read about and discuss the text. Take your wife or husband as a partner, or a relative, a close friend, a teacher on Skype. Take turns reading to each other, and then talk about what you have read. Ask each other questions, develop ideas, and try to foresee how the plot will unwind in the coming chapters, or articles.

You will see: reading in a foreign language is absorbing, and your vocabulary grows very quickly thanks to this training. Good luck!

Here again me, Mark, the real lerngern-blogger: 
I agree with the text. Though I myself prefer "binge-reading" to intensive vocabulary-work.
But then, I am not the best Language learner. I only try to be a decent teacher ;).
EASY Reading material in German can be found for free at dw.com (news and more)
http://www.dw.com/de/deutsch-lernen/s-2055
 Hueber, Cornelsen and the other DaF publishing houses also offer "easy readers"/ graded readers.

Obviously the company "preply" and the others (verbling etc. just GOOGLE!) would be happy,
if you follow the link and book a tutor.
 Completely up to you - it might be a good idea for you, it might turn out well or not so well.
THIS is NOT a RECOMMENDATION. Nor a warning. Just use your brain and decide for yourself.
Would be happy to read about your experiences in the comments!