Tips on Learning to Read in Spanish
- If you are serious about learning to read in Spanish, make time to do the work. Create a reading schedule that involves spending at least one hour per day reading Spanish texts. Stick to your schedule to ensure you are maximizing your available time and constantly progressing towards your goal. If you cannot read once per day, create a schedule that provides as much reading time as possible.
- You will have an easier time learning to read if you focus on reading things that interest you. Look for Spanish translations of books by your favorite authors or Spanish newspapers. If the material is engaging, you will be more motivated to push through the difficulties of reading. There is a bonus to reading newspapers, as they generally cover material with which you are already familiar.
- One of the best ways to improve your reading comprehension is to challenge yourself by writing in Spanish. You do not need to write a novel, but sitting down once or twice a week to write a letter to a friend or a short story about your week can improve your grasp on grammar and vocabulary. This is an especially fun activity if you can find a Spanish pen pal with whom to correspond. If anyone in your family speaks Spanish, ask them about writing letters back and forth.
- When you learned your native language, you used context clues to figure out words you did not understand. Many second-language students overlook this key skill and try to learn every word in the written language. This can be overwhelming and dramatically reduce your reading speed. Try to figure out important keywords in a paragraph and use the context to fill in meanings for the rest. This increases your reading speed and dramatically helps your Spanish comprehension.
