Should You Focus On Reading In A New Language

When you start learning a new language you might wonder what you should do and often I get asked if focusing on reading is a good idea, which it absolutely is.

It doesn’t matter what level you are at, focusing on reading will always be beneficial for you and it is something you should put a lot of effort in to.

It can be quite difficult in the beginning, but is worth the effort. You will see tremendous gains in your language from just reading alone.  

Focus On Reading

Reading is a form of input and this is exactly what you need to be focusing on. When you are new to a language you do not know anything.

This means you need to get the language from somewhere you literally have to put it inside you, so any sort of input is going to be an excellent place to start, which is exactly what reading is.

(You can read more about – The Input vs Output Language Learning Methods)

Read From The Start

You should be focusing on reading as soon as you can, pretty much from the start. Of course you are going to be reading very simple material at this stage, probably only basic sentences, but it all helps.

As you progress you will be able to read more and more, so it is okay if you start small.

(You can read more about – Can You Avoid Reading When Learning A New Language?)

Read A Lot

You should also aim to read a lot. This will again be difficult in the beginning but even if you just read the same simple sentences over and over again it will help.

Reading a lot is going to give you many benefits, but mostly it is just going to make you feel comfortable with the language. The sooner you can get comfortable with what you know, the sooner you will not really need to think to hard about it.

Think about your native language, you just look at words and know what they mean, reading is pretty much effortless. This is simply because you have so had so much exposure to it that you are extremely comfortable with it.

You can get to this level in your new language, it will just take a lot of reading. If you focus on this, you will get there and things will start becoming very easy for you.

(You can read more about – Is Reading The Best Way To Learn A Language?)

Reading and Listen Together

A technique that is often overlooked is reading and listening together. This can be extremely beneficial and something you should really be focusing on as a beginner.

This can be done by reading the transcript of an audio you are listening to, but it can be easily done by just reading the subtitles of a video you are watching.

Of course the subtitles need to match the language being read. Don’t just watch something in Spanish with English subtitles …that would be stupid.

Reading and listening together can really help you out which is why it is so good to focus on this. Your reading ability is improved as you can hear the words being spoken, it’s like they are being read to you and you get to hear the proper pronunciation. 

However it also helps with your listening as you can see the words that are being said and can hear them properly as you can match them up with what you hear.

Just combing these two skills together really can make the difference, both are beneficial on their own, but they are extremely powerful together.

Reading Will Show You The Language

Reading is worth focusing on as it offers you so much. It literally shows you the language and if you show your brain enough of it, then it will start to work out what is actually going on.

Reading is going to shows you new words as well as allowing you to see the words you already know. The more you see these, the stronger they will become in your mind.

You will also see these words placed in the correct grammatical order, which again is extremely important to see. You will see how the grammar works in the real world and you will be able to spot the exceptions to the rules. Every sentence you read will literally show you something and like I already said, the more you see it, the better.

What makes this whole thing even better is that the grammar and words are all in context. The language is actually being used to communicate whatever it is you are reading about. If you are not sure about something, the rest of the information there can usually help figure it out.

Having everything is in context is a totally different experience than just learning words separately and learning the theory of grammar, you can really see how the language works when you are reading.

(You can read more about – Reading Resources For Language Learning)

You Can Take Your Time When Reading

Reading is also great as you can take your time. Listening is a great way to learn too, but it goes so fast. You are constantly trying to keep up with what you are hearing.

This isn’t an issue with reading, there is no rush and this can be why it’s important to focus on this, over other things. You have the freedom to examine everything and re-read things to make sense of them.

There is just more control, everything can be done correctly, which can make the difference when you are first learning. There is enough stress with trying to learn a language without a time constraint too.  

(You can read more about – How To Improve Your Reading Skills In A New Language)

Reading Helps You To Think In The Language

It is also a good idea to focus on reading as it can help you to start thinking in a language. The more you read, the more comfortable you will become with the words, especially the really common ones.

The more you see them, the less you have to think about what they mean and the less you need to translate them into your native language, which means you are now just thinking in that language.

As your skill progress this will happen more and more. It is very gradual, but this is how language learning works.

Focusing on reading really will make the difference with this since you will be getting so much exposure to the language.

(You can read more about – How To Think In Another Language)

Still Focus On Other Areas Of The Language

Focusing on reading is important, but don’t forget about the other areas too. Listening is another great form of input and if you do this combined with reading it can be a really powerful combination.

It is also important to focus on the output areas of the language too, such as writing and speaking. Everything is interlinked, so practicing one will help with the others, so really if you spend time practicing everything your overall ability will increase, much more than if you just focused on reading alone.

(You can read more about – Frequently Asked Questions About – Reading In A Second Language)

Conclusion

As you can now probably tell, I am a huge fan of reading. I think it can really benefit your language learning and it is really is something you should be focusing on right from the beginning.

The more you do, the more you will see improvements with your language. Of course still pay attention to the other things, but reading should be a huge part of what you do on a daily bases.

(You can read more about – Common Mistakes When Reading In A New Language