Before reading
1. Look at the title and introduction. What do you think the text is about ? Try to find a topic you are interested in. You are more likely to persevere with it.
2. Make a list of any relevant vocabulary you can think of.
First Reading
3. Read the text once without stopping - some of the meaning will become clearer as you read through it.
Second Reading
4. Underline words and expressions you are not sure of. Don't look them up immediately.
5. There should be one main idea per paragraph. Summarise each paragraph in one sentence.
Vocabulary
6. Don't look up every word !
7. First look at the CONTEXT. Do you NEED to know this word to understand the overall meaning ? (often a rough idea is enough,
e.g. a type of tree, a positive or negative emotion, an adjective meaning good or bad)
8. Can you guess the meaning ?
-what part of speech is it ? (verb, noun etc.) If it's an adjective, what noun does it agree with ?
-is it similar to a word in your own language or another?language you know ?
-can you recognise the origin or root of the word?
9. Select a maximum of 10 words or expressions to look up in a?good?dictionary (use a monolingual dictionary to get a definition in the
target language) Try to select vocabulary with a common theme. This will help you remember it.
10. Instead of simply writing the translation, include the word in a sentence which demonstrates its use in this context (remember the
same word may have several different meanings).