Do not try to understand word for word; try to discover the overall meaning of the text. Do not look up every word you do not understand in the dictionary.

First of all, try to identify what the text is about: you know more about the content of the text than you think. Answering these questions may help: Who wrote it? Who is it aimed at? What is the author trying to achieve?

The title is an indication of the important content: it tells you a lot about the subject of the text. And you already know something about many subjects.

The structure and form can reveal information about the text. Is it a newspaper article? An internet blog? A poem? An advertisement? An email?

They can help you understand the text more easily.

These are particularly important words in the text. Paying attention to them helps you understand the text in broad terms and recognise the main idea.

When you read a text for the first time, look out for international words in another language that you already know. For example: hotel, internet, computer, etc.

When, despite your best efforts, you cannot understand the meaning of a word, look at what comes before and after the word you do not know in the sentence. You may be able to guess or deduce the meaning of the word.

You can always look at the internal structure of the text to understand it better.

The elements that link sentences in a text play an important role in understanding it: conjunctions, connectors, pronouns, etc.