The process of understanding a text written in a foreign language is the same as in your mother tongue. Reading means extracting what the author wants to tell us. When reading a text in a foreign language, we use our prior knowledge to decipher it. Here are ten things you must remember when reading a text in a foreign language.
1. Understand comprehensively
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.
2. Previous knowledge
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?
3. Titles
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.
4. Form
The structure and form can reveal information about the text. Is it a newspaper article? An internet blog? A poem? An advertisement? An email?
5. Images
They can help you understand the text more easily.
6. Keywords
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.
7. International words
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.
8. Context
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.
9. Structure
You can always look at the internal structure of the text to understand it better.
10. Connectors
The elements that link sentences in a text play an important role in understanding it: conjunctions, connectors, pronouns, etc.