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Advice about reading in English:
(from Susan Schunk and Janet Waisbrot: Explorations: La literature du monde français)
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Don’t stop reading when you come to a word that you don’t know.
One word will not usually prevent you from understanding a whole reading. Read through to the end of the paragraph. Often you can guess the meaning of words from context. Looking up every word in the dictionary takes too much time and you won’t remember them all anyway.
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Don’t write the meaning of the word in your own language above a word that you don’t know.
When you look at the word again, you will see only the translation in your own language, and it will be difficult to learn the meaning of the word. If you must write something, write an English definition, if possible, or at least write the word in the margin (on the side) rather than above the word.
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Don’t try to understand everything the first time you read a selection.
The first time you read, just try to understand the general ideas (the gist) of the story or article. The details are not so important at this point. When you have finished, ask yourself some general questions about the reading based on these questions:
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Who?
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What?
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Where?
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Why?
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When?
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How?
Then read the selection a second time to add more information to fill in the gaps of your knowledge. This time, you might want to mark the page; for example:
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Underline topic sentences in paragraphs
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Underline other important ideas
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Write paragraph topics in the margins
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Circle a few vocabulary items that you haven’t understood (but don’t look all of these up in the dictionary)
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Put squares around important names, dates, statistics, etc.
If you don't want to write in your book, colored sticky notes can be just as effective.
Finally, read the selection a third time to make sure that you have understood it thoroughly. See if you can summarize the main ideas and understand the writer’s point of view.
4. DON’T WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE TO DO YOUR ASSIGNMENT!
Give yourself lots of time to read, reread, and read again. Leave time after reading to think about what you have read and its theme or main idea.
IN SUMMARY:
YOU SHOULD READ A SELECTION AT LEAST TWICE AND OFTEN THREE TIMES IN ORDER TO BE ABLE TO DISCUSS IT AND ANSWER DETAILED QUESTIONS ABOUT IT.
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