Reading and Vocabulary in a New Language
Read and understand words, phrases and short passages in a new language; enjoy its stories, songs and poems; and broaden vocabulary by working out new words from familiar material and checking them in a dictionary
What a learner can do afterwards
- Read short familiar sentences in the new language and show understanding (e.g. matching captions to the right pictures)
- Work out an unfamiliar word from surrounding words or a lookalike English word (e.g. guessing 'chocolat' means chocolate)
- Use a bilingual dictionary to find or check a word (e.g. looking up an animal name for a poster)
The lesson
When you read in a new language, you will not know every word, and that is fine. Look at the words around it, the picture next to it, and any words that look like English. Often you can work out the meaning without stopping.
Ana reads a French story and sees the word 'chocolat'. It looks like the English word chocolate, and the sentence is about a bakery, so she guesses it means chocolate. She checks a dictionary and she is right.
Leo sees three pictures of animals with French captions under them. He reads 'Le poisson nage' and looks for the matching picture. He picks the swimming fish, because 'poisson' looks close to 'fish' and the sentence is about swimming.
If a guess does not feel certain, look the word up in a bilingual dictionary. It only takes a moment, and then you know for sure.
You don't need every word: use clues and lookalikes to guess, then check a dictionary when you want to be sure.
Watch it
Where it sits
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.