Reading to improve your French and Spanish skills

In this blog, I’m going to talk about reading books in foreign languages, in my case, French and Spanish, to improve your vocabulary and language skills.

I love reading. I’m the type of person who actively looks forward to getting back to a good story at the end of the day, and (guilty admission here) may find myself sneaking a few pages when I’m supposed to be doing something else.

Reading in a foreign language can be something of a different experience though. It is undeniable that it is really good for the development of your language skills, but can be tricky to get the balance between reading for enjoyment and feeling like it’s “study.”

I had a recent revelation about this before the summer when I read first, a book in French lent to me by one of my adult students, and then second, a book in Spanish I’d been given by a Spanish friend a few months previously and not yet started. Ironically, my degree in languages with the enormous reading lists of classics of French and Spanish literature had kind of put me off for many years. The picture on the left contains a number of the books I studied at university which have been languishing in my parents attic ever since.

It would be like just getting to grips with reading in English and then being launched headlong into the likes of Dickens, Bronte, Wilde. Hardly confidence building.

First the French book, Un petit peu plus loin sur la droite by Fred Vargas. The adult student who takes French classes with me loves this author in the translated English and has, as a goal, being able to enjoy reading the books in the native French. I loved the story, I was fully engaged but, goodness me, the language was tricky. Partly because I’m so interested in language, I find it hard not to look up an interesting or unknown word even if I know what the whole phrase means.

On to the second book, a translated version of a novel by an American author, Noah Gordon: La Doctora Cole. So much easier. It seems obvious but many of us ignore the really important choice of what to read in the language you are learning. It used to be much more difficult to find a wide range of reading materials but it’s so much easier now; you can even get up to date newspapers and magazines direct to your device at the click of a button.

Being me, I can't quite leave the words I have slight questions about so I have had to find a way that works for me without taking me away from the enjoyment of being absorbed in a book.

The best way I have found is to use the wordreference.com app on my phone to quickly look up the word. It has a great function where you can star the words you want to remember as a favourite and then, if so inclined, you can go to your favourites list to do retrieval practice! Yay!

I am not someone who likes to be attached to a phone but this is such a great function, I make an exception.

Here's a sneaky peek of the next books on my reading list (and the tutortaylor.com teaching cabin in the background!), all bought from World of Books at a few pounds each and second hand so a win win for the environment too. I’ll let you know what I think!

If you enjoyed this, you may like to read this post about adult language learners.

If you are an adult thinking of taking some French or Spanish classes on Zoom or in person, I would love to help. Please do get in touch here or email tutor@tutortaylor.com.

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