Reading In A Foreign Language: 3 Neuroscience Hacks To Better Learning
Reading in a foreign language is not as simple as it may seem. In the initial stages, your target language can act as a barrier, making it hard, boring, and incomprehensible to read a foreign language book. However, there are ways to make reading easier and more effective.
Today, I will share with you three neuroscience tricks that can help you improve your language skills through reading foreign books.
Trick #1: Multisensory learning and reading in a foreign language
As the saying goes, "a picture is worth a thousand words." If you have read “Brain Rules,” you would have discovered that the brain loves having more than one input type. When learning something new, the brain relies on every available sense, including visual, auditory, and olfactory information. The more senses involved in recording information, the more effective the learning process becomes.
In addition, according to the visual dominance hypothesis, people tend to remember pictures better than text. This is because, for the brain, a text is just a sequence of pictures with each letter representing one. When reading in a foreign language, the brain has to make an extra effort to reconstruct words from these new letter forms, making comprehension even more challenging. To improve text comprehension and vocabulary learning, it's crucial to add an additional input type, such as supporting text with corresponding pictures or using an audio track.
Can you see where I'm going with this?
How to implement multisensory learning
1. Read comic books or manga
Reading comic books or manga can be a helpful tool for language learners. Even if you don’t know a single word in the book, you can still follow the story by scrutinizing the pictures on each page. Secondly, comics contain fewer words than traditional books, making them better material for beginners. Even if you have to translate half of the words on a page, it's still a manageable task, which is not the case for traditional books.
If you’re learning Japanese, reading manga in the original Japanese version was likely one of your main motivations for learning the language. So, go for it and have fun!
2. Listen to bilingual audiobooks with Beelinguapp
If you haven't heard of Beelinguapp yet, I highly recommend checking it out and downloading it on your phone. It's an excellent language learning tool for beginners, and probably the only one where you can immerse yourself in reading in a foreign language from day one without fear.
Beelinguapp offers short (or longer, depending on the difficulty level you choose) text+audio stories in your target language with native language subtitles. This means that you have a translation for every sentence you read, making it easier to follow the story without constantly consulting a dictionary. With a single click, you can also listen to each sentence, allowing you to acquire the basics of pronunciation at the same time.
Trick #2: Repeated Reading in a foreign language
Repeated reading may sound boring at first, especially if you've gone through a newspaper article about global warming or another tweet from our beloved American president six times already. However, if you're rereading your favorite novel, it's far from boring.
Moreover, the benefits of applying this strategy are indisputable. The more times you reread the same material, the more vocabulary you learn. Each new portion of words serves as a foundation for learning the next set. As you become more familiar with the text, you'll spend less and less energy recognizing words, eventually reaching a point where it happens automatically. This automaticity is what leads to fluency, and it's what distinguishes reading in a foreign language from reading in your native tongue.
Furthermore, any book, whether it's your first or tenth time reading it, will contain a boatload of new vocabulary to learn.
How to implement repeated reading in your language learning plan
3. Read a book you have already read in your native language
This is actually my favorite approach to reading, as my "to reread" list is ever-expanding. Getting my hands on my favorite books in my currently targeted language is like killing two birds with one stone. First of all, I obviously enjoy each line since I already like the novel. Second, even if I don't know a certain word, my prior knowledge of the plot helps me guess it without consulting a dictionary. Third, if I reread non-fiction, it allows me to refresh all the potentially useful information in my head.
Even if you don't remember all the details, prior knowledge can be a huge asset when reading in a foreign language. It triggers your intuition and helps you build context. Learning vocabulary in the context is probably the most brain-friendly approach to building a vocabulary base in general.
4. Reread the same book twice in your target language
This is exactly what Kato Lomb used to do to learn a language. close it, turn it around, and start over from page one. As previously mentioned, it's important to choose interesting literature to make the task less boring.
Consider grabbing books by Agatha Christie, stories of Sherlock Holmes, or recent bestsellers - you need a real page-turner to keep you engaged.
Trick #3: Narrow reading in a foreign language
You're probably familiar with the usual classroom approach to learning a language. They provide you with a huge variety of topics and make you jump from "buying groceries" to "asking for directions" to "ordering in a restaurant". The goal is to expose you to the widest range of vocabulary possible.
However, this approach doesn't work well. With this kind of reading in a foreign language, your brain simply doesn't have enough time to build a strong vocabulary core for each of these domains. As a result, you end up knowing very little since you can't recall a word when you need it.
Narrow reading represents the reverse approach. Instead of jumping from one subject to another, you read books on the same topic, by the same author, or in the same genre. This approach allows you to work not only on the breadth of your vocabulary but also on its depth.
How to do narrow reading in a foreign language
5. Read children’s books series
Have you ever considered learning a language by reading Harry Potter? It was actually a whole new perspective for me when I learned it from Olivier Roland. There are several reasons why Harry Potter can be great for your language learning:
Firstly, it's a huge series - eight books will offer you plenty of enjoyable reading hours.
Secondly, these books are interesting, which is why half of the world is crazy about Harry Potter.
Finally, the difficulty of the vocabulary increases as the hero grows up, so you start with easy words and gradually develop your vocabulary with each new book.
However, I wouldn't stop at Harry Potter. You can pick up any children's book series, whether it's Percy Jackson, Hunger Games, or The Chronicles of Narnia, and achieve similar results to J.K. Rowling's masterpiece. These books are popular among children around the world, and they are translated into a whole bunch of languages.
6. Read your favourite author
Here, you can actually combine repeated reading in a foreign language with narrow reading.
For example, let's say you're into reading detective novels, such as Red Dragon and its sequel, The Silence of the Lambs, by Thomas Harris. By default, you'll learn a lot of crime-related vocabulary, but a thriller novel isn't just a general service list of the 2,000 must-know words for serial killers. It's a story above all else, so there's a vast amount of vocabulary for your daily needs. Moreover, since both books were written by one author, you'll quickly learn Harris's writing style and become accustomed to his word choice.
As a result, it will provide you with a larger context for guessing new words in his subsequent novels and plenty of opportunities to review the words you've already discovered.
7. Read about your hobby or interest
This is where the real heavy lifting begins.
Once you achieve a high proficiency level in your target language, consider moving towards more serious literature: non-fiction. It may not help you gain a richer vocabulary as reading novels does, but it's an excellent way to develop your competence in one or more fields of knowledge while still working on your language skills.
The more one reads in one area, the more one learns about the area, and the easier one finds subsequent reading in the area (and the more one acquires of the language).
S.Krashen, The Case for Narrow Reading
For example, I turned French into my source language for everything business- and finance-related. I read books by Olivier Seban, Robert Kiyosaki, and Olivier Roland in French, which helped me expand my vocabulary and gain more in-depth knowledge in this area.
The easiest way to apply this strategy is by subscribing to a specific magazine, such as Extreme Sports Magazine, Real Fishing, or Bike Mag. However, you need to do some research to come up with a long and enticing "to read" list because many good resources may not be translated into your target language.
I hope these three brain-friendly techniques will help you find your personal way of making reading in a foreign language more enjoyable. Whether you've decided to read a comic book or go with non-fiction, remember two golden rules: put down the book if it's too difficult or boring and find something interesting instead. Oh, anOnce you've finished reading a book in a foreign language, d don't feel pressured to read all eight books of Harry Potter if you're not particularly excited about it.
