Stage 3 guidelines for reading: Vocabulary

Here is a vocabulary objective for Stage 3 for reading:

To learn general vocabulary broad enough to enable you to read almost anything, including material on unfamiliar subjects

Here are some vocabulary strategies for Stage 3 guidelines for reading:

Analysis Look up unfamiliar words as you read, or write them down, and look them up afterward. However, if you have to look up all the words, or nearly all of them, you are reading something too difficult. Likewise, if you cannot follow the gist of the story, it is too difficult. Practice Read a lot on a variety of topics. Progress from popular magazines to the newspaper and archaic literature with a culture and time span gap. Find an appropriate level dictionary. Some languages have beginner, intermediate, and advanced level same-language dictionaries (if possible use a monolingual, rather than a bilingual dictionary). Selective attention Focus on specialized vocabulary from the various topics you read, one at a time. After you learn a vocabulary item, incorporate it into your speech patterns. Make notes of idioms or allusions you still have trouble with and discuss them with a language associate (LA). Ask for correction Work with a LA or other local friend to clarify the pronunciation of any new vocabulary items before you use it in your daily speech.

Here are some vocabulary techniques for Stage 3 guidelines for reading:

Write summaries of what you read and discuss them with mother-tongue speakers to make sure you understand.

• Write book reports and synopses. Make notes of idioms or allusions you still have trouble with and discuss with a LA.

Here is a vocabulary activity for Stage 3 guidelines for reading:

Read for pleasure and to learn about an expanding variety of new subjects.

• Generic module: Stage 3 guidelines for reading: Vocabulary
• In overview module: Stage 3: Reading modules
• In modular book: Guidelines for a Language and Culture Learning Program, by Carol J. Orwig
• In document collection: Other Resources
• In bookshelf: Language Learning

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 3.5, published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 1999. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 8 December 1998

© 1999 SIL International