Free Voluntary Reading is perhaps the most thoroughly investigated and best-supported technique in the field of second-language pedagogy.
(You can read more details about it on this site of renowned Linguist Prof. Stephen Krashen.)
The idea behind it is very simple.
One key element of learning another language is growing your vocabulary.
And in order to grow your vocabulary and strengthen the memory traces you first need to be exposed to new vocabulary.
Research shows that one key factor for the brain to memorize and learn new things is to find meaning in it.
And what can be more meaningful than to read about topics, things and stories that you’re personally interested in?
Once there is meaning in it, there’s an intrinsic motivation to understand, wanting to know and wanting to learn.
The important thing here is to always read things at your level or just a little bit beyond because otherwise your brain will shut down, since too much unknowns means for your brain: too many obstacles, too difficult, too boring.
(BTW, That’s why for example listening at a beginner level to German television or radio is inefficient.)
So only when reading is comprehensible you’ll both enjoy it and learn.
Here are 3 great resources you can use to get started with reading things you enjoy and understand:
1. The “Scriptorium Technique” of Step 4 without writing
At Step 4, one of the other learning techniques I suggest is the “Scriptorium Technique”. This technique consists of a reading-writing-reading routine of a text. You can use the same content but just skip the writing part of this routine. You can watch the video and read through the transcript which will also have the benefit of connecting the dots since the text contains big parts of the exact grammar and vocabulary covered at Step 1,2 and 3.
2. Readlang
On the online platform readlang.com, you’ll find tons of reading material and you can filter it by your current level like A1, A2, B1 and so on so you can find great content at your level.
Readlang is a powerful tool that will also help you translate words and sentences that you need to look up and best of all, learn these new words with flashcards.
So it not only translates words and full sentences on your browser but also stores your new words in flash cards so you can review and learn them afterwards on your smartphone.
3. Nachrichten leicht (News in easy language)
You might already be reading news in English or in your mother toungue so why not getting used to read news in German?
On nachrichtenleicht.com you’ll find weekly news on a variety of topics like politics, sports, culture and more. Everything expressed in simple language and oftentimes even including audio files to listen to the articles.
So here’s your action step:
- Go back to Step 4 and check the “Scriptorium Technique”, skip the writing part of the technique if you want to, and just focus on watching the video and reading the transcript included
- Go to readlang.com here, create an account for FREE and look up your first article you can read, enjoy, understand and learn from TODAY. (You can start with the free version that translates single words and then see if the pro version that includes phrase translations is worth it.)
- Go to nachrichtenleicht.com here and look up and read your first news article in German.
P.S. Reading will of course require extra time. And the key of all learning is consistency so check this post on how to create a daily 25 minutes learning routine even if you don’t feel like it.