again about Language barrire

happymomof1
Tue, 17 Jun 2008 18:31:47 +0000

Excellent advice olgita! All aspects of writing (style, spelling, vocabulary, etc.) are improved by extensive reading. It really is key.

The only suggestion I would make is that the reading doesn’t necessarily have to be the hardest that you can handle. One technique that school teachers use here is to tell students to count the number of words that they don’t know on each page. If there are more than five, you are stretching yourself, possibly beyond your level of tolerance. The more important factor is the volume of the reading. Read the newspaper, read Harry Potter, read whatever you can find in the “young adult” section of the public library in the city where you are studying. I tell my adult English students to try Harry Potter or any other novel that they are familiar with in their first language. You will know the characters and the plot, and will be able to work out new vocabulary from context.

Wishing you a great experience in the US!