Hello everyone, I'm so glad I found this great site. Anyways, I'm trying to improve my English and I have started reading books but I noticed there's a lot of words I come across that are new to me. So my question is, if I can't figure the word out through context(which most of the time I can't) should I immediately look it up in a dictionary or skip the words and keep on reading? On each page there will be about 3-6 words I won't get.
***** NOT A TEACHER *****
Hello, Inquisitive.
(1) When I read something in English (or in a foreign language), I
simply circle any word that I do not know and keep reading until
the end of the selection.
(2) I then look up a few of the circled words -- especially, of course,
those words that were repeatedly used in the selection.
(3) If I try to stop each time I come to an unknown word, it
destroys my enjoyment, and I also find that I will soon forget the
meaning of those words.
(4) I would rather concentrate on learning one word well than
stuffing my head with 10 new words, which I'll just forget.
(5) Also, I think that after you have chosen one or two words
for the day, you should give them a lot of attention:
(a) Of course, you want to know their meaning.
(b) Use a good dictionary to find out its etymology. Where does the
word come from? Depending on your native language, sometimes you
will discover that the English word is closely related to a word in a
language familiar to you.
(c) Write a sentence using that word.
(d) Read an English-language newspaper, and try looking for that word
in some article. If you are consciously looking for a particular word,
you will often find it.
(e) I guess what I am trying to say is: Quality is better than quantity.
***** Thank you *****