1.

Prime your knowledge

This is a very basic activity that will make your extensive reading easier and more effective.
First, skim through roughly the amount of text you plan on reading. Maybe a chapter or
two at a time. You’re looking for any unknown words, but mostly the ones that appear over
and over again. These are the words that are going to make it easy to understand the basic
plot elements of the story or the basic argument of the article. Look up a basic definition for
each. Then you can add context and feeling to the definition as you read and see the word
in a sentence.
Next, read over the dust jacket summary and take a good look at the cover illustration if
you’re reading a book. If you’re reading an article, read the headline and the subheadings.
From this information alone, make a prediction about what the story or article will be
about. This requires you to gather all the relevant vocab and background knowledge you
have of the subject, making it easier to contextualize and understand what you’re about to
read.

2. Write book reports and book reviews

This one is probably self explanatory. When you finish a book, just write out a simple
piece about it, including a basic summary and some of your own feelings about the text.
Writing something like this will help to create a personal understanding of the text by
making you reread certain sections of the text to confirm that your understanding of the
work is correct. Since this also serves as a test of your ability to recall details of the text, it’ll
be much more likely that you’ll remember new vocab and grammar in the long-run.

3. Do timed readings
Extensive reading is already a great way to get your reading speed up, but if you’re still not
as fast as you want to be, here’s how to get better.
The simplest task is a timed read. Choose a set number of pages and set a stopwatch for
a set amount of time. Of course, texts vary a lot. Sometimes there’s a lot of dialogue and
you can read it quickly without any problem. Other times it’s full of difficult descriptions and
you have to struggle to make it to the end. So try to pick a time that would be reasonably
difficult but possible—whatever happens in the text.
A tweak on this activity is to pick a section, read it and time how long it takes you. Then
when you’ve finished, reread that section, only now try to read it 20% faster. It goes without
saying that you should try to read it quickly the first time, or else the second part of the
activity won’t be much of a challenge.
There’s one other activity that’s truly excellent for timed reads, but it can be a bit trickier.
You’ll have to find a partner who’s learning the same language as you and is at about the
same level of proficiency. Agree to read a set number of pages and race each other to see
who finishes first. The person who finishes first should have to give a decent summary of
what she or he read to prove that they really read it.
4. Join book club discussions
Just like in your native language, book club discussions can provide great motivation to
make sure you actually read what you want to. They also allow you to hear other people’s
thoughts on the book that might have never occurred to you otherwise. This can be a
wonderful way to go over confusing grammar or just make sure you’re reading what you
think you’re reading. Sometimes it’s easy to have an existential crisis about what’s really on
the page when you’re reading a book in a foreign language all by yourself.
Besides the reasons above, book club discussions can be a great way to roll together
speaking and reading practice. If you host your discussions in the language you’re
learning, you’ll quickly be able hold a decent conversation about literature. And you’ll
probably have to do some quick scanning for passages you want to use. Being able to switch
back and forth between different parts of language is always a valuable skill.
To find a book club, Meetup is always a great place to start. However, since most book clubs
around seem to be in English, you can either try to read the book in your target language, or
start a new club where everyone reads in the target language. This is probably easier than
you think. Are you a member of a language group already? Do you have friends who are
studying the same language? All you need to do is convince two or three people to join you,
and you have a book club.

5. Create chain stories

This is another activity that requires a partner at about the same level of proficiency as you.
You and a partner choose two different books. It’s probably more fun if they’re on wildly
different topics. Begin by reading the first chapter or a set number of pages from one book
and have your partner do the same from the other book. When you’ve finished, you each to
have to summarize what you’ve just read to the other person as clearly and in as much
detail as you can.Now switch books and read the next section. Even if your partner made
mistakes,hopefully you can figure them out and have some fun correcting them.

6. Work on your creative writing

Had enough of summarizing the story? Why not try rewriting it? Creative writing based on
what you’ve just finished reading can be a highly effective tool for solidifying those gains in
vocab/grammar that you’ve made.
Perhaps the most fun time to do this is when you’re faced with a terrible ending to an
otherwise good story. We’ve all had this happen to us. We’re blissfully turning page after
page. We see that the number of pages is slowly dwindling down, but there doesn’t seem to
be anything in the narrative that suggests so. And then the story just ends, as if the author
had never read an ending themselves. Now is your chance to do what needs to be done.
Write what they should have written in the first place.
An enjoyable alternative to this activity is to take one chapter of a book and rewrite it in a
different genre. Think “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” or “Android Karenina.” The
resultcan be hilariously entertaining.And if you’ve gone through these activities a thousand
times, you can always write a letterto a character in the book about something you agree or
disagree with, trying to assumethe same tone as the book. Done well, it can give you an
entirely new connection to whatyou’re reading.

7. Keep vocabulary journals

In addition to the vocabulary you pulled out from the text in the first activity, you can also
keep a vocabulary journal for those words that you inevitably miss when you’re skimming
the text.
A vocabulary journal doesn’t need to be fancy. When you see a new word or phrase that you
think is important, write it down in your journal. If possible, add your own definition based
on context clues and an example sentence. That way, when you look it up later you can see
it in context again.
If you’re learning French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese or German, you can also check out
the web version of the MosaLingua app, which gives you pre-selected content to learn with,
including authentic reading material, and allows you to look up words and phrases instantly
with a translator tool. You can also turn vocabulary into flashcards to ensure you don’t
forget about it. And when you’re all finished with what you’re reading, go back and try to
write a summary that includes all of the words you recorded in your vocabulary journal.

8. Skim and scan

These two activities are for those with a dire wish to be able to read as fast as a native
speaker. For skimming, pick a chapter and read only the first and last sentence of each
paragraph. When you’ve finished, write out a summary. Then read the text again slowly and
see if there are any important details you’ve missed. If so, what strategies do you think you
could use to skim the text more effectively without slowing down? Tinker with how you do
your skimming until it seems like you can read anything in no time, and still be able to write
the equivalent of a late night school essay.
But maybe you don’t need to read the whole text. Maybe you just want to be able to find
answers to specific questions as quickly as possible. That’s where scanning comes in. For
this, it’s best if you can find readings that come with questions. Often times books that have
been marked for book clubs will include questions in the back. Otherwise, you might try
generating some of your own questions based on the topic of the book or chapter.
You don’t have to try every one of these activities. Just grab the ones that stick out to you.
After all, they’re to be paired with extensive reading—that wonderfully joyous way to spend
a lazy Sunday. Or any other day for that matter. For once, you can let the pressure go and
just have fun, knowing that you’ll be learning all the while.