Study Skill for the Day.

   Reading-  How to Manage Unknown Words.

If you want to read English in a similar way to reading in your own language it is important to approach it with some definite strategies.

When you have a conversation in English it is impossible to stop and check the meaning of every word you don't understand. You hopefully get a general idea and fill in the words you don't understand by referring to the context.

When you read you should try as much as possible not to look at dictionaries or translators. This will slow you down, make it very difficult to read texts naturally and make it impossible to do the reading section of exams.

Dictionaries and translators are a good way to translate a single word that you don't know and that you don't need to remember. However, most English words have more than one meaning (for example the word 'set' has 20+ meanings) and you still have to rely on the context to make sure you have the right translation.

To read quickly and to give yourself a better chance of remembering vocabulary try doing the following:

• Ask yourself if the word is important to understanding the text. If not, read on...
• If you think the word is important, decide if the word is a positive or negative word. Look to see if there is a prefix- un/dis/ir/il, this will tell you if it is negative. Words Suffixes like : 'anti-, pro-, over..., under... etc' also indicate the general meaning of the word.
• Decide the function of the word. Is it a noun (a noun with a capital letter is probably not important... read on), a verb, adverb or adjective? Is there a suffix like- ...ly, ...tion, ...ness, ...ful - that can help you decide this? 
• sk yourself- What does the context tell me about the meaning of the word? For example 'After the rigors of the journey, he lay down utterly exhausted'. You know that 'exhausted' means very tired and that 'utterly' is an adverb describing how 'exhausted'. The man had to 'lay down' after the journey and you know that you don't use 'very' with 'exhausted' because it is an extreme adjective. Therefore, 'utterly' is almost certainly a synonym for 'very' rather than 'a little'. The man is 'utterly exhausted' because of 'the rigors'. We can see that this is a noun (because it has 'the' in front of it) and from the context it is a negative word. therefore you can guess that 'rigors' is probably similar to 'difficulties'. 
• Finding similar words or phrases in the text can also help you. In a sentence such as: 'His tardiness had always been a problem but he has never been known to be this late before'. It should be fairly simple to deduce that 'tardiness' and 'late', although the first is a noun and the second an adjective, both have a similar meaning.
• Analyzing the base form of a word will also help. A word like 'Unearthly' may be unknown to you but you have 'un' meaning- something negative or 'not'. You can tell from the context that it is an adjective. You know that 'earth' refers to either soil, or our planet. If you can tell from the context that it is not soil, then you can assume that it means: 'not of this planet'.

Although, this may seem a complicated process with a little practice it will, after only a short time, become very natural and will take no longer than typing the word into a translator and deciding which definition is correct. Furthermore, because you have thought about the word you are more likely to remember it. 

It will mean that you are able to read books, articles etc more smoothly. This will benefit your general English and you will have developed a skill that will benefit you in English exams such as: IELTS, FCE and CAE.

Enjoy- Lets go Study. Snoop Dogg & Wiz Khalfia.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3fJKSUNIbs