It’s a well-known fact. Reading a lot helps build your vocabulary, especially when you’re learning a second language. Of course, you have to be smart while you’re doing it – you can’t just passively go through text and hope that it sticks.
Because of that, you should always keep the guidelines of active reading in mind when you’re doing it to support your language software studies – read slowly, take time to understand what you’re reading and highlight items you want to recall. When you come upon words or passages you can’t understand, look for context clues, rather than simply moving on and forgetting about it.
Most authors always include context hints about the meaning of potentially unclear passages, whether consciously or unconsciously. Rather than take the literal interpretation, you can use those to come about the real meaning of a specific passage.
1. Definitions. Some authors overtly include a definition to help the reader arrive at the actual meaning of potentially unclear terms. Of course, it will likely be integrated into one of the succeeding statements, rather than laid out like in a dictionary.
2. Synonyms. You can also look for parallel ideas that use a synonym to reinforce the passage.
3. Antonyms. Similar to their use of synonyms, some authors will use the opposite of the word to clarify its meaning.
4. Descriptions. Look for succeeding passages that describe the previous statement.
5. Summary. In this one, the author shows examples that summarize what the unclear passage means.
6. Visual. This one’s mostly done in reports and features, using visual elements such as pictures, charts and graphs to help you arrive at the intended meaning.