Reading is so important. It helps students to build vocabulary knowledge, see grammar in context and engage with the language by getting lost in it. But I struggled with, how to do I get my Novice learners reading when they don’t have that much language?

Hu & Nation, 2000 and Schmitt, Jiang, & Grabe, 2011 estimate that a person needs to know about 98% of the words in a text to comprehend it without help.

My novice learners, especially my upper elementary students, would struggle with the majority of the texts in my classroom library. I worried that without texts at a level they could understand many of them would shut down and immediately take a disinterest in language learning. But, I still want them to read and build their French reading skills. So, I wrote very simple texts to their level and use a few key activities to help build their fluency.

What are the top three reading strategies for novice learners?

1. Find the cognates

2. Find the color

3. Write and discuss

Watch the video below to find out more about how to do these strategies!

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