Reading in Spanish can be entertaining, educational, and even soothing. The best part about it is that it has been shown to increase fluency and helps greatly in language learning. Learners must find the best way of Spanish reading that is adaptable to their abilities and needs. In this article, we have listed the top tips and resources we can recommend for beginner Spanish learners who want to develop and practice their Spanish reading skills.

Perhaps you are looking for a vocabulary list to start getting Spanish words from. In that case, you can check out our frequency dictionaries. Each has vocabulary for different levels of fluency: beginner, intermediate, advanced, and near-fluent level. You can find the paperbacks on Amazon. These links are affiliate links. That means we might get a small commission if you make a purchase after clicking these links.

Benefits of Spanish Reading Practice

Reading can improve your language skills. Reading in a foreign language allows you to broaden your vocabulary, and the repeated exposure of foreign vocabulary helps you to store the words into your long-term memory. This is due to the spaced repetition effect, or how your brain stores information in your long-term memory.

You also get the benefit of repeating the words or sentences over and over again until you understand its meaning. This is an advantage of reading than just listening to words. Reading can be a more relaxing and stress-free way to learning a language than trying to do so verbally. Often, you’ll be lost for words. You can take in the information at your own pace without feeling the pressure of having to respond immediately. Reading is also a great way to learn a new language, as it can be a more calming and enjoyable experience.

Reading in another language is a great way to discover stories that you might not have had the opportunity to read, since not all Spanish books have English translations. With that, your Spanish skills may help you discover the world further by reading new books you have ignored, skipped, or did not know existed before.

You might think that your knowledge is not sufficient to read Spanish books. However, you can always begin with simple books and move up to more complex ones, just like learning to read in your native language (No pressure!). You can read bilingual books that will make it a lot easier for you to learn Spanish through context since it already has the respective Spanish and English translations of the story on the same page.

Reading Spanish textbooks supports learning, as it exposes you to both native and conversational vocabulary. You can become more confident when conversing with Spanish-speakers, as reading out loud improves pronunciation.

How To Improve Your Spanish Reading Skills

Get Support from a Dictionary

Getting your vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation right comes first in learning Spanish by reading, moreso when you are trying to read Spanish texts. But learning a new language is 95% learning new words, and 5% other aspects. Getting help from Spanish vocabulary books will never get old. Therefore, we can recommend these dictionaries to you!

We at MostUsedWords created Frequency Dictionaries. These dictionaries list Spanish words by how often you use them. Each entry contains English translations of important Spanish words and example sentences, with phonetic spelling and detailed part of speech information. These give you a practical word list to learn Spanish vocabulary quickly while also learning pronunciation at the same time!

You can get the paperbacks from Amazon and the ebooks from our website. You are always free to check out what our users have to say in our Spanish Frequency Dictionaries reviews.

1. Beginners Vocabulary List of The Most Common Spanish Words
2. Intermediate Vocabulary List of The Most Common Spanish Words
3. Advanced Vocabulary List of The Most Common Spanish Words
4. Master Vocabulary List of The Most Common Spanish Words

Start Small (Level-Appropriate)

You can’t instantly read a complex story when you are just beginning to read in Spanish. Read a Spanish story that is easy to understand and practice your reading skills until you are comfortable with it. 

Most people who are just starting to learn Spanish often are discouraged from reading Spanish stories because they think that it is too difficult for them. This is not necessarily true; if you take the time to find a good story, you can learn to read Spanish quite easily.

With our Spanish frequency dictionaries, you can have an easier time in your Spanish reading practice. Our first 5000 most common Spanish words bundle and 10,000 most common Spanish words collection are available for all levels of fluency for learners. These books can guide you in your Spanish reading practice anytime, anywhere. You can get our books at a much lower price when you buy them in sets!

 

Read Bilingual Books

Bilingual books build vocabulary in both languages. Not because you speak your native tongue alone means you are fluent in it. You may find through reading bilingual books that there are words you do not know, which is amazing. Reading your native and your target language simultaneously makes learning more productive.

We can give you two bilingual books that are suitable from beginner to advanced learners. These books have Spanish and English translations parallel to each other, which make it easier for learners to understand the story. This is a great kind of book to practice Spanish reading, while saving you lots of time from looking up words you don’t know in a dictionary just to comprehend Spanish sentences.

• Alicia en el País de las Maravillas is known as the English book “Alice in Wonderland”. This book is about 30,000 words long, giving you a huge start in learning new words while enhancing your Spanish reading skills!

• La Vuelta al Mundo en Ochenta Días is known as “Around the World in Eighty Days” in English. If you are an intermediate or advanced learner, you will absolutely enjoy this story. It is about about 65,000 words long.

Read Aloud

Reading a book or an excerpt aloud can challenge your use of intonation. This also sharpens your focus, as you use your eyes, mouth, and ears when reading to yourself. As a result, this can improve your listening and reading skills.

Conclusion:

Spanish reading practice is one great way to develop your language skills. It greatly improves your reading skills. It can also help to develop listening and pronunciation skills of learners. If you want to combine practicing your reading skills, and having a source of important words and their proper pronunciation, you might want to get a Spanish frequency dictionary. The bilingual sample sentences help you with practicing your Spanish reading skills.

Spanish books and other materials for learning Spanish can sometimes be confusing for beginners, so you will want to make sure that you have a good resource for words and pronunciations. MostUsedWords Spanish Frequency Dictionaries and bilingual books can help you with this, as well as websites that can provide pronunciation guides and help you understand grammar rules. You can get the paperbacks from Amazon and the ebooks from our website.