Published on January 31, 2024
7 resources to boost your Spanish reading practice
When learning a new language, it’s tempting to focus mostly on speaking and listening skills. But a consistent Spanish reading practice is also a fantastic way to speed up your learning process. Reading in Spanish may feel more tedious than jumping into a conversation, but it nevertheless helps you incorporate the language into your day-to-day life. Ignore it, and you may actually delay your path to fluency.
Why? Because reading is essential for the development of language abilities. And it’s not only good for improving your writing, vocabulary, listening, speaking and overall comprehension. Reading in a foreign language like Spanish facilitates brain connectivity and memory function, too!
With this in mind, we’ve put together a list of tools and resources to support your Spanish reading practice. Whether you’re a beginner or an advanced learner, we’re sure you’ll find something to get excited about.
Are you a beginner (A1–A2) looking for some easy Spanish reading? Here’s a list of resources to get you started:
Readlang is an excellent tool designed to help you practice reading in Spanish. With Readlang, you can build your own library of texts, click on words you’d like to automatically translate, and create flashcards and vocabulary lists for later review.
This is a great way to learn simple tenses, basic sentence structures and fundamental grammatical features, like punctuation marks. The best part? It’s free!
Music and lyrics are great instruments for language learning. They allow us to practice our pronunciation, rhythm and grammar, all while gaining insight into native speakers’ organic speech patterns.
On Lingoclip, a mobile app available for Android and Apple, you can play your favorite songs and fill out gaps in their lyrics as fast as you can. This gamified approach to learning isn’t just effective — it’s also fun, easy and portable! In any case, it’s a great way to build your listening skills without neglecting reading comprehension.
Alright, hear us out. We get that Spanish-language children’s books may not immediately spark your interest. Adults, after all, tend to have adult interests.
With that said, some of these books are legitimate literary gems written to captivate beginners of all ages. Children’s books are written with simplicity in mind, so they’re rich in easy-to-understand sentence structures and vocabulary. This comes in handy when you need to practice basics like pronouns and articles.
Are you convinced? Amazon and the ICDL are good sources for finding stories that will feed both your inner child and your language skills.
Ready for the next step? Let’s discuss some ideas for intermediate learners (B1-B2):
This connection may sound far-fetched, but linguistics and food can indeed go hand in hand! Integrating your Spanish reading practice into your cooking routine is a win-win for your language abilities and your palate. Recipes are a fantastic choice for practicing verb conjugation, adjectives and adverbs, as they’re filled with all kinds of descriptions and instructions.
So, the next time you have friends over, bust out a delicious Mexican, Spanish or Colombian recipe – or discover another Spanish-speaking country with amazing cuisine (the list is long and delicious).
Need inspiration? Doña Ángela of Michoacán, Mexico, launched a YouTube channel called De mi rancho a tu cocina (From my ranch to your kitchen) and went viral for her easy-to-follow Spanish-language cooking videos.
Looking for something that will really push you to the next level? Immersing yourself in Spanish-language literature will significantly enhance your Spanish reading comprehension! By pushing yourself to engage with new vocabulary and more intricate sentence structures, you’ll be one step closer to fluency.
Choosing a book that challenges you is crucial. And make sure that it aligns with your current proficiency level, or you’ll drop it like a hot potato. For intermediate learners, short stories and young adult books can be a good start.
Congratulations on reaching an advanced level (C1-C2)! Now, here are some more challenging ways to boost your reading skills:
Happily, you can snag free Spanish-language novels from some corners of the internet. Longer novels are an ample source of advanced vocabulary and grammar. They’re especially helpful if you’re aiming to step up your writing abilities, or if you’re practicing Spanish for professional purposes. In this case, you’ll be engaging with new words and varied text connectors constantly.
If you’re an advanced learner, try to polish your skills by keeping up with Spanish-language news. If you make it a daily habit, you’ll sharpen your vocabulary, grammar and reading comprehension. This is particularly useful if you’re otherwise not immersed in the language and are craving ongoing practice.
Have a look at BBC Mundo, CNN en Español and El País. All of these news sources are in Spanish and offer various news sections to cater to your personal interests.
As Dr. Seuss said, The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” Working on your Spanish reading practice will help you improve your language skills, and it may be your ticket to a whole new culture. And isn’t that the joy of learning a new language? So, let’s get those reading glasses on.
