How Graded Readers Can Help You Learn Chinese

Learning to read in a foreign language is always a challenge, but it is especially difficult in Chinese--what with the 5,000 characters and all.

What's a language student to do? Memorize a thousand vocabulary words before you ever crack open a book? Or pick up a copy of Harry Potter in Chinese and push through it?

Forcing yourself to read a challenging Chinese novel may be tempting, but even if you're an intermediate learner, it's probably not a great idea. It's a much better idea to engage in what's called extensive reading.

Extensive reading means reading books that are easy to understand, for pleasure. Studies have shown that extensive reading increases reading comprehension of a foreign language faster than rote memorization alone. However, in order to read extensively, you have to read books that are at your level. That's where graded readers come in.

Graded readers are tailored to your language level. For example, a beginner-level graded reader might have fifty unique vocabulary words, while an intermediate graded reader has 250. Graded readers also often have definitions of difficult vocabulary words on the page, so you don't have to look them up.

Personally, I like using Mandarin Companion graded readers. Mandarin Companion has a huge selection of titles at a wide variety of reading levels.

Have you used graded readers before? Let us know!