French academic reading : how to approach it + 1 book for a deep studying

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When we read an academic text is not the same as reading the newspapers or a French literature book for leasure. When you are reading an academic text you need to have a method to do it. You have to use a method to get a good comprehension of the topics, to get what you need to get in the text, to be able to developp what you think of it, what is your analyze.

To be able to read a text in an academic way, you need to be able to :

  • Ask some questions -make the links between the different parts of the text
  • Interpret what you are analizing
  • To make the link with some parts of some others texts

What is the difference between the active and passive reading ?

  • Do you make any efforts to read what you have to read ?
  • Does it take you not so much attention to get the main ideas ?
  • Are you not really committed into the activity of reading ?  
  • Do you not read a specific part of the text again and again ? And do not you ask yourself some questions ?

If you answer the word « yes » to these questions, maybe you are reading texts in a passive way. If you change a bit your way of doing it you would be able to take the most of what you are reading.

For the active reading you need to ask yourself many times the same questions, and you need to build up opinions on what you have just read.

With an active reading, you will have :

  • A more efficient way of reading and a more efficient studying time
  • A more focused attention on what you are reading
  • A much superior comprehension of the main informations

If you do it in a passive way :

  • The text is read too quickly
  • You do not remember what you have just read
  • You are not really focused on what you are reading : you are answering to someone, you are listening to music,...

If you do it in an active way :

  • To ask yourself the good questions to get the right answers
  • You write a short text of the important elements of the text

How to have a good academic reading ?

To have a quick look

I suggest you to read quickly the resources you study with, but do not forget the subject you have to work on while you are doing it. The work is to make the links between the text and the subject.

Have a look at the different stages :

When you are studying a text you should

  • Check the chapter, the several sections of the chapter, also the headings and the subheadings. When you are studying a book you should
  • Check the table content
  • I suggest you to read the introduction, the conlcusion and the summary  
  • To be aware of the words (bold and italic)
  • The charts, graphics, analyzing them.

Ask yourself the good questions

I suggest you to ask yourself somes questions every time while you are reading, you have to remember permanently the subject you work on to be able to make the link between this specific subject and the text. It is good to do that for the understanding.

Here are the questions : who, what, when, where, why, how ?

  • Who : who is the beneficiary ?
  • What : what are the main elements ?
  • When : when does the episode take place ? What are the events ?
  • Where : where is it ?
  • Why : why this presentation?
  • How : how the principles points of the text are highlighted ?

How to read the text ?

I suggest you to read the text with the intention of finding answers to your questions.

I suggest you to do this :

  • To break down the text into different little parts to make it easier to analyze it
  • While you are looking for the answers to your questions, maybe you will get a new variety of  questions, write them down

Click on the picture if you want to see it on Amazon
Don't forget to read the comments

A Short Course in Reading French

This textbook gives you the basics of the French grammar rules, with activities and exercises to train to do translations.It is a ncie book to have for the persons who learns to do research in the French language or studying for exams. In addition, this book gives to everyone a great amount of texts writtten in the French language. It contains informations on the French accent, nouns, articles, prepositions, verbs, adjectives, adverbs. You are going to find a introduction to the tenses : indicative tense, subjunctive tense, objetcs, pronouns, passive voice sentences, French expressions,... You are going to find texts from the following authors : Pascal, Montesquieu, Proust, Sartre, Bourdieu, Senghor, Cesaire, de Certeau,...

Here are somes reviews :

« This is an amazing workbook which one you are going to get some reading skills in the French language. But the bad points is that you are not going to get more speaking skills for the French language. You are not going to work on your accent. I have been studying with it and at the same time with the application Duolingo for several weeks, and I have to say that it works very well »

« My professor told me to get tis book, and I need to say that this is the best one I have bought so far »

« I bought this book a lot of years ago. I am super happy of this book, I refreshed the French language. It is an easy to follow book. I strongly suggest you to use it, it works well. It will help you to get more fluency without going to the university »

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Have a look at the others articles to get more resources, to get more fluency, to know French literature, French expressions you can use in different situations. To be your own professor, to be able to have nice talks with native speakers. To put emphasis on improving your language skills, studying aspects of the French language. If you do want to go to school.

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Thank you for reading this article !
Thomas 😀

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