About the Author
Olly Richards, author of the Teach Yourself Foreign Language Graded Readers series, speaks eight languages and is the man behind the popular language learning blog: I Will Teach You a Language.
Olly started learning his first foreign language at age 19, when he bought a one-way ticket to Paris. With no exposure to languages growing up, and no special talent to speak of, Olly had to figure out how to learn a foreign language from scratch.
Fifteen years later, Olly holds a masters degree in TESOL from Aston University as well as Cambridge CELTA and Delta. He has studied several languages and become an expert in language learning techniques. He also collaborates with organizations such as the Open University and the European Commission, and is a regular speaker at international language events and in-person workshops.
Olly started the I Will Teach You a Language blog in 2013 to document his latest language learning experiments. His useful language learning tips have transformed the blog into one of the most popular language learning resources on the web. Olly has always advocated that reading is one of the best ways to improve your language skills and he has now applied his expertise to create the Teach Yourself Foreign Language Graded Readers series. He hopes that Short Stories in Swedish for Beginners will help you in your language studies!
For more information about Olly and his blog, go to www.iwillteachyoualanguage.com.
For more information about other readers in this series, go to readers.teachyourself.com.
Introduction
Reading in a foreign language is one of the most effective ways for you to improve language skills and expand vocabulary. However, it can sometimes be difficult to find engaging reading materials at an appropriate level that provide a feeling of achievement and a sense of progress. Most books and articles written for native speakers can be too long and difficult to understand or may have very high-level vocabulary so that you feel overwhelmed and give up. If these problems sound familiar, then this book is for you!
Short Stories in Swedish for Beginners is a collection of eight unconventional and entertaining short stories that are designed to help high-beginner to low-intermediate level Swedish learners improve their language skills. These short stories have been designed to create a supportive reading environment by including:
Rich linguistic content in different genres to keep you entertained and expose you to a variety of word forms.
Interesting illustrations to introduce the story content and help you understand what happens.
Shorter stories broken into chapters to give you the satisfaction of finishing the stories and progressing quickly.
Texts written at your level so they are more easily comprehended and not overwhelming.
Special learning aids to help support your understanding including:
Summaries to give you regular overviews of plot progression.
Vocabulary lists to help you understand unfamiliar words more easily. These words are bolded in the story and translated after each chapter.
Comprehension questions to test your understanding of key events and to encourage you to read in more detail.
So perhaps you are new to Swedish and looking for an entertaining way to learn, or maybe you have been learning for a while and simply want to enjoy reading and expand your vocabulary, either way, this book is the biggest step forward you will take in your studies this year. Short Stories in Swedish for Beginners will give you all the support you need, so sit back, relax, and let your imagination run wild as you are transported to a magical world of adventure, mystery and intrigue in Swedish!
Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) levels A2B1.
How to Read Effectively
Reading is a complex skill. In our first languages, we employ a variety of micro-skills to help us read. For example, we might skim a particular passage in order to understand the general idea, or gist. Or we might scan through multiple pages of a train timetable looking for a particular time or place. While these micro-skills are second nature when reading in our first languages, when it comes to reading in a foreign language, research suggests that we often abandon most of these reading skills. In a foreign language we usually start at the beginning of a text and try to understand every single word. Inevitably, we come across unknown or difficult words and quickly get frustrated with our lack of understanding.
One of the main benefits of reading in a foreign language is that you gain exposure to large amounts of words and expressions used naturally. This kind of reading for pleasure in order to learn a language is generally known as extensive reading. It is very different from reading a textbook in which dialogues or texts are meant to be read in detail with the aim of understanding every word. That kind of reading to reach specific learning aims or do tasks is referred to as intensive reading. To put it another way, the intensive reading in textbooks usually helps you with grammar rules and specific vocabulary, whereas reading stories extensively helps show you natural language in use.
While you may have started your language learning journey using only textbooks, Short Stories in Swedish for Beginners will now provide you with opportunities to learn more about natural Swedish language in use. Here are a few suggestions to keep in mind when reading the stories in this book in order to learn the most from them:
Enjoyment and a sense of achievement when reading is vitally important. Enjoying what you read keeps you coming back for more. The best way to enjoy reading stories and feel a sense of achievement is by reading each story from beginning to end. Consequently, reaching the end of a story is the most important thing. It is actually more important than understanding every word in it!
The more you read, the more you learn. By reading longer texts for enjoyment, you will quickly build up an understanding of how Swedish works. But remember: in order to take full advantage of the benefits of extensive reading, you have to actually read a large enough volume in the first place! Reading a couple of pages here and there may teach you a few new words, but wont be enough to make a real impact on the overall level of your Swedish.
You must accept that you wont understand everything you read in a story. This is probably the most important point of all! Always remember that it is completely normal that you do not understand all the words or sentences. It doesnt mean that your language level is flawed or that you are not doing well. It means youre engaged in the process of learning. So, what should you do when you dont understand a word? Here are a few steps:
1. Look at the word and see if it is familiar in any way. Remember to look for vocabulary elements from your first language that may be familiar. Take a guess you might surprise yourself!