Reading Spanish-language Books To Improve Fluency

[Villa]

Originally Posted by Amara

What do you think of reading Spanish-language as a way to increase Spanish fluency?

How effective do you think that it would be, and what advice do you have before I proceed?

Do you frequently read books in your target language?

Hola Amara. I have been teaching Spanish for over 30 years to adults and children. I am now in my 7th year of teaching Italian to adults. There are several ways to increase your Spanish or Italian fluency and one of the best ways is to read Spanish or Italian out loud. Think about it. When you read Spanish out loud you are basically speaking Spanish without ever running out of something to say. (Of course you have to be able to read Spanish.)
Learning to read Spanish is muy fácil. The vowels are: ah eh ee oh oo
mah meh me moe moo

Amo a mi mamá. Mi mamá me ama. (AH-moe ah me mah-MAH. Me mah-MAH may AH-mah.)
que=k, cuando-quando, roll your Rs

Cool thing about learning to read Spanish among other things is that once you can read Spanish
you can also read Italian with just knowing a few differences.

[JPablo]

@magicrob
I agree with what you say. Like Arturo Pérez Reverte has a very understandable way to write for a Spaniard... I bet that someone reading his "Patentes de Corso" articles not familiar with many of the peninsular Spanish twists, will not get it... But, if one reads his Capitán Alatriste novels, even if the language is somewhat archaic, anyone of the 400 million plus who speak Spanish can follow that style... (my take, I may be wrong...)

When I read Octavio Paz for the first time I had no idea he was Mexican... and even reading Gabriel García Márquez, or Camilo José Cela... one is using a level of Spanish that it's understandable to the majority of people...

Great authors like Cortázar, Neruda, Machado, Juan Ramón Jiménez, Cervantes, Quevedo... (the list would be too long and always unfair to the many many authors not mentioned) are always a source of inspiration for life and to learn Spanish...

(There are people who just learn Spanish to be able to read San Juan de la Cruz in his original version...)

And guys like Jorge Manrique or even Marqués de Santillana, even when they are centuries old, they are still great sources...

[Kelly Blackwell]

As an elementary Spanish teacher, I think that using literature is awesome! I start my students in the Calico Spanish program with books that they already know (Corre, Perro, Corre y Huevos verdes con jamón) and it helps them to create connections much easier.