Language learners often ask: What’s the best way to increase your vocabulary? The answer is simple—reading. Listening and speaking help reinforce words you already know, but reading is where real vocabulary growth happens.

Simply put, if you’re serious about expanding your vocabulary, you need to read a lot. But how you read matters. Let’s explore the difference between extensive and intensive reading, and how both can accelerate your language learning.

The Power of Extensive Reading

Reading a book in your target language is a true milestone. When you reach the point where you can pick up a novel or non-fiction book and just read, you’ve made a major breakthrough in your target language. But getting there takes time.

Extensive reading means reading without stopping to look up every unknown word. You focus on the big picture, the general meaning of what you’re reading. Sure, you’re not combing through the text with great detail, but words and structures sink in naturally. Extensive reading builds fluency and deepens your familiarity with the language.

Stephen Krashen, a leading expert in language acquisition, has long promoted extensive reading. Research shows that just by reading widely, we start to absorb and expand our vocabulary—even without conscious effort. Much of our intuition and passive vocabulary in a language stem from sheer, consistent exposure.

Intensive Reading: Mining for Vocabulary

Of course, we can’t overlook the importance of intensive reading. Intensive reading is especially helpful when you’re working with texts that are more difficult. Perhaps you’re struggling to develop a sense of flow with a text or the amount of unknown words is too large.

Intensive reading means slowing down, looking up words, and really engaging with the text. It’s about mining for vocabulary—discovering new words, reviewing them in context, and gradually committing them to memory. Intensive reading is an opportunity to tinker with the language.

Personally, I find LingQ incredibly useful for intensive reading. With LingQ, you can read online, look up and save new words, and review them later. LingQ was designed with the language learner in mind, and this platform makes intensive reading less arduous.

The Best Approach? A Mix of Both

To maximize vocabulary growth, you need both extensive and intensive reading.

  • Extensive reading helps you get used to the flow of the language and absorb words naturally.
  • Intensive reading helps you nail down tricky vocabulary and reinforce key phrases.

I often switch between extensive and intensive reading. Sometimes, I’ll just read for enjoyment, ignoring words I don’t know. Other times, I’ll slow down, look up words, and do sentence-based exercises to reinforce my learning.

Final Thoughts

Reading is the most effective way to increase your vocabulary. It allows you to see words in context, reinforces comprehension, and helps words stick in your memory. If you’re not at the stage where you can comfortably read books yet, start with digital tools like LingQ to bridge the gap.

The key? Read a lot. Read what interests you. Vary your approach. If you enjoy the process, you’ll stick with it—and that’s what really matters in language learning.