The Strategy I employ when reading a text is the Read-Jot-Read-Research Strategy. I gave it the aforementioned terminology due to the fact that it is one which has broaden my level of diction and vocabulary.
Whenever a person reads and finds a word or phrase used in the text quite puzzling, one of the best approaches to devise in comprehending the meaning of the words and how it is used is to:
1. Put down the word(s) in a jotter
2. Try to look for the meaning of the word from the nearest phrase or sentence, that is, contextual search for the meaning.
3. Continue reading the text even though the meaning of the puzzling used word(s) was not figured out from the context of Usage.
4. At the end of reading, look out the jotted words from a good pronouncing dictionary, identify its grammatical class, the appropriate pronunciation and the Usage samples.
5. Finally, apply the newly learnt word(s) in your spoken or written English to help familiarize you with its usage.
