Another strategy I tried is the context clues method. When I read something and see a word I don’t know, I look at the words around it to guess the meaning.
For example, I read the sentence: “The room was so dim that I could hardly see.” I didn’t know “dim,” but the sentence showed it was about the room and seeing, so I guessed it meant “not bright.”
This worked for me because I didn’t need a dictionary right away. I learned words like “dim” and “silent.” Both made sense when I looked at the sentences around them.