Graded readers – What’s that, Phill?
Imagine you start to learn a new language and you are really motivated. After a few weeks you have learned some great vocabulary and grammar and you feel ready to read your first book in your new language. That’s where the problems start. Books from the book store are usually too hard to read, especially if your level is not very high yet. It is sometimes hard to find a good text online and who wants to search forever?!
The good thing is that there is a solution called graded readers. These books are one of my favourite things to use to improve the reading skills of my students. But what exactly are graded readers?
A graded reader is a book with a story in it. Very often the stories are famous ones like Peter Pan, Robin Hood or many others. The great thing about these books is that someone took the story and changed the words and grammar so everything becomes easier to understand. This way it is possible to read books in a new language and it doesn’t matter what your level is. On top of that, there are usually exercises as well so you can practise some of the grammar and vocabulary from the story at the same time.
I have read many graded readers in class with great results. My students enjoy the stories because they often already know them in their own language, but can now read the story in English AND understand everything. It is a great way to motivate yourself even more because if you can read books at one level, you can try the next level and then the next etc.
Don’t be shy, get a graded reader today.
Some graded readers are quite expensive because you can buy them with audio CDs and listen to the story while you’re reading. This can be a really great thing as well, but the costs get high. There are, however, many graded readers without the CDs, but still with exercises. These books are cheaper and if you have an ebook reader like the Amazon Kindle, you can sometimes save even more money. Below is a link to a few graded readers. Have a look and see if you can find something you like.
I hope you will start reading and enjoy some great stories soon.
Lots of love,
Teacher Phill 🙂
