Readers
One way to help your students develop their reading skills is to use readers in class or encourage students to read outside school. Here are some of the new readers available this year.
The
Foundation Reading Library is a new seven-level series of graded
readers from Thomson Heinle that includes six books per level. Written
specially to meet the needs younger learners beginning to read in English,
the stories revolve around the adventures of a group of teenage characters
living in a small U.S. town. New titles include The Cave, Lost
at Sea and The Lost Wallet.
New
from Oxford University Press is the Oxford Graded Readers CD-ROM,
a new component for teachers using Oxford Bookworms and Dominoes - all
the resources you need on one CD.
Bookworms Club offers collections of stories selected from existing titles of The Oxford Bookworms Library, with resources for use with reading circles, groups of students who meet in the classroom to discuss stories.
Bookworms Club provides all that is needed for running reading circles. New titles in the Dominoes series include Sinbad, Macbeth, and The Big Story.
"Simply
better, simply graded, simply online" is a quote from the Macmillan
Readers website, where you'll find competitions, worksheets and
information about all the titles available. Macmillan is currently celebrating
the publication of its first Shakespeare Readers that include A Midsummer
Night's Dream and Romeo and Juliet for pre-intermediate students.
Other new readers for pre-intermediate level include Robin Hood,
Casino Royale, The Wizard of Oz, The Treasure of Monte Cristo, and
Selected Stories by D. H. Lawrence.
The
Vicens Vives/Black Cat Reading and Training series of readers
is a collection of attractive illustrated graded readers, aimed at teenagers
and adults. The majority of the books are adapted classics, but there
are also some original stories - especially at lower levels - and the
occasional non-fiction reader. The readers are graded into six levels
from elementary/pre-lower-intermediate to post-intermediate. New titles
are Kidnapped, Tales of the Supernatural, Sherlock Homes Stories,
The Thousand and One Nights and The Woman in White.
New titles in The Green Apple series of readers designed for young teenagers are Five Children and It, The Black Arrow and Little Women.
Several
of the Cambridge English Readers have been finalists for the
Extensive Reading Foundation's ERF Awards. The Foundation is a charitable
organization whose purpose is to support and promote extensive reading.
One Foundation initiative is the Language Learner Literature Award for
the best works of language learner literature in English.
Cambridge sent us 10 new readers for different levels. The Cambridge Readers are all written specially for adult and young adult learners. The series consists of original fiction, and the 10 titles we received include books about aspiring rock stars, a robot called Nolan, a murder mystery and a thriller about a plot to kill a British prince!
Scholastic
ELT Readers are a colourful mix of contemporary teenage fiction
and magazine-style fact files. The simplified stories focus on issues
directly affecting teenagers and their lives, and fact file pages give
background and exploitation of the themes raised in each story. This
year Scholastic is continuing to expand on its series of TV- and film-related
readers with Smallville Arrival, Superman Returns and The
Pink Panther.
Finally, in January Helbling Languages published David and the Great Dectective, the first in a new series of readers. Helbling is publishing 15 titles at five language levels, from beginner (CEF A1) to intermediate (CEF B1). These include original and classic fiction titles. Each book has a variety of before and after activities as well as reflection boxes that allow the student to make parallels with their own personal experience.
Cambridge English Readers
www.cambridge.org/elt/readers
Extensive Reading Foundation
www.erfoundation.org
Helbling Languages
www.helblinglanguages.com
Macmillan Readers
www.macmillanenglish.com/readers
Oxford University Press
www.oup.com/elt
Scholastic/Mary Glasgow
www.link2english.com
Thomson Heinle
http://elt.thomson.com
Vicens Vives/Black Cat
www.blackcat.vicensvives.es