The Graded Reader of the Future May Be a Good Deal Thicker Than Now

It is argued above that the traditional series of graded readers, while excellent in themselves, cater for a small minority of the population. The fact that so little extensive reading is done at school or college level is evidence that graded readers are not reaching the majority of learners. Black Cat has led the way in enhancing their image and in increasing their educational value by providing extensive background material. They have also, by interspersing language exercises into the text, a practice followed by Oxford Dominoes and Penguin Active Reading, begun to convert graded readers into text-based language courses, a process taken further by Heinle Foundations Reading Library. The texts may well provide a more meaningful and interesting context in which to study language, but using them in this way diverts the learners' focus away from reading for meaning onto using the stories as texts from which to quarry linguistic treasure. Indeed, basing all language teaching on graded readers may dampen enthusiasm for extensive reading, which should be complementary to the language course.

Graded readers are a marvellous resource for language teaching and those written in English have a major role in spreading the use of English. They are not making as big a contribution as they might to the learning of English because the teaching profession is confused about their aim. When the profession accepts that extensive reading increases language competence and that language competence includes the ability to read fluently, extensive reading programmes will become the norm, graded readers will be in much greater demand. New series will be developed provided to fills the gaps in the present corpus: lowbrow reading for adults, contemporary stories for ages 9-15, and series that bridge the gap between graded and unsimplified reading.

Once the profession has accepted this new emphasis, then the publishers and editors will be under pressure to develop graded readers in ways that will encourage reading. Perhaps series will come in two editions: one with aids and in-text support to the reading process and one without. All will use a larger font at least at the lower stages. The graded reader of the future may be a good deal thicker than now but much more widely read. Best of all, language learning and language teaching will be much more interesting and successful than it has been for the last 30 years.