First Step to Preparing Our ESL Students for Broadening Their Reading Horizon

I took both intensive reading and extensive reading courses as an undergraduate majoring in English in my hometown university in China. The experience was a beneficial one for me (and all my fellow students) to learn how to increase reading speed and vocabulary and appreciate great literature in one kind of course and how to be analytical and build a solid foundation in the other. I savor those days every time I struggle with getting my students to read more.

I was very pleased to learn at our last department meeting that Palomar Library is asking us for a list of ESL-appropriate books to acquire as they are apparently in the process of using Basic Skills funds to establish an ESL book section in the library for our students. The decision at our dept. meeting was for program coordinators to elicit recommendations from the teachers in their programs. I thought I would aid the effort with these two book lists:

1. Longman's graded readers
2. Townend Press' readers

If you know of other lists, please share them, too. But more importantly, please let your coordinator know any book titles that you have enjoyed or would enjoy teaching with, titles that you know your students would enjoy reading, too--outside of class.