Reading at your level

Graded readers: what they are and how to use them

A graded reader is a book written for learners, at a level you can actually follow. It is the practical form of an old idea: read a lot of text you almost understand. That is what we are building DuoText to do, so this is the page where we explain it.

What a graded reader is

A graded reader is a story, original or adapted, whose vocabulary and grammar are kept to a stated level. Publishers usually label them in steps, and the steps line up roughly with the CEFR scale used for languages: A1 and A2 for beginners, B1 and B2 for intermediate readers, C1 and C2 for advanced ones. At the lowest levels a book may use only a few hundred different words, and each step up widens the range.

The point is control. A beginner who opens a real novel meets a new word every line. In a graded reader the unknown words are few enough that you can guess most of them from the story.

Why they work: comprehensible input in practice

Stephen Krashen’s idea of comprehensible input says we acquire a language by understanding text a little beyond what we already know. Graded readers are how you get that at scale: the level is chosen for you, so you can spend your attention on the story and the language arrives on its own. Vocabulary research suggests readers cope best when they already know about 95 to 98 percent of the words, and a well-graded book aims for that range.

Where graded readers fall short

They can be dull. A story written to fit a word list sometimes reads like one. If you don’t want to keep going, the level is irrelevant.
Choice is small. A shelf of a few dozen titles per language, and few for less common languages, rarely matches your taste and level at once.
A level is a guess. The label on the cover is an average. Your level, and the words you personally know, are different from anyone else’s.
They cost money, a few pounds or dollars per short book, which adds up when you need dozens.

What we do about it

We are making graded reading easier to start and harder to stop.

A free graded library. The DuoText library has stories from A1 to C2, each with the translation beside every paragraph, so a level slightly too high is still readable.
Stories meant to be addictive. Summer at the Lemon House is a romance in ten short A2 episodes, written to make you want the next one.
Series instead of single books. One episode a day keeps the habit going. A long series that grows from A1 towards C1 is something we are building towards, and not finished yet.
Your own level, one day. The longer plan is a story for each reader, built from their own level, words and pace, so it stays at the 95 percent mark as they improve. That is the plan, not something to sign up for today.

How to read a graded reader

Pick a level where you follow most of each page on your own.
Read for the story. Don’t look up every word; guess, and keep going.
Use the translation when you lose the thread, then return to the original.
Finish the book. A finished A2 story teaches more than three abandoned B2 ones.
Move up a level when the translation becomes something you rarely need.

The guide to learning a language with stories goes through the method level by level.

Graded stories by language

Stories by level for each language:

Questions

What is a graded reader?

A book written or adapted for language learners, with the vocabulary and grammar kept to a stated level, so you can read it without constantly stopping.

What level of graded reader should I choose?

One where you understand most of each page without help. If you need the translation for most sentences, go down a level; if you never need it, go up.

Are graded readers good for beginners?

Yes. They are one of the few kinds of book a beginner can finish, and finishing books is what builds the reading habit.

Are there free graded readers?

Yes. The DuoText library is free to read in the browser: stories from A1 to C2, each with the translation beside every paragraph.