I love books, and I encourage my students to read. When you read, you can experiment with different types of language without fear of criticism, you can discover new kinds of discourse, and you can acquire all types of vocabulary that will help you write and speak about things that really interest you.
In class, I tried to read something to my students each class whether it was a newspaper article or a short story. Words have power, and helping students develop an awareness of syntax is part of what language teachers do.
The Digital Book Index. I haven't used this before, but I think e-books are ideal for foreign language settings. Libraries don't seem to spend as much money or effort acquiring printed texts. The school I worked at had a library, but it was full of Chinese materials. To help expose students to authentic texts, I was having to order sets of books or asking for a budget from my supervisors. Free text sounds great to me, and it gives learners the option to read something beyond what's presented in their textbook.
ESL Reading is a site that seems to be developing. It's easy to navigate and the writers have provided activities so students can check their comprehension. The stories include a 'Before You Read' link to give the students some background on the text before they tackle it. And, there are color-coded tags to tell learners the level (pre-intermediate, upper intermediate) of the story.
Read.gov is a site that offers full text selections for free! I focused on the teen section because reading some of these texts will give students some insight into American culture. In more advanced writings, authors make allusions to some of these classic texts and expect the reader to be familiar with them. The site is very well-organized, and sleek in design. It's easy to navigate, and the students have the option of downloading the PDF or viewing the text in HTML. So the Library of Congress cares about literacy. Nice.
One way to include culture in language lessons is to compare folk stories. The tall tale, for instance, is unique to American literature and is related to U.S. history. Exposing students to folk tales helps them generate questions about the culture and examine its contrasts with their own culture. Some of the stories on the American Folklore website include podcasts so the students can listen as they read. I used stories from site for learners of all ages. There's even a special link for English language learners who need a little more support.
LibriVox is quickly becoming another of my favorite sites. Students, again, can read the PDF files themselves, or they can listen to MP3 files of the texts. Some of them are longer, which I think is ideal for students who may transfer to a mainstream high school setting. There are links to young adult short works, which is perfect for most students. They can benefit from outside reading without making a huge time commitment.
The International Children's Digital Library may not seem very exciting to all teens, but some readers may enjoy reviewing familiar stories from their childhood. Children's books provide more contextual support and repetition than other genres of books. Also, children's books deal with complex issues and questions young people want to have answered, but don't want to ask. Plus, students can learn more about the patterns of discourse between English-speaking adults and children.
No reading selection is complete without access to a good dictionary. If the context clues aren't enough, a dictionary is your best friend. I recommended the Cambridge Online Dictionary for Advanced Learners. It covers basic vocabulary and also gives students a little of that 'i+1' with clear and succinct definitions.
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