Graded Readers Level 2
Kody Baril
Usually you will be able to get a lot of graded readers starting from N4, but if you start to read a lot, you will be there in no time anyway.
If you want a subscription, LingQ has 60 mini stories for beginners which teach words and grammar naturally. Those alone should get you close to N4 if you go through them multiple times.
Teachers should find the headword count of the books they wish to categorize (say 300 headwords) and see where it fits the Scale. The books can then be labeled at that level for easy selection by students. For example, an Oxford Bookworms book, Level 1 is a 400 headword book and should be labeled Early Elementary. A Cengage Foundations Reading Library Level 3 book (150 headwords) should be labeled Mid-beginner. Teachers may wish to use shortened forms, for example M-Int and E-Adv might refer to Mid-Intermediate and Early Advanced. The books can further be color coded by level (or put in leveled boxes) so students can easily find them and put them away after use.
The ERF does not recommend teachers categorize books by the advertised proficiency level on graded readers. An Intermediate book in one series may be Elementary in another and Advanced in yet another. The ERF believes there is too much variability in these labels and we recommend teachers use headword counts which tend to be accurately determine levels.
Make sure you have a copy of the Scale printed for the students to see as they select books and ensure that the books in your library match the Scale. Show them how your books are coded and ensure they know which the upper and lower levels are.
If the answer is yes to each of these questions, then that book is their level or they could try a higher level. If the answer is no to even one of the questions, then they should go down levels until they have 3 yes answers.
2. The Scale is not supposed to be used literally. It is a rough guide to categorizing books by difficulty. As not all books at a given level by a publisher are equally difficult, some individual titles may need to go up or down as necessary and these books will need relabeling.
A graded reader book is an "easy reading" book that supports the extensive reading approach to teaching English as a second or foreign language, and other languages. While many graded reader books are written for native speaker children, more often they are targeted at young adults and above, since children's books are already widely available and deal with topics not relevant to more mature language learners.
Graded readers can be adapted from literary classics, films, biographies, travel books, etc., or they can be original works written at a less demanding language level. Although they employ simplified language, graded readers do not necessarily lack narrative depth or avoid complex themes; often, they cover the same range of "serious" themes as books written for native speaker audiences.[1]
Graded readers are written with specific levels of grammatical complexity in mind and with vocabulary that is limited by frequency headword counts. For example, Level 1 in a series might be restricted to 500 headwords, Level 2 to 600 headwords, and Level 3 to 700 headwords.[2] Simple English Wikipedia is designed along similar lines. Other factors are taken into consideration when selecting titles to publish, or determining levels, might include the number and range of characters; the complexity of the plot; the expected background of the target audience; compliance requirements for certain markets (regarding e.g., sex, dating, religion, gender roles and sexuality, etc.), among other factors.
Our Readers series has been carefully graded from Starter to Upper Intermediate (A1-B2) to help students choose the right reading material for their level. The collection includes popular classics, contemporary titles, original fiction, plays, autobiographies and non-fiction. Most titles are also available as eBooks and audio downloads.
Thankfully, this is where graded readers come in! Graded readers are book series that feature a variety of stories sorted into different levels of difficulty, or "grades." For Japanese, this usually is determined by the vocabulary and grammar used, often corresponding to the 5 levels of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT), but different publishers and organizations have different levels and definitions. Graded readers offer everyone, even Japanese beginners, fun stories to read. Not only is this an enjoyable, confidence-building activity, but it'll make your Japanese a lot better too!
So, ready to dive in? Great! In this article, I will talk more about what graded readers are and how to get the most out of them. My co-author Emily and I have also taken a look at some of the options available so we can recommend the best graded readers for you, regardless of whether you prefer to use digital books or physical ones, free libraries or paid collections, or even an app.
As mentioned earlier, graded readers are collections of different stories designed for language learners, sorted into categories based on difficulty. Usually, these books start at the beginner level and increase in difficulty. Additionally, just because these books are designed for beginner readers doesn't mean they're books for kids. In fact, since many of the companies that produce graded readers promote extensive reading, they aim to publish a range of different stories that appeal to learners regardless of age and interests. Some graded readers are simplified versions of well-known stories too. Ideally, there's something that piques your interest in every collection.
While graded readers have become more popular for language learners in many languages, they're still relatively new in Japanese, so unfortunately there are fewer options available than you can find in English or Spanish, for example. That said, there are a couple of great options we think will fit the bill for any Japanese student looking to learn to read and improve their overall language ability.
I've mentioned it a few times before, but let's talk a bit more about what extensive reading is, as doing so will give us an idea of how best to use graded readers for studying. Extensive reading is a language-learning strategy where learners practice by reading longer, simpler texts, as smoothly as possible without stopping to look up unfamiliar vocabulary or grammar.
Keeping all this in mind can help you understand what makes a graded reader set good. It should have a wide range of books, across a number of different skill levels, so that you can find something that's not only suitable for your abilities, but pertains to your interests as well. And remember, your aim should not be to translate a book into English as you read, but rather to comprehend the story as it is in Japanese. This might be a little difficult to grasp for absolute beginners, but as you learn more of the language you'll encounter concepts that you can understand or express better in Japanese than in English, and you'll find your thoughts moving straight from the Japanese text to understanding, without having to make a detour into English.
Finally, while I think it can be great to push yourself to complete something you're interested in, and really gratifying once you finish it, if you want to follow these guidelines then reading shouldn't be an extremely taxing activity for you. Instead, it's best to read things that are suited to your level, that allow you to relax and read comfortably without feeling the urge to look up every other word.
In this article, I wanted to focus on books that were meant for language learners rather than native speakers, had a series of different grades or difficulty levels available, and were written entirely in Japanese. That means the list of recommendations won't include materials that offer English translations. While having the English translation can certainly help comprehension, it reinforces translation rather than natural comprehension.
During my hunt for graded readers, I found two great free libraries of graded readers online. In my opinion, these two libraries should really be all you need. The first is a collection of free materials available on the Tadoku Supporters' website.
NPO Tadoku Supporters is a non-profit organization (that's the "NPO" part) that has not only helped establish the use of graded readers and extensive reading in Japanese, but has also become a major player in this space, advising other similar organizations and creating graded readers for a variety of publishers. In fact, many of the most popular graded reader sets, like the ones from Ask Publishing and Taishukan, as well as the White Rabbit Press App, consist of stories from NPO Tadoku Supporters. Of course, they produce books under their own name as well, a large library of which is available for free on their website.
NPO Tadoku Supporters also hosts events, courses, and lessons such as an online reading group, and you can attend some of them for free. NPO Tadoku Supporters has their own criteria for grading books, from Level 0, called "starter," up to Level 5, called "Upper-Intermediate or Above." The levels range from the absolute beginners up to books designed for JLPT N2 and N1 learners. You can see more about their criteria on their website here.
Among the free library on their website, they have books in all 5 levels, though the most for Level 0 and Level 3, and only a single book for Level 5. All the books in their library are graded readers with e-books available, and feature furigana except for the couple of books that are in kana only. Each book is presented with a user rating and icons that let you know what level the book is, whether or not there's an audio reading of the book available, and more.
Each book also has its own page, where you can see a description of the book, what genres it's tagged as, and some short reviews that fellow Japanese learners have left. If you decide to give it a try, you can begin reading right away through their embedded reader. Recorded audio appears in its own player right below the books that have recordings, along with links to download the PDF and MP3 files.
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