Any suggestions for very short English language stories or essays for adult early intermediate learners
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@chunshek Thanks so much!
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@AnthoDerv OUP & CUP have graded readers that are pretty generic but level-specific. They're good for the people who understand what they're good for. Increasingly I'm realizing that most of my students can only understand English that has been translated directly from Japanese. They freak out with English as it occurs outside of a Japanese context, which means even language in graded readers seem weird for students.
@Bumblefish Thanks for this info!
I know what you mean ... -
@AnthoDerv was checking this out. It may be useful. Has Celeste Ng and others.
@mangotable Thank you!
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@AnthoDerv Roald Dahl comes to mind, but might be a bit too dark sometimes and not short enogh?
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@AnthoDerv it's been years since I've read, and I detest his work, but consider Hemingway? The language is very parsable, but I don't recall if the vocabulary is contemporary enough.
@mylesserhalf I pulled The Old Man ad the Sea off the shelf but the language is too out of date for the level of M's student.
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@AnthoDerv
Thinking of my own studies (Japanese not English) have you considered magazines? On a subject that the learner knows or is interested in. The articles tend to be short and illustrated. The vocab personally relevant.
Children's news magazines are also good for current events. The language and structure although simpler is 'authentic'.
I believe the app Libby is used by some public libraries in Japan, who may carry English magazines like 'The Week Junior' for free.@shiawase Nice idea - thank you!
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@AnthoDerv Not sure if these are the right level but, Patrick Sherriff has written some short story anthologies, they're meant for high school students but I've read them and I'd be fine reading the equivalent in Japanese as a learner https://freetalktefl.substack.com/p/the-hana-walker-mysteries
@wombatarama Thanks very much - I'll check them out!
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@AnthoDerv
I was looking through my bookshelves.
My wife used "Big Fat Cat" (Mukoyama Takahiko) readers for Japanese.
There's a short mildly amusing story with furigana, then a notes section explaining the grammar etc. in detail. almost sentence by sentence.
To me the English reads normally. not esp. adult though, but engaging enough. It feels intermediate. not beginner, not advanced.
Can't really comment on the grammar explanations but it looks ok.@shiawase Interesting - much appreciated!
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@mylesserhalf I pulled The Old Man ad the Sea off the shelf but the language is too out of date for the level of M's student.
@AnthoDerv that's what I was afraid of. I hated reading him in HS because the sentence structure was too simplistic!
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Any suggestions for very short English language stories or essays for adult early intermediate learners?
All my ideas are too last century with archaic language (A. A. Milne etc)@AnthoDerv E.B. White or S.E. Hinton. I don't have them to check the language, just a thought.
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@AnthoDerv E.B. White or S.E. Hinton. I don't have them to check the language, just a thought.
@dandelionwine2 Thank you. I'll take a look!
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Any suggestions for very short English language stories or essays for adult early intermediate learners?
All my ideas are too last century with archaic language (A. A. Milne etc)@AnthoDerv Perhaps the RTΓ (Irish national broadcaster) short story competition might be a potential source. The stories are read beautifully and clearly on the podcast and there's a link from each one to the written story.
The shortlisted stories themselves are exceptional, year after year, and they're modern and diverse.
https://www.rte.ie/radio/podcasts/series/33013-rte-short-story-competition/
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