What books would be good for learning English?

December 21, 2006 5:57 PM

What recreational reading books would you recommend for a Spanish-speaking adult to work on her English?

One day a week at my job I work with a woman from Mexico. She's a really wonderful woman, and she's trying to learn enough English to be a teacher (long process, I know). She can practice her spoken English with the people she works with, and on the days we work together we work on her writing as well. I'd really like her to work on her reading skills too, and that's where you come in.

This woman is probably reading English at a late elementary-early middle school level, and I'd love to get her some books that are written at that level but would be of interest to adults. The first Harry Potter book would be great if it weren't for the British slang and the nonsense magical words - I'm afraid they might confuse her.

I also plan on getting her some magazines and newspapers, but I know she's appreciate some actual books. Any suggestions would be great. Thanks!

posted by christinetheslp to education (17 comments total)

Tolkien and Narnia books?
John Grisham/Michael Crichton/Stephen King/etc. bestseller type stuff?
posted by Pollomacho at 6:07 PM on December 21, 2006

I think the typical answer is "Romance Novels," but that's gonna depend on her personal interest.
posted by muddgirl at 6:16 PM on December 21, 2006

Simply talking will teach her conversational English. For the rest, I would second Pollomacho's recommendation of epic fantasy literature, of which Tolkien would be the most obvious. Narnia might actually be a bit too simple depending on her current progress; I'd consider it fourth-grade reading at best.

I'll throw in a vote for Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising sequence; it's more mature in theme and literary presentation than the Narnia books and might be better appreciated.

If you're looking for good American fiction (rather than fantasy) geared toward a middle school reading level, I'd suggest Mildred Taylor's tales of racial disharmony in the American South or some of the first few books in Cynthia Voigt's Tillerman cycle.

I found George Orwell's 1984 a challenging yet engrossing read in elementary school.
posted by The Confessor at 6:25 PM on December 21, 2006

Read a newspaper. Or a mainstream magazine like Time, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated, etc. Common, everyday language that's topical, relevant and written right for the mainstream strike zone.
posted by frogan at 6:32 PM on December 21, 2006

As an English speaker learning Spanish, I found the Spanish translation of Antoine de Saint-Exupery's The Little Prince to be just about right. Maybe the English version would be good for your friend?
posted by jesourie at 6:39 PM on December 21, 2006

If she's looking at longer books, I can't really say, but Reader's Digest has a pretty good variety of fiction, non-fiction, humor and vocabulary building. I'm not always crazy of the idealized right wing Americana slant, but I think it might be good for her if she's looking at shorter articles and stories.

You can get her a gift subscription, or find older issues at garage sales and thrift stores, often by the box.
posted by Doohickie at 6:48 PM on December 21, 2006

hemingway--complex ideas using small words.
posted by markovitch at 6:53 PM on December 21, 2006

on the same line as markovitch: vonnegut--short sentences, simple words, big ideas.
posted by Meatbomb at 7:03 PM on December 21, 2006

Newspapers are great, as are magazines - what are her interests? If we had a topical area to work with - knitting, photography, papercraft, perhaps the recommendations would be more specific.

In a post about print media for language learners a few weeks ago, someone recommended the bilingual English-Spanish/French/Italian magazine Colors.
posted by mdonley at 7:19 PM on December 21, 2006

Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas.
posted by peewinkle at 7:29 PM on December 21, 2006

It really depends on her interests. What kinds of books does she generally like? I am sure if she can pick a genre, the hive mind could easily spit out enough appropriate titles in that genre to keep her nose in a book for years to come.

For easy, modern books -- and I kind of can't believe I'm suggesting this -- I would see if she's interested in chick lit. I hear it's not all crap, but even the crappy chick lit is written in grammatically correct English and could be an engaging read. And it seems like most of the other girls I work with enjoy chick lit. Why? I don't know. But they do.

I'd stick with popular, leisure reads instead of English lit class stuff. Unless she is actually planning on becoming an English lit teacher...you didn't actually specify what kind of teacher she wants to be. But if her interests are *not* in lit, I would stick with stuff like the afore mentioned chick lit, Stephen King, John Grisham, etc etc whatever.
posted by tastybrains at 8:39 PM on December 21, 2006

Please ignore the others, (sorry) the author you seek is Kurt Vonnigut Jr.. (Skip Slaughter House V) Try Welcome to the Monkey House or Mother Night, ect. both will cost no more then $5 on Amazon New&Used.
Also I've found re-watching my favorite movies with the subtitles on incredibly helpful. Best of luck!
posted by nintendo at 9:47 PM on December 21, 2006

As a native English speaker who has studied foreign languages, I would seriously recommend against fantasy or really science-fiction-y novels. You want something that logically makes sense, in a reality-based way, so that if she loses the thread of the plot or misses some vocabulary, she can pick it back up easily. Books in which you can't figure out if your grasp of vocabulary sucks or if the main character really did just turn into a bug are frustrating as hell for most language-learners.

I think a fair amount of chick lit would be great, and the other books that keep popping up on Google searches for sixth-grade reading are The Witch of Blackbird Pond and A Bridge to Terabithia, both of which I remember liking and both of which, I think?, would be OK for adults. Patterson also wrote Esau Have I Loved, which was one of my favorite books for a long time (and which I recently re-read and still liked).
posted by occhiblu at 12:29 AM on December 22, 2006

This list of novels appropriate for intermediate ESL students might also help (and googling "ESL novels" turns up a bunch of recommendations).
posted by occhiblu at 12:31 AM on December 22, 2006

Chick-lit. The words stay fairly simple because they're not trying to explain anything too complex. The story lines are compelling enough to keep her reading. (I read chick-lit in Portuguese for the same reason.)
posted by wallaby at 3:12 AM on December 22, 2006

What about a non-fiction, sort of educational book in a subject that interests her? Say a book about gardening if she's into that, for example. Most of those types of books are written at an eighth or ninth grade level, but they wouldn't make her feel like a child reading one.
posted by katyggls at 4:26 AM on December 22, 2006

I have to agree with Kurt Vonnegut. I'm a second language english speaker and I found Kurt's books to be written in simple sentences and is easy to read, yet is very interesting and kept me reading more!
Try Breakfast of Champions and Cat's Cradle.
posted by PowerCat at 7:18 AM on December 22, 2006