Graded Readers in Spanish

It could just be that my vision of the subject is distorted after teaching so many years, but I always have to scratch my head whenever I hear someone talking about the low reading level we have here in Spain and how young Spaniards struggle to pass the test given as part of the PISA study on reading comprehension.

We all known that in a world dominated by “the screen”, where anything visual is automatically given priority, books (yes, those things that smell like books and occupy space on the shelf) continue serving as a direct and wonderful resource for learning and building knowledge about the language you’re studying, in our case Spanish.

Books in Spanish

Some of the publishers that place a special focus on Spanish as a second language have dedicated part of their publishing efforts to the field of reading material that is especially designed for Spanish as a foreign language learners. These types of books are an excellent tool for learners to improve their Spanish comprehension and vocabulary. Most of these books also come with a spoken recording of the text (usually a CD) that allows the learner to listen to the story or even listen while reading, building their reading and listening comprehension at the same time.

One of the most well known publishers in the field of Spanish as a Foreign Language education is Santillana, which specializes in publishing adaptations of classic works of Spanish literature, each volume of which is leveled according to the vocabulary used. They also publish a few (not many) texts specifically designed for absolute beginners.

The Sociedad General Española de Librería (SGEL) has five collections in its catalog which are focused on young learners.

The publisher Edelsa also has some useful products: two original works for advanced students and two series of adventure novels that take place in different parts of Latin America, in which learners catch a glimpse of American history while reading an engaging action-filled story. Edelsa also places special attention on biographies of historical figures and historical novels, which includes adaptations of classics form Spanish-language literature.

Finally, Difusión offers the richest catalog of reading material of those we’ve mentioned so far. Difusión also has ebook versions of nearly all of the titles they offer, versions which are reasonably cheaper than paper editions. With a total of almost 60 titles, most of them created for Spanish as a foreign language students and by authors who specialize in foreign language teaching, here you’ll find everything from biographies to interviews with Spanish speaking music and sports personalities. This publisher places special focus on Latin American geography and history.

After reading and learning more about the history and culture of Latin America and Spain, these readers often include comprehension exercises, explanatory notes regarding regional-specific details which learners often find confusing, and in some cases, a short vocabulary for each page of the text.

Again, it may be that my vision of the subject is a little distorted after teaching for so many years, but like Jorge Luis Borges, I love and am fascinated by libraries and books in general. I believe that reading is one of the best ways to learn and train yourself at the same time. I strongly encourage my own daughters to read, why wouldn’t I encourage my students to do the same?

  “De los diversos instrumentos inventados por el hombre, el más asombroso es el libro; de todos los demás son extensiones de su cuerpo... Sólo el libro es una extensión de la imaginación y la memoria”.“
Siempre imaginé que el Paraíso sería algún tipo de biblioteca”.
Jorge Luis Borges