Longman Pre-Essence Reading series is prepared to help students who want to lay the foundation for a love of reading and build a basic knowledge of a variety of topics before proceeding to Essence Reading. With the same format as Essence Reading series, Before You Read, New Vocabulary, Idioms, Passage, Reading Questions, Vocabulary Test, and Grammar Focus, Pre-Essence Reading series aims to boost students’ reading comprehension. What is different from Essence Reading is providing Review Exercise every three chapters to let students check their progress.
This series is easier than Essence Reading in terms of the difficulty of vocabulary, idiom, sentence structure, etc. and the contents of the reading materials include a wide variety of issues and themes. To boost one’s reading comprehension, the best way is to provide materials which are informative and intriguing. This series not only enhances one’s reading skill, vocabulary, and grammar, but also deepens students’ intellectual curiosity and critical thinking.
One of the professors well known in the field of ESL education is Dr. Krashen at the University of Southern California. He has been an advocate of recreational reading or free voluntary reading. I agree with him on his argument that reading should be fun, but for me, as an ESL writer, “fun” means providing materials which students can easily understand and follow so that they want to read and learn more. I am sure that this series will serve this purpose.
Rachel Lee
