Books for an ESL student

I had one of coworkers ask to borrow a book. She's in an ESL class, and her teacher suggested she should read a book in English. She doesn't read right now, and wouldn't specify genre, besides not too hard and not boring. So, out of the books in my "In My Apartment" collection (not that I'm hypocritical enough to lambast anyone who wants to wander away from the purely practical question), what would be best?

Some books that came to mind:
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
The Hobbit
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (but I can't, because I don't actually have a copy at hand)
The Labours of Hercules by Agatha Christie (I like short stories, because they can be less insurmountable)
Naked in Death by J.D. Robb (a touch risque for co-worker loaning, probably)
Wuthering Heights, Frankenstein, All Quiet on the Western Front?
The Time Machine, The Invisible Man (they're fairly short)
Nor Crystal Tears (moderately underrated book, IMO)
The Stainless Steel Rat for President
Storm Front

One hundred Middle English lyrics, Early Middle English texts (okay, now I'm being tired and silly.)

Any suggestions? I plan to offer her a small stack, and let her take her pick, but figuring out what goes in that stack is hard, especially as I don't necessarily have a good handle on what would be easy for her.

Hmmm.... Harry Potter would probably be ideal, as you want something with simple use of language. I wouldn't go sf or fantasy unless you know she likes it (too many unusual words too), so maybe Agatha Christie? Actually, Asimov writes quite simply - the short stories? Or you could resort to Care Bears!

Edited to add:
I tried The Moon is a Harsh Mistress on my German lodger, but he's not finding it an easy read.

Trouble is, I don't know many of your books!

How about The Great Cheese Conspiracy, or if its too young, maybe Anne of Green Gables or Tom Sawyer? I've never read Ed McBain - what's his language like? Trouble is, you don't want to introduce too much complication, so foreign literature or historical settings are pretty much out. Having said that, The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency might be just the ticket. (Can you tell I've been working through in author order?)

A japanese woman I know, the wife of a friend, learned very good english reading Agatha Christie mysteries.

I think you've picked some quite difficult ones there for a learner although, of course, it depends on how good her English is. Can you let us know how long she's been studying please? I'd also be a bit wary of things like Frankenstein, Wuthering Heights etc - classics though they are - because the language they use might be a little confusing to someone who is learning to speak everyday modern Englsih. Something more contemporarily written might be a bit more relevant. Even Agatha Christie (which is a brilliant idea simply because her language use is so simple) and Arthur Conan Doyle refer constantly to situations, manners and ways of life that your friend is unlikely to experience in the modern world.

It's fortunate for ESL learners that there is such an excellent range of YA books nowadays and those are the kind of thing I'd be more likely to suggest though I won't pick any specific ones yet until I know how good she is and maybe her age too.

There's a discussion over at an ESL forum about the same thing - I'm suggesting that only because the needs of the ESL student are a little more specialized. It's not so much about plot as it is about simple, repeated grammar and ease of understanding. The thread is here and actually starts with a mention of Steinbeck's The Pearl.

On another forum for students learning English, the question of "what can I read to improve my English?" comes up and Agatha Christie and Earnest Hemingway both come up.

In your list, you have a few books that rely on made-up vocabularies and words. While this is entertaining to those that know the language, think of the ESL student that may not know if they've stumbled on something made-up or a new word. That could derail the fun while they track down the meaning of a non-existent word.

#4: I know how good she is and maybe her age too.

I'm guessing late 40s, early 50s. Her English is pretty good; I think I've caught her searching for a word now and then, but I wouldn't have guessed that she was in ESL classes.

You have Judy Blume's Tales of a Fourth-Grade Nothing

and The Great Brain by John D. Fitzgerald which might be good starters in terms of being really easy and really short.

I second The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, which is a very easy read.

If she likes Agatha Christie, that's a perfect start - the language is clean and it flows nicely. It has some strange situations but it depends on how she is studying English. If she does it based on any of the British systems, that would be a perfect choice.

If she uses any of the American systems, she needs something from a contemporary US author - or at least something that is not too British. Although I still would give Dame Agatha a chance :)

And from there - up to her genres preferences.

PS: I started like this - seem to have worked :)

Oh dear, late 40s/early 50s and doesn't read at all? That makes it much harder. If she's that fluent then the obvious suggestion would normally be for her to try something she has enjoyed in her own language but it sounds as if there isn't anything. So I'm now going with my more usual experience of non-readers: teenaged boys - and the solution for them is often non-fiction. Perhaps she has some hobby or interest that she could read up on? Failing that, how about some fiction that is set in the country of her origin and that she might find interesting from that point of view?

>Failing that, how about some fiction that is set in the country of her origin and that she might find interesting from that point of view?

Please, no...
I cannot read fiction set in Bulgaria written in English by someone that thinks they know what Bulgaria is like... It depends on the country of course but I would not advice someone to start their readings in English like this...

I think it depends on the reader too.

Yep :)

What about travel writing? - it can be very interesting to read how someone from another country sees yours, even if they don't get everything right.

Stay (far) away from any Middle English, fantasy or British literature (if she's learning American English). The usage will throw her off.

If she doesn't read at all, the best places to start are magazines that catch her interest. Language is simple, pieces are short, and they have a ton of visual support. If she wants a novel, I'd second something she enjoyed and knew well in her native language so she isn't completely lost as far as plot and can focus more on the language. Nonfiction is also good because of the visual support. And I'd never thought about travel writing before, but I think that would be very interesting.

I second magazine articles to reduce the awe. If she can decode the US context, the adventures of David Sedaris which appear regularly in the New Yorker are short and fun. I also think the Booker Prize is primarily targeted at the ESL audience (Two Bookers were options for the essay part of my Cambridge Proficiency exam.).

Regarding the native country and language, I recommend to totally disconnect. Books about your country by foreigners or in a foreign language often lose in translation, have grating mistakes and misconceptions, being written for a different audience. Books by natives are simply better in their mother tongue.

Reading say Pride and Prejudice in English alongside her native language edition will always create a co-dependency. It is much better to plunge into the new language (and only occasionally look up words; the gist is more important than knowing the local equivalent of say wisteria.). If she does not already own one, an English-English dictionary such as the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English is an indispensable tool in learning both meaning and usage (and a time sink).

I've taught ESL students at intermediate and college level, and I totally agree with MissTeacher. If she struggles too much in the beginning she will eventually give up. If she were a child, I'd say delve right in and give it a go (scaffolding with the teacher of course), but at 40 or 50, she's going to need a lot of visual cues. It wouldn't be a bad idea to have her read to "with" young children with simple picture books to help her get over the anxiety of reading. She would feel good helping the young ones, and at the same time help herself. Many schools need "mentors" to read to children. She can ask at her ESL classes for recommendations or you may know of a school or church near your work. Adult learners often are afraid to admit they can't read, but going back to the basic primer never hurts. Once she gets her feet wet, Agatha Christie is a great way to go... I read all of her books in elementary school and still enjoy her books today. She is timeless.

Great idea moondance! Even though I'm a middle school ESL teacher, the idea of having her volunteer in a school completely escaped me! Good for the brain and good for the soul.

Within my limited ambit, which involves merely the providing of books, I've pulled out five books.

Return to the Cave of Time (labeled RL 4, age 10 and up, though I'm concerned it's a little juvenile)
Puzzles of the Black Widowers (non-science-fiction Asimov--I also looked at A Whiff of Death, but it had a host of superfluous chemistry jargon she might be tempted to look up--and also a series of short pieces)
The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency (by suggestion purely, as I've not even looked at it)
The Labours of Hercules (Agatha Christie short stories)
The Great Brain (again, possibly over-juvenile)

I really don't have many magazines, and the only thing not science fiction, fantasy or horror is Ellery Queen, and I suspect that the overall language difficulty averages higher than anything in the list above. For the magazine at my elbow, Clark Ashton Smith uses the phrase "autumnal weir" in the second paragraph of his story, which is not a great start. La Usona Esperantisto has some nice simple English, though.

That sounds like a good list, prosfilaes. I should offer her all of them, briefly discussing what each is about; then she can choose what sounds interesting to her. Since she is reading for the language, I doubt that juvenilia will be a concern.

Do let us know how she gets on!

Good list, and tell her to hit up the library for magazines!

She picked The Labours of Hercules, in part because she'd heard of Agatha Christie. She wants to try and read five pages a day. (She did ask me how many pages I could read in a day, but after answering that I made sure to point out that I've never finished a book in anything but English.)

Keep us posted on her progress!

Some of my adult students have had success with Chicken Soup for the Soul series. They can read a single story in a day. Sentence structure and vocabulary are simple and current. The essay style is easier than a literary one.

At least this meets the not too hard and not too boring criteria, even if it isn't in your library.

I hope your friend enjoys her new hobby.

I'm currently teaching a Japanese man ESL. He's been studying English for 18 years but he's only been living in the States for 2 years.

Now, I'm a pusher. I have very high expectations and I prefer to push people.

I figured that since my student works in an American company as an engineer, he gets to hear the everyday English that you usually learn in a classroom. So I'm trying to up the ante with more difficult material.

Thus, we are reading the book Fires on the Plain together by Shohei Ooka. Yes, it's a Japanese book that we are reading in English but I chose it for very certain reasons. (Albeit I realize as we read that it does have a lot more difficult vocabulary than I remembered.)

But, first, it was a book that leads to great potential discussion. Like he is an English student, I was a Japanese student, and we can discuss cultural phenomena and whatnot. I find I actually teach him more about his culture than he does me. Also we can discuss questions of translation, ease of prose, etc... Lots of symbolism and foreshadowing in the book so he can get a feel for what it's like to really study a book as a native speaker of English would.

It has led to some fantastic imagery. Plus, a movie was made of the book so we can watch that afterward as a reward to see how much he understood. We have also watched other movies that tie in or feature similar themes. So he has a visual to go with what he's reading. That has proved very intersesting.

I also provide him assignments asking him questions about the book and whatnot to go back to things we have discussed in "class" and to test his writing.

Throughout the book we will also be taking mini-breaks and reading short articles at a lower difficulty to show him how reading something difficult makes the rest easier. Plus it breaks up the routine a bit.
Anyway, that has been my way of teaching.

It's not for everyone - I certainly wouldn't recommend it - but it has been rewarding for both myself and my student.

On a side note, when my parents moved to the States from France, they didn't speak any English so my mom just started reading romance novels to help learn English. She doesn't like that genre at all but the constant repetition of plots and thus vocab and grammar structure really helped her out. And now, she reads like I do, who was born in the States. So I agree with the OT that reading is important for learning a language.

I've been reading short stories in Japanese to up my reading capabilites in Japanese. And I already have a romance-esque book in Japanese lined up for reading when I'm ready.

And to keep up my other languages (French and Spanish) I'm constantly reading in those languages since I reside in the US. I actually don't read in English all that much since I speak it all day anyway.

Well, I talked to her today, and she's finding The Labours of Hercules very hard, having to resort to a dictionary constantly. So I'm dropping back to a more juvenile set of books.

The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket

The Case of the Pizza Pie Spy

Who Killed Mr. Boddy? (very, very light puzzle fiction)

The Rescuers

Return to the Cave of Time

The Great Brain

I like the lLemony Snicket books for my middle school ESL students because he often uses very big words, but then defines them almost immediately in context. Very good to build context clue detection!

Just a side note, if you go to Lexile.com, you can find books within any lexile range. Most of my newcomers are anywhere from 200 (has trouble reading "The boy likes the dog." in English) to 700 (pretty advanced for a newcomer, very literate in 1st language). You may find books that are in an easy range (around 500, maybe?) but not too juvenile.

I didn't have time to meet up with her on Thursday, so I dropped Who Killed Mr. Boddy? with a co-worker. Despite my misgivings--it's a very light book, with all the serious characterization and plot of Clue, the game it's based on-- she much prefers it to The Labours of Hercules. I told her she could have all the time she wanted.

I've got a relative that's been teaching ESL for a while and I mentioned this thread - he said his adult students (who tend to have the challenge of having to learn to read and write in addition to learning English) that make it to reading chapter books tend to really like the EL Stein Goosebumps books. They're short, the language is easy and there are a ton of them.

I know you don't have them in your library, but it's something to keep an eye out for in the future...