For Educators

The research

The seven decisions, in pedagogical terms

Specific, deliberate choices behind every book we publish — here's the research and the mechanism behind each one.

Decision 1

Explicit CEFR mapping at entry, not a single "beginner" tier

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Mechanism

Each book states its entry and exit CEFR level explicitly (e.g. Book 1: B1 entry, low-B2 exit). This isn't a marketing label — it's a mapped claim, checked against the same hour-estimate ranges used in CEFR classroom guidance (B1 ≈ 350–400 guided hours, B2 ≈ 500–600, C1 ≈ 700–800). Reading-focused programs typically outpace these estimates for receptive skills specifically — a student may read at a level ahead of where they'd test on a productive-skills assessment.

In practice

Placement. A student testing at low-B2 on a standard instrument is a reasonable fit for a book exiting at B2, even if their spoken production lags behind.

Decision 2

Original fiction calibrated to level, not adapted from existing texts

Day & Bamford — extensive reading Show Mechanism Hide

Mechanism

Day & Bamford's research on extensive reading found that engagement is a precondition for the benefits of reading volume, not an incidental bonus — a technically appropriate text that fails to hold interest doesn't produce the same gains as one that does. Most graded readers are simplified versions of existing texts — vocabulary and syntax reduced from a source written for native speakers, often at the cost of exactly the specificity and stakes that sustain engagement. Each series is original fiction written directly for its target level instead, which allows vocabulary frequency, syntactic complexity, and cultural authenticity to be controlled independently rather than collapsing together.

In practice

Avoids the common complaint that graded readers feel pedagogically inert — flat affect, generic settings, no real stakes — which directly undermines the engagement precondition Day & Bamford identify as necessary for extensive reading to produce gains.

Decision 3

Grammar encountered in context before being named

Krashen — acquisition before learning Show Mechanism Hide

Mechanism

Krashen's distinction between acquisition and learning holds that structures internalized through repeated meaningful exposure produce usable competence, while structures taught as explicit rules first often produce knowledge a learner can state but not yet use fluently. Structures in these books are first encountered repeatedly in comprehensible context (acquisition), and only afterward named explicitly in a language note (learning, layered on top of acquisition rather than substituting for it). A language note never opens with a rule or term — it always opens with a reference to the specific moment in the chapter where the structure appeared, then names it.

In practice

Supports classroom use as a complement to explicit grammar instruction — students arrive at a grammar lesson having already encountered the structure productively.

Decision 4

Graduated difficulty within each book and across the series

Krashen — input at i+1 Show Mechanism Hide

Mechanism

Krashen's input hypothesis holds that acquisition happens fastest with input just slightly above a learner's current level — comprehensible enough to follow, novel enough to extend it. Too far below, and there's nothing new to acquire; too far above, and comprehension collapses before acquisition can happen. Difficulty here is engineered at two scales simultaneously to stay in that zone: within a single book (entry chapters comfortable, exit chapters a genuine step forward) and across the five-book arc (each book entering slightly below where the previous one exited).

In practice

Series-level placement for a cohort spanning a range of abilities — a class with mixed B1/B2 students can be distributed across books 1–3 and converge by book 5.

Decision 5

Multiple registers and document types, not narrative prose alone

Day & Bamford — extensive reading Show Mechanism Hide

Mechanism

Day & Bamford's work on extensive reading identifies register flexibility as a distinct skill that continuous narrative prose alone doesn't reliably build, regardless of how much of it a learner reads. Each book embeds artifacts — text messages, official notices, legal documents, news articles, menus — that introduce a register the surrounding prose narration does not cover. Every artifact is checked against the register of its chapter's prose to confirm it introduces something distinct.

In practice

Directly addresses a known gap in narrative-only graded readers: register flexibility is rarely practiced through continuous prose alone, regardless of reading volume.

Decision 6

All scaffolding and tools written in the target language

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Mechanism

Glossary definitions, language notes, and reflection prompts are written in the target language, at or below the reader's current level — never translated into English except in the book's introductory "how to use this book" section.

In practice

Reinforces target-language processing for programs that explicitly discourage translation as a primary strategy.

Decision 7

Scaffolding density that fades deliberately across the series

Nation — vocabulary acquisition through volume Show Mechanism Hide

Mechanism

Scaffolding is heaviest in Books 1–2 and recedes to nearly nothing by Book 5, on a fixed schedule tracked against a running glossary log — a term glossed in Book 1 does not reappear in a later book's glossary. This follows directly from Nation's research on vocabulary acquisition: durable retention comes from repeated exposure in context, not from repeated explicit instruction. If a word has already been encountered enough times to be internalized, re-glossing it doesn't help the reader — it just signals the system doesn't trust what's already worked.

In practice

Gives a concrete way to talk about learner autonomy development across a course sequence — the de-scaffolding schedule is documented and auditable, not just asserted. Also gives you a direct answer if a program asks why vocabulary support isn't uniform across all five books: it's not an oversight, it's the mechanism.

Before you adopt — what to ask us directly

A few things this page doesn't answer yet, and we'd rather say so than have you find out after the fact:

• Formal assessment. There's currently no scored or validated way to verify a student's progress through a book — reflection prompts support self-checking, not formal assessment. If you need assessment data for reporting purposes, that's not something we offer yet.
• Classroom licensing. Pricing is currently consumer retail, per copy. If your program needs a class set or a licensing arrangement, reach out — we're open to exploring options case by case.
• Preview access. You can request a sample directly from any book's page. If you'd like to see more before adopting or recommending a book for a group, get in touch and tell us what would help — we're happy to work with educators on this individually.