In short
- A graded reader is a book written or adapted for language learners, with its vocabulary, grammar, length and plot held to a set level.
- The headword count says how many word families the writer could draw on, which tells you more than a level number.
- Every publisher grades differently, so Level 2 in one series is not Level 2 in another.
- The final check is the pupil: for a beginner, more than one or two unknown words on a page is too many.
Most English departments own a shelf of thin paperbacks marked Level 1, Stage 3 or 600 headwords. They are graded readers, and they are the main material for extensive reading in a foreign language. Yet the labels are rarely explained, and they do not match from one series to the next. This article defines the term, shows how a graded reader is controlled, explains what a headword count means, and sets out a quick way to check whether a book fits a pupil. It is also plain about the limits of grading.
What is a graded reader?
A graded reader is a book written or adapted for people learning a language. Its vocabulary, grammar, length and plot are controlled so that a learner at a given level can read it without a dictionary. The books come in series, and each series is divided into levels that rise in difficulty.
Hill (2008), in a survey review of graded reader series, defines them as books written for learners of English using limited lexis and syntax. The Extensive Reading Foundation (2011) adds that they are graded through tight control of plot, vocabulary and grammar, and careful use of pictures.
The name causes one common confusion. Graded readers are not books for school year grades. The Extensive Reading Foundation (2011) makes the same point: 'graded' refers to rising steps of language difficulty, not to the age of the reader.
Day and Bamford (1998) prefer another name: language learner literature. They compare it to children's literature and young adult literature, established genres in their own right.
How is a graded reader controlled?
Claridge (2012) interviewed commissioning editors at four major publishers of graded readers. All four divide their series into levels according to two things: the number of headwords, and the grammatical structures a learner at that level is expected to know. Writers work from these lists.
| What is controlled | How | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Vocabulary | Writers keep to a word list for the level, counted in headwords. Rare words are removed and useful words appear more often. | Claridge (2012); Extensive Reading Foundation (2011) |
| Grammar | Each level has a list of structures. Starter levels use the simplest grammar. | Claridge (2012); Extensive Reading Foundation (2011) |
| Length | Books at one level are kept to a similar length. In one series, seven first-level books ran from 4,743 to 5,890 words. | Nation and Wang (1999) |
| Plot | One publisher asks for linear stories, with no flashbacks and no multiple narrators. Plots grow more complex at higher levels. | Claridge (2012); Extensive Reading Foundation (2011) |
| Background knowledge | One publisher practises 'information control', so its stories depend less on culture the learner may not share. | Claridge (2012) |
| Pictures | Illustrations support meaning. There are fewer of them as levels rise. | Extensive Reading Foundation (2011) |
The lists are guides, not cages. The editors told Claridge (2012) that word lists should be neither prescriptive nor proscriptive. A thriller at a 700-headword level may still need 'kill', 'die' and 'shoot', even if those words fall outside the list.
What does 'headwords' mean?
A headword is the base form of a word, the form you would look up in a dictionary. Nation and Wang (1999) explain that a word family is a headword plus its closely related forms. Their example is 'accident': the family also includes 'accidents', 'accidental' and 'accidentally'.
So a book labelled '600 headwords' was written from a list of about 600 word families. It does not contain only 600 different printed words, and it is not 600 words long. Nation and Wang (1999) counted names of people and places separately, because they need no prior learning.
The count matters because it predicts how many words a pupil will not know. Nation and Wang (1999) analysed 42 graded readers from one six-level series. To know 95% of the running words in a book, a learner already needed the vocabulary of that book's own level, not just the levels below it.
In practice, a pupil who has just reached a level will find its first books hard work. The same study recommends reading at least five books at each level before moving up. After five to seven books, a learner has met around 80% of that level's words at least once.
Why '600 headwords' tells you more than 'Level 2'
A level number only has meaning inside its own series. A headword count is a rough measure you can compare across series. Claridge (2012) found surprisingly wide differences between publishers in the headwords allowed at each level. She compared the lists three of the publishers gave on their websites:
- Books with 400 headwords were labelled A1 to A2 by one publisher. Another placed books with 1,100 headwords in its A2 list.
- One publisher's top level, called advanced, had 3,800 headwords. Another's top level, called upper intermediate, had 2,200.
These figures are from 2012 and publishers revise their lists, so check the current catalogue. The point stands: never assume that the same level number means the same difficulty. The Extensive Reading Foundation (2011) advises schools to build their own scale of six to eight levels for this reason.
Headword counts have limits too. Claridge (2012) cites a comparison of publishers' word lists. The lists overlapped well at the 1,000-word level and less well at the 2,000-word level. Two books with the same count can draw on different words.
The CEFR band printed on a book is the publisher's own mapping as well. How Is a Story Levelled to the CEFR? explains how that matching is done. For rough vocabulary sizes by band, see How Many Words Do You Need at Each CEFR Level?
Original stories or simplified classics?
Graded readers come in two kinds. Some are original stories written within the limits of a level. Others are adaptations: a classic or a modern novel retold in simpler language. Publishers disagree about which is better.
Claridge (2012) found that one of the four publishers firmly favoured originals. Its editors argued that adaptations control words and grammar but not content, so the setting can still confuse learners from other cultures. The other three all published adaptations, including classics.
Hill (2008), as reported by Claridge (2012), took the other side. He judged many original stories 'thin', while naming honourable exceptions. He also found that one publisher's originals had simpler plots and thinner characterisation than adapted classics, especially at higher levels.
The sources here report the disagreement without settling it. Both kinds can be written well or badly. For a school, the useful test is whether pupils finish the book and ask for another.
How to check whether a book fits a pupil
The label gets you to the right shelf. The pupil's own reading tells you whether the book fits. The research target is high. Hu and Nation (2000) tested 66 adult learners on a short story with different shares of unknown words. They concluded that readers need to know around 98% of the running words to follow fiction without help.
That is one unknown word in fifty, or about one in every five lines of text. With 95% of the words known, most of their readers did not reach adequate comprehension. With 80% known, none did.
Day and Bamford (2002) turn this into a rule a pupil can use. For beginners, more than one or two unknown words on a page may make the book too hard. Intermediate learners can use the 'rule of hand': no more than five difficult words on a page. The check takes two minutes:
- Ask the pupil to open the book somewhere in the middle, not at page one.
- The pupil reads one full page silently and counts unknown words on their fingers. Names do not count.
- For a beginner, three or more unknown words means try an easier book. For an intermediate reader, six or more means the same.
- Ask one question about the page, such as 'What is happening here?' A vague answer means the book is too hard, whatever the count.
- If the book passes, the pupil reads on. If they are bored after a chapter, they swap it.
Classroom example (invented for illustration)
Lina, aged 12, picks a book marked Level 2, 700 headwords. She reads page 14, which has about 120 words.
She does not know 'whisper', 'fence', 'stare', 'shed' and 'creep'. That is five unknown words, roughly one in 24.
She can say that a boy is hiding, but not why. The book is too hard for easy reading.
She tries a 400-headword book from the same series. On one page she meets one unknown word, and she can retell the page. She borrows that one.
You can tie the page rule to the research figure yourself. Count the words on a typical page of the book. If the page holds about 100 words, two unknown words is one in fifty.
The check has limits. It relies on pupils admitting what they do not know. Hu and Nation's readers were adults preparing for university, not school pupils. Treat the numbers as a starting point. For more on placing pupils, see How to Match Students to the Right Graded Readers.
The limits of grading
Grading is a craft, not a standard. Claridge (2012) shows that publishers' word lists do not match each other, and that editors treat their own lists as flexible. Keep four limits in mind:
- Levels do not transfer. A level number means something only inside its own series.
- Difficulty can be uneven inside a series. Hill, quoted by Claridge (2012), found that some series do not progress evenly from level to level.
- Word counts ignore content. Editors told Claridge (2012) that a book can keep to its lists and still be hard, because the setting is unfamiliar.
- Supply is uneven. Claridge (2012) found that publishers produce most titles for intermediate levels and fewer for the lowest level.
There is also a ceiling. The series Nation and Wang (1999) studied stopped at 2,410 word families. They argue that graded series should reach the 5,000-word level to ease the move to ungraded books. What comes after graded readers is covered in Graded Readers vs Authentic Texts.
None of this is a reason to avoid graded readers. It is a reason to level your own shelf, watch pupils read, and trust the page check over the cover. The guide to extensive reading shows where the books fit in a whole program.
How iRead handles this
In iRead, a pack is a CEFR-levelled set of stories, and each story is a graded reader. Every story, quiz and game is levelled to the CEFR, from A1 to C2. Vocabulary and quizzes are mapped to CEFR bands, so a B1 story means the same thing whichever pack it comes from. Many stories have an audio read-along synced to the text.
The core principle: A level label gets a pupil to the right shelf. Only the pupil's own reading, one page at a time, shows whether the book fits.
See it in iRead: Every story in iRead is a graded reader levelled to the CEFR, from A1 to C2. A B1 story means the same thing whichever pack it comes from.
See how iRead worksKey takeaway
Read the headword count before the level number, level your own shelf, and let the unknown-words-per-page check make the final call.
Frequently asked questions
What is a graded reader?
A graded reader is a book written or adapted for language learners. Its vocabulary, grammar, length and plot are controlled so that a learner at a given level can read it without a dictionary. Graded readers come in series with levels that rise in difficulty.
What does 'headwords' mean on a graded reader?
A headword is the base form of a word. It stands for a word family, so 'accident' also covers 'accidents' and 'accidental'. A book marked 600 headwords was written from a list of about 600 word families. The figure is not the length of the book.
Are graded reader levels the same across publishers?
No. Each publisher sets its own levels and word lists. Claridge (2012) found books with 400 headwords labelled A1 to A2 by one publisher, while another put 1,100-headword books at A2. Compare headword counts first, then check the book with a real pupil.
How many unknown words per page is too many?
Day and Bamford (2002) suggest that for beginners, more than one or two unknown words on a page may be too many. Intermediate learners can allow up to five. Hu and Nation (2000) put the target at about one unknown word in fifty.
Are graded readers only for beginners?
No. Series run from starter levels of a few hundred headwords up to advanced levels. Claridge (2012) found that publishers produce the most titles for intermediate learners. Very few graded readers go beyond 3,000 headwords, so advanced learners move on to ungraded books.
Are simplified classics worse than original stories?
Not as a rule. Publishers disagree. Some prefer originals because content can be controlled along with language. Hill, as reported by Claridge (2012), judged many original stories thin. The argument is not settled, so judge each book by whether pupils finish it.
Sources
- Hill, D. R. (2008). Graded readers in English. ELT Journal, 62(2), 184-204. doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccn006
- Claridge, G. (2012). Graded readers: How the publishers make the grade. Reading in a Foreign Language, 24(1), 106-119. doi.org/10.64152/10125/66668
- Nation, P., & Wang, K. M.-T. (1999). Graded readers and vocabulary. Reading in a Foreign Language, 12(2), 355-380. doi.org/10.64152/10125/66966
- Hu, M. H.-C., & Nation, P. (2000). Unknown vocabulary density and reading comprehension. Reading in a Foreign Language, 13(1), 403-430. doi.org/10.64152/10125/66973
- Day, R. R., & Bamford, J. (2002). Top ten principles for teaching extensive reading. Reading in a Foreign Language, 14(2), 136-141. doi.org/10.64152/10125/66761
- Day, R. R., & Bamford, J. (1998). Extensive Reading in the Second Language Classroom. Cambridge University Press. www.cambridge.org/9780521568296
- Extensive Reading Foundation (2011). The Extensive Reading Foundation's Guide to Extensive Reading. Extensive Reading Foundation. erfoundation.org/guide/ERF_Guide.pdf