READ ENGLISH, DISCOVER ASIA
Help students develop good reading habits and become motivated readers.
Developed for primary and secondary schools throughout Asia, Dragonfly Readers:
- encourages student engagement, using beautifully designed anthologies across a range of genres including real-life fiction, adventure stories, traditional tales and non-fiction
- teaches about Asian cultural topics and values with genuine stories created by Asian children’s book authors and illustrators
- features a systematic ‘levelled reading’ approach with incremental vocabulary coverage, careful language recycling and increasing text complexity
- includes discussion questions to facilitate value reflection and critical thinking development
- incorporates a structured phonics teaching approach and resources, providing support to build decoding skills
- offers clear transparency of learner progression, based on Oxford Levels and aligned to CEFR
- available in print and digitally in Oxford Reading Buddy, a new next-generation digital reading service available on any device—desktop, tablet or mobile
Comprehensive Teacher Support in Print + Digital
Dragonfly Readers offers a complete system to teach graded reading with comprehensive teacher support including:
- a printed Teacher’s Book for each level, containing pre-reading activity suggestions, step-by-step guidance and while-reading comprehension questions for each story
- printable worksheets for each reading text, providing vocabulary practice, reading comprehension development, phonics and project work
- support pages in each anthology, including thought-provoking discussion questions, new words presentation and cultural information for each reading text
- an online Teacher Resource Library on the Oxford Reading Buddy platform, featuring audio-enhanced flashcards, downloadable teaching materials and more
- 6 printed anthologies, plus 1 Teacher’s Book per level
- 54 anthologies in all
Digital
- all e-books available within Oxford Reading Buddy
- annual subscription
- access anytime, anywhere—on desktop, tablet and mobile devices

A Coach for Students and Support for Teachers
The all-new Oxford Reading Buddy service provides:
- a full library of interactive, audio-enhanced ebooks
- innovative coaching ebooks to guide students in developing reading comprehension skills
- online quizzes which track student progress
- badges to encourage students to develop good reading habits
- user-friendly teacher reporting that shows individual student progress, providing teachers with powerful insights that enable them to provide extra support where it’s needed most
- a Teacher Resource Library with additional resources
Students choose a Reading Buddy who coaches them with helpful questions and feedback.
Teachers can access student and class reports from any device.
Audio-enhanced flashcards help students learn new words, using correct pronunciation and spelling.
Students can read eBooks and access quizzes, badges and flashcards anytime, anywhere.
Dragonfly Readers Levelling System
- 9 tiered-levelling, with each level denoted by a number and colour
- 6 bands per level; each band offers 3-4 theme-linked reading texts within a printed anthology
- Each reading text introduces a set of topic-related new words with practice and support materials
- A transparent vocabulary structure, with each reading text presenting new topic-related words and carefully recycling previously learnt new words
- Text complexity gradually increases through the bands, so learners incrementally gain comprehension skills and reading fluency as they advance through the levels
Dragonfly Level | 1 | Yellow | 2 | Lime | 3 | Teal | 4 | Blue | 5 | Violet | 6 | Plum | 7 | Pink | 8 | Red | 9 | Orange |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Oxford Level | 1+-3 | 4-6 | 7-8 | 9-10 | 11-12 | 13-14 | 15-16 | 17 | 18 |
Headwords per level | 50 words | 275 words | 500 words | 800 words | 1100 words | 1400 words | 1700 words | 2050 words | 2400 words |
New target words per level | 225 words | 225 words | 300 words | 300 words | 300 words | 300 words | 350 words | 350 words | 400 words |
Length of each reading text | 55-120 words | 120-180 words | 180-250 words | 250-400 words | 400-600 words | 600-900 words | 900-1300 words | 1300-1800 words | 1800-2500 words |
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Oxford Reading Buddy Makes An Impact |
Researchers from the School of Education at the University of Southampton conducted a Randomized Controlled Trial for one term (Summer 2018) to find out the impact of using prototypes (early trial versions) of Coaching eBooks with some very positive results. The findings informed pre-publication development of the Oxford Reading Buddy digital reading service. The impact study found reading attitudes were significantly better in the Coaching eBook classes. Read a summary report and download our infographic.