Adapted books or the original in English?

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04 December 2024

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Teachers-friendly

Катерина Кочук

Авторка

Oleksandra Kulish

Book expert

Everyone knows that to learn English you need to read books in this language. For people who have just started learning the language, this process may seem complicated and cause certain difficulties because of the abundance of unknown speech turns and new words. For them, less complicated adapted books have been invented. Although reading such books helps to improve vocabulary and develop certain skills, they still do not compare to the originals.

What is an adapted book?

Adapted literature contains specially adapted text for learners of English and other languages. To adapt a work, you need to convey its plot and main idea in a simpler and more accessible language, without distorting the essence. Also, such books have a reduced content. After adaptation, the texts can have different levels of difficulty, thanks to which language learners can choose them according to their skills.

Is it useful to read adapted books in English?

At the beginning and intermediate stages of learning English, reading adapted books can be very useful. They use simplified vocabulary, making it easier for the reader to understand the content. By reading a simplified adapted text, steady progress in language learning can be made. The simplicity of the text is not stressful, as is the case with complex speech patterns and a lot of unfamiliar words, for which you need to keep a dictionary handy and constantly refer to it.

To make the reading process fun, well-known classics and modern bestsellers are usually adapted. Despite their simplicity, the texts of adapted books can be useful. They contain new words and phrases that are needed for everyday use at the domestic and professional level. They help you learn typical English grammatical constructions.

The benefit of reading another chapter of an adapted book is that it makes you feel proud and satisfied with your achievements in learning English. It develops self-confidence and motivates you to keep working hard.

Adapted books or the original?

As mentioned above, adapted books are simplified versions of well-known works. They are intended for beginners and advanced to intermediate language proficiency. Reading such books gradually develops language skills. But such books differ significantly from the original with a more sparse language from which complex constructions have been removed. Also, adapted books lack important details of the work and the author's original style.

Although the original text is authentic, containing natural language constructions, phraseological expressions and idioms, it is difficult for beginners. Reading such a text with minimal knowledge of the language is difficult and time-consuming. This can hinder progress in learning English and reduce motivation.

If you are just starting to learn a language, it is useful to start with books adapted to your level, gradually increasing in difficulty. In this way, you can gradually reach the original literature.

Adapted books: pros and cons

The advantages of adapted books are:

accessibility for beginners due to the simplicity of the language;
rapid development of reading skills;
A gradual increase in difficulty as skills improve;
building up basic vocabulary;
increasing motivation to learn the language.

The disadvantages of adapted books include the lack of a living language with a distinctive style and cultural component. Also, the choice of adapted literature is organic, and switching from it to the originals may cause difficulties due to insufficient preparation.

How to realise when you can stop reading adapted literature

You can recognise that it's time to switch from adapted books to original literature by these signs:

If you start reading adapted texts quickly, without difficulty and with minimal reference to a dictionary, it means that their level of difficulty is no longer appropriate for your skills. If you are not making progress in your language learning, it is time to move on to more challenging books.
If you are able to comprehend top-level adapted books and maximise your reading comprehension and even guess the meaning of words by context, even though you haven't encountered them before, it makes sense to consider switching to non-adapted texts.
If you easily memorise new words and notice that you already know most of the words in the text, it may be time to start familiarising yourself with works with more complex non-adapted vocabulary.
Once you have mastered the grammatical structures and understand the more complex constructions found in adapted texts, it is time to start getting to know the originals.
Do an experiment - try reading a short passage from the original book. If you understand the meaning of what you read, this indicates that you are ready to switch to non-adapted literature.

Be patient if you have started reading the original. Although it may be difficult to read, the results can be surprising. Start with small texts and gradually increase in length. Choose easier-to-understand non-adapted literature, such as children's or teenage books, detective or fantasy books written in simple and accessible language. Use bilingual books that have the main text on one page and the translation on the other. Also read in English books that you already know and have read in your native language.