Discuss novels and great literature in an English reading club

Book Club School provides an innovative once a week English speaking session, using motivating books and stories in an English reading club.  It is the idea of husband and wife team Janet and Geoff Hardy-Gould, passionate teachers based near Brighton on the south coast of England, who believe that using classic or modern novels and stories in an English reading club is one of the fastest and most enjoyable ways for learners to practise and improve their English. Choosing your own book to read or listen to, on a subject which you are interested in, is a source of personal enjoyment and highly engaging. Discussing it in an English reading group is motivating and a great way to build confidence.  

There are so many books you could experience in English!  But at Book Club School, Geoff and Janet have already done the hard work and carefully selected interesting stories, at the right level.  You just choose the type of stories you like and discuss them in your English reading club.  Reading an authentic original text in English is a good challenge.  If you have less time and want a shorter amount of reading, then choose a course with an adapted text - these specially engineered simplified English "graded readers" are a wonderful tool for developing vocabulary and reading skills and great for discussing in your English reading club.    

Geoff Hardy-Gould is a teacher, teacher trainer and English language teaching professional with many years of experience in language schools in the UK and around the world.  He leads each English reading club session.  He was a member of the Accreditation and Professional Standards Board for the national professional association, English UK, and has given training workshops at national and international conferences such as IATEFL on many occasions. Most recently he presented at IATEFL 2024 on Reducing Accent Using Extracts From Classic Novels. 

He presented at IATEFL Conference Pre-Conference Event in 2023:

He presented at the Extensive Reading Foundation conference Extensive Reading Around the World on 5th August 2022. He was also a speaker at TESOL Italia Online in November 2021 on making English lessons effective and useful using books and literature.

And he had an article published by Pilgrims HLT magazine in October 2021. 

Janet Hardy-Gould is an author, teacher and teacher trainer who has worked in the UK and other countries teaching English for many years.  Janet has published over twenty graded readers for Oxford University Press. These simplified English books include Merlin, which won the Extensive Reading Foundation (ERF) award in 2015; and Amelia Earhart, which was also shortlisted for the ERF prize. Her most recent graded reader Ellis Island: Rosalia’s Story won the 2020 Language Learner Literature Award. Her readers were the OUP Book of the Month for September 2021, and also for October 2021!

For more information about Janet's books see janethardy-gould.com.