Kid’s English Leading Library Education
By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter
Kid's English, Korea's leading firm specializing in English education, has pioneered learning programs using books and magazines. The firm is spearheading the field of English library education, and so far it has set up almost 130 English libraries across the nation.
Kid's English is the largest firm offering world-renowned English-language books and magazines including U.S. textbooks from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, children's books from Scholastic in the United States and educational journals from British Mary Glasgow Magazines.
``Children can enjoy various books and easily learn English at libraries. We have drawn enthusiastic responses from many customers,'' said Conny Cho, president of the company.
The firm is differentiating itself from other educational institutes with its non-stop solutions in selecting necessary books and magazines for setting up customer-tailored libraries to counseling on how to run library education programs.
It also suggests guidelines for organizing a library such as: Are there a minimum of eight to 15 books per student? Is there a balance between the fiction and non-fiction books? Are the books selected for their quality and reader appeal, both in interest and reading level?
Are there multiple copies of popular titles, so that students can read books together? And are there easy-to-read and highly visible signs to aid the students in finding materials?
Especially, its partnership with U.S. Scholastic enables the firm to provide an exclusive program ``Ready-To-Go Classroom Libraries,'' which consists of best sellers, classic novels and books that have won international awards recommended by U.S. teachers' associations. The program offers a total of 2,700 books at nine levels.
Also, its ties with Mary Glasgow Magazines provide an absolute program that covers world culture, stories and various issues for the young. In addition, the firm has introduced other programs testing the English reading level of children. ``Research suggests that the independent reading of books is essential to increasing fluency. Effective teachers of reading know that fluency develops from an abundance of reading practice with books the reader can read with success,'' Cho said. ``We plan to introduce more programs as the first and largest firm in setting up English libraries.''