Frequently Asked Questions

LinguaReaders is a graded reader platform for FSL (French as a Second Language) and ESL (English as a Second Language) classrooms, grades 7–12. It offers two complete series — Marc et Julie (FSL) and Jason & Janet (ESL) — each with 37 thematic readers across three levels, available as interactive audio flipbooks.

Each reader is designed to complement existing classroom programs, pairing naturally with the Lingua Literature Circles program for discussion-based learning.

Marc et Julie is the FSL series, designed for students in grades 7–12 learning French as a second language. Students follow Marc Gagnon (Montréal) at the Beginner level, then meet his cousin Julie Pelletier (Paris) at Intermediate, and both characters travel to Martinique and Dakar at the Advanced level.

Jason & Janet is the ESL series, for students learning English as a second language. Students follow Jason Miller (New York) at Beginner, his cousin Janet Wilson (Vancouver) at Intermediate, and both characters travel to London and Sydney at the Advanced level.

Each series has 37 readers total — 11 at the Beginner level (Level A), 11 at the Intermediate level (Level B), and 15 at the Advanced level (Level C). You can view the full list of readers and their vocabulary, grammar, and themes on the FSL program outline or ESL program outline.

The readers are designed for students in grades 7–12, ages 11–18, across all three proficiency levels. Level A (Beginner) is suitable for students just beginning to learn the language, Level B (Intermediate) for students with some foundational knowledge, and Level C (Advanced) for students building toward greater fluency and complexity.

Reading readers are written as narrative text — students read and listen to a story told from a character's point of view. These are great for building vocabulary, grammar comprehension, and cultural context.

Conversational readers are written as dialogue-based stories between characters. These model natural spoken exchanges — greetings, shopping, making plans, ordering food — and are particularly useful for practicing spoken language patterns before a Literature Circles discussion or oral assessment.

Each reader is presented as an interactive digital flipbook with multi-voice audio narration built in. Students can read the text while listening to native-speaker audio, or listen independently. The flipbooks work on any device — desktop, tablet, or phone — with no app download required.

Yes. Students can access the flipbooks from any device with an internet connection, making them suitable for homework assignments, independent study, or preparation for a Literature Circles lesson.

Yes. The flipbooks work well on a SMART Board or projection screen for whole-class reading or listening activities. You can read aloud with the class, play the audio narration, or pause to discuss vocabulary and grammar as you go.

Lingua Literature Circles are a structured small-group discussion method adapted specifically for second language classrooms. Students are divided into groups of 3 or 4 and each assigned a role — Leader, Time Keeper, Referee, Distributor, or Spokesperson — that guides them through a discussion of a reader they've completed.

The Referee role is key: it's their job to gently remind peers to speak in the target language, creating an immersive discussion environment without direct teacher correction. See How It Works for a full breakdown of all roles.

The Lingua Literature Circles program includes a complete lesson plan, reading comprehension questions for each reader, discussion questions, student rubrics for assessing speaking and participation, printable worksheets, and additional homework and activity ideas.

No — Literature Circles are optional. Many teachers run a Literature Circles lesson at the end of a unit as a culminating discussion activity, but the readers and accompanying worksheets work perfectly well on their own. You can choose the components that fit your pacing and classroom needs.

Échos migrantes is a collection of twelve short literary narratives by Argentine historian and author Hugo Javier Freitas, rooted in the great Atlantic migrations of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The stories follow departures, crossings, arrivals, work and family memory across Europe and the Río de la Plata.

It is a separate collection from the Marc et Julie graded readers — written for senior students, with its own subscription and printable materials.

Marc et Julie readers are written to a level: controlled vocabulary, graded structures, built for language learners moving through A1 to B2.

Échos migrantes is authentic literature, kept in its original literary French without simplification. The stories use the passé simple, literary register and longer sentences, and they are supported by teaching materials rather than rewritten. The aim is real literary reading, not graded practice.

Grades 10–12, levels B1 to C1. The twelve stories sit at different points in that range, so a teacher can choose according to the group: Les deux frères is the most accessible at B1/B1+, while several others sit at B2+/C1.

Each teacher guide states the level for that story, so you can match the text to the class rather than working through in order.

Every story has three parts: the reader itself, a student workbook, and a teacher guide.

The workbooks cover pre-reading, comprehension, true/false, vocabulary in context, language and style, discussion and a writing task. The teacher guides give full answer keys, historical context, interpretation notes, oral discussion guidance and writing assessment criteria.

Both. A Textes littéraires subscription gives students online access to all twelve stories as audio flipbooks. The printable PDFs — readers, workbooks and teacher guides — are a separate one-time purchase and are yours to keep permanently.

No. Textes littéraires stands on its own — you can subscribe to it without subscribing to Marc et Julie.

It also works the other way: it is an add-on, so if you already subscribe to the FSL or ESL series you can add Textes littéraires alongside it without losing anything. The two subscriptions run separately.

Yes. The 30-day free trial covers everything on LinguaReaders, including Échos migrantes — so you can read the full collection with your class before deciding.

They are literary fiction set against real history. The migrations, ships, neighbourhoods and events referenced are real, and the teacher guides supply historical context and sources for classroom research.

The guides are explicit about the distinction: characters and their journeys should be read as narrative construction within a historically plausible setting, not as documentary record.

No. While the readers are numbered and build on each other thematically within a level, they are organized by theme so you can select the reader that best fits your current unit — regardless of where you are in the sequence. The FSL and ESL program outlines list vocabulary, grammar targets, and connecting themes for every reader to help you choose.

No — LinguaReaders is designed to augment and support whatever program or textbook you are already using. The readers, worksheets, and Literature Circles materials are built to slot naturally into a unit without requiring you to redesign your program around them.

Open My Classes (or My Family if you're a parent) and choose a class. The Reading progress section shows a grid: your students down the side, the books you've assigned across the top, and a tick wherever a student has marked a book read. There's also a Print report button — print the whole class, or one student's sheet for a parent conference or their file.

Yes — 30 days free, and no credit card is needed to start. Make an account and the whole library opens: both series, all three levels, class setup, everything.

When the 30 days end, online reading pauses until you subscribe. Anything you bought as a PDF stays yours permanently and is still in My Downloads — a subscription only ever covers reading online.

You can subscribe to FSL (Marc et Julie), ESL (Jason & Janet), or both series together at a lower price than the two separately. Each is available monthly or annually, and annual works out cheaper.

Textes littéraires (Échos migrantes) is priced separately, because it is a different kind of programme — authentic literature for grades 10–12 rather than graded readers. You can subscribe to it on its own, or add it alongside an FSL or ESL subscription.

Classroom and home are priced differently — a classroom plan covers a full class, a home plan covers a family. You can also buy PDF readers, worksheet packs and Literature Circles outright, with or without a subscription. See the Shop for current prices.

No — and that's deliberate. Students don't need an email address or an account of their own, which keeps things simple for schools with privacy requirements.

Instead, you add their names to your class and share one class code. They go to Student Sign In, enter the code, and pick their name from the list. If you'd rather, you can turn on 4-digit PINs so each student signs in with their own — useful on shared computers or when two students share a first name. Their reading progress is still tracked individually either way.

Add their names in My Classes, then give out the 5-character class code. Students go to Student Sign In at the top of any page, type the code, and tap their name.

Turn on PINs and each student gets their own 4-digit number instead — then you can print sign-in cards with everyone's name, code and PIN on them.

A classroom plan covers 40 students in total across your account, and a home plan covers 4 children.

The limit is on your account, not on one class — so a teacher can set up separate classes for period 1, period 2, French 9 and so on, and they all draw on the same 40. The page shows how many you've used. If you need more for a whole school, get in touch.

You keep them. Anything bought as a PDF — readers, worksheets, lesson plans, assessments, Literature Circles — is yours permanently and stays in My Downloads whether or not you have a subscription.

A subscription only covers reading online. Cancel it and the online readers close; your downloads don't.

Yes. They're separate series, so you can subscribe to one or to both — and both together costs less than the two on their own.

If you subscribe to just one, that's the one that opens; the other stays locked. One class code covers whichever you have, so you don't need separate classes for French and English.

Yes, and there's a home plan priced for families. Instead of a class you set up My Family, add up to 4 children, and each gets their own sign-in and their own reading progress.

Everything else works the same way — you open a level for them, and you can print a progress report for any child.

In My Classes, open a class and use Assign a level. Pick French or English, then Beginner, Intermediate or Advanced — that opens every book in the level at once, which is how most teachers work.

If one student needs something different, you can assign a single book to just them instead. Their assignment replaces the class-wide one for that level.

You can add LinguaReaders to your home screen so it opens like any other app — full screen, with our icon, no browser bar. There's nothing to download from an app store; you add it right from your web browser in a few seconds, and it's free.

On an iPhone or iPad (Safari): open linguareaders.com in Safari, tap the Share menu (the icon shown below — it's at the bottom of the screen, or under the … button), scroll down, and tap “Add to Home Screen.”

On an Android phone or tablet (Chrome): open the site in Chrome and tap the Install banner, or use the ⋮ menu and choose “Install app.”

On a computer (Chrome or Edge): click Install on the banner, or the small install icon at the right end of the address bar. On a Mac in Safari, choose File → Add to Dock.