Abstract
The present paper provides the students at Gunma National College of Technology with brief summaries of the Oxford Reading Tree stories, literacy textbooks originally published for children at British primary schools. Today the series are being read all over the world, including Japan, where English has recently become a required subject at elementary schools and as a natural result parents have much keener interest in earlier foreign language training for their children at home. No doubt Oxford Reading Tree stories are ideal textbooks for young beginners of English. The author Roderick Hunt has written the funny, heartwarming, and fantastic stories mostly about three young siblings: Kipper, Biff, and Chip; the illustrator Alex Brychta has charmingly designed not only these main characters but also minor ones such as their dog Floppy, their Gran and their school friends, with his wonderful pictures. Their collaborative works can be enjoyed and probably even more appreciated among older learners of English. Thus it is highly recommended that the students at our school read the stories and listen to the attached audio CDs in order to improve their abilities of English as an international language.
