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Pearson Education and Penguin are relaunching the 400-plus titles in their joint ELT series Penguin Readers, as parent Pearson seeks to build more synergy between two of its major publishing brands.
The companies are also stepping up the output of their Penguin Active Readers series, launched last year, and aim to hit 120 titles by the end of this year. The Penguin Readers relaunch will offer "refreshed and updated" content for all the titles with increased in-book activities and word lists. For the first time, each title will come with a full audio CD of the text, to enable students to read along. The series, intended for "intensive" reading by learners on their own, includes seven levels ranging from Easystart to Level 6. The list will still retain its Penguin-influenced "trade" look and design.
To accompany the relaunch, Pearson is rolling out a new online teacher support programme with downloadable background information, activities for photocopying, teacher's notes, progress tests and answer keys.
Bill Anderson, Pearson Education ELT president for EMA, said: "Pearson, Longman and Penguin have all had a collaborative role for the relaunch. Since we originally launched the list in the mid-1990s, there has been a lot of competitive movement into this sector. We were still the market leader but we were looking for ways to possibly increase our share."
Anderson said Pearson has been encouraged by the response to its Penguin Active Readers, its series designed for in-class use. He added: "This is a market segment we really hadn't engaged with but wanted to. We completely underestimated demand, having to reprint three or four times."