Football and English are two international languages that are understood all over the world. This Premier Skills story can help you with both of these world languages.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a football fanatic or you know nothing about the beautiful game—there will be something interesting here for you.

Meet a Reading Star！

What is your favourite book？ Do you think football stars like to read the same books as you？ If one of your football heroes told you about a book he likes， would you go and read it？

These days a lot of people don’t seem to read. They seem to spend a lot of time watching television instead. And children seem to like computer games more than reading.

The drawing shows Jamie Carragher， a Liverpool centre back and an English national team defender. Why do you think he’s holding a book and not a ball？ As part of the Premier League Reading Stars （PLRS） project， Jamie was chosen as Liverpool Football Club Reading Star 2009. This project began in 2003. Its aim is to encourage children and their families to enjoy reading. In the Premier League Reading Stars project， each of the 20 Premier League teams selects a player to become a ‘Reading Star’. Each Reading Star then recommends a book. Each club then sponsors three public libraries who run a reading club based on the book choices of all 20 Reading Stars. Both children and parents go to the reading club. If parents love reading and help their children to enjoy it then the children can become good readers too. The family go on a visit to a bookshop together， as well as meeting a published football author. Some lucky readers get to meet their favourite team’s Reading Star.

Jamie Carragher says： ‘Reading is so important in all our lives.’ And he’s right. Not being able to read often leads to low academic achievement and to not being able to get a good job in the future. The lack of a good job and income can then cause many other problems.

Speaking and listening come naturally to children but reading is not a natural gift. Just like learning how to play the piano， you need to learn how to read well. English is a difficult language for reading because the sound and spelling don’t match. For example， the spelling ‘ough’ in English is pronounced differently in ‘through’， ‘though’， ‘thought’， and ‘tough’. Learning to read is difficult and English-speaking countries such as Australia， Britain and the United States are known to have many people who have problems in reading. A lot of primary schoolchildren in these countries are failing tests in reading.

Some footballers love reading. They travel a lot and they can read during long journeys. Some of them are fathers and they read books to their children at home. They know how important it is for small children to enjoy listening to their parents read books to them. Jamie Carragher， for example， chose a very moving children’s book called War Horse， a story about a young farm horse. The horse’s name is Joey and he lived through the horror of the First World War together with soldiers in the army. Would you like to read more about Joey？

ACTIVITY 1

What do you think？

Do you think Reading Stars is a good idea？

How do you think we could encourage children to read more？

E-mail us and let us know： premierskills@britishcouncil.org

ACTIVITY 2

Complete the following sentences about reading：

1 Parents can help their children to enjoy reading by ______.

2 Being able to read well can help you to ______.

3 The best way to improve your reading is to ______.

4 Because English spelling and pronunciation often don’t match it helps children if their parents or teachers ______ while they follow the words in their book.

ACTIVITY 3

1 The first sound of the word ‘fish’ is /f/. Which of these words does NOT have the /f/ sound？

friend rough thin tough

2 The second sound of the word ‘fish’ is /i/. Which of these words does NOT have the /i/ sound？

women fill fight bin

3 The third sound of the word ‘fish’ is /?/. Which of these words does NOT have the /?/ sound？

dish pitch mention selfish

ACTIVITY 4

Find out more

Use the internet to find out more about Reading Stars.

Search terms （search in English）

Premier League Reading Stars

YOU ARE THE REF by Keith Hackett and Paul Trevillion

A goalkeeper jumps high to catch a cross and badly injures himself when he lands. As he lies on the pitch， he throws the ball behind him out of play to receive immediate medical attention. Unfortunately he has made a mistake and the ball rolls into the goal.

Do you award a goal？

Yes， sadly. Award the goal and immediately call for the stretcher and the trainer to enter the field.

KEY

Activity 2

1 Parents can help their children to enjoy reading by reading aloud to them.

2 Being able to read well can help you to get a good job.

3 The best way to improve your reading is to read a lot of books， newspapers and magazines.

4 Because English spelling and pronunciation often don’t match it helps children if their parents or teachers read aloud to them while they follow the words in their book.

Activity 3

1 thin， 2 fight， 3 pitch