Our Curriculum

RTL English is an award-winning and transformational English teaching system that’s been proven over 24 years. More than 1 million + lessons have been taught by parents & teachers in 21 countries worldwide. RTL English is a ‘print-ready’ solution that offers 600 workbooks of 4000 worksheets and 12500 teaching notes that together save parents and teachers over 22,000 hours of preparation time.

Which Course Will Help My Child?

Whatever your child’s age or English language ability, there is sure to be an RTL English course (aka ‘levels’) that will help your child learn or improve their English. This is because our curriculum provides 15 years of learning for children aged 3 to 18 years old and teaches all the communicative functions and language forms your child will need to have a richer, more successful educational experience.

RTL English will also supplement your child’s learning at their school. In fact, RTL English supports learning at schools worldwide and supports the English language requirements of the National Curricula in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, China, India, Hong Kong SAR & many other countries. It will also holistically prepare your child for Cambridge University’s Young Learner Tests, as well as KETS, PETS, FCE, CAE, IELTS, and Trinity College London’s suite of English language tests.

The RTL English Curriculum consists of 15 years (levels) of teaching materials which include 600 workbooks (comprised of 4,000 worksheets & 19,000 teaching notes) and saves over 2,000 days of preparation time.

Level 1

Kids: 3-4 years old

36 lessons. 36 workbooks. 252 worksheets. 1134 teaching instructions.

Level 2

Kids: 4-5 years old

36 lessons. 36 workbooks. 252 worksheets. 1134 teaching instructions.

Level 3

Kids: 5-6 years old

36 lessons. 36 workbooks. 252 worksheets. 1134 teaching instructions.

Level 4

Kids: 6-7 years old

36 lessons. 36 workbooks. 252 worksheets. 1134 teaching instructions.

Level 5

Kids: 7-8 years old

36 lessons. 36 workbooks. 252 worksheets. 1134 teaching instructions.

Level 6

Kids: 8 -9 years old

36 lessons. 36 workbooks. 252 worksheets. 1134 teaching instructions.

Level 7

Kids: 9-10 years old

36 lessons. 36 workbooks. 252 worksheets. 1134 teaching instructions.

Level 8

Kids: 10-11 years old

36 lessons. 36 workbooks. 252 worksheets. 1134 teaching instructions.

Level 9

Kids: 11-12 years old

36 lessons. 36 workbooks. 252 worksheets. 1134 teaching instructions.

Level 10

Teens: 12-13 years old

36 lessons. 36 workbooks. 252 worksheets. 1134 teaching instructions.

Level 11

Teens: 13-14 years old

36 lessons. 36 workbooks. 252 worksheets. 1134 teaching instructions.

Level 12

Teens: 14-15 years old

36 lessons. 36 workbooks. 252 worksheets. 1134 teaching instructions.

Level 13

Teens: 15-16 years old

36 lessons. 36 workbooks. 252 worksheets. 1134 teaching instructions.

Level 14

Teens: 16-17 years old

36 lessons. 36 workbooks. 252 worksheets. 1134 teaching instructions.

Level 15

Teens: 17-18 years old

8 lessons. 8 workbooks. 56 worksheets. 252 teaching instructions.

Foundation Stage

Includes Level 1, 2 & 3.

Suitable for kids aged 3-6 years old

Elementary Stage

Includes Level 4, 5 & 6.

Suitable for kids aged 6-9 years old

Intermediate Stage

Includes Level 7, 8 & 9.

Suitable for kids aged 9-12 years old

Upper Intermediate Stage

Includes Level 10, 11 & 12.

Suitable for kids aged 12-15 years old

Advanced Stage

Incl. Level 13, 14 & 15.

Suitable for kids aged 15-18 years old

Winning Awards Since 1996

With 24 years of research, development, dedication and experience, RTL English is committed to offering the best possible start to English language learners worldwide. RTL English is part of the Ready To Learn group, an international educational organisation with students in 21 countries worldwide.

Elaine Shannon founded Ready To Learn in 1996, and is an internationally respected author, language expert and School Principal with more than 40 years of specialist experience. Elaine & her team of instructional designers, linguists and educational experts developed the RTL English Curriculum.

Find About The RTL ENGLISH Curriculum

Find About Our Student Workbooks

What Happens In A Lesson?

Each lesson is designed to last approximately 60 minutes. Normally, your child will spend 55 minutes participating in learning activities, and 5 minutes completing an achievement exercise that’s used to reinforce the lessons’ learning designs & objectives.
Each lesson is accompanied by an RTL English lesson workbook. The workbook consists of six worksheets of instructional content and one reinforcement exercise page.
You will use the workbook & teaching notes to guide and lead your child through the variety of learning activities in the workbook.
Although all of our workbooks follow a similar format, each one is slightly more challenging than the last in the sequence. As a result, your child will be able to advance in small manageable steps & acquire English language skills that will last them a lifetime.
There are 5 learning stages, 15 learning levels and 600 lessons in the RTL English curriculum.
Your child will need to complete 36 lessons to finish one learning level – which lasts approximately 1 academic year.

What Will My Child Be Taught?

It depends on your child’s age and their English language ability. To find out what your child will be taught, please click the grey button & then click the book cover that’s closest to your child’s current age → Lesson Workbooks

The RTL English Curriculum teaches all the communicative functions and language forms your child will need to succeed in school, exams and beyond, including:

Phonemic Awareness
Alphabetic Principle
Systematic & Explicit Phonics
Fluency with Text
Proficient Grammar Knowledge
Creative Writing
Expanded Vocabulary
Advanced Comprehension, and
Confident Speaking Skills

Can I See A Lesson Workbook?

There are 600 workbooks like the one below. Lesson 19, Level 1 below suits children between 3 and 4 years old. To see an example of a lesson workbook that is likely to suit your child, please click the grey button & then click the book cover that’s closest to your child’s current age → Lesson Workbooks

What Method Do You Use?

We teach using a Step-by-Step method. The content of each lesson is determined by an 8-page workbook that’s slightly more challenging than the last in the sequence. Lessons ‘scaffold’ and build upon the learning of the previous lesson. As a result, students advance in small, manageable steps and acquire English language skills that enable them to achieve better results in school, exams & beyond..
Sequenced instruction is organised into 5 developmentally appropriate stages, 15 levels of increasing difficulty and 600 lessons. Each lesson provides one hour of learning per week and follows a workbook that consists of six worksheets with instructional content and one reinforcement exercise page.:
Each lesson is accompanied by a workbook follows a similar plan:
- Page 1 :: Communication/ Discussion/ Topic orientated
- Page 2 :: Grammar/ Language
- Page 3 :: Phonics/ Vocabulary
- Page 4 :: Reading(Ongoing Story)
- Page 5 :: Story Comprehension/ Language
- Page 6 :: Grammar/ Language Exercise
- Page 7 :: Achievement Exercise / Assessment
Depending on your child’s age and their English skills, instruction will typically consist of a variety of activities including speaking, listening, letter-sound correspondence, sight words, guided oral reading, text comprehension, creative writing, grammar and critical thinking.
You don’t need to prepare anything or create teaching materials for an RTL English lesson. It’s all been done for you. Each page of this workbook contains teaching notes to enable you to guide and lead your child through the learning activities. Once your son or daughter has finished their lesson, record their achievements in the progress report form and then simply print the next workbook in the sequence.

Will My Child Learn Phonics?

Yes! We teach synthetic & analytical phonics which includes 44 basic phonemes, 22 beginning blends and 15 ending blends.Our students learn and practise phonics throughout our Foundation, Elementary, Intermediate and Upper Intermediate stages. Our Advanced stage uses phonics to teach pronunciation.
We pay particular attention to blended consonant sounds (that are located at the beginning and end of many words). We teach vowels first and then consonants. As soon as possible we teach children to read. In practice this means after students have learnt 5 vowel sounds and 2 consonants they can read a few words by themselves. Children are also taught how to decode words, so from the very beginning they can see new simple words and know how to read them.

What Will My Child Learn?

Phonological & Phonemic Awareness

Teaching children to become phonologically aware is a prerequisite for studying phonics and leads to reading and spelling proficiency. Your child will learn how to notice, think about & manipulate the individual sounds in spoken words.

Systematic Phonics

Your child will learn that systematic and predictable relationships exist between written letters and spoken sounds. Our students learn sound to symbol relationships in a clearly defined sequence including consonants, blends, segmenting, short and long vowels, consonant and vowel digraphs, diphthongs and variant sound to symbol relationships.

Listening Comprehension

Your child will learn to understand explicitly stated facts in spoken language, as well as to implicitly understand and draw inferences from spoken passages that feature complicated syntax and advanced vocabulary.

Spelling, Vocabulary & Semantic

Your child will learn to understand the meaning of word parts (morphology), individual words within the language (vocabulary) and that those words are arranged in phrases, sentences and discourse in meaningful ways. We promote new vocabulary retention and recall by first teaching common spelling patterns and phonetically-regular words, before moving on to more difficult, irregular words.

Pronunciation, Speaking & Oral

Your child will learn to produce individual sounds and their combinations, first in isolation and then as part of communicative activities and oral presentations. Pronunciation development focuses on the production of native-like English rhythm, stress, and intonation.

Reading Comprehension

Your child will learn to derive meaning from text. This involves all elements of the reading process working together as a text is read to create a representation of the text in your child’s mind. We use guided oral reading and story structure comprehension strategies to enhance student comprehension.

Over 24 years, our students have frequently out performed other students in Cambridge University tests by 20% despite being up to 2 years younger than other candidates. In fact, in In recent years, an average of 90%+ of our Starters, Movers & Flyers students achieved 4+ shields across all three skill areas examined: reading & writing, listening and speaking.

RTL English

RTL English™ offers 600 easy-to-teach & downloadable English lessons for you to teach to your child at home. RTL English will give your child a head start, or help them catch up. It also challenges more advanced students. RTL English offers 15 years of learning for children aged 3 to 18 years old; so whatever your child’s ability, there’s sure to be an RTL English course that’s suitable for them.

RTL English™ is an award-winning and transformational English teaching system. For over 24 years, RTL English has been taught millions of times to children in 21 countries worldwide. RTL English is a ‘print-ready’ solution that offers 600 workbooks comprising 4,000 worksheets and 19,000 teaching notes that together can save parents and tutors over 22,000 hours of preparation time.

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