This site is a service of Language Education and Research Network, Inc. (L.E.A.R.N.), a corporation founded in May, 2003, in Palo Alto, California, U.S.A. Additional operations are located in Kitakyushu City, Fukuoka Prefecture, and Higashihiroshima City, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. L.E.A.R.N. is dedicated to helping learners of English to improve their English skills.

L.E.A.R.N. operates this website and its companion mobile services (currently down for redevelopment) to provide learners with resources for reading and listening practice and to provide other facilities for online learning. The current site is a "beta" version and is undergoing frequent revisions and updates.

L.E.A.R.N.'s array of services is continuously under expansion. Additional site features are under development, and we also plan to introduce content in other formats.

L.E.A.R.N.'s services

Many students of English as a foreign language have classes only once or twice a week. Between classes, they may have little exposure to English that they can understand, and if they can't understand it, they can't learn from it.

The L.E.A.R.N. project, which serves adults and college-age students, addresses this problem by making multilevel English content conveniently available online. Content appears in several formats, mostly at three levels (Original, Intermediate, and Basic), with text and sound, simple explanatory notes, and illustrations. These features help students to understand more easily and climb more rapidly to higher levels.

L.E.A.R.N.'s offerings are not a substitute for language classes, and they are not designed to replace graded readers. They are a supplement to these things, an opportunity for busy people to use small intervals of time to enjoy and improve their knowledge of English. The site has been made entertaining, enlightening, convenient and accessible, so learners will enjoy visiting often.

From the viewpoint of teachers, the content of L.E.A.R.N.'s site can be assigned as homework, or it can be used directly in CALL classes.

From the viewpoint of learners, L.E.A.R.N. presents an opportunity to practice English comprehension and acquire new English in a convenient and enjoyable way.

L.E.A.R.N.'s corporate values

L.E.A.R.N. was founded on the propositions

-- that greater access to comprehensible input will improve the foreign-language competence of those who make use of it
-- that greater foreign-language competence will enhance the ability of people from different linguistic cultures to communicate with one another
-- that such enhanced communication will lead to enhanced mutual understanding
-- that such mutual understanding will promote mutual tolerance, and
-- that this tolerance will reduce the likelihood of social, economic and military conflicts throughout the world.

These propositions are summarized in our slogan:

Language > Communication > Understanding > Tolerance > Peace

L.E.A.R.N. seeks to be inclusive, both in its staffing and in its selection of content. We support no religious, ethical, political, philosophical, national, ethnic, cultural, racial, social, sexual, artistic or literary cause, movement or viewpoint. We try to place the cultural contexts of our articles and stories in an objective light and to clarify that these contexts merely represent the world as it is or as it is imagined by the original writers, not necessarily as we believe it should be.

L.E.A.R.N. is committed to quality. We seek to satisfy our learners and optimize their learning experience. We strive to use the best methods and practices in language services and web publishing and to advance the state of the art in all fields in which we are engaged.

L.E.A.R.N. seeks to make its services available to all who need them. We do this through marketing, awareness and education programs, by making our content available in whatever media or formats best serve our customers, and by keeping our services inexpensive.

We need your help!

We welcome the participation of new people with new ideas. We are looking for expertise in several fields, especially:

-- editing, grading and footnoting of texts
-- expository writing on language topics
-- second-language (especially vocabulary) acquisition
-- site administration and software development

If you might be interested, please write to us through the Contact Us page on this site.

We are always looking for new sources of content, partnerships with other businesses or operators of other sites, and of course new users. Again, please use the Contact Us page to offer any suggestions. We very much appreciate your assistance and any comments you may have.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Kebunsha Educational Institute, of Kurume City, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan, for their cooperation and assistance in the early stages of this project.