It is because no other reading programme can make the following claims:

• Created by educational psychologist following years of research.
• Created by educators with the following qualifications: PhD, BA, MA, Hons, DipEd, Master of Letters, Literature, Linguistics and Psychology majors, thesis based on research into reading acquisition and over 20 years field work.
• ICR creators are also the authors of “Dealing with Dyslexia and Reading Difficulties” published by Pearson Education.
• Is a proven programme trialled in Singapore and overseas and backed by statistical data.
• Has successfully taught over 270,000 students.
• Has been hailed by Professor Brian Byrne (author of The Alphabetic Principle) as being in line with current research into optimum ways to teach reading.

If you choose I Can Read, you are choosing a reputable system which has proven itself over 19 years, is the market leader and is supported by professionals in the field.  The evidence is clear: you can't go wrong with I Can Read!

Continuing our partnership with Cambridge Assessment English, I CAN READ will be using the Cambridge English Empower series of books to deliver the Higher English Course. Cambridge English Empower, has been developed by the highly experienced and knowledgeable team at Cambridge University Press.

I CAN READ will be offering our new Higher English Course in 6 different levels:

• A1 - Starter level
• A2 - Elementary level
• B1 - Lower Intermediate level
• B1+ - Intermediate level
• B2 - Upper Intermediate level
• C1 - Advanced level.

To determine which level each student will be placed in, they will sit an official online Cambridge English Placement Test (CEPT). The students will then be placed in a class with students of similar skill levels and will be assigned an I CAN READ Teacher.

Why consider registering for Higher English Course?

• The Cambridge English Empower series is a leader in the global ESL market.
• Students can combine their studies with validated formal assessments with Cambridge English Assessment.
• Qualifications received following these assessments are globally recognised.
• Globally recognised qualifications are imperative for gaining access to both higher international education and for opening the doors to successful national and international careers.

I CAN HELP is a standardized school support programme to help students to excel at school by giving extra English lessons regularly using learning materials provided by I CAN READ.

This programme includes:
● Helping students to prepare for English exams
● Helping students with their English homework

But, even though we are in the middle of a crisis, there are still business opportunities to consider, one of which is an I Can Read educational franchise opportunity. 

I CAN READ is a market leader in providing English language courses through-out Asia and the Middle East. We have successfully taught over 300,000 students through our 160 Centres in 14 countries.

According to Afan Suryadi, Managing Director of I CAN READ Indonesia, "Our success is rooted in more than 20 years of research into the psychology of how children learn to read. We focus on reading skills, but we also equip our students with the ability to write, listen and speak in English which will help our children learn English more quickly, especially in their Golden Age."

In response to the closure of schools, I CAN READ has successfully managed to transition from classroom-based learning to online learning. In doing so, enabling our students, our staff and our business partners the ability to continue succeeding!

Not only has I CAN READ been able to adapt and survive during these trying business times, the company has also used the challenges faced as an impetus for pushing forward and developing new ways of delivering lessons to safeguard against future disruptions.

An I CAN READ Franchise is worth considering for anyone interested in doing business in the field of education. For complete information about I CAN READ business opportunities, click here.

As students become aware of how sounds blend together, they realise that whole, meaningful words are actually an array of smaller sounds which can be added or subtracted, stretched and blended in the process of word construction. Thus by the time these students move on to looking at letters, what they are able to demonstrate is that letters representing sounds combine, as do sounds and are in fact pictures of sound. This is the first essential stage on the way to learning to read the English language. 

However, it is by no means the end of the story. English is a hybrid language and lacks an agreed rule system for its grammatical constructs, its syntactical outlines and most confusing, for the pronunciation of strings of letters or combinations of letters that combine to complete words. 

Take the letter a. It can represent several different sounds, as in words like cat, gate, was, any, tall, bath and area. Or take the combination of letters ough. It is impossible to know the correct pronunciation of these letters. In the word cough, the sounds are /k/-/o/-/f/.

Now take the word bough. The sounds are now /b/-/ow/ (as in cow). With the same letter sequence in words like though, through and enough, one can see that learning to read in English means knowing how to access the sound array accurately at all times. To not be able to do this means having to guess and hoping to get lucky in the attempt, frequently resulting in reading difficulties.

As English is not rule-bound, it cannot be learned by rules. The challenge faced by educators in recent times is how to empower children to accurately access the sound sequence. Once the foundational requirement to accurately manipulate the phonological array has been taught, the next challenge is how to guarantee accurate pronunciation of the sequence. 

As you saw by the example above, pronouncing the same group of letters is not always straightforward. Many words in English are unpredictable with regard to pronunciation. There has been a need for some time to create an instructional approach that would remove the confusion and ambiguities that can arise when group of letters combine in unpredictable ways. 

Children must know whether to say /off/ or /ow/ (for example) in a word like cough. Additionally many words in written English contain letters that seemingly make no contribution to the pronunciation of the word. This can lead to confusion and reading difficulties for any student. A word like apple could as easily be written /apl/ where the three sounds are all present and eliminating the remaining letters /p/ and /e/.

Historical conventions are not easy to override and few have tried or succeeded. Webster managed to eliminate a few anomalies in written English and changed colour to color for instance, but what has happened is that generally the spelling conventions established by the 17th century have remained in place since and have been impervious to change, notwithstanding the differences between written British English and written American English.

To succeed, businesses have had to be able to quickly adapt to the new normal. Education has shown itself to be particularly good at this, with many education providers able to successfully transition from classroom-based to online teaching in a relatively short time.

Given this, the chaos caused by COVID-19 has not stopped or slowed down the pace of development in the education and training sectors throughout the world - from Pre-School level right through to University level. Many Education experts actually believe that the silver lining in this crisis is that the changes we are currently making in how we educate have been overdue for quite some time.

The following are tips for anyone interested in the business of education.


1. Do Your Research:

If you are new to this type of business you will need to gain a good understanding of what students (and especially their parents) are wanting – as with all businesses, it is all about supply and demand. Once you have completed your initial research then go a little deeper by analysing trends such as curriculum, teaching methods, learning time, purchasing power, and finding out all that you can about other similar businesses in the market.

2. The Right Brand/Partnership
 
While some business people might prefer to establish and run their own education business from scratch, most will choose to form a partnership with an established brand such as I Can Read. The benefits of this are numerous, e.g. the bigger education brands are already known and have proven success, the brands generally come with an established curriculum, teaching methodology, learning and teaching materials and considerable operational, academic, marketing and financial support. Choosing a well-known education brand allows someone new to the market to get up and operating in a relatively short period of time.

3. Employ Proven Curriculum, Methodology and Teachers

An education company is only as good as its Curriculum and Teaching Methodology. Parents are paying money for their child to attend, so we must meet our promises and deliver results.
Any new curriculum must undergo trials and testing before being released to the market in order to ensure maximum results. This curriculum must also be relevant to the market in which it is being taught.

Of equal importance to the curriculum is the method in which it is being taught in the classroom. This too must be thoroughly tested and trialled before it is adopted.

And…of course, the best curriculum and teaching methodology in the world is not going to be able to be delivered without a group of qualified, experienced and capable teachers – so choose them wisely, train them well and provide ongoing support and professional development. The success of your business will depend on these people!

4. Embrace Digital Marketing/Prioritise a Social Media Presence

The Education market is competitive, so you will always need to be working to best position your business within the market. Gone are the days when students just walked in the door and enrolled, today we must be far more pro-active and go out and actively find our students. The best way to do this is with the help of digital media.  If this is not an area that you are comfortable with, it might be time for some personal self-development and training, to enable you to build the knowledge, confidence and savvy to best use digital marketing and social media to your advantage.
 
5. Online Learning

In the education world of today, of course you will also have to factor in the real possibility that you will be needing to offer online courses. This too will involve the need for research, there are many online learning platforms on offer, but not all are created equal!

When choosing a learning platform you will need to consider: how easy is it for your students to access it, how difficult will it be to transition your current curriculum and methodology from the classroom to online, is the platform user friendly for both teachers and students, does the platform encourage interaction, to name but a few.

The above 5 tips are just an introduction to how I CAN READ can help you realise your entry into the English Education market.

We currently have franchise business opportunities available in a number of locations and would welcome the opportunity to meet with you to discuss how you can become part of this profitable business.
For further information, please contact: +628-3899-3870-35

The authors, who have spent nearly 20 years investigating reading development as research psychologists, support the view that in general, poor reading skills are the consequence of ineffective and inadequate instructional approaches.

What this means is that, in general, children fail to learn to read English easily or well because they are not taught properly. Well-meaning teachers may have exposed students to the alphabet prematurely, making it confusing for a beginner reader who has not yet developed sufficient pre-reading skills such as syllabic and phonemic awareness.

Through our reading programmes taught by Reading Specialists, I Can Read ensures that learning how to read is a rewarding and fun process for children.

Contact an I Can Read Centre near you today for more information or to book a diagnostic reading assessment.