The Longman Academic Reading Series is a five-level series that prepares English language learners for academic work. High-interest readings cover a variety of subjects, including art history, nutrition, American literature, and forensics.

The series takes a holistic approach to the skills and strategies necessary for effective reading, vocabulary building, note-taking, and critical thinking. By encouraging students to discuss and write about the ideas covered in the readings, the series helps them become better speakers and writers of English.

• Rigorous, sophisticated, and comprehensive readings are based on academic sources, each carefully designed to provide different and intriguing perspectives on a theme.
• Readings come from a variety of sources and genres — textbooks, newspapers, magazines, online articles — and are written by experts in widely different fields.
• A corpus-informed approach to vocabulary helps students build vocabulary and acquire skills to become more confident in preparing for academic work.
• New Essential Online Resources include reading comprehension activities, reading faster activities, teacher's manual and assessments, and audio of the readings. Level 5 only has audio of the readings.