JALT99 Conference, Maebashi, Japan, 10/11/99

Extensive Reading in Practice

Working with Extensive Reading in the Classroom

Andy Barfield, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan - (Go to section)
&
Ken Schmidt, Tohoku Bunka Gakuen University, Sendai, Japan - (Go to section)



Ken Schmidt's Section


Program Background

• I use extensive reading as a supplement to college English Conversation courses.

• Goals: 1) plentiful input for overall language development (e.g., building a fuller sense of meaning and usage of vocabulary/grammar/phrases in various contexts) and 2) providing grist for in-class communication/discussion.

• Students don't read in class, but use outside reading as a resource for communication in the classroom.

• The examples presented here should be usable in any context, whether in conversation, reading, or general skills courses.


Sparking Interest

• Not many of my students are voracious readers, even in their L1. Explaining the benefits of extensive reading for reading skills and overall language learning (citing research if appropriate) helps establish the face validity of the program. Otherwise, "Why do something I've never learned to enjoy, that doesn't seem like studying, with no clear reason to do it?" See the Annotated Bibliography on the Extensive Reading Web Site for useful references.

• Reading and You - Students complete a questionnaire for homework and use it to support in-class discussion on general reading habits and attitudes, as well as feelings and opinions about reading in English.

• Genre Activity - The activity alerts learners to the different genres available, gets books in their hands, and helps in spotting interesting titles.

• Blurb & Title Match - Pairs complete an info gap activity by connecting book titles and blurbs. Students also have the chance to note interesting books and gauge appropriate reading levels.

• Placement Tests - Use the Edinburgh Project on Extensive Reading (EPER) Placement Tests or hand out a sheet with the first page from books at each different level. Students quickly read these to determine their initial reading levels. Placement tests may be useful for research and giving students a measure of their progress (if post-tests are done), but this can be time consuming. The latter method may be more entertaining and provides a look at several interesting titles.


Maintaining Interest: Teacher-Led Activities

• Teacher Reports - a quick report/review at the beginning or end of class. This is especially good if the featured book relates to the topic being covered in class at the time. It's also a good model for students to eventually give their own reports.

• Cliffhangers - The teacher tells a story up to a crucial turning point. Leave it there to stimulate interest, or ask students or groups to come up with an ending or next step. Which does the class think most probable?

• Oral Tests & Books - Students tell the instructor about books they've read as part of an oral test. This affirms the importance of the reading program and gives the instructor opportunity to discuss with students their thoughts and opinions regarding their reading.


Listening Activities

• Literature Cloze - Hand out a cloze gapped passage from a book and play the accompanying tape or read it aloud. Students listen and fill in.

• What Do They Say? - Explain the background behind a passage and play the tape. Stop several times and have student pairs guess what will be said or done next; then continue with the tape. At last, stop and ask what comes next, but don't give the answer: "You'll have to find out for yourselves!"


Pair & Group Communication Activities

• In-class activities based on homework can be risky business. But here, since students read many books and keep their Instant Book Reports with them, they can participate, even if they completely forgot about the assignment.

• Book Reports - in groups or before the whole class, students give short speeches introducing the plot and offering their personal responses to the book. Other students ask questions.

• Favorite Book Round Robin - Q & A about the best books we've read. Students use their Instant Book Reports for support with their first partner, then repeat the process two more times (without written support) with other partners. Many find they can actually do better when focusing on interaction with a partner rather than repeatedly referring to a set text.

• Book Reviews - similar to above, but in book review format.

• "Bringing those books back to the classroom" (Helgesen, 1997)

• Draw a Picture - Students draw scenes from books they've read and explain to their groups what has happened, what will happen next, etc.
• How Many Questions - Each students chooses one or more illustrations from a book s/he has read and explains them to her/his group. Group members ask as many questions as possible--receiving points for each question.
• Story Telling Sticks - Students use sticks (e.g., toothpicks) to tell the story . With attention focused on the sticks rather than the speaker, story tellers are often more relaxed and fluent.

• "Telling the truth about extensive reading" (Dubravcic, 1996) - Groups learn as much about a book as possible from one member. Another group then grills them, trying to find out who actually read the book.


References

Dubravcic, J. (1996). Telling the truth about extensive reading. The Language Teacher, 20(12), 52.

Helgesen, M. (1997). Bringing those books back to the classroom: Tasks for extensive reading. The Language Teacher, 21(5), 53-54.

Ken Schmidt
1-3-21-401 Hachiman
Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-0871
Japan




Andy Barfield's Section


Reading course: Background

• I use extensive reading for the one reading course that I teach, as well as for some first-year oral communication classes. The reading class (first-year medical students) uses extensive reading exclusively in the ten-week summer term (a 200-title library of Oxford Bookworms, Stages 3, 4, 5 & 6).

• At the start of the course, students take an extensive reading placement test which I developed, and then are advised at which stage to start (ranging from Bookworms Stage 3 through 5) according to their test score.

• The main aims with the class are to encourage reading a large amount of comprehensible text each week, and to build confidence, enjoyment and reading speed. and then choose books from the appropriate stage. Different students read books from different stages. Higher-level students also start reading Usborne L1-teenager content-based books.


Reading course: Main lesson phases

• (1) Social English phase (pairs) moving into (2) discussion of how much they have read outside class; how much time they have spent reading; whether the story was interesting or not; key points from story. This is followed by (3) short report-writing and (4) reading, re-telling or one-page summary + opinion reports, and (5) using the libraries. During class, reading record sheets are handed out, and students update these before handing them back in at the end of class. Students spend some time in class reading, accordingly.

• Key points in success: (1) reading regularly (20+ minutes a day for five days rather than 2 hours in one day); (2) setting reading goals in terms of number pages and time; (3) reviewing personal goals; (4) keeping clear and neat notes; (5) reading for enjoyment and learning to read relatively fast; (6) returning books if too difficult or boring.


Reading course: Differences from previous learning

• Key differences: (1) choice of content by students; (2) learning to monitor performance and to set own reading goals; (3) focus on reading quantity and content rather than grammar-translation study.


Reading course: Teacher roles

• Main roles: (1) advisor ( I spend a lot of my time sitting with students one-to-one, seeing how they are doing and giving advice to help them 'speed up'); (2) encourager (I constantly encourage students to keep on reading and to focus on meaning); (3) monitor (I check weekly totals and running totals). In particular, I make sure I take time for the slower students.


Reading course: Options

• Routines: I follow a fairly repetitive routine in class and don't go in for lots of different activities. I do this because I want to establish a familiar route for students to success. In-class activities begin to vary more from the second term on.

• Class target: I used to set a term goal for the students of 500-750 pages, but I have don't this the last couple of years because I wanted to see if the students would reach such a goal of their own volition. Some do, but many don't, so I'm moving back towards setting such a goal for next year (and indeed I have set one for the second term for the reading class).

• Evaluation: Based on reading totals, notes kept by students in their notebooks, and self-assessment. Could be done on the Edinburgh Project in Extensive Reading proficiency tests and a gain score between start and end of term, but I see this type of course as highly individualised, with students starting from different levels and interests, as well as highly personalised, so I think the advantage of pinpointing an exact progress over 10 weeks is better achieved through self-reflection rather than through an objective test.


Oral communication classes

• The oral communication classes that are using extensive reading in the autumn term are reading at about 25-50 pages a week, and keeping notes for homework on what they read. These notes are used for re-telling and discussion in class. These pair discussions happily go along for 20+ minutes.

• One class consists of Japanese Language and Literature majors, who clearly have an affinity for reading literature in a foreign language. They are using Oxford Bookworms Stage 4.

• Another class consists of Politial Science, Law, Sociology and Economics majors. They have started off with Skyjack! and Justice (Stage 3), and again enjoy discussing the various issues that these stories can raise.

• A third class consists of Physical Education majors who have started with Recycling in the Oxford Factfile series. Here the students enjoy reading and talking about a serious social and political problem, at a level at which they feel comfortable.

• I make audio-tapes of certain stories, so that students can read and listen outside class at the same time. The point here is that the quality of extensive reading for making home-grown listening materials; moreover, integrating skills in a motivating way naturally fits in with such a 'whole-language' approach.


Feedback from the students
(more detail will be given at JALT99)

• Understandability

• Interest

• Vocabulary-building

• Relaxed and motivating atmosphere


Other points

• Extending reading fluently in the autumn term with the Medical students to newspaper texts;

• Keeping reading record sheets in an easy-to-administer fashion;

• English-English dictionary-based games that the students can successfully play to enhance their noticing and conscious recycling of key words from a reading text;

• Interview role-plays.


Final comment

Apart from this, and the great range of activities that Ken will present, I'd like to hear what you do, so that we can try to identify together any common problems (and solutions!) that can come up in working with extensive reading in the classroom. Thank you for coming to the group presentation today.

Andy Barfield
Foreign Language Center
Tennodai 1-1-1
University of Tsukuba
Tsukuba-shi
Ibaraki-ken 305-0006


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