Defining Extensive Reading Rob Waring Stuart McLean

Potted History of Extensive Reading 1970's John Milne suggested vocabulary control was not enough. -Good clear writing -Relevant content -Careful explanation -High redundancy -Good control over information -Intuitive grading and structure control This led to the modern Graded Reader Thus the ERF has the John Milne Innovation Award

Day and Bamford's 10 principles of ER “necessary for success” (1998, 2002) 1.The reading material is easy 2.A variety of reading material on a wide range of topics 3.Learners choose what they want to read 4.Learners read as much as possible 5.The purpose of reading is usually related to pleasure, information and general understanding 6.Reading is its own reward 7.Reading speed is usually faster rather than slower 8.Reading is individual and silent 9.Teachers orient and guide their students 10.The teacher is a role model of a reader

The present influence of the Top Ten on ER Often cited to define ER (e.g. Asraf & Ahmad, 2003; Burrows, 2013; Hitosugi & Day, 2004; Soliman, 2012; Yamashita, 2008). Default definition of ER despite these principles only being a “description of the characteristics that are found in successful extensive reading programs” (1998: 7). “we purposely avoided using ‘extensive reading’ terminology to describe our participants’ reading behavior. This was because we did not investigate whether the participants followed any of the top ten principles for ER provided by Day and Bamford (1998, 2002); rather, we only looked at their pleasure reading habits” (Ro and Chen 2014; 16).

The Top Ten questions these forms of ER Assessment and evaluation Buddy / collaborative reading Reading while listening Follow-up exercises Reading speed focus Limited time Limited resources Lowly motivated learners Necessity to read things you don't want to The teacher doesn't read much Asian values and norms Teacher selected materials Desire to read something difficult (as in Beglar and Hunt, 2014). Desire to have one's performance monitored Desire to share their reading Extensive listening Reading Circles?

Core cognitive and variable pedagogical aspects of ER. a)ER is a way of processing texts of an appropriate level – Magazines – s – Webpages b) The cognitive processing of reading or Rauding, through which cognitive reading processes are automatized, is how ER should be defined. c) The viable pedagogical aspects of ER – – The selection of materials – Follow-up activities – Assessment

'Big Tent ' ER We need to accept that many Asian students are not brought up to be responsible for their learning Encouragement to self-directed learning are often ignored in favour of clubs, social life, part-time jobs or pleasure time (Robb, 2002) Students often won’t start with a home-run book, therefore we have to require reading so they can find it Finding an hour of pleasure reading is hard for many students Motivating disinterested students can be close to impossible Massive choice can overwhelm Class reading is a valid form of ER ER is more than just graded readers

ER typesClassical (Top ten) ER Integrated ER – part of a 4 skills course Class Reading ER as literatureEasy ER – to build fluency StyleIndividual Lock-step Individual AmountLots Little Lots SpeedFast Slow Fast ControlStudent Teacher Student Language focus No YesNo AssessmentLittle Lots Viable MaterialsLibrary Class sets Library Skill workReading3-4 skills3-4 skills / language 1-3 skillsReading Class time needed Little Lots Little

Core elements of an ER program (necessary to retain the label ‘ER’) Fluent, sustained comprehension of text as meaning- focused input Large volume of material Reading over extended periods of time Texts are longer, requiring comprehension at the discourse level Reading graded readers which are far too difficult for readers or reading 12,000 words a term is NOT extensive reading. This presentation and associated publication we hope will help a line be drawn regarding difficultly and amount.

Variable pedagogical dimensions of an ER program ER is conducted in class or at home, or a combination thereof ER is required, or optional The reading is enjoyable, for pleasure, or not The reading is monitored (self declared, by the teacher), or not The reading is assessed, or not The presence or absence of follow-up activities (comprehension or language focus) The teacher reads or doesn’t read with students in the classroom Graded or non-graded materials (provided they can be comprehended fluently) Longer or shorter texts The degree of freedom to select texts Requiring students to start with the simplest material available

Conclusion What actually is Extensive Reading? Large amounts of reading of an appropriate level and therefore facilities the automatization of the following reading processes word and phrase recognition semantic proposition formation syntactic parsing In a word Rauding (Carver, 1995). Large amounts equals