This workshop session will introduce the participants to the world of graded readers. We will see and experience graded readers at various levels of difficulty from those which use less to 100 unique words to tell their story to ones with over 3000 unique words ('headwords'). We will discuss both paper-based and digitally-based material. While fictional graded readers are the most common, there is now an abundance of non-fiction readers on topics such as biographies, science and technology, the environment, and geography. Mention will also be made concerning "youth readers" -- books written with native-speaking children as their target audience, but which can be prudently used.

This talk will discuss the value of extensive reading for language learning. It will begin with a discussion of the four strands of language learning: meaning-focused input, meaning-focused output, language-focused learning, and fluency development. The talk will then move into a discussion of what extensive reading is, best practices, and how it helps learners master their language skills by improving reading, listening, speaking, vocabulary, and grammar. Resources for extensive reading will also be introduced.

The aim of this workshop is to equip EFL teachers with the knowledge and skills necessary to write branching narratives for extensive reading activities using artificial intelligence (AI). The workshop will begin by providing an overview of what branching narratives are and how they can enhance the reading experience of EFL learners. Participants will then learn about the principles behind an AI-trained language model and how it can be used to generate coherent and engaging storylines. The workshop will guide participants through the process of creating their own branching narratives using an AI-trained language model, providing step-by-step instructions and practical tips. By the end of the workshop, participants will have a greater understanding of how to use an AI-trained language model to create immersive and engaging reading experiences for their students.

Recent developments in AI chat are sending shockwaves through the language teaching community, both with short-term challenges of instructing students when and how to use this technology and as a longer-term existential threat to the teaching vocation. On the other hand, this same technology presents an opportunity for the automatic production of compelling input, not only in English but potentially for many other languages. Critical to providing suitable input is determining the level of readability, for example measured in YL (Yomiyasusa Level), which is based on impressions of difficulty by readers in Japan. This presentation reports on research into machine learning techniques used to estimate YL using the Coh-metrix analysis tool, Lasso linear regression and grid search cross-validation. The model predicted YL with a strong correlation of .91, significantly better than the Flesch Reading index. The results suggest that the developed model is a promising tool for predicting YL.

In this talk, the presenters will discuss Xreading News. This is an exciting feature of Xreading launched in April 2022. Xreading News offers real news stories each week achieving two main goals; 1- to expose students to current affairs, and 2- to expose students to more English. Five news stories from around the world, from a wide range of fields, such as Science, Technology, the Environment, and World News, are produced in graded language and uploaded to Xreading every Sunday. But how do writers select their stories? Why are some stories more suitable for Xreading News than others? Why are Ukraine and chatty mushrooms suitable and Roe Vs Wade is not? The presenters will talk about their experiences choosing, writing, and leveling real news stories. We will also look at the changes made from an original submission to a published entry and discuss why the editing decisions were made.

The digital age presents challenges and opportunities for extensive listening and extensive viewing as well. While traditional modes of listening and viewing have been replaced with digital platforms, they have opened up new avenues for learners to engage with materials in a more personalised and interactive way. For instance, audiobooks and podcasts offer a convenient way to access a wide range of content, while interactive videos with captions and subtitles can aid in language learning. In addition, learners can benefit from the collaborative and social aspects of digital media through online forums and social media groups. Educators and researchers need to consider how digital media can be leveraged to enhance extensive listening and viewing programs and promote engagement and comprehension. They should also examine the potential impact of digital media on listening and viewing habits and ensure that learners develop sustainable habits for long-term learning. This presentation will explore the benefits of digital media for extensive listening and viewing and provide examples of how they can be incorporated into learning programs. The speaker will draw on experiences from extensive listening and viewing programs in Indonesia to illustrate these points.

This poster session will introduce the global extensive reading survey. The presenters will first outline the aims of the survey and highlight its key features. The aims are to examine the current practices of extensive reading (ER) practitioners around the world who teach English as a foreign language to illustrate how extensive reading is conducted; the materials used; the amount of time spent on ER; the types of assessment used; the level of training received; and so forth. Attendees to the poster session will be invited to complete the survey and asked to assist in disseminating the survey.

Implementing extensive reading can be a challenge for both teachers and students. Teachers realise students are reluctant to read and discuss the story while students procrastinate and are not motivated to read. One solution is to encourage students to create a narrative and convert it into a flipbook for their peers to read. A flipbook offers a page-turning user experience and can be read in a linear fashion. Students work together in small groups on tasks as in script writers, illustrators, design-idea contributors, flipbook converter and promoters. Free digital technology applications such as Canva, Google form and E-certificate are incorporated by using flipbook applications. The project by a group of 15 students who are 17 years-old, produced flipbooks. Data on motivation to read, interest in themes and specific language competency was compiled through observations by the teacher and students completing a short questionnaire. The results highlight insights for teachers and publishers on ER materials. Moreover, the flipbook project integrated various skills and incorporated technological tools in an interactive, meaningful, and exciting extensive reading experience. It also enhanced a student-centred pedagogical approach facilitated by a teacher.

To promote the “extensive reading approach” worldwide, the Extensive Reading Foundation (ERF) invites teachers and scholars to apply for a scholarship in order to take part in the ERWC for their own professional development and for the future promotion of Extensive Reading in their home countries. This session features individual presentations by the 3 scholarship recipients from outside of Indonesia with an overview of the issues and challenges faced in their contexts followed by their plans for carrying forward in implementing & growing extensive reading.

This case study explores the affordances of a digital reading platform, XReading, in helping Jasmine excel in reading. Jasmine is a freshman at a state university in Malang. The department where she studies, offered Extensive Reading (ER) course as a compulsory part of the curriculum in the first semester. During the 16-week ER course, Jasmine read more than 1,000,000,- words from the website. The initial target for the 2022 cohorts was 120,000 words in a semester. Thus, it is important to understand why Jasmine read more than the expected target words and what had her kept going. A semi-structured interview was done with Jasmine after the class ended. The findings of the present study help teachers of Extensive Reading (ER) programs to shape their classes in such a way that encourage learner autonomy. This presentation also shows how reading in an electronic age affects students’ motivation in a positive manner.

It is no doubt that extensive reading (ER) and intensive reading (IR) are powerful teaching approaches that can help students develop a love of reading and overall language skills. This presentation aims to investigate teachers’ attitudes towards ER and IR through a nation-wide survey that involved 2,111 junior high school teachers of language and non-language subjects. The survey was conducted online and taken prior to a series of three-day workshops on ER and IR sponsored by the Indonesian Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology. Each workshop was attended by approximately 120 teachers from different regions across Indonesia. In general, the survey results revealed that teachers demonstrated positive attitudes towards ER and IR. Moreover, a remarkably high percentage of teachers (86.8 %) believed that teaching reading was not only the responsibility of language teachers. On the other hand, only a small percentage of the respondents (1.9 %) admitted that they were knowledgeable about reading comprehension strategies, let alone teaching them to students due to inadequate training and resources. In addition, most participants (68.8%) expressed a need for professional development on how to teach reading and writing related to their subjects. The study implied that continuous training on integrating ER and IR across curriculum should be carried out.

To promote the “extensive reading approach” worldwide, the Extensive Reading Foundation (ERF) invites teachers and scholars to apply for a scholarship in order to take part in the ERWC for their own professional development and for the future promotion of Extensive Reading in their home countries. This session features an overview of extensive reading and the common issues and challenges in the Indonesian context followed by individual presentations by the 4 scholarship recipients on their plans for carrying forward in implementing & growing extensive reading.

This presentation shows examples of how extensive reading is integrated into course designs that focus on the active skills of speaking and writing. The practices showcased have been applied in college English skills classrooms in Japan and also in elementary school classrooms, sometimes with college student-instructors in a Service-Learning class design. The ER component comes from the use of level-appropriate vocabulary and the large amount of class time devoted to reading without much deliberate language teaching. We argue that extensive reading using XReading, read-aloud, and speed reading, combined with vocabulary and linked skills activities can be effective in active learning classrooms and in increasing learner confidence, motivation, and comprehension. In the college setting, success was measured by semester word count and self-reported goal achievement. In the elementary school class, schema building, pre-teaching vocabulary, an engaging worksheet, and activities sustained reading time over a large part of the session.

The "Four Strands" approach maintains that we need to provide our students with more time to practice through meaning-focused input (Reading & Listening) and output (Speaking and Writing) as well as "fluency training" by having them read, write, speak and hear material that they already understand. It states that 75% of student learning should be devoted to practice with only 25% of the time spent on frontal teaching or studying grammar or vocabulary. This session will discuss what this means in practical terms bringing recent research to support Nation’s contention.

Students’ engagement in reading combines students’ motivation, effort, emotion, and ability to gain flow in reading. It is the key to help students love reading and gain their students' academic achievement. This qualitative study aims to identify the types of engagement that the students experienced in extensive reading and factors that make students engaged in reading English materials in a EFL context. This study was held in English Department at one of universities in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. As data collection techniques, reflection and interview were conducted to six students who enrolled a class that was implemented extensive reading. The students’ reflective essays were used as the main data to explore engagement that the students experienced in reading. In order to further the exploration, important statements appearing in the essay were confirmed and explained by the students through one on one interview. From the data, it was revealed that students experienced behavioural and emotional engagement when reading English books. Behavioural engagement was shown from students’ attempts to make time to read and finish their chosen books while the emotional engagement was identified from students’ positive feeling in reading that they wrote in the reflective essay. Furthermore, factors that made students more engaged in reading their books are their motivation, relevant reading materials, and influences from peers and teachers. Pedagogical implications and limitations are also discussed.

The success of a group literacy program relies on at least three main factors, namely the design of the program, method of implementation, and reading facilitators. Though these factors are interconnected and complementary to one another, reading facilitators play an elemental role in facilitating the interactions to allow participants moving between stages of reading. Furthermore, they provide adequate linguistic support to the participants in grasping the meaning of the text and relating it to the context. This presentation illustrates the practice of a group of reading facilitators (RFs) who are part of a literacy initiative called Baca Asyik di Rumah Aja. It focuses on the RFs’ interaction pattern and questioning technique used in facilitating the interaction with the participants. The result indicates that the interaction patterns tend to be non-triadic. Besides, the RFs utilize question types in combination to serve different interaction purposes and at different stages of reading.

Reading is one of the skills that is challenging to develop in the language classroom. In the classroom, there are not enough materials to choose from, and not enough goals or reading data to make students see their progress. In the face of these challenges, teachers are usually at a loss to develop students reading skills in and out of the classroom setting. To find the perfect reading goal for every student in a mixed-level classroom setting, the teacher must find a library with a variety of reading materials and data-driven goals for students. A perfect example is Xreading Virtual library and a reading marathon. Each student needs to have a clear number of words or books to read in a set period of time (3-4 weeks) and the reporting system helps them to see their reading level and progress. Each week the book reading progress is reported to the whole class so that students can see not only their personal goal but also their peers' goals. By simply reporting each week, students start getting more reading done in a short amount of time. At the end of each reading marathon, students and teachers give awards to the students with most progress in their reading.

The presenter has been conducting standalone Japanese ER courses in a U.S. university for the past nine years. In addition to in-class individual reading activities and book chats, the presenter incorporates semester-final projects in order to connect input to output. The projects and presentations also provide opportunities for learners to share their outcomes with their classmates. As ER itself is learner-initiated, the instructor tries to let learners control their own learning, including project presentations; therefore, topics and formats are completely free. Learners have created variety of unique products, including picture books, online games, and songs, to name a few. Many of the works reflect sentence patterns and writing styles that learners have naturally acquired through their individual reading. The presenter will showcase students’ products and examine how their ER experience influenced their works. Furthermore, the instructor’s role in cultivating creativity and autonomy will be discussed.

Networking and dinner. Reservation required.

This session will be a fun quiz to test your knowledge about extensive reading, graded readers, people and so on surrounding our world. It will be conducted via Kahoot.

BASAbali supports local Indonesian languages, cultures and civic engagement by encouraging people to publicly discuss key issues using local languages on community-developed online platforms. In relation to reading, the Superhero series is modeled after traditional Indonesian shadow puppet storytellers and co-developed with the community and local artists. Digital superhero Luh Ayu Manik Mas engages youth to take action to advance sustainable development goals. The books offer language literacy, environmental and cultural literacy to children in an enjoyable way. This presentation will introduce the organization and its various activities, focusing on those that aim to promote language, environmental and cultural literacy. She will discuss the development of the superhero series, its successes and future plans. All ERWC6 participants will receive a copy of one comic book when they pick up their nametags on site.

The necessity of Extensive reading crept on the façade of Mach Kiem Hung Secondary School, in District 5 Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. This aimed to first elucidate the theory and principles underlying Vietnamese teachers extensive reading beliefs. Deep-rooted principles will be discussed in light of practical classroom and contextual consideration on the parts of the students of Mach Kiem Hung Secondary School. Secondly, a critical summary of current research on extensive reading that has been conducted in English as a Second Language and English as Foreign Language contexts and has been tested for the school year 2022. This research sheds light on the importance to the immeasurable benefits of extensive reading in improving many aspects of L2 learners’ language proficiency as well as encouraging the great implementation of extensive reading in educational institutions in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Vietnamese teachers will also become acquainted with future directions in the practice of implementing extensive reading programs such as how to make use of online resources, and available books at the library and be potentially equipped on making use of the internet to assess students 'potential And progress in reading extensively. Thirdly, the presentation provides directions for steps that can be used by future public school teachers on how to conduct extensive reading with Vietnamese students which the presenter believes might fill in the gap in knowledge for extensive reading. The research was conducted using Google forms and Google classroom to evaluate the difficulties met with extensive reading. Thus, it gives light on the joyfulness of extensive reading on the part of the students and leads to the analysis of the importance of extensive reading.

Xreading is digital library that gives students access to over a thousand graded readers from major publishers such as Cambridge University Press, Macmillan, and National Geographic/Cengage Learning. Students have unlimited access to all books as well as audio narrations, ratings, and quizzes. In addition, the system tracks students' reading progress (books read, words read, reading speed, quiz scores, etc.) so it makes management and assessment much easier for teachers. Since it’s launch is 2014, the system has been continuously evolving and growing in terms of the number of books and features. In this presentation, the founder of Xreading will explain the new functionality that has been added over the past year, and what is planned for the future. Current users of the system are encouraged to provide feedback and suggestions based on their experience.

Are you interested in writing stories for your students? This workshop will take you through the first steps in writing your very own story. The aim of this workshop will be to address questions such as, how do you get the inspiration for a story? How should a story be structured? What do I have to do to make the story interesting for my students and other readers? How do I maintain a certain language level? At the end of the session each participant will come out with a plan for their story.

Extensive Reading (ER) has gained increasing attention as a valuable language learning activity in Vietnam. However, the implementation of ER programs in the classroom may face various challenges, such as a lack of understanding among teachers about the difference between Intensive Reading and Extensive Reading, and the difficulties in setting up and funding an ER program. This poster session will report on a replication study of Waring and Chu's (2017) research on attitudes and beliefs towards ER in Vietnam, focusing specifically on the views of teachers from a range of educational backgrounds. The study aims to investigate the current attitudes and beliefs of teachers towards ER, the challenges they face in implementing ER programs, and highlight any changes in these factors over the previous five years. The presentation will discuss the research design and the results, and the implications for promoting ER in Vietnamese language education.

This presentation will introduce and demonstrate the Online Graded Text Editor (OGTE), a free, web-based tool developed by Dr. Charles Browne and Dr. Rob Waring to assist teachers doing extensive reading with turning ungraded webpages and content into student-friendly texts at just the right level. OGTE takes inspiration from previous well known tools made for researchers such as VocabProfile by Tom Cobb and AntWord Profiler by Laurence Anthony, but with an eye towards making the tool more user-friendly for practicing teachers and content developers. OGTE allows users to analyze and write texts utilizing a wide range of popular corpus-based vocabulary lists including the many lists from the NGSL Project, CEFR wordlists, Cambridge wordlists, the Oxford 3000 and the 20 levels used both at ER-Central.com, the free extensive reading site developed by Dr. Browne and Dr. Waring as well as the Extensive Reader Foundation Graded Reader Level Scale.

For many language teachers and most language students, fluency means the state in which you are able to use the language you have been given or chosen accurately and appropriately in any situation in which you find yourself. This general or broad definition conflates fluency with proficiency (Lennon, 1990), but fluency is also understood by language teachers and researchers as an aspect of the complex construct of proficiency along with accuracy and complexity. As such, fluency refers to those elements of language production that include speed, smoothness, and effortlessness (Chambers, 1997). It is easy to see how the accomplishment of accuracy has been the main driver of language classroom curricula in spite of attempts to shift focus to meaningful language use. Usage-based theories of language learning suggest, however, that building fluency should have a more prominent role in language curricula from the very beginning (Ellis, N. 2005), and in all four skills (Nation, 2007). Gaining proficiency in each of the skills necessitates efficient (automatic and stable) processing of low-level processes, which are unconscious, unintentional, and involuntary (Olkonnen, et al. 2020). For reading fluency, these processes include phonological processing (grapho-)phonemic discrimination, word recognition, syntactic parsing and linking grammatical forms with meanings (Grabe, 2010). One of the claims of those who research the benefits of ER is its impact on the development of reading fluency (Al-Hamoud & Schmitt, 2009; Beglar, Hunt, & Kite, 2012; Bui & Macalister, 2021; Mclean & Roualt, 2021), but in Nation and Waring’s “four strands” curricular scheme (2020), ER is not included as a fluency building activity. What then is fluency-building and how do we support its development in the classroom with or without ER?

Listen to a debate about ebooks and paper books. You can help decide the winner.

Semi-secret societies like the Tolkien and Lewis’ literary discussion group ‘The Inklings,' where authors share their imaginative journeys, have the potential to engage learners at some of the highest levels on Bloom’s Taxonomy - and meld the strengths of a learner in their L1 with the possibility of collaborating with learners from other language backgrounds to create graded readers for multiple audiences. StudioCLA.org is a group of ‘Community Literacy Activist’ students who create, translate, and simplify readers in English and Japanese. The creation, translation and simplification follow an organic process that involves the design of the story elements, vocabulary level, word count, and target audience. The first volume of these stories - YAMS - or Young Adult Multicultural Stories, consists of six stories each in both English and Japanese and each at three levels. This presentation will describe the evolution of StudioCLA from a grant-initiated project (JSPS 20K13154), and invite your participation in an international society of human creative writers of language learner literature in multiple languages that aims to ‘change the world through the power of art’.

While extensive reading serves multiple purposes, many students benefit from a more collaborative discussion with their peers through the form of ‘Reading Circles,’ or ‘Literature Circles’. This type of directed discussion guided by an instructor can give students a deeper perspective of the linguistic and cultural side of a target language. This presentation will discuss the pedagogy behind this classroom activity with a focus on collaborative learning, critical thinking, and student research. First, the teacher’s role will be discussed as they set up a reading circle including assigning ‘role-work’ for students before reading. Additionally, how can teachers assess both the work and participation that students do throughout the activity? Regarding role-work, students will have a specific focus which may involve highlighting passages, examining idioms, focusing on the plot, looking at characters, studying phrasal verbs, or discovering new vocabulary that they will discuss with their peers. This session will share all aspects of the ‘Reading Circle’ variabilities so that teachers can try it for themselves in their respective classrooms.

The presentation aims at investigating teachers’ reflections through their narratives. Approximately 2000 teachers of language and non-language subjects participated in a nationwide workshop on Extensive Reading and Intensive Reading sponsored by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology. At the end of the workshop, the workshop participants were invited to write reflective notes on their experience attending the workshop. One hundred twenty narratives submitted by the participants were coded for common themes. The analysis revealed that the participants held positive responses to the workshop. Theoretical contents delivered in the workshop convinced teachers of their best teaching practice, enabling them to theorize their practice. Moreover, practical exercises on ER and IR were considered to boost teachers’ confidence to implement ER and reading strategies in the classroom. Participants could also foresee themselves becoming role models of readers for their students. In addition, the participants expected continuing professional development to be provided by the government to help them keep up-to-date with trends in the implementation of ER and IR.

This presentation illustrates the process of implementing a piloting model for teaching reading called C.A.R.E. The model separates the reading process into four phases, namely Conception, Action, Reaction and Evaluation. Though they share inter-relatedness and connection, each stage serves a different purpose when students are interacting with the reading materials. Utilizing the Extensive Reading principles and a home run book, this model introduces reading as a comprehensive process that embraces aspects of language, intercultural issues, social awareness, critical thinking and the need to trigger a habit of reading. Taking place in Indonesia and the Philippines, two junior high school teachers adopted the C.A.R.E model in their reading teaching sessions. Their perceptions of the pros and cons and challenges faced as the result of putting this framework into practice will be examined together with the response of the students to the activities proposed.

This study investigates how the length and level of graded readers affects Japanese EFL college students’ (CEFR A2 level) reading speed. Participants freely chose and read English-graded readers outside of class for 14 weeks. Then they took a test to measure their reading speed while reading passages with comprehension questions before and after the duration of the activity. The results of the tests showed there was no statistically significant difference (p = .904) in the reading speed between the students who read short, easy graded readers (on average 1,805-word books, in total 31,064 words) and the students who read long, advanced ones (on average 5,023-word books, in total 51,836 words) although the latter group read significantly more words (p =.002, r =.45) within the period. Thus, even though some students tend to read advanced graded readers when given the opportunity, to improve their reading fluency, teachers of extensive programs should recommend easier reading materials.

Students who read a great deal become better and more confident readers. But the effect of reading on students’ writing is less clear: students who are good readers continue to find writing challenging. In my presentation, I will first discuss the nature of the relationship between reading and writing and then explore how this relationship can be strengthened. I will then offer practical tips on how teachers can help students benefit from more focused reading, i.e., the kind of reading that enables students to notice language features and discourse rules found in texts. When students do this regularly, there is a good chance that they might become better readers and writers.

This presentation will talk about a new global project called, ‘Reading Across the Sky’. What began as a meeting between students and teachers from two countries rapidly spread to other parts of the globe. This is why we begin each meeting by looking at a map of the world so that the students realize that they are talking to their peers across the sky. At the time of writing, the last meeting involved students from ten countries. During the first meeting students listened to a pre-prepared story while in the most recent event it was the students themselves who proposed their own stories. Until now we have relied on simple word of mouth to expand the group, and this has been very effective. However, now we are thinking that participating in conferences would prove to be an excellent way of connecting with other like-minded teachers. The aim would be not only to expand our Across the Sky group, but also to create a template that other teachers can follow if they wish to create their own global read aloud project.

In this session, all the ER Foundation affiliates (IERA, TEERA, MERA, PERC, TERA, Jalt-ERSig, JERA, PERC) will present their annual reports outlining their achievements in the past year and their plans for the coming year. The session is open to the public. Anyone interested in forming an Extensive reading association is welcome to come and network, ask questions and learn about the ERF Affiliate system.

This study explores how foreign language enjoyment (FLE), foreign language classroom anxiety (FLCA), and L2 grit influence reading achievement in extensive reading (ER) programs. Underpinned by theories of Positive Psychology, the study investigates how these affective and personality factors impact reading amount, reading fluency, and reading comprehension. The study involved 49 university EFL learners who completed a questionnaire and participated in a six-week ER program on Xreading.com. The findings suggest that FLCA predicted reading amount, while FLE predicted reading fluency. However, FLE, FLCA, and grit did not significantly affect reading comprehension. The study provides valuable insights into the relationship between affective factors and reading achievement and offers theoretical and practical implications for ER teaching and research.

The presenters will discuss the process of writing narratives based on real-world issues. The focus will be on how the stories come into being, how they are mined, refined, and then redefined into graded readers. We will briefly describe the collaborative process from story development and editing, working with the authors and publisher, and some of the challenges in getting the readers into print. In the second half of the workshop, we will take a look at a new series in development focusing on content that we would like to share with our learners, stories that matter such as unsung heroines, marginalized groups, and people improving the lives of others. While the aim has always been to provide broader perspectives on global topics, we also want to create engaging, light-hearted content that does not compromise our efforts to leave our readers with the sense of humanity we crave in society.

This session will be the annual ERF Board meeting held to discuss ERF matters. The Chair of the ERF will host this session. An agenda for the meeting will be available to those attending. Anyone interested in the work of the ERF, such as grants, ERF affiliates, Mreader or the LLL award, may wish to attend. If time allows there may be Q&A.

When writing a story for language learners you enter into one of the most intimate relationships that a writer can have with a reader. This presentation will examine that relationship. How can the gap between reader and writer be bridged in order to make the reading journey as comfortable as possible? As a writer, you have to be with your readers at all times, anticipating parts of the road where they may stumble or fall. You have to extend a helping hand to help them during their journey. At the same time however, it is important that your fellow travellers do not see the hand you are extending. It has to be a real story. And with real stories you make the journey by yourself. You want readers to feel that that they have made the journey on their own, so they will come back next time, for another story.

Pick up some graded readers from the collection donated to the conference.

To increase student motivation with regard to both Extensive Reading and Creative Writing, a graded reader writing competition was organized. Over the course of a semester, twelve student writers, under the guidance of their teacher completed novels, as well as cover designs and quizzes. Those graded readers, were then made available on the Xreading website so they could be read and rated by students around the world as well as a panel of volunteer judges. The presenters will discuss the process that was used, share samples, and ideas for expansion in the future.

This presentation will highlight the features on Extensive Reading Central. Extensive Reading Central (www.er-central.com) is a free website for students and teachers that has thousands of texts at 20 different levels. Students can choose texts from the Reading Library or Listening Library as well as do Speed Reading. After sign-up, students take a placement test which suggests a level for them to select texts at. Students have the option of taking a quiz if they wish. Teachers can create an Institution account, classes and and bulk-register their students. This allows the teachers to track what the students have read and monitor their progress and then download these data is they wish, Students can also look up any unknown word and save them to their private learning environment. ERC works best on the browsers in tablets and computers. ERCentral also has a support area which contains many resources and advice for teachers.

Bring any questions about setting up or maintaining an ER program, or using ER in your classes. Share ideas and experience with others.

The Lexile system by Metametrics is a popular rating system used widely in the United States and elsewhere which purports to rate both the reading level of books and the ability level of students on the same scale. Unfortunately, the reading level algorithm does not take into account the vocabulary or syntactic patterns used in the texts, but only mechanically measurable qualities of the text such as average sentence and word length. Parents, teachers and librarians use the system to classify books and determine which ones might be suitable for students. It simply does not work for L2 students. This paper will attempt to explain why the system does not work and the potential dangers of employing it for students for which it was not designed.

This session will show how materials for EL can supplement and even substitute as materials for ER, and how the two approaches work well together. The main aim of ER is to provide engaging reading materials that increase student exposure to comprehensible input. Left out of the equation is the importance of EL and how it can work just as effectively as ER because most naturally spoken language is simple in terms of both grammar and vocabulary, making it suitable as graded content that is easy to read. This presentation will look at the power of extemporaneous speech and how naturally spoken transcripts can lead to engaging content that is mobile friendly, multimodal, interesting, free to access and in abundance. The presentation will also look at how technological limitations in the past led to EL being overlooked, and how those limitations no longer exist.

Bring any questions about setting up or maintaining an ER program, or using ER in your classes. Share ideas and experience with others.

The study presents facilitators’ reflections of preparing and conducting a 3-day national workshop sponsored by The Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture. The topic was how to implement Extensive and Intensive Reading and targeted to both language and non-language teachers at Junior High School level. The workshop was conducted in a hybrid mode. The participants were EFL university lecturers who are members of an ER association in Indonesia and served as facilitators in the workshop. The data was collected from the participants’ reflection using CARL (context, action, result, and lessons) framework. The findings revealed a gap between facilitators’ beliefs of ideal practices of ER and the workshop implementation. Some emerging themes in the findings included lowering expectations, negotiating values, and anticipating changes when preparing and delivering the workshop. The findings also implied that a short-term workshop is not sufficient in increasing teachers' awareness of and competence in conducting ER. Continuing professional development in the area of ER and maintaining sustainable commitment of policy makers and facilitators are necessary to ensure ER implementation. The results of the study were expected to enlighten policy makers, teachers, and ER practitioners of ER practices and promotions.

This talk will focus on the practicalities of conducting an extensive reading program, with comparisons of both in-person lessons and lessons conducted online. The benefits of extensive reading seem fairly uncontroversial but incorporating these within a larger curriculum that meets the demanding time constraints of university students remains somewhat challenging. The presenter will highlight his approach as well as tools such as paper graded readers, free online readers and subscription services that students were able to utilize in order to participate both during the pandemic and when classes resumed face-to-face.

A common understanding of the term 'fluency' is the ability to use speak a language you have been given or chosen to learn without thinking about it, to do just what needs to be done with language in any situation. For most people, this means accurate and appropriate use of language, which whether they realize it or not, includes many aspects of linguistic knowledge: syntax, morphology, phonology, phonetics, semantics, and socio-pragmatics. Fluency, however, is just one component of the construct of language proficiency, which also includes complexity, accuracy, and lexis (Skehan, 1998). More precisely, fluency is the component of proficiency which reflects the learners' ability to spontaneously access implicit knowledge to express their ideas and exchange information quickly and continuously (Lennon, 1990; Olkonnen & Mutta, 2020; Segalowitz, 2003, 2010; Skehan, 2009). Nation (2000) claims that fluency building activity should make up 25% of a balanced language curriculum since no matter what you know, you should be able to produce it fluently. Unlike accuracy, complexity, and lexis, however, fluency has been largely ignored as a focus of classroom-based language learning, of language teacher training, of published instructional materials, and of curricular design. In this workshop, after a brief review of the research-based rationale for including fluency development activity in the ESL curriculum, participants will engage in a variety of fluency-building activities for reading and listening that will support ER, EL, and language learning, in general. Principles for choosing and designing tasks for fluency development will be used to evaluate the activities as well as help participants design practical ways in which they can include fluency development activity in their current course or curricula.

In this workshop, the presenters introduce Mini-Bibliobattle, a simplified variation of Bibliobattle. Bibliobattle refers to a social book presentation game where presenters introduce their favorite book for five minutes, followed by a three-minute Q&A session, and votes select the Champion Book from participants. This game has been spreading in Japan since it was developed in 2007, and teachers started using it in a language classroom. We will demonstrate the game at the site and provide some tips to instruct in combination with extensive reading. Students' perceptions of the game from our practices will also be provided.

This is a meeting for anyone involved, or anyone who wants to become involved, in journals and newsletters about Extensive Reading. Reviewers, editors, copy editors, layout editors, and website managers. We will also discuss the Proceedings for the Extensive Reading World Congress.

This session is your chance to discuss future Extensive Reading Foundation events including ERWC7, other live events, webinars and online courses.

The plenary speakers will share their observations on the major concerns they noticed concerning the future of extensive reading and extensive listening. Time permitting, questions will be taken from the audience.