The goal of most extensive reading programs is to increase each student’s volume of reading. However, getting students to read and assessing each student's participation can be a daunting task. This presentation will look at various ways to assess student participation and ways to vary tasks according to different motivational types. The presentation will look at easy solutions to getting students to read and record their activity, and examine how varying attitudes about reading amongst students can greatly influence their engagement. The presentation will look at four types of students – the player, the pupil, the participant, and the prisoner. Attendees will learn how to identify students with different motivations, and how to create tasks that cater to their interests. The presenter will share various activities that have worked successfully, and not, over a ten-year span teaching ER classes at universities in Japan.

Literacy Cloud is a free digital storybook that can be used by teachers to engage learners in developing skills and habits of reading. This presentation examines the implementation of extensive reading (ER) using Literacy Cloud as mobile English learning and their perceptions of this implementation. Forty-five EFL students in 3rd-grade vocational high schools participated in this study. They had no experience in ER and did not have experience using Literacy Cloud before, so Literacy Cloud was introduced to support the ER program. Then, questionnaires and interviews were given to find out their experiences using Literacy Cloud in the ER class. The results showed that they have positive attitudes and perceptions about Literacy Cloud, and they revealed that it was very useful for supporting their English skills, especially reading skills. This study suggests that English teachers should consider ER to be implemented in language learning, it is advisable to integrate it with technologies such as Literacy Cloud because it provides many benefits for the development of students' reading skills.

With the development of Gutenberg's printing technology, the number of publications increased in large numbers, and the purpose of reading and the way of reading diversified. Then, with the advent and development of digital technology such as computers, not only paper books but also digital books have increased. In the meantime, the way of reading has become more diverse. Among several reading methods, extensive reading (ER) is still a useful method, but in some cases, it needs to be used properly with other reading methods in the era of big data. Among other types of reading, there is distant reading (DR). DR is a term coined by Franco Moretti, an Italian literary scholar, to describe a methodology of literary analysis that involves the quantitative analysis of large amounts of literary texts. In this presentation, we would like to introduce a teaching method that can properly combine ER and DR for literary texts. For DR, beginner-level computer coding activities are covered in this presentation. The programming language for DR is R. R is well-liked and widely used among professionals who work with data, particularly those who specialize in data science. In this presentation, we also introduce a checklist and materials for the ER-DR classes.

This study explores the two language learning communities of adult language learners engaging in extensive reading in Japan: at a local library and through an online language learners' community. This qualitative study examines how a local library and an online learners’ community can support adult learners to practice extensive reading in English continuously. The data collected includes semi-structured interviews with three participants from each group who practiced extensive reading for a year, observation notes, and their reading logs. The major findings of the study suggested extensive reading helped the learners connect to each other through sharing what, how much, and how they read even though there was a gap in English proficiency among the participants in both communities. In addition, extensive reading seemed to have helped them to continue learn English using other language learning methods as well. The study suggested extensive reading could play important roles to help lifelong learning in Japan.

Learning English in Japan has long been closely associated with preparations for university entrance exams. Believing rote learning to be the best and shortest way to obtain good exam scores, English teachers in Japan tend to encourage students to focus on memorization through repetition. Consequently, students who have difficulty with rote memorization may develop negative feelings towards English language learning during their secondary school education. The presenter designed a three-month online extensive reading course for adult English learners aimed at mitigating their anxiety regarding English as well as supporting them to be confident readers. The structure of and the principles behind the course design will be presented. Based on collected learner feedback, rigid mindsets, such as seeking the ‘correct’ reading comprehension, transformed into more relaxed attitudes toward English through, most notably, their shared reading experience with other course participants.