It is rare to hear a conversation about COVID-19 that does not include the phrase "unprecedented event.” However, by examining past disasters—specifically, ones affecting young learners—we may establish a precedent for recovery. In August 2005, the Caribbean and gulf coast regions were hammered by Hurricane Katrina. Over one million people were displaced, and thousands of children had their education interrupted during critical early learning and development stages. The educational interruptions and recovery process led to students falling behind their unaffected peers by as much as a year. COVID-19 is already showing similar impacts on student development, especially language acquisition, development, and reading. Nevertheless, a multi-faceted, extensive reading program that incorporates support for classrooms, homes, and special reading events can combat the widening literacy gap exacerbated by the years of pandemic lockdowns and slow recovery.

In extensive reading (ER), Graded Readers (GRs), books for English learners with vocabulary control, play a central role whereas Leveled Readers (LRs), books written primarily for English-speaking children, are not always recommended due to their complex texts and low frequency words. In Japan, however, learners usually use a mixture of GRs and LRs to fill the gap below the easiest level of GRs. This study created the GRs corpus and the LRs corpus from books in popular series that are used in the initial stages of ER to explore the differences in grammar and vocabulary levels. Each corpus was composed of approximately 130,000 words. The New Word Level Checker was used to obtain vocabulary levels, and the Flesh Reading Ease was used to examine words per sentence and the percentage of passive sentences. The differences suggested that LRs were generally more difficult in grammar and vocabulary than GRs even though the same readability levels (YL) were assigned.

As an ER teacher, I often see poor readers in my reading classes. Some learn and develop their reading skills by way of reading multiple books, but it’s also common to spot slow or reluctant learners of English in ER class. Their reading level doesn't change over time or sometimes it seems regressive. Their typical reading trait is they do not bother to learn unknown words or phrases; they are just skimming through a book without adequately understanding it. Over many years of ER teaching experience, the presenter tried to find a solution to fix the problem. The presenter wants students to get over their reading hurdles, bringing back on the virtuous reading cycle. What the presenter found effective for those learners is dropping their reading level, by using Level Down Reading (LDR). Teachers arbitrarily lower the reading level of the student in trouble with reading. LDR is implemented if necessary at some intervals until the student reaches to the point where they can get over her reading hurdles. This presentation is based on the observation of young Korean learners of English who learn English through extensive and intensive reading. It tries to give some insight to ER teachers who have trouble with reluctant learners. It also demonstrates how LDR works with poor readers and makes them to be more confident and better readers.

The presentation explains the impact of using Positive Psychology -Themed Storybook (PP-TS) reading in the classroom. This exploratory study-based procedure aimed to test the feasibility of PP-TS reading, motivate children with level A reading ability (RA) to recognize the alphabet and target vocabulary words, progress on different developmental timelines, and enhance their well-being. Four different topics of PP-TS were selected: kindness, gratitude, compassion, and connectedness. Forty participants from the Share Love Charity English Class in Fukushima city joined in classes for six months. As a result, 70% of the participants improved their reading ability, and 90% of children showed positive attitudes such as being grateful for what they have and having a 'jolly' attitude. Results suggest that the promotion of parent-initiated training to assist children reading at home, and the promotion of other PP-Themed activities among younger learners are highly recommended.

There are two major kinds of paths to learn English in China: acquisition and learning for exams. The students who learn English through acquisition normally start before they are three years old and follow similar paths with US kids, using leveled readers, bedtime stories, and songs. By the age of eight, many of them are able to read authentic teenage-level books, but it doesn't necessarily mean they can get a high score on English exams at school. So, we might ask what should they do? Other students follow the school textbook system and can pass the exams, but they can't read the books, and don't enjoy reading. Thus, we might wonder if there are any materials for them to start reading. From beginners to higher intermediate levels, we divide the reading level into 5 stages based on headwords level of the ERF form. This presentation will give some suggestions about books for each stage for these two kinds of students.

This presentation focuses on the current findings of an ongoing case study conducted with an in-service teacher in East Kalimantan, Indonesia, concerning the challenges of developing bilingual digital reading materials with a local context theme for young learners. This study closely observed a teacher as she went through intensive training for developing digital reading materials. Afterward, a series of in-depth interviews were conducted to investigate the difficulties encountered by the teacher during the materials development process. The findings revealed that the teacher found it difficult to choose a digital platform that was simple to use while also providing adequate interactivity to facilitate the intended reading activities. The other difficulty was finding a topic that was both interesting and relevant to the curriculum in the local context. These findings highlight the importance of proper training in the development of digital reading materials and how to use them in ER contexts.

Are the benefits of reading out loud in a second language exaggerated or misplaced? Students with a strong background in having books read to them out loud may demonstrate good English pronunciation and smooth reading when they themselves read out loud. Good pronunciation and/or smooth reading when reading out loud, however, does not appear necessarily reflect the readers comprehension of the text. Indeed, it would appear that a student’s pronunciation and/or smoothness in reading out loud should be used as an ancillary means of measuring a student's ability to understand the meaning of a text. The presentation will discuss a series of pedagogical experiences and research-based conclusions that have challenged his previously misguided assumptions in this regard, and which have led to his recently modified approach to reading out loud in L2.

This workshop aims to demonstrate particular ways children can learn English through extensive reading and listening. As Dr. David Hill mentioned in the first ERWC, language cannot be effectively learned without going through ER and EL. The learning process can be expedited by using a variety of techniques in both ER and EL. These techniques are especially important for young beginner learners with shorter attention spans. This workshop shows how making story-maps, and, collaterally, illustrating flashcards, playing word games and solving word puzzles, with accompanying reading-aloud presentations, make the learning process easier for the learners because it involves the use of senses, physical actions, and play. In this workshop, participants will have the opportunity to create story-maps with Dr. Park, and flash cards and related items with Dr. Takase, and practice how to use them effectively.

In terms of educational value, comics are no different from any other EFL reading text. Fun and engaging stories with manageable chunks and lively illustrations make comics a valuable tool for EFL students. Comics help learners build motivation and confidence while improving their reading comprehension and overall English language abilities. Reading confidence and motivation are essential to overcoming hurdles presented by literacy struggles. Comic readers will help to improve the literacy skills of low-level learners while still engaging higher-level learners and vice versa. This adaptability makes comic readers valuable tools for mixed-level reading classes. This session will introduce e-future’s LLL award-winning graded comic readers and how to use them in the EFL classroom. e-future’s graded comic readers not only help students become successful language learners but also allows students to develop a positive association with reading.

This study compares the effects of Extensive Reading (ER) on university students’ and younger learners’ English proficiency. Although ER is recognized as one of the best methods to improve learners’ English proficiency, many Japanese universities limit its practice to one academic year. In this study, twelve students aged 9 to 11 started ER using easy English picture books and Graded Readers over 3 to 4 years. After reading approximately 250 – 300 books, the presenter implemented grammar lessons in addition to ER. Then, the Edinburgh Project on Extensive Reading Placement/Progress Test (EPER PPT) was administered. These tests show that younger learners who practiced ER for several years had better results. The presenter postulates that the implementation of ER earlier in the formal English education process and practice for a longer duration would greatly benefit learner’s progress in English.

This study explores the design of a gamified extensive reading (ER) program to improve English reading accuracy and fluency in elementary learners within an English as a foreign language (EFL) context. Recognizing that traditional ER programs may not cater to the short attention spans of primary students, the researchers propose using gamification, a technique that integrates game elements into non-game contexts (Deterding et al., 2011), to create engaging and meaningful language learning experiences. The gamified ER program includes game mechanics such as challenges, levels, points, leaderboards, and missions to emphasize intrinsic motivation. The study demonstrates the program's effectiveness through student surveys and teacher observation journals, highlighting increased student immersion, reading accuracy, and fluency. The gamified ER design can be adapted for various age groups and reading levels and can be used in close reading classes. The researchers will also provide a checklist and resources for implementing the program.

Adolescence is a phase where rapid physical growth with intense hormonal activity takes place. It may lead to diminishing energy to concentrate in academic works. Therefore, even though structured academic learning is difficult to overcome, collaborative works and peer-interaction which enable them to explore their future-role in the society are of their interest. On the other hand, extensive reading activities tend to be individual which are not in line with adolescence’s characteristics. Thus, we conducted authentic projects to bridge it. The project was conducted in a private junior high school in Yogyakarta. A group of 15 middle-grade students aged 12-15 years old participated for 7 months duration. They’ve performed several group-chosen authentic projects, such as: book-procurement, performance, and social-media project. This presentation would also discuss about the success, obstacles, achievement, student’s point of view, and our analysis on its effectiveness. The data are collected and analyzed qualitatively.

This paper reports a longitudinal study that observed Japanese learners in a long-term extensive reading program. Participants were eight students who continued extensive reading throughout their elementary to senior high school years. Observation periods varied between learners: they started reading between pre-school and 4th grade and ended in 11th to 12th grade. Analysis used participants’ reading history corpus and reading and teaching records which included titles of books read, how they read, notable events, learners’ comments, and teacher’s observations. Corpus analysis revealed that both reading amount (running words) and lexical input (word types) commonly increased rapidly from 7th to 9th grade. Three major phases were observed in the transition of book selection, which were partially divergent according to individual learning motivation, reading preference, and reading ability. Participants' learning motivations were found to have shifted from extrinsic toward intrinsic regulation, with some individual differences.

Teaching reading is a complex act, and is made more challenging if the teaching environment is very complicated as it was in many contexts during the Covid-19 pandemic. This unfavorable context required teachers to engage in regular reflections to make critical decisions about how to respond to the pandemic and its regulations so as to improve their practice. Post pandemic, the current study captures the reflections of two Foundation Phase teachers on implementing an extensive reading program with 40 learners aged between 7-10 years old. The reading program was implemented during COVID-19 lockdown in a township in South Africa. This qualitative, interpretative study used data generation methods of self-reflective journals and focus group discussions to document experiences of the two teachers. Analysis of the reflections show that COVID-19 regulations negatively impacted the successful implementation of the program. However, teachers were overwhelmingly positive about the benefits of implementing the program during this time, as they became reflexive and reflective in their practice. Findings imply that challenges in implementation should not be regarded as obstacles of weakness but as new opportunities of knowledge. Recommendations for implementing reading program post COVID - 19 are provided based on the data collected.