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.

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.

All English teachers believe extensive reading can be very helpful for students. The big question is when and how. Ms. Wu, a public English teacher from Wuhan, China, who was inspired by presentations during ERWC5, started her practice with her G7 students in 2019. Despite big challenges including misunderstandings from the parents, lack of reading hours, no books, and no immediate effect, they kept practicing ER in the classroom during the 3-year pandemic period. In 2022, these students graduated with very positive test scores and most importantly, many students have formed a daily reading habit. The presentation will reveal the secret behind the story.

In order to enrich students’ knowledge and collect important information, students need to have good reading skills. Good reading skills can be built and sharpened by having good reading motivation. Good reading motivation can be initiated by engaging students with reading materials. Motivation in reading can affect students’ reading comprehension, and without motivation, students may have poor reading comprehension. However, it is inevitable that students may face difficulties in their reading which may decrease their reading motivation. In rural areas in Indonesia, there are several obstacles which may affect students’ reading motivation such as lack of learning resources, inadequate facilities, language barriers, and unsupportive parents. Therefore, to maintain their motivation, students need to equip themselves with appropriate reading strategies. The objective of this study is to investigate the English reading motivation, difficulties, and strategies of West Sumba senior high school students. This study uses a descriptive quantitative approach with a survey. The items in the surveys were used to collect data regarding the students’ English reading motivation, difficulties, and strategies. The results of this study indicated varying levels of reading motivation for four different motivational variables, namely self-efficacy, intrinsic, extrinsic, and social issues. Common difficulties faced by students in their reading activities are their interest in watching television or playing with their gadgets rather than reading, problems with their parents, and lack of English reading sources. The strategies that students did to overcome these difficulties were limiting their screen time and asking their teacher to provide more time for them to read English materials in class.

This presentation focuses on how a mini class library with about one thousand books was set up and managed. Additionally, the benefits for classroom activities and homework will be discussed. Around thirty five students from grade 7 read extensively for two years and improvements on student motivation, stamina, and grades were recorded through interviesw, surveys, reading logs , school work, and test papers. The audience will learn how to develop student interest and efficiency in learning English through wide reading in a public junior high school in Shanghai, China.

Research has demonstrated the importance of extensive reading for supporting students’ development as proficient and engaged readers. Among the ten principles listed by Day & Bamford (2002), the presence of interesting texts, the importance of choice, reading for pleasure and reading as much as possible are key elements to encourage students’ independent reading. Given worldwide concern about students’ seeming decline in reading, it is important to consider ways to revitalise practices of extensive reading in schools for both children and adolescents. This panel proposes to extend ways to encourage extensive reading through the use of children’s literature, book clubs, e-resources, and school libraries. In this panel, the presenters will share about how to motivate students’ extensive reading through (1) selective curation of quality children’s literature, (2) conducting online book clubs, and (3) stocking the school library with quality resources for adolescent readers.

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.

This study investigates the impact of Let's Read Asia, a website offering more than 9,000 graded readers, on the literacy development of Indonesian students. The research question is "To what extent can Let's Read Asia website boost the students' literacy development?" As part of a Jesuit institution committed to providing quality education, the researchers align their efforts with Universal Apostolic Preferences (UAP), especially "journeying with youth," by promoting literacy and supporting young people in shaping a brighter future. The study implements Classroom Action Research (CAR) with two cycles and applies the Extensive Reading concept, measuring participants' motivation, enjoyment, and changes in attitude after using Let's Read Asia. The study was conducted through the distribution of questionnaires and face-to-face interviews with selected participants, revealing a positive impact on the literacy development of students. The interviewees were selected as sample participants who have experienced specific literacy challenges or interventions.

This presentation explains a case of an extensive reading (ER) program in a private junior high and high school in Tokyo. The program is a collaboration between the English department and the school library. English teachers already have too much to do that it is a challenge to add ER to the regular curriculum despite the desire to start a program. We will show how the collaboration can overcome the many obstacles in starting ER, such as about the basic collection of materials, a smart way to shelve the books, and the method to keep the circulation moving. We will explain the practice in detail so that teachers willing to start a program at their school will know what to do in the first lesson.

Due to increasing number of sexual abuses and discrimination gender education is turning to critical issue in the Uzbekistani context [1]. However, it is not covered by school curriculums. And, the reasons vary. Some families misunderstand the term while educational authorities claim that “gender education should be included into education system starting from preschool ages…”[2]. Here, ER materials can stand as abuse prevention program to teach young girls on recognizing, avoiding, and reacting on any type of abuse. This study was conducted to evaluate the impact and highlight the role of ER in schoolgirls social-emotional learning (SEL). The presentation will outline the research findings based on pre- and post-intervention surveys and interviews administered to 20 primary schoolgirls. The findings indicate the ER intervention raised girls’ self-awareness and decision-making skills. The audience will learn the research findings and be equipped with strategies for implementing SEL-focused tasks into ER programs at schools.

The concept of Extensive Reading (ER) in the ESL context of Bengal (India) was propounded by West (1920), who concluded that when students read texts they found interesting, their improvement in the target language was immense. Therefore, the present study investigates the implications of ER in English for developing summarizing skills of 45, class 9 students in a girls-only vernacular medium school. Data was collected using questionnaires, one round of focus group interviews and results of the pre-and post-test that were administered before and after the month-long intervention programme on ER. An analysis of the data shows that using ER helped to improve certain elements of writing that are considered necessary for good summarizing skills. The availability of more time could help to bring about greater changes in the reading-writing process. The study has implications for using Classroom ER (Waring, 2012) in EFL and ESL contexts.

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.