Mark Brierley
Shinshu University
About
Advocate of Extensive Reading and Low energy building.Sessions
All Levels ER 101: Starting Strong with Extensive Reading more
What is Extensive Reading, and how can we help students get started? What should they read, and how do we build and look after a library that will help them improve? How can we check if students are reading and making progress, without taking away the freedom that ER gives? This practical workshop gives an introduction to ER for teachers new to the approach. It also offers ideas for experienced practitioners who are looking for effective ways to introduce ER to their students, colleagues, or institutions. We will look at a range of rationales for ER including fluency development, vocabulary growth and affective benefits, and discuss how these can be communicated in different teaching contexts. The attendees will also share ideas about text selection, library development, assessment strategies, and the role of the teacher in an ER environment.
College and University Reading Around Graded Readers more
Despite the variety of graded-reader (GR) titles in the major European languages, in their search for a “genuine” reading experience many curious learners and teachers peek beyond these GR at authentic literature. Although “authentic” books might seem incomprehensible for Japanese low-to-intermediate-level learners of German, this search is worthwhile because there are few truly low-level GR available. A previous book analysis of the Gruffalo and the positive feedback from students concerning the enjoyability of such a challenging book further fuel prospects of authentic texts. Considering the Japanese setting this study analyses Manga and children's books for their suitability as extensive reading materials. Keeping an eye on the balance between supporting factors such as pictures, familiarity and shorter idea-units on the one hand, and the challenging grammar and vocabulary on the other, we will present book analyses trying to map out strategies to identify appropriate reading material.
College and University AI supporting ER: Empowering Students as Content Creators more
This presentation introduces an AI-powered platform, currently in development, that transforms students from passive consumers to active creators of reading material. Learners generate personalized stories with AI assistance, creating a dynamic library of student-led content that can be shared within the learning community. The system incorporates adaptive difficulty scaling to align texts with proficiency levels while maintaining coherence. Real-time tracking of student interactions offers insights into engagement and language challenges, with the potential to reveal patterns in content generation, learning trajectories, and attitudes toward reading. Features such as vocabulary support, AI-generated audio narration, and optional comprehension activities may further enhance autonomous learning. We will focus on how AI-driven analysis of student feedback informs refinements to both the system and pedagogical approaches in general. This presentation will showcase how the integration of AI technology can create an engaging, personalized, and data-informed learning environment while maintaining the core principles of extensive reading.