Alina Friel
Shokei Gakuin University, Yamagata University and Tohoku University
About
Alina Friel is an experienced and passionate educator dedicated to fostering communication and confidence in her students. With a strong background in teaching across various age groups and settings, she creates student-centered classrooms that encourage curiosity, collaboration, and growth. Alina is especially interested in the power of extensive reading to build language fluency and deepen students’ connection with English. In both her teaching and personal life, she believes in the transformative impact of stories and the lifelong joy of learning.Sessions
All Levels Four Practical Tools to Add to the ER Teacher`s Toolkit: A Workshop more
While appropriate difficulty and compelling content are essential for extensive reading, “linked skills activities” (Nation, 2024) that incorporate students` reading can further enhance learner engagement in coursework. This workshop aims to introduce four tools to use with ER and provide teachers with actual practice and takeaway materials. Reading Circles (Furr, 2009) include unique roles for students to address in discussions on common reading texts. Six Hats Thinking is a structured discussion format where participants first adopt a shared perspective before exploring others and can be used for selecting books. Mini-Bibliobattle is a 3-minute oral book report competition where attendees share their different favorite books and Q&A sessions decide a champion title. ER with Audio Support explains how reading-while-listening is key for development in young learners where novice readers decode words with phonics using audio/visual cues to aid comprehension. The sessions will share guidelines for instruction and feedback, and student reactions.
