It is often recommended that learners not use a dictionary when doing Extensive Reading and instead rely on surrounding context to infer meaning of unknown words. The current research project, supported by a Japanese federal grant, is investigating how access to an integrated dictionary during ER correlates with learners’ ability to accurately guess meaning. Roughly 120 first-year English majors read 200-300,000 words using the ER application Xreading, which offers optional access to glossary definitions. At the beginning and end of the year, students report the reading strategies they use and take a test to gauge their ability to accurately guess meaning from context. This presentation will report results from the first three years of the research project. Results thus far do not indicate overall significant differences between control groups and those allowed dictionary access. Later stages of this research will include further replication and the addition of guessing from context training.

This presentation will highlight the impact of incorporating book-reading activities into the classroom to encourage Japanese elementary school students to learn English. Since the Japanese Ministry of Education (MEXT) officially launched English education at elementary schools in 2020, approximately 70% of students have expressed interest in studying English. However, reading activities remained underutilized in classrooms (MEXT, 2024). To address this, the presenter collaborated with schoolteachers to integrate storybook-based reading activities into lessons, fostering students’ familiarity with English texts. The study involved two classroom teachers and 37 sixth-grade students at a public elementary school in Japan. Activities included weekly teacher-led storytelling using a big book, collaborative reading among students, and independent reading of mini books as homework. Results showed that students improved their receptive test scores and increased their motivation to learn English. This session will provide participants with practical techniques and strategies for effectively integrating reading activities into English instruction.

Some children can read at a high level but beginner readers may struggle performing cognitive tasks such as reading. Therefore, teachers have to learn many reading strategies, teaching methods that can be used to help develop their English language and reading skills. This study aims to improve beginner students' English reading skills by integrating extensive reading practices. For 6 years, students' reading comprehension improved by reading the original text and doing regular exercises after completing the reading task. By using these steps 1. Read with understanding, not speed; 2.Read for 5-10 minutes every day; 3. Use flashcards like CVC, CVCC; 4. Choose interesting books; 99% out of the 200 students in 5 groups at the 8th grade level learned to read well in English, and the remaining 1% needed additional support.

Two teams will debate a controversial topic in the field of Extensive Reading. Watch this space for the topic and to find the members of each team.

Picturebooks offer a powerful way to explore difficult topics and emotions that can be hard to express. This interactive workshop invites participants to engage with two moving picturebooks that address emotional turmoil during challenging times. The workshop begins with an immersive storytelling experience of The Day War Came by Nicola Davies and Rebecca Cobb, allowing participants to reflect on its impact. In the second part, participants will take on an escape room challenge to uncover another poignant picturebook, My Name is Not Refugee by Kate Milner. Through hands-on activities, they will explore how these stories give voice to difficult experiences. By the end of the session, participants will have reflected on their own emotional journeys and contributed to a collaborative "tree of life" filled with inspirational messages. This workshop offers a unique opportunity to use literature as a tool for empathy, discussion, and emotional expression.

Students enrolled in the second year of an elementary school teacher training course read extensively over a three-month period (once a week for 45 minutes x 9). The results of an English writing test (fluency, syntactic complexity, syntactic accuracy, lexical complexity) and a vocabulary survey (150 questions in total, 30 each at the 1000-, 2000-, 3000-, 4000-, and 5000-word levels) conducted before and after the extensive reading program showed no significant growth in writing skills, but significant growth in vocabulary was observed at the 1000-word level, the 4000-word level, and in total. The reflections written by the participants after the 3rd, 6th, and 9th lessons were analyzed qualitatively, and the factors behind the quantitative results were analyzed and implications will be discussed based on these results.

For the past ten years, I have worked as a reading mentor, guiding Korean elementary students in English reading. I’ve seen that children who enjoy coaching and feel happy coming to the reading center are more likely to develop lasting reading habits. This led me to an important insight: before building language skills, we must first build a child’s positive attitude toward English. This presentation shares the “magic” of focusing on strengths. When we recognize and support a child’s strengths, we grow their confidence and love for English. This strength-based approach begins with the teacher. Educators who value their own strengths can better inspire students. Lastly, I will offer practical coaching strategies to help students build a positive bond with English and with themselves. With the right approach, reading becomes a joyful and powerful experience—making Happy Reading a reality.

This presentation highlights the Village Reading Program in Narayanapur, Telangana, designed to foster a reading culture within the community. The initiative trained 100 students to mentor 100 struggling readers, who together visited 797 homes, distributing free books to encourage home libraries and shared reading. To overcome obstacles such as limited engagement with the village library and initial hesitation from families, I planned in advance, selected most of the mentors from my own school for easier coordination, and actively involved the community for support and trust-building. This grassroots effort helped students reach grade-level proficiency and strengthened community bonds. Based on our experience, suggested steps to replicate this program in areas like Indonesia include: selecting student mentors through schools, involving local volunteers, distributing free starter books, conducting home visits, and creating small community reading groups. This program shows that with simple tools and strong local support, a culture of reading can flourish anywhere.

How ‘extensive’ do learners need to read in order to improve their overall English language proficiency? This case study offers valuable data and analysis to shed light on this and other pertinent questions. A sample of 189 university-level students read on average around 200,000 words for 28 hours over an eight-month period, and their English language proficiency was measured via the TOEIC-IP test before and after the reading intervention. Results show a statistically significant average gain of 24 TOEIC points, however, as a close examination of the data in this presentation will reveal, the 200,000 word target is problematic and the assigning of extensive reading as a part of a for-credit university course fraught with challenges. Drawing on this insightful data, this presentation highlights best practices and principles for cultivating sound and sustained extensive reading habits in university-level learners, and avoiding imposing on them an alternative form of ‘extrinsic’ reading.

"The Happy Reading Project" is a specialized curriculum developed for English language immersion kindergartens in Nagoya, Japan, with the objective of fostering essential social-emotional competencies through weekly interactive picturebook read-aloud sessions. As Ghosn (2013) asserts, “Children’s literature not only enhances language learning…but it can also nurture moral reasoning skills, emotional intelligence, and empathy” (p. 39). Building on this premise, the curriculum incorporates a carefully curated selection of almost 30 picturebooks, spanning years K1 to K3, with an emphasis on first cultivating self-awareness before progressing to social awareness and balance. Supplementary lesson plans offer kindergarten teachers structured guidance on pre-, during, and post-reading activities, including art, music, games, and movement-based exercises. This presentation will provide detailed teacher feedback on the project's impact on both young learners and educators, providing insights into its initial successes and the ongoing challenges observed during its first implementation across kindergarten classrooms in the 2024/25 academic year.

Students often see reading course books and test papers as a chore, lacking enthusiasm. Having developed a love for extensive reading by learning Vietnamese through Manga and novels, I have gained valuable insights into the process. This workshop begins with a 30-minute interactive presentation as attendees discover my own extensive reading journey through hands-on activities. A 60-minute practical session follows, where participants will learn how to help students select engaging readers, like Manga, based on the students’ interests. Then, work in groups to design follow-up activities using online tools and create questions to spark students’ curiosity for further reading. Participants will then connect these activities to their own teaching contexts and curriculums. 15-minute group discussions/peer feedback with questions concludes the workshop. Participants will learn how to uncover student interests, construct engaging questions that instill a genuine love of reading back into their classrooms, and integrating these into their curriculums.

Emotional well-being is an important factor in students’ academic performance and overall development. Extensive reading (ER), when designed as a low-pressure and enjoyable activity, can help address stress and support emotional health. This study explored how ER activities outside the classroom provided a relaxing reading experience for university students. The program allowed students to select texts freely without formal assessments. Semi-structured interviews and observations were conducted to understand how ER affected their stress levels and motivation. Findings suggest that ER helps students feel more relaxed, emotionally supported, and motivated to read more. This session will share activities used in the program and offer ideas for using ER to support students’ mental health and engagement beyond the classroom.

Many educators include graded reading in their courses based on research evidence outlining the potential to improve learner motivation (McLean & Poulshock, 2018) and develop language learning (Grabe & Stoller, 2019; Nation & Waring, 2019). Winning over reluctant readers poses a challenge. However, insights into what caught the interest of readers putting in the most time and effort in a reading project have merit. This session shares student-approved, case study statements covering past experiences, recent success with graded reading and MReader quizzes, and future reading. While not all learners see the light, better understanding the lived experience of these readers provides a window into the potential to engage other learners by process, texts, and support. The two-fold aim is to inform teachers for their practice but also to reward these students with an opportunity to share their reflections in live, recorded, and transcribed interviews in English at an academic conference.

Since 2023, I have implemented an extensive reading program for newly enrolled sixth - graders. A year later, Shanghai began its new curriculum reform. This presentation highlights a personally - devised 10 - Tier Reading System in a Chinese public school, where the students are aged 11 - 12. The system started with the traditional Chinese comic story Journey to the West (Lexile ~ 350L) and advanced to novels such as Frindle. After one year, it has yielded significant outcomes: an average reading volume of 200,000 words per year (with the word count recorded in their reading logs) and a 38% growth in vocabulary knowledge (measured by a vocabulary test app). Combined with ER and the newly-reformed text books, this system has effectively transformed some struggling readers into more confident ones.

The author analyzed the reading histories of 42 students in an ER program in Japan. They joined the program at 15 years old and read a million words or more of English texts for five to seven years. They were divided into three groups depending on their TOEIC score increase rate: 57, 121, and 187 points per million words on average. Their readability levels (Yomiyasusa-level: YL) and the total words read were analyzed. The lowest score-increase group had read 2.2 million total words and was reading the texts of YL 3.2 on average. In comparison, the highest score-increase group had read ‘fewer’ 1.2 total words and was reading ‘easier-to-read’ text of YL 2.1 when they both scored TOEIC 500. The result suggests that the optimum readability levels for Japanese elementary-level EFL learners are around YL 2.5 or even lower when their TOEIC scores are 500.

As the population of 18-year-olds declines in Japan, the number of international students has increased in recent years. This presentation focuses on the impact of ER on international students enrolled in a range of EFL courses at a Japanese university from 2020 to 2024. Sixty-four students from 10 countries participated in 17 classes with Japanese peers. Since 2020, X-Reading has been used online in ER classes, while paper books in others. The reading target varies by class (native books for a fluent student). The presenter will show the reading amount, the series and tasks/activities they liked, and the results of the C-Test. She will include the data on their educational backgrounds and motives for taking English classes. The results from the comprehensive class survey have provided positive support for implementing ER linguistically and/or affectively. Overall, ER conducted in a globalized learning environment created synergy for the international and Japanese students.