ようこそ！ Welcome to the Seventh World Congress on Extensive Reading.. In this brief opening ceremony, delegates will be treated to a traditional festival-like performance by the Hokusei Gakuen University Yosakoi Club. Please join us for this exciting start to our biggest ER World Congress yet!

A considerable body of empirical research supports the belief that extensive reading is an effective way for second language learners to develop greater reading fluency. However, recent research indicates that extensive reading alone is not the most effective way to promote greater fluency. In this presentation I first review theories of fluency development proposed by cognitive psychologists and synthesize the key ideas in those studies. This synthesis produces a short list of desirable characteristics of fluency-enhancing reading tasks. I then consider how well extensive reading and other types of reading activities have those desirable characteristics, in what ways these activities appear to be lacking, and how their potential weaknesses can be addressed. This analysis shows that although extensive reading is an indispensable part of a fluency-based reading course, fluency development can be enhanced by using supplementary reading tasks.

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.