All Levels I give permission to record or livestream Presentation (45 minutes)
We have to do it ourselves ... Writing Graded Readers
Recently many publishers are increasingly disinterested in developing graded readers, and no longer prioritize promoting their existing graded reader catalogs, leading to these valuable resources becoming largely unavailable in bookstores worldwide.
This presentation will address this critical issue and propose a solution: educators, researchers, and passionate individuals must take the initiative to create graded readers themselves. By leveraging insights from language teaching and learning needs, this grassroots effort can fill the void left by publishers and ensure a continuous supply of accessible, engaging, and pedagogically sound materials. Practical strategies for independent graded reader development, including collaboration, funding, and digital distribution, will be discussed. The goal is to inspire a movement to sustain and revitalize extensive reading through proactive, community-driven efforts. This presentation will report on two major graded reader writing projects in Thailand and Indonesia and will show was attendees might get involved.
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Dr. Rob Waring, is Emeritus Professor at Notre Dame Seishin University in Okayama. He is an acknowledged expert in Extensive Reading and vocabulary acquisition. He has published over 60 articles and has given hundreds of lectures, plenaries and featured speaker presentations in 32 countries. He is an Executive Board member of the Extensive Reading Foundation responsible for the promotion of Extensive Reading globally. He is also author and series editor of a six series of graded readers by various publishers and has recently published Teaching Extensive Reading in Another Language with Paul Nation.