Unit 3: How to implement ER well to support foreign language learning
Introduction
This healthy rich exposure to the target language outside of class will significantly benefit language learners to increase their language skills and motivation. It also provides learners with opportunities to learn the language through more authentic contexts. One of the alternative ways of increasing language skills for learners who have limited exposure to the target language is ER. They can read wherever they want and whenever they want. However, many language learners, even higher-proficiency learners, who have experience of reading in the target language have had unsuccessful reading experience, ending up being in a Catch-22. They need to read in order to improve their language skills, yet face language barriers that force them to tackle them. Because they struggle, they can’t enjoy reading though they have to. It is also true that for lower-proficiency students, the language barrier usually reduces their reading pace, and many language learners feel reading in the target language is painful decoding with a dictionary and bloody tough work. Then, how should ER be implemented? In this final unit, we are going to examine the strategies that would help language instructors as well as learners implement ER in their teaching/learning approaches effectively and give language learners successful reading experiences. The target audience will be able to appraise/support the strategies for ER and utilize it as a supplementary activity to engage and help many potential language learners learn foreign languages in a more meaningful and authentic way.
Learning Activities
Pre questionnaire:
- Some researchers claim that for ER text to be easy, we need to know 98% of the words. What are your thoughts on this?
- Who can do ER?
- When to start ER?
- What to read?
- How long to read?
- How to do it inside the classroom?
- How to assess students’ learning and improvement?
- What is a teacher’s role?
Let’s watch!
Techniques of ER:
Extensive reading techniques https://www.coursera.org/lecture/tesol-writing/video-2-extensive-reading-techniques-XTAgV
After watching the video above,
- Write down some techniques you would like to implement in your teaching approach.
The secret to reading in a new language https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INxf4X-lha4
After watching the video above,
- What did you think?
Let’s read!
Key principles of ER:
A major contribution to developing a common understanding of ER came with the proposal of ten principles by Day & Bamford. They (1998, pp. 84-89) suggest the following principles to set up an ER program;
1. The reading material is easy.
2. A variety of reading material on a wide range of topics must be available.
3. Learners choose what they want to read.
4. Learners read as much as possible.
5. The purpose of reading is usually related to pleasure, information, and general understanding.
6. Reading is its own reward.
7. Reading speed is usually faster rather than slower.
8. Reading is individual and silent.
9. Teachers orient and guide their students.
10. The teacher is a role model of a reader.
ER approaches:
There are two approaches when ER is implemented in foreign language learning: ER-only and ER-plus approaches. ER-plus approach supplements ER with post-reading discussion implemented in small groups. Macalister & Elgort reported that both ER approaches were effective on L2 vocabulary development, yet ER-plus, supplementing ER with discussion, provided opportunities for further development. Also, Green (2005) suggested that teachers should incorporate ER as part of a task-based approach to allow for further engagement with the books that the learners read, instead of incorporating it as a stand-alone activity that reflects the traditional view captured by Day and Bamford (2002). Macalister and Elgort’s finding that the ER-plus group made greater gains than the ER-only group in their knowledge of mid-frequency highlights “the importance of learner-learner interaction, specifically the role that scaffolding of peer knowledge can play in the development of vocabulary knowledge.”
ER in class:
The styles of ER could be: the main focus of a reading course with a combination of, for example, work with a class reader (i.e., students reading a class set of books), SSR, follow-up activities such as students' oral book reports, and homework reading; an add-on to an ongoing reading course with, for example, the first half-hour of class devoted to SSR, and students reading self-selected books for homework; an extra-curricular activity with a teacher guiding and encouraging interested students who read books in their spare time and meet regularly to discuss them (Bamford, J. & Day, R. R., 1997). Equating "authentic" with "written by and for native speakers" is itself a logical fallacy. There are hundreds of excellent, fully-realized books adapted or written for language learners at all levels of proficiency. The quality and variety of such writing in English and other languages is such that it deserves to be called language learner literature, just as there is children's literature and young adult literature. If language learner literature is available in the language you teach, it is the most appropriate material for extensive reading by beginning and intermediate learners. What is important here is that the reading material must be well within the students' linguistic ability (Bamford & Day, 1997).
There are two main steps when we implement ER in our teaching approach:
- Introducing Extensive Reading with class readers
- Individualized reading
Instructing extensive reading: step-by-step is best https://www.er-central.com/contributors/learn-about-extensive-reading-and-listening/how-to-do-extensive-reading/introducing-er/
To explore more, go to the following websites:
English language graded readers: Free graded readers https://freegradedreaders.com/wordpress/
101 ideas for extensive reading and listening http://www.robwaring.org/er/what_and_why/101_ideas.htm
Japanese language graded readings: “日本語多読“ https://tadoku.org/japanese/free-books/
Setting up an extensive reading program: Practical tips readinghttps://jalt-publications.org/tlt/articles/2135-setting-extensive-reading-programme-practical-tips
Discussion:
- How would you like to implement ER in your class referring to the styles introduced by Bamford & Day (1997)? Why?
- What techniques do you value the most？
- What is the role of teachers? Respond to your peers.
Reflection:
- What are your findings in this unit?
- Considering what you have learned in this course, make your extensive reading schedule and share your plan with your peers.
This is the end of this mini-course. We learned the characteristics, effects, and techniques of ER in foreign language learning. Thank you very much for your interest in this topic, and I hope you find this course to be a good chance to better your teaching approach and explore more authentic and engaging ways to help your students improve their language skills. For language learners, I hope this course becomes beneficial to make your journal of language learning more enjoyable and meaningful.
Unit 2: What is the value of ER in foreign language learning?