----- Original Message -----

From: hudson murrell

To: ExtensiveReading@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Monday, November 16, 2009 6:52 AM

Subject: Re: [ExtensiveReading] ER classes in Japan

 

Atsuko
YES we do it here.
1.  Hudson Murrell
2.  Baiko Gakuin University, Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi
3.  hudson_murrell@yahoo.com   
4.  Ummm... it's usually as homework, so it is difficult to see it 'in practice.' 
We have an English Education Center where the students 'check out' most of the texts from, and that is available for viewing most working days. 

---

From: Atsuko Takase <atsukot@jttk.zaq.ne.jp>
To: ExtensiveReading@yahoogroups.com
Cc: 1 ?? ?? <atsukot@jttk.zaq.ne.jp>
Sent: Mon, November 16, 2009 2:07:03 AM
Subject: Re: [ExtensiveReading] ER classes in Japan

 

Dear All,

 

Thank you very much for many replies with the information of your ER classes.

I have found that some of the email sent to me haven't arrived to me or they might have gotten into the spam file and been deleted

(or I might have deleted without noticing). If any of you who sent me email but have not received my return mail, please let me know.

My apologies for the inconveniences. 

 

Though I asked you to send me your information by the 14th (yesterday), I could not finish making the list of ER classes in Japan today.

I will still be working on it during this week. So if any of you who are thinking of offering me your information to be included in the list

I'd like to receive your e-mail.

 

Thank you in advance.

 

Best Regards,

 

Atsuko Takase   

 

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Atsuko Takase

To: ExtensiveReading@ yahoogroups. com

Sent: Friday, November 06, 2009 1:11 AM

Subject: [ExtensiveReading] ER classes in Japan

 

 

Dear All,
 
I am writing a book on Extensive Reading targeted mainly to Japanese teachers of English.
In the book I'd like to introduce institutions where ER is being practiced in Japan.

I'd appreciate it if you would email me directly with the following information by Nov. 14, if you don't mind being included in the list.
 
1. Your name
2. Your work place where ER is being practiced (with prefecture)
3. Your contact email address (if it can be included in the book)
4. Availability of visiting your ER class for teachers who want to start an ER class
 
Thank you in advance.
 
Atsuko Takese

============ ========= =====

----- Original Message -----

From: Thomas N. Robb

To: ExtensiveReading@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Monday, November 16, 2009 8:02 AM

Subject: [Norton AntiSpam] Re: [ExtensiveReading] ER classes in Japan

 

Hi Atsuko,

We do ER but we don't have ER classes but teachers could observe students taking the ER quizzes in one of our computer rooms. 

Would there be an appropriate place in the book to mention the MoodleReader module?  http://moodlereader.org

Thomas Robb
trobb@...-su.ac.jp
Kyoto Sangyo University, Kyoto-fu

Cheers,
  Tom

On Fri, Nov 6, 2009 at 1:11 AM, Atsuko Takase <atsukot@jttk.zaq.ne.jp> wrote:

 

 

Dear All,
 
I am writing a book on Extensive Reading targeted mainly to Japanese teachers of English.
In the book I'd like to introduce institutions where ER is being practiced in Japan.

I'd appreciate it if you would email me directly with the following information by Nov. 14, if you don't mind being included in the list.
 
1. Your name
2. Your work place where ER is being practiced (with prefecture)
3. Your contact email address (if it can be included in the book)
4. Availability of visiting your ER class for teachers who want to start an ER class
 
Thank you in advance.
 
Atsuko Takese

==========================

--
******* Don't miss GLoCALL 2009  in Chiang Mai, Thailand!  *********
************** Dec, 8-11, 2009  http://glocall.org ******************

** Thomas N. Robb, Ph.D., Kyoto Sangyo University, Japan  **
**                       <trobb@...-su.ac.jp>                        **
**           http://www.cc.kyoto-su.ac.jp/~trobb/index.html            **

I have a category called "Children's Books-Native Speakers".  And put
all of them in there. As you say, there's a lot of unusual usage and
vocabulary there which tickles the imagination of Native kids, but will
leave L2 learners scratching their noggins and thumbing through their
dictionaries.

BTW, my great-grandmother's name was Amelia Adelia.
On Nov 16, 2009, at 4:05 PM, Ron Murphy wrote:

> Hi all. I'm wondering if anyone would care to comment on my little
>  "problem"...
>
>  I do the categorizing of graded readers for our English Center's
>  library. I have had a stack of Amelia Bedelia books staring at me
>  for over a week now daring me to choose what category they will go
>  in. Much of the language, of course, is within reach of our
>  students. But there is so much colloquial language that I wonder if
>  it will leave our students confused and frustrated. After all, we
>  are advertising GRs as "easy reading".
>
>  I am considering putting a note on each Amelia book letting the
>  students know that the premise of this series rests on the dual/
>  multiple meanings of certain terms. I recognize the learning
>  potential that this series play-on- words could represent. But most
>  of our students are not eager enough to go to the necessary lengths
>  for such learning to occur.
>
>  Just curious what you all think of Amelia Bedelia in a GR library
>  (not technically GRs, I know), my idea, etc.
>
>  Thanks.
>
>  Ron
>

Hi all.  I'm wondering if anyone would care to comment on my little
"problem"...

I do the categorizing of graded readers for our English Center's
library.  I have had a stack of Amelia Bedelia books staring at me
for over a week now daring me to choose what category they will go
in.   Much of the language, of course, is within reach of our
students.  But there is so much colloquial language that I wonder if
it will leave our students confused and frustrated.  After all, we
are advertising GRs as "easy reading".

I am considering putting a note on each Amelia book letting the
students know that the premise of this series rests on the dual/
multiple meanings of certain terms.   I recognize the learning
potential that this series play-on- words could represent.  But most
of our students are not eager enough to go to the necessary lengths
for such learning to occur.

Just curious what you all think of Amelia Bedelia in a GR library
(not technically GRs, I know), my idea, etc.

Thanks.

Ron

----- Original Message -----

From: Atsuko Takase

To: ExtensiveReading@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Friday, November 06, 2009 1:11 AM

Subject: [ExtensiveReading] ER classes in Japan

 

 

Dear All,
 
I am writing a book on Extensive Reading targeted mainly to Japanese teachers of English.
In the book I'd like to introduce institutions where ER is being practiced in Japan.

I'd appreciate it if you would email me directly with the following information by Nov. 14, if you don't mind being included in the list.
 
1. Your name
2. Your work place where ER is being practiced (with prefecture)
3. Your contact email address (if it can be included in the book)
4. Availability of visiting your ER class for teachers who want to start an ER class
 
Thank you in advance.
 
Atsuko Takese

==========================

Sue Leather has very kindly allowed me to host an edited version of her
'Writing a Really Good Original Reader' on my site. You can find it here:

http://www.eslreading.org/readers/readers/writingareader.html

There's also a link back to the original article.

Many thanks


Kieran

http://www.eslreading.org

Dear Glen,

Students have 70  minutes of SSR in one 80 minutes lesson.
They have some time for selecting books and girls' talking,
so they actuarlly read averagely 60 minutes of SSR in a lesson.
And they also have 10 minutes reading aloud and listening time for
simultaneous reading.

I think "In class reading" is the key to the successful extensive reading.

Akio



>
>
> Akio,
> Do they actually read for the whole 80 minutes or just 30 minutes of
> SSR (which is what I thought you wrote earlier)?  If it's 30 minutes,
> then their reading speed averages out to more than 230 WPM.
> Glenski
>
> On Fri, Nov 6, 2009 at 3:37 PM, Akio FURUKAWA <fakio@...
> <mailto:fakio@...>> wrote:
>
>     Dear Glenn and all,
>
>     In my school, the average total amount of words the students have read
>     in three academic years is about 1 million words.
>     However, a half of the students read English books only in the ER
>     class.
>     (We have 48  80 mitunes lessons in a year. Therefore, they only read
>     78.125 words per minutes.)
>     This the reallity.
>     We have the students read in class, if we want them to read.
>
>     Akio
>
>
>

Many thanks for this info, Tom. These sites look very promising, particularly
the comic-strip one. I'm experimenting at the moment with the 'sliding page'
format for telling stories - will post when I've got something together.

Kieran
http://www.eslreading.org

--- In ExtensiveReading@yahoogroups.com, t mccarthy <speakup@...> wrote:
>
> I don't know if this has been brought to the attention of this list yet or
not, but this site:
> http://tarheelreader.org/
> allows users to easily create their own readers (which can be viewed on-line
or downloaded in a variety of formats).
> Over 5000 English books. The next highest number is Latin (by which I learned
about this service-- believe me, some of the most modern teachers I know teach
Latin.)
>
> There is also:
> http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/
>
> cheers,
> tom mccarthy
> -----
> st. catalina girls high school
> matsuyama, japan
> -----
>
>
> On Monday, November 09, 2009, at 08:13PM, "dk" <davekees1@...> wrote:
> >
>

I don't know if this has been brought to the attention of this list yet or not, but this site:
http://tarheelreader.org/
allows users to easily create their own readers (which can be viewed on-line or downloaded in a variety of formats).
Over 5000 English books. The next highest number is Latin (by which I learned about this service-- believe me, some of the most modern teachers I know teach Latin.)
There is also:
http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/
cheers,
tom mccarthy
-----
st. catalina girls high school
matsuyama, japan
-----
On Monday, November 09, 2009, at 08:13PM, "dk" <davekees1@...> wrote:
>

I have also noted that many of my (16-19) students prefer reading onscreen -
even with the problems that conventional screens pose. Personally I
instinctively print off articles etc but I think kids see this as
unnecessary fuss. And from a webmaster's point of view, printing is a
nightmare - I have taken to using Scribd for my site but have only recently
discovered that there are printing problems related to this. Interestingly
none of my visitors have informed me of this, which perhaps suggests that
the materials are being used online

I am also seriously thinking of getting a mini-series of e-readers. With
regard to having an 'official' standard I have mixed feelings. I think it
would be good from the point of view of pointing potential readers in the
right direction but it would need to flexible in terms of allowing different
approaches. I don't want to return to the world where the Penguin editor
told me I couldn't use the word Jaws in the eponymous reader because it was
not on his official list!

Kieran

http://www.eslreading.org/

Dear Glenn and all,

In my school, the average total amount of words the students have read
in three academic years is about 1 million words.
However, a half of the students read English books only in the ER class.
(We have 48  80 mitunes lessons in a year. Therefore, they only read
78.125 words per minutes.)
This the reallity.
We have the students read in class, if we want them to read.

Akio

 

Richard (and all),
Re: lack of time
I always joke about that with students who give me the same reply.  Yeah, yeah, I know uni students' lives are busy with clubs, meeting new people, learning new surroundings, etc.  HOWEVER, do you have 10 or 15 minutes free every day?  They always say yes, especially if I point out commuting time, time while doing lab experiments or laundry, or lunch time.

Then, I have them.  Use the 10-15 minutes to read.  Since the average student reads 100 words/minute, you can tell them how many pages they can finish.  The trick is to get them to do it daily (or at least very often).

My data on 100 WPM comes from 160 students or so (average was actually 110 WPM), and the range was incredibly large (35-50 at the low end, and 270 at the upper end).  Not all the upper end readers had good speaking or listening ability, either.

No time?  Nope.  I don't buy it, and neither should they be able to use it as an excuse.  Of course, we not only have to point this out to them, but we have to engage them in the act of reading in class first.  Bait, hook, reel them in.

Glenski

On Fri, Nov 6, 2009 at 1:37 PM, Lemmer Richard <richard@cjc.ac.jp> wrote:

 

Hi Akio,

Thanks for the quick response. The reason I asked is that I conducted a
survey about students' reading habits and preferences and although I
have yet to write it up and finish the analysis of the data, my results
were a little different. It may be an apples and oranges topic since you
were speaking about the level of difficulty in two levels of graded
readers published by one company and I was asking about why each student
did not read more in English. All participants were in ER classes at two
universities in Okayama. The majority were from Okayama University.

Of the 100 respondents, only 33 in the pre and 12 in the post cited
"difficulty" as the reason. Good news as the ER class appears to have
helped them to imporve thier reading skills. The main reason given, and
I believe this mirrors others research, was "lack of time"; 47 for pre
and 62 for post administration. I guess this means that time spent on
their studies, club activities and part-time jobs increased as the
semester progressed. An earlier pilot showed basically the same results.
The participants were from various faculties, including engineering, but
I haven't broken down results by faculty yet.

Richard

" I asked the students who came to my lecures if OBW0 and OBW1 were
easy to read or not. I got the data then.
Most of the students majored in science."

_

Hi Akio,

Thanks for the quick response. The reason I asked is that I conducted a
survey about students' reading habits and preferences and although I
have yet to write it up and finish the analysis of the data, my results
were a little different. It may be an apples and oranges topic since you
were speaking about the level of difficulty in two levels of graded
readers published by one company and I was asking about why each student
did not read more in English. All participants were in ER classes at two
universities in Okayama. The majority were from Okayama University.

Of the 100 respondents, only 33 in the pre and 12 in the post cited
"difficulty" as the reason. Good news as the ER class appears to have
helped them to imporve thier reading skills. The main reason given, and
I believe this mirrors others research, was "lack of time"; 47 for pre
and 62 for post administration.  I guess this means that time spent on
their studies, club activities and part-time jobs increased as the
semester progressed. An earlier pilot showed basically the same results.
The participants were from various faculties, including engineering, but
I haven't broken down results by faculty yet.

Richard


" I asked the students who came to my lecures if OBW0 and OBW1 were
easy to read or not. I got the data then.
Most of the students majored in science."