iatefl 2012 glasgow
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IATEFL 2012 Glasgow. Extensive Reading through Web-based ELT Book Clubs Ian Rogers Zayed University [email protected]. Presentation Overview. Students at Zayed University Academic Bridge Program (ABP) Developing a Culture of Reading ELT Book Club – 'Reading Circles' evolved - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
IATEFL 2012 Glasgow
Extensive Reading through
Web-based ELT Book Clubs
Ian Rogers
Zayed University
Presentation Overview Students at Zayed University Academic Bridge
Program (ABP) Developing a Culture of Reading ELT Book Club – 'Reading Circles' evolved Delivery: face-to-face, online, distance & beyond Description of Student Roles Glance at the Website and Materials Student Feedback and Results Extension Questions, Comments, Suggestions, Discussion
Learn to Read, Read to Learn. Read to Enjoy and Enjoy to Read. A novel is a garden carried in the pocket
(Arabian proverb) The person who does not read books has no
advantage over the person that cannot read them (Mark Twain)
If the reader find pleasure, let him continue. If not, let him throw the book away. The only criterion in the end is pleasure; all the other arguments are worthless (Claude Simon)
Profile of Zayed University Learners Arab Emirati students, 17-23 – IELTS 3 - 4 Primary/secondary education – little emphasis
on reading in English or Arabic Over 90% of learners admit they never read
English for pleasure Reading scores lowest of all skill areas on
placement tests Students exit the remedial English program into
University majors programs with insufficient reading proficiency
Developing a Culture of Reading Extensive Reading approach
Improve reading ability in exams Improve writing Extend vocabulary Increase motivation to read in English Increase enjoyment of homework Develop knowledge of the world
Extensive Reading
Krashen's (2006, p.2) 'pleasure hypothesis' argues that learners who read for pleasure instead of preparation for assessments will still improve their reading proficiency just as effectively as when being taught in reading skills and strategies.
Extensive Reading
Robb and Susser (1989) in extensive reading testing with Japanese students found that by reading what they want to read, students' motivation to learn increases and naturally will benefit the overall language development
Extensive Reading
Day and Bamford (1998) maintain that ER programs increase vocabulary, improve knowledge of how the language works, builds knowledge of genre and different text types and develops awareness and understanding of the outside world -- all which aid fluency and comprehension.
Extensive Reading
Steffensen and Joag-Dev (1984):
….reading comprehension is a function of cultural background knowledge...If readers possess the schemata assumed by the writer, they understand what is stated and effortlessly make the inferences intended. If they do not, they distort meaning as they attempt to accommodate even explicitly stated propositions to their own pre-existing knowledge structures. (p.61)
Preparing students for university majors
Literature Circles
Harvey Daniels' (1994) Literature Circles; Voice and Choice in the Student-Centered Classroom
Collaborative learning and student-centered tasks Oxford University Press ”Bookworms” readers
(Furr & Bassett, 2007) – include literature circles tasks with student roles
Readers chosen to be suitable for student levels. Grabe and Stoller (2002) – 95% mastery of words to read fluently and easily
Reading Circles Peter B. McLaren, Creating a Culture of
Reading - Reading Circles and Class Libraries: Getting our Students to Read (2009) -- based on the OUP "Bookworms" series (Furr & Bassett, 2007)
Small groups of readers engage in thoughtful dialogue No right or wrong answers – low stress learning Each learner has a distinct and important role to play Adaptable to any level, age group, culture or
background
Reading Circles → Book Club Students meet for an hour once a week through
the term Student roles (rotate each week)
Discussion Coordinator Real-Life Connector Vocabulary Finder (1 & 2) Language Structure Master Blog Critic Media Reviewer Passage Presenter
ELT Book Club Adapted reading circles roles
To increase outside the box thinking, and outside the class participation
Included instruction of reading skills/strategies and elements of story
Reading Power Series (H.D.Brown) Developed web-based element
Class posts work on group wiki Chat applet (reviewable by instructor) Public book club blog Further amelioration of the 'fear factor'
ELT Book Club DeliveryFace-to-face elements
Assigning groups Defining roles and responsibilities Ensuring students can access website(s) Instruction of reading skills/strategies and elements of
story Choice and distribution of reading materials Book club discussion and presentation Assessment
ELT Book Club Delivery
Web-based elements Ss use online dictionary and search for book reviews Ss share written work on group wiki – allows for
comment on each other's posts Ss post reviews on a public class blog Ss can utilize a chat applet to pose and respond to
discussion questions T can read student posts and chat record No paper – especially with incorporation of e-books
ELT Book Club Delivery Distance learning potential
Chat applets, forums, wikis and Google talk/Skype allow for teachers to have students post materials, questions, replies and have discussion without being face-to-face
ELT Book Club can be coordinated between two teachers at two campuses/schools anywhere in the world
Interested students will continue to post on the blog and might start their own extracurricular book club
Discussion Coordinator
Responsible for asking meaningful questions to the group and moderating discussion through follow-up questions and by contributing information.
Comments on other student reports.
Real Life Connector
Provides insight into how the story can relate to the outside world - personally, culturally and societally. Provides examples of similar stories which happened in real life.
Vocabulary Finder 1 & 2
Searches through the text to find new, strange, interesting, challenging and relevant vocabulary to share with the group. Provides the place in the story where the word can be found as well as an English definition. In larger groups, the role can be split into 1 (searches for words related to setting) and 2 (searches for words related to characters).
Situates group members at the appropriate place in the reading
Language Structure Master
Looks for evidence and provides examples of grammatical structures that have been covered in class or are new and challenging for the student.
Passage Presenter
Finds an interesting, important and/or poignant passage from the story to share to the group, detailing why he/she chose this particular passage.
Media Reviewer
Searches the Internet to find review that other people have written about the story and to summarize postive, negative or mixed reviews
http://eltbookclub.pbworks.comPBWORKS (http://www.pbworks.com)
For class wiki FAST, free, simple, customizable, templates Paid version allows multiple sites to be copied
POSTEROUS (http://www.posterous.com) For class blogs Can post to blog through email High traffic
ZOHO (http://chat.zoho.com) For embedded chat
Program Evaluation
Student Success McLaren (2009) Reading Circles study – 12.5%
increase in overal reading scores ABP Book Club – 2 classes – 8 weeks – average final
reading scores 4.5% higher than 6 other classes at the same level – 72% - 76.5%
Instructor Observations High level of homework/task completion, learners
more engaged than traditional reading skills classes Successful in terms of affective influence
Student Comments "Before I don't like to read. I like to now read
book and watch movie after. Harry potter, twilight"
"I learn about mark tawain, shakespare and read jurasic park about dinosaur"
"Book club is interesting I learn about lot of English vocabulary. I like to writing class blog."
"My reading improve from book, help me do better on exams, and fun :)
"Interesting to learning of how to make a story, character, setting, plot. Now I write my own story."
"I learned many new vocabulary words"
"I improve my writing and grammar and vocabulary. i enjoy read books and after watch movie of book"
ELT Book Club Summary An effective, fun and engaging extensive
reading program which can be easily adapted to any learning context, for a variety of different reading materials and delivered in both a traditional face-to-face setting, a web-based format or a combination of both.
Qualitative and quantitative study demonstrates that it is effective at improving student reading scores as well as increasing interest in reading and reducing learning anxiety.
Extension Projects
Cross-cultural Book Club - group of students in Taiwan reading the same books as my students in Dubai and collaborating on ELT Book Club
E-Books, ELT Book club iPad app Developing and adapting book club for:
Graphic novels / comic books Foreign films (subtitles teach reading) Current events or academic reading
About Ian Rogers has 8 years experience teaching
EFL/ESL to child and adult learners in China, Canada and the UAE. He holds a Master of Education in TESL from the University of Calgary.
Instructor, Academic Bridge Program
Box 19282, Academic City
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
[email protected] +971 4 4031379 ELT Book club (http://eltbookclub.pbworks.com)
References Day, R., & Bamford, J. (1998). Extensive reading in the second language
classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Furr, M. & Bassett, J. (2007). Oxford bookworms club bronze stories for reading circles. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Grabe, W. & Stoller, F.L. (2002). Teaching and researching reading. New York: Longman.
Krashen, S.D. (2006). Stephen Krashen: Pleasure reading. Young Learners Special Issue, Spring 2006, pp. 2-4.
McLaren, P.B. (2006) Creading a Culture of Reading – Reading Circles and Class Libraries: Getting Our Students to Read. Cultivating Real Readers, HCT General Education Series, Book 2
Robb, T.N., & Susser, B. (1989). Extensive reading vs. Skills building in an EFL context. Reading in a Foreign Language, 5(2), 239-251.
Steffenson, M.S., & Joag-Dev, C. (1984). Cultural knowledge and reading. In J.C. Alderson & A.H. Urquhart (Eds.). Reading in a foreign language (pp.48-64). London: Longman