[MUSIC] Welcome back to Teach English Now. In our last video we met Coach Hare. A legendary reading coach that teaches in a particular way. That way, in the real world, is called extensive reading. And we wanted to spend a little time going over some of the basic concepts and techniques that our modern teacher uses in order to engage students in extensive reading practice. First of all, as you may have noticed from the last video, extensive reading has at least two purposes. To help learners enjoy reading and to give learners a healthy amount of exposure. While some critics, as our reporter suggested, tend to feel that just giving students a lot of free time to read is a somewhat lazy approach. Advocates of extensive reading are insistent that helping learners develop a passion and love for reading is crucial for a lifetime habit of reading. Furthermore, these advocates rightly suggest that those who read entire books are at a decidedly large advantage to those who might read small paragraphs. Since extensive readers will be exposed to thousands of vocabulary words that other readers simply do not encounter through the small vocabulary lists found in a language classroom. Consider, for example, that studying 20 words a week for 36 weeks, an average school year, for 12 years still only equals about 8,640 words. And yet, good readers often know seven times that. How do they do it? Proponents would say, it isn't done in a classroom, it is done through extensive reading. In 1992, Anderson Anagni reported that if learners read 25 minutes a day, and learned just a few new words, that they are unfamiliar with that they will likely learn 1,000 new words in a single year. That is some serious speed. And remember, it isn't just new words that learners acquire when they read for pleasure, but learners also reinforce their knowledge of words they already know, build their world knowledge and discourse knowledge, and gain insights into interesting stories and ideas. Extensive reading is an exciting part of a language learning environment. But how does a teacher create an extensive reading environment? Here are a few techniques. Newspaper Corners. Many extensive reading coaches tend to provide newspaper or newspaper links to students that they must read for homework. Students are allowed to choose whichever article they want to read and study. Students are required to report on their reading when they arrive in class, either in partners or in groups. Students may also be asked to summarize or paraphrase their findings. A teacher may invite several students to share what they found on any given news day and share his or her insights into the news as well. Several websites provide easy, intermediate, and advanced versions of the news for ESL readers. Reading Zones. Setting up a reading zone is a way of creating a comfortable space for learners. A reading zone might be an entirely separate room at some schools, where reading and English is encouraged. There might also be movies and games to encourage language learning, in general. But the concept of a reading zone is that it serves primarily as a comfortable place where students can read. This is different from a library in that it should feel like a space that students can let her their hair down so to speak. Bean bag chairs, comfortable couches and walls littered with books, colorful posters, and even competition charts to encourage students to out perform each other. Like a summer book club for those of you who know what that means. Reading Logs. Giving students a goal other than reading comprehension can shift their focus away from precision and towards something a bit more relaxing and exciting. Number of pages read, by encouraging learners to expose themselves to language, learners tend to find books that interest them and read at a faster rate. By having classroom goals or competitions, I used to do competitions every Monday, students can be further motivated to achieve a goal or to win a prize. I once promised my students that if they all read over 200 pages a week, collectively, I would do a samba in the middle of a busy street. Did they do it? They sure did. Did I do it? Absolutely. Evaluative Exercises. One of the most difficult parts of extensive reading is that learners are basically on their own, and choosing material that they want to focus on. So how do you test student knowledge? How do you assess if they have actually done what you have asked them to do? Most evaluative instructors use book reports, outlines, and presentations to help learners demonstrate the knowledge they have gained from extensive reading. A book report generally consists of a summary of the main ideas of the reading. However, a book report can also be much more. It can be an exploration of a favorite character, the setting, the historical background or other details from the reading. It could also include a short discussion of a favorite scene, an opinion about the reading, and any number of questions you wish to ask in the book report. There are a number of book report templates to choose from online. And we recommend you find one that allows you to feel comfortable with the amount and quality of the work necessary to prove that they have truly done the reading. An outline is another way of inviting learners to show their knowledge of the reading. Asking students to fill out an outline gives them the experience of learning how to distinguish main ideas from specific details and can give them experience in learning how different forms of discourse are organized. I especially like asking learners to create outlines for newspaper articles or for professional writing such as description, narration, exposition, and argumentative essays. Presentations are also useful ways for learners to demonstrate their knowledge of a book. Asking learners to carefully consider a certain number of categories will ensure that students do not simply plagiarize a source, which some students will do by copying a summary found on a web. The inclusion of categories such as top ten new vocabulary words or top ten reasons I love or hate this book, is a good way to ensure that students give information that is not easily copied. In conclusion, extensive reading strategies are great ways to help learners to get passionate about reading. This is truly a student centered approach, in that the students are put in charge of their own learning and given opportunities to explore. But you might be asking, can learners actually find readings that are appropriate for them in another language? This is where your expertise at finding materials that might meet their needs is so crucial. Did you notice that Mr. Hare has experience with knowing what books might be at the right level for each student? In other words, you may need to balance student autonomy and their desire for authentic readings with the readability of the text. Is the book too hard for a student? Well here's a quick rule of thumb for testing readability. While they read a single page, have students hold up a finger for each word that they do not know, if they hold up more than five fingers for children, or ten fingers for adults, the reading is probably too hard. Finally, you may also have noticed that some of the criticism leveled against Mr. Hare is that he is a lazy teacher. And there are no doubt some teachers posing as Mr. Hare that simply have students sit quietly at their desk, while the teachers themselves, take a nap. When encouraging students to read extensively, you may wish to spend time individually with students, calling them up and asking them about their interests, their ideas, and what kinds of readings you might want to recommend for them. All in all, I love extensive reading. The very concept of a learner as an explorer, trying to understand the world through reading, is an empowering and motivating one. And extensive reading, when done right, can help to inspire curiosity and a desire to understand the world. [MUSIC]
