IATEFL 2012 Glasgow

1. IATEFL 2012 Glasgow Extensive Reading through Web-based ELT Book Clubs Ian Rogers Zayed University ian.rogers@zu.ac.ae

2. 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

3. 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)

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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.

7. 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

8. 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.

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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'

14. ELT Book Club Delivery Face-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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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.

18. 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.

19. 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

20. 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.

21. 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.

22. Media Reviewer • Searches the Internet to find review that other people have written about the story and to summarize postive, negative or mixed reviews

23. Blog Critic • Posts a review/recommendation of the story on a public class blog.

24. http://eltbookclub.pbworks.com PBWORKS (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

25. 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

26. 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"

27. 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.

28. 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

29. Comments, Questions, Suggestions

30. 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 ian.rogers@zu.ac.ae +971 4 4031379 • ELT Book club (http://eltbookclub.pbworks.com)

31. 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