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On 6 August 2022 I was privileged to be able to present an IATEFL webinar on my views on the application of Extensive Reading as a means of providing students with one essential that is often lacking from their English learning – the opportunity to practice what they have studied. Unfortunately, there wasn’t sufficient time to address the 30+ questions that had accumulated during my talk, so I’d like to cover as many as possible in this blog, within the strict word limit.

The rationale for Extensive Reading can be explained like this. In many classroom contexts around the world, there is an overemphasis on covering the material in the textbook and various forms of assessment which leaves little or no time in class for students to simply read for information rather than focusing on the grammar and vocabulary of what they are studying.

Dr. Paul Nation’s “Four Strands” concept advocates providing more opportunities for students to practice meaning-focused activities for all four skills, as well as time for fluency activities where they can use the language that they already know. Meaning-focused receptive activities (reading and listening), meaning-focused production (speaking and writing), and fluency activities on all skills should each comprise 25% of the students’ overall language learning time. This leaves only 25% for language-focused studythat in many classes comprises 90% or more of class time.

Definition of “Extensive Reading”

The basic concept is for students to read a LOT of material, focusing on the meaning rather than the language. This generally precludes reading material used in the standard texts since it is designed to expose the students to new language – vocabulary and grammar – with little time available for other 3 strands of language practice. Self-selection of reading material, reading at one’s own pace with material that it sufficiently easy to be read fluently with little dictionary look-up is the norm.  These criteria are usually met by having students read from graded readers that they select themselves from a library with a wide range of topics and ability levels.

Below are the main categories of questions, with my responses.

Materials

Where can I find the extensive reading material?

“Graded Readers” are the best source since they have been written in graduated steps to make it easy for students to read fluently with little recourse to a dictionary. “Leveled Readers” designed for native learners are usable, although they often contain vocabulary and idioms that native children might know but our learners do not.

Online material is also available, but care must be used that it is suitably graded.  Two sites that I recommend are:https://er-central.com  and https://readtheory.org.  Both are free and permit you to register and track your students’ progress, but of course this assumes that the students have sufficient online access.

Another site which has PDFs of some graded readers and lists of online material at various reading levels is https://freegradedreaders.com, much of which can be printed out and distributed to your students.

As a last resort, you might try taking some digital texts that are too difficult for your students and running them through software such as “Vocabprofile” on https://lextutor.ca which would flag the words that your student might not understand by comparing them to a prepared list of words commonlystudied or known by learners, such as the New General Service List. You can then simplify the text down to a level they might understand or perhaps provide a list of definitions for the difficult items.

Getting the students to read

When dealing with intact classes, not everyone will be excited to read – even if the books are at their own reading level and of potential interest. If you have a small number of students, you can talk to them regularly about their reading, but in the case of large classes or have multiple classes, this is not feasible. Often some kind of tracking, be it a reading log, feedback sheets requiring simple, brief responses or a wall chart will encourage many to continue to read. Setting a target, often based on each books’ word count will give them a tangible goal and a grade on their ER, pegged to the number of words read can be a great incentive.

Where to read

While some activity in class is needed in order acquaint them with the basic principles of selecting easy books, how to read quickly without worrying about perfect comprehension, etc., but having the students read outside of class is ideal since it does not interfere with the already overloaded curriculum. This, of course, implies that the students can take their reading home. ER can also be conducted in class where a specific period of time, perhaps 15 minutes is scheduled for it daily.

Following up

While students who become excited about their reading might continue to read without further pushing, most students would prefer to use their free time on other activities, such as other preferred subjects, sports or social endeavours.Follow-up activities will vary depending on whether they have read different books (the usual case) or the same one, such as when using a “class reader”. Either way, structured small group discussions will provide a handy way to increase their understanding of what they have read and sharing their thoughts might stimulate the others to read the same book. If their speaking proficiency allows, they can present the book in English (perhaps with a few days warning to make it an English fluency activity), but even a discussion in their own L1 can be beneficial. Bamford & Day (2004) contains a wealth of crowd-sourced ideas for follow-up activities.

How old do students have to be?

The earlier the better! Of course, the students must have recognition ability for the first 100-200 commonly taught words, but this is sufficient since many books for children are available that use limited vocabulary. Books in NGL/Cengage’s Foundations graded series start with a headword count of just 75 words.

Links to books and software mentioned in this blog are available here.

The original webinar: IATEFL members can watch the recordind of the original webinar by logging onto the IATEFL website, selecting ‘My Resources’ and searching for ‘Extensive Reading’.

About Thomas N. Robb

Thomas Robb, Ph.D., University of Hawaii, is Professor Emeritus, Kyoto Sangyo University. He is a long-time user of CALL and the Internet, and has created a number of websites and applications for Extensive Reading, student projects, interactive learning and professional exchange. He has held numerous leadership positions in International TESOL, JALT (Japan) and PacCALL. He is now on the steering committee of the IATEFL LitSIG and is Chair of the Extensive Reading Foundation. He is also the Editor of TESL-EJ,  the first online journal for ELT.

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Pop culture in the form of movies, songs and other forms of mass media can infuse a whole lot of fun in the teen classroom while also supporting learning.

In one of my early creative writing classes many years ago, I happened to ask my students if they knew what “MTV” was.  The mention of the erstwhile epitome of pop music was received by a collective blank stare from my class of  ten 13-year-olds.

After what seemed like an endless period of silence, one student said quietly , “I think I may have heard of it,” almost as if to console and assure me that I was not the ‘uncool’ one for asking if they knew about the now obsolete music channel. I almost wanted to ask incredulously “ How could you not have heard of MTV?!” Instead, I took a deep breath and explained, “ It was like YouTube on TV with mostly music videos.” Fortunately, I saw a few slow nods.

Teaching teens is always dicey. Add the online component and you have string of new challenges– cameras switched off, silent break out rooms and frequently flagging interest levels. The last thing you need, therefore, is unrelatable content be it an online or offline class.  

Pop culture references, when used right, can be a great way to engage your teen students and connect with them. In fact, if you use songs and movie clips in your classroom, you are already using pop culture!

Here are some of my top tips of using pop culture effectively in the teen classroom :

Get to know your students’ interests

The ice-breakers and getting- to- know- you activities typically done on the first day of the semester are a great opportunity to make a note of your students’ interests, likes and dislikes which will then help you tailor the content to their needs. 

The classic ‘Would you rather’ ice breaker can be easily adapted to include pop culture references which could raise the fun level a few notches. Here are a few examples :

Would you rather read the Harry Potter books or watch the movies?

Would you rather watch Harry Styles in concert or BTS?

Here’s another fun activity — let students introduce themselves by writing a tweet of 280 characters. Encourage them to use fun and relevant hashtags. Always remember to do a demo first before you ask the students to do the task. 

It was in one such ice breaker activity I realised my students’ love for Percy Jackson. Knowing this then helped me use some lessons based on the Percy Jackson books, which turned out to be a hit.

One of my favourite activities is around the last few minutes of this incredible video of Akala freestyling a track which has 16 of Shakespeare’s quotes interwoven in them. Watching this has inspired many a brilliant slam poetry performances in my class.

Let students become the teachers

Teens, especially older ones, are on the precipice of becoming adults and often prefer to be treated as grown-ups rather than as children. Allowing them to take the lead at times gives them the sense of responsibility they crave. I have learned to relinquish some control while teaching teens and allow them to lead the class. For instance, while teaching blogging, I used to often show them the usual platforms like Blogger and WordPress. However, it was my students who introduced me to more exciting platforms like Wix and Weebly for which they created accounts under the supervision of their parents. 

Once you become familiar with their interests, use these topics to generate discussions and focus on language points. This blog post on Kanye West could evoke quite a few heated discussions!

Stay cool to be cool

While sharing fun videos and memes in class is a great way to build rapport with students, it is important to ensure that the content is culturally and age appropriate. Additionally, since pop culture elements are largely pieces of creativity, it is also important to check the copyright guidelines related to them. 

So, the next time you want to strengthen the rapport with your new batch of teen students or just zhuzh up the class a bit, don’t be afraid to bring in a little bit of song, dance and even drama!

About Ananya Banerjee

 

Ananya is a trainer and teacher-trainer at British Council, India, with over seven years of experience and specializes in teaching young learners and creative writing. She has the CELTA and DELTA qualifications from the University of Cambridge. When not working, she can be found reading a fast-paced thriller, practising yoga, or watching reruns of her favourite shows. She can be reached on LinkedIn here.

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If you are a member of IATEFL and would like to contribute to the blog, we’d love to hear from you at [email protected]. We’re looking for stories from our members, news about projects you’ve been involved in, and anything else you think those connected to English language teaching would be interested in reading. We look forward to hearing from you! If you’re not a member, why not join us?

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The age structure of IATEFL shows that at the moment most members are in their forties or fifties, while the percentage of the youngest, those in their twenties, is more than three times lower than either of the strongest two age groups. Here’s an interview with a young IATEFL member and a young teacher, who has been with us for just over a year. Mojca Belak has interviewed her for Views. 

Mojca: Kristina, you have now been a member of IATEFL for a bit more than a year. Why did you join?

Kristina: I don’t think I have told you this before, but it was you who made me enthusiastic about IATEFL. In 2015, you invited your students to prepare short presentations for the international conference organized by IATEFL Slovenia. I was a BA student then, and I plucked up the courage to give it a go. I still remember the welcoming atmosphere at the conference; I was also surprised to see even the more experienced participants showing great interest in discovering new things. I believe a good teacher never stops searching for fresh ideas: new times bring new generations of students with different worldviews, expectations, and needs, which is what every teacher has to consider.

Mojca: You’re quite right, and IATEFL provides both professional growth and sharing ideas. How in particular has being part of IATEFL helped you as a young teacher? Is there anything you learned here that you later used in class?

Kristina: I have worked at the university since November 2019, when I started teaching grammar-related courses (Syntax, Verb, Morphology), which are challenging because many students find them abstract, and therefore intimidating. I think it is important for students to see that grammar does not have to be painfully tedious; it is within everyone’s intellectual reach, and it can be fun, even if you are not a grammar nerd. 😉 I also teach Language in Use, which brings different challenges, as it is aimed at improving students’ reading, listening, writing and speaking skills. Since I had never taught such a multifaceted course before, I felt I needed guidance from the more knowledgeable colleagues to be able to create a pleasant and productive working atmosphere, in which students are motivated to participate and share their opinions. 

IATEFL has helped me tremendously: its webinars provided me with ideas on how to “spice up” my classes and defuse tense situations that may arise when students’ opinions diverge. Most recently, I attended the webinar How to Teach Vocabulary, where I got excellent advice for diverse and effective vocabulary practice. Earlier this year, I participated in the webinar Short and sweet: motivating through powerful mini texts, where I learned interesting short activities to boost students’ creativity. My classes are an hour and a half long, so keeping things snappy is key.

Mojca: Of course, you need varied activities to hold students’ attention for 90 minutes. My next question is connected to your other love, music. You are a musician, so did your experience in playing the recorder on stage help you face learners at the beginning of your teaching career or are these two contexts completely different?

Kristina: There are many overlaps. Having experience in performing is definitely an advantage, giving you confidence and resourcefulness you need when you find yourself in an unknown environment. I am an introverted person; without the many performances, which used to put me well out of my comfort zone, I would not be as keen on teaching as I am.

Another important aspect of playing any instrument is the awareness that continuity is crucial. If you do not practice regularly, you will never make any significant progress. The same goes for language learning: if you do not want your language knowledge to become stale and rusty, you need to be in touch with the language on a regular basis.

Mojca: I wish our students were more aware of this. During the pandemic, teachers had to find alternative means to keep students in touch with the language and the learning process. Ever since you joined the Department of English at the University of Ljubljana, you’ve been a Moodle wizard. Even before the pandemic you helped colleagues with various features in e-classroom, and during lockdown your help in creating online quizzes and tests became invaluable. Do you think you are better with these things because you belong to a generation that takes all things digital for granted, or are you just interested in Moodle, Zoom and Exam.net and all they offer? 

Kristina: I would say both. I have spotted an important difference in attitudes between younger and older generations. People who have not grown up surrounded by electronic devices tend to be more cautious when getting to know a new app. Before diving in, they ask themselves, ‘What if I break something?’ In my generation, this question never arises. My peers delve into something new thinking, ‘If anything goes wrong, I’ll fix it in some way.’ A positive attitude makes the start easier, that’s all. Some of my peers still don’t know how to use learning platforms properly, because they are simply not interested in them. During the lockdowns, I thought I needed tools to keep my students involved, so I purposely invested my time and energy in learning the ropes. I participated in webinars before being able to use the platforms confidently and was, in this respect, no different from the colleagues who are much older than me.

Mojca: Is there anything about distance teaching that you miss now you’ve been back in class for two terms?

Kristina: No! Because of the pandemic, I discovered many useful online tools and probably learned more about teaching and my students than I would have if I had taught face-to-face all the time. But this experience has made me realize that no amount of electronic media can make up for direct personal contact. I have transferred some of the online activities to my “post-pandemic” classes, so I think I have managed to keep the best of that world. However, the interaction with and among students is now much more vivid, which is why I hope we will never have to replace the physical classroom with the virtual one again.

 

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About Kristina Gregorčič

 

Kristina Gregorčič studied English and French at the University of Ljubljana, where she holds a teaching assistant post at the Department of English. She is currently working on her PhD thesis, focusing on negative polarity items, quirky expressions such as lift a finger, which systematically seek semantically negative contexts. She is particularly interested in different aspects of linguistics, translation, music, nature, and (of course) teaching. She joined IATEFL at the beginning of 2021.

 

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After a little more than two years of the sudden shift to online teaching, our department decided that we adopt a hybrid approach to teaching, which meant that part of the program is taught face-to-face. I was a little hesitant before I went to my first on campus class. I had to dress appropriately, ensure that I had all I needed for my class: laptop, HDMI adapter, white board marker, coffee mug… I felt a little awkward at the beginning of the lesson, I only knew the names of  those students who usually had a picture on their Zoom profile. It wasn’t appropriate on my sixth week of teaching not to be able to call students by their names. In distance learning, I was more in command; I could see each student’s full name on my screen. 

I decided against group work in that first face-to-face session. I didn’t feel comfortable breaking students into groups. I thought of how malleable it was to assign students into breakout rooms where I could decide if they choose their own groups or I assign them to random groups. Definitely in the coming sessions, I will have group work, but not now. Projecting my carefully prepared PowerPoint was another issue. Where is the cable? The remote control? The screen to project my laptop on was too high. I had to ask a student to pull it down because by no means could  I reach it. I made the joke asking students if, seeing their instructors through Zoom only, they thought they were taller than they were in reality. I lost many of the PowerPoint controls I usually saw on my screen. It took me a while to find them by hovering the mouse over the lower part of the screen. A student asked me if I could enlarge the print so that it could be seen easily. Again, I had to figure out how to do something I usually did automatically. Navigating among webpages, videos, and different documents was so easy in my online class. Now I had to configure the wi-fi settings on my computer to access the internet. Umm. I forgot to do that before entering class. A student offered  wi-fi hotspot so that I could connect to the Internet as mine would not work on my laptop. That took quite a few minutes.

The class time went well. Students were interactive and responsive. I wonder if it was fairer in the online setting where students were called on according to the order they raised their hands. It was easy to tell who raised their hands first and call on them to talk. 

To take attendance, I had been taking it in the online class through a Google Form Exit Ticket where students were considered attending after responding to a question that summarized the lesson and another where the students assessed their learning on a scale from 1 to 5. No matter how large the class was, attendance was taken in no time as all the students completed the Google Form simultaneously. Now I had to do it manually and call the names of the students one by one. It was a little time-consuming. 

This was how I compared distance teaching to face-to-face teaching. But the students’ story was different. I asked them to reflect on both experiences. They had positive perceptions of in-person classes. I could see the excitement on their faces and feel it in their voices. They were all smiley  and happy. Very appreciative. Very interactive. Very attentive to every word said in class as though expressing their gratitude to be in class again. We had a short reflective talk comparing online classes to face-to-face classes. The majority affirmed that they benefited more from face-to-face classroom discussions and that they were more focused on what was going on in (the) class. Although it was more comfortable for them to be at home, the home environment had many distractors. In a face-to-face lesson, they were better able to take cues on when it was appropriate to ask a question or participate in a discussion. In addition, some expressed that they could no longer bear the isolation from friends. They did not want to graduate not knowing how being in the physical learning environment felt like. 

Still there were very few who were happy to have had the opportunity to continue their education online because otherwise they would have had to stop their education. Among those were students who had a full-time job or a job that did not allow flexible timing. Mothers and those who were out of the country were also at a disadvantage when it came to pursuing their degrees. Moreover, as many countries are struggling financially and inflation has been at unprecedented rates, commuting to schools and universities is costly especially for those living in remote areas. 

Students’ experience during their learning matters a lot. Often, as educators, we focus on our experiences as teachers when assessing the success of a new method or technique. We need to keep in mind that teaching is not about a show that we display in the presence of our students, rather we need to be aware of what students experience and how they learn. The experiences learners go through impact not only their learning but also their mental well-being. Having experienced distance learning for a little more than two years now, and not being far from teaching fully in-person, this is the ideal time to think of a teaching/learning model that combines the merits of distance learning and face-to-face learning. A model that brings out the best of teachers and accommodates to the students needs and learning styles.

About Amal Farhat

Amal is an assistant professor at Lebanese International University, an educational counselor at the Lebanese Ministry of Education and Higher Education, and the educational consultant at Rawafid School.

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Vicky: First of all, I would like to thank you for agreeing to give this interview and I would also like to welcome you!

Aleksandra: Thank you for the invitation, Vicky.

Vicky: Aleksandra, you are the new Vice President. Would you like to introduce yourself to the IATEFL members who do not know you?

Aleksandra: Well, I’m Aleksandra but most of my friends and those who know me call me Alex. I’m from Bosnia and Herzegovina currently living in North Macedonia. I’m a teacher of English with a BA in English Language and Literature and MA in Professional Development for Language Education. I’ve been teaching for a long time, 25 years this year. I’m also a teacher trainer training on various teacher training courses and projects. 

Vicky: Can you talk to us about your working life routine? Can you tell us what you are doing currently?

Aleksandra: One of the perks of being my own boss is that I can start my day whenever I want. It’s very difficult to control myself and not sit in front of my computer as soon as I wake up. I made a very conscious decision about three years ago not to turn on my computer before 9 am. 

My day usually starts quite early, 6 am with a walk with my dog by the lake. I live on a beautiful lake, Ohrid Lake which has the most amazing scenery. Then the usual things : breakfast, coffee before I sit down at my computer and join the virtual world of work. Mornings are for administrative work for my two companies, translations, writing, sending and replying to emails, IATEFL and IATEFL MaWSIG related work. I need to finish all that by 2 pm to prepare and have lunch because afternoons and evenings are for teaching. I usually have lessons until 9.30 pm. After that, the only thing I can manage is some reading and my day ends around 11 pm.

I am currently working on several projects writing materials for teacher training courses, a course of my own and a coursebook.

Vicky: Tell us about your experience as the Coordinator of our Materials Writing Special Interest Group.

Aleksandra: MaWSIG came unexpectedly. I joined MaWSIG because of my interest in writing materials (my MA dissertation is on materials development). I wanted to learn more about materials writing, meet other writers, and just be a part of that community. However, when I saw a vacancy for a joint events coordinator, I thought why not go for it and that’s how I became a member of the MaWSIG Committee. Rachael Roberts was the coordinator at the time, and she was really welcoming, extremely supportive and helpful as were the other committee members. After some time, Tania Pattison became the joint coordinator and then in 2018 both Rachael and Tania decided to step down. No one on the committee wanted to take over and once again I decided to challenge myself and put myself forward for the position. I’ve been the SIG coordinator since June 2018 and I’m stepping down in May in Belfast. It will be difficult to leave MaWSIG because the committee members are an amazing group of people and professionals (Clare, Jen, Penny, Ceri, Nick, Sandy, Heather, Niki) who finally got used to my Balkan humour (at least I hope they did).

Vicky: CPD has changed significantly and considering the new world conditions, how do you believe  IATEFL can address this new challenge?

Aleksandra: I think that IATEFL adapted to the challenges of the brave new world of CPD quite quickly. We have seen great flexibility and adaptability from the HO staff, the Trustees, the CEO and Deputy CEO. Yes, there have been a few hiccups along the way, but we have all been working hard to make sure that our members and non-members have the best possible CPD. The decision to defer the conference in 2020 was not an easy one, but it had to be done. The safety and health of the delegates were and are a priority for IATEFL. I’m glad that the SIGs and IATEFL have been able to offer various online events with a very steep learning curve. AND we had our very first online IATEFL Annual Conference. I believe that IATEFL has the capacity to deal with all current and future challenges because of the volunteers behind it.

Vicky: What are your vision and philosophy? What do you aim to achieve from your new position?

Aleksandra: My vision – IATEFL becoming bigger and stronger, fulfilling its mission of linking, developing, and supporting ELT professionals worldwide. I know it sounds like a cliché, but I truly believe in the power of the professional community, teachers’ associations. I’ve been involved in TAs for over 20 years, and I wouldn’t have achieved most of my professional goals without the support of other teachers and the associations I belong to, such as ELTAM MK, IATEFL, and TESOL International.

What do I aim to achieve? My statement for the position of VP of IATEFL says that I would like to connect IATEFL SIGs and Associates. I would like them to organize joint professional development events and create resources that will be accessible to members and non-members alike. We have over 100 associates and 16 SIGs, but you will rarely see joint events. I think the reason for this is that the associates do not know what they could do together with the SIGs. I strongly encourage our associates to get in touch with the SIG Coordinators to see how they could work together.

Another part of my statement is that I am and will always be fully committed to the betterment of teachers’ professional lives by making the connection between IATEFL and teachers of English stronger through cooperation, collaboration, and support. This is true. It’s not a cliché. I am genuinely committed to this because I am a teacher who understands the importance of working together with others. We work together, we grow together, and we become better together.

Vicky: How can you effectively lead an international association such as IATEFL?

Aleksandra: How can anyone? After my experience with our national association, ELTAM MK (I stepped down as president of ELTAM MK in March 2022), I understand and know that it takes all my knowledge and experience to lead an association. For me an association, any association, be it a national or international one, is all about the people, members, teachers. I am a team player who can collaborate with others easily and learn from them at the same time. I don’t know everything about running an international association such as IATEFL and I don’t want to know it because then it wouldn’t t be fun and challenging. I look forward to learning.

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About Aleksandra Popovski 

Aleksandra Popovski is the incoming Vice President of IATEFL. She holds an MA from the University of Chichester, UK. She is a teacher and teacher trainer with over 20 years of teaching experience. She is an invited speaker at national and international conferences. Aleksandra was also Coordinator of IATEFL MaWSIG and President of ELTAM MK, N. Macedonia.

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If you are a member of IATEFL and would like to contribute to the blog, we’d love to hear from you at [email protected]. We’re looking for stories from our members, news about projects you’ve been involved in, and anything else you think those connected to English language teaching would be interested in reading. We look forward to hearing from you! If you’re not a member, why not join us?

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