Here at APU, APM and APS teachers report that one of the biggest problems students have in English lecture courses is the students’ ability to keep up with reading assignments in English between class meetings. So, you might be asking, how can I increase my confidence, reading speed and comprehension? The answer is that building reading skills requires two kinds of practice: Intensive Reading and Extensive Reading. In your English reading courses, you will see the goal is to ‘read articles’. This sounds like reading non-fiction, informational texts like magazine articles. However, these articles present a lot of unknown vocabulary, and generally are an intensive reading experience. They are hard to read because of unknown vocabulary. Intensive reading practice is important for test preparation, as standardized English test such as the IELTS and TOEFL are written at the native level, and thus present extremely intensive reading situations for second language learners. For this reason, intensive texts are the focus of reading courses. Another point students do not hear, however, is that teachers view reading as a task students can practice independently, outside of class. Such reading practice entails a second kind of reading called Extensive Reading. Extensive Reading (ER) involves reading lots of easier texts. By reading easier texts where you only encounter one or two new words per page, you do not need a dictionary and you can review lots of vocabulary. This is very important because to learn new words, students need to encounter words 10-20 times to remember them. Extensive Reading stops you from forgetting. At the same time, ER helps to train your eyes to open wider and read whole phrases and clauses at one time, rather than reading with a very narrow eye focus, reading one word at a time. Training your mind to read whole phrases and clauses at once is essential. At the same time, you stay awake, and can comprehend the overall meaning of the text. Remember when you first learned to ride a bicycle? When you ride too slowly, you cannot keep your balance and fall. But when you ride a little faster, the bicycle becomes more stable and easier to balance and ride. It is the same way with reading. So, as a student you need to do both intensive and extensive reading to build your confidence in academic reading. So how can you add extensive reading to your diet of study at APU? There are three ways you can do this:
Check out graded readers at the APU library if you live in Beppu. The APU library’s English Extensive Reading library provides thousands of graded readers in English. Each short book has a reading level from 1-15 written on the spine of the book. To find your level, start with a low number and count how many unknown words are on one page. Start with a short, easy book. Notice the publisher and most importantly, find a title and topic that is interesting to you. If you love reading paper books, and enjoy disconnecting from your digital worlds, then you will really enjoy extensive reading this way. Keep track of the books you read for your independent learning journal and add them to your study plan report, so your teacher sees what you have accomplished.
You can find the Graded Reader section of the APU library by turning left after entering the library and walking past the check-out counter, past the ALRCS counter, past the Writing Center counter and to the southernmost wall. Here is the Graded Reader section:
Figure 1. The Graded Reader Section of the APU Library
Notice in Figure 2 that the title, author, and reading level are written on the spine of each book. Start with the easiest reading level by a publisher and see how many unknown words you find on one random page. If you like the topic and it looks easy, try it out!
Figure 2. The Oxford Bookworms Level 1 Series of Graded Readers
The Oxford Bookworms series is a good place to start. I also recommend the Cengage Page Turner’s series. Notice that the publisher’s names are written on each shelf to the side like in Figure 3. By the way, Sue Leather, who writes for Page Turners, is one of the best authors of graded readers. Check out some of her titles like Road Trip (Level 1), or Running Free (Level 3). Remember, keep track of the books you read as part of your individual study plan.
Figure 3. Cengage Page Turner Series and Publisher Name Sign
2. If you are not present in Beppu, or you like reading on your phone more than reading paper books, you can read and enjoy reading the books in the APU graded reader library online through a subscription from Xreading.com. Xreading is an application that you access through a browser like Google Chrome on a computer or smartphone. You can purchase an Xreading Access Card (subscription) through the APU Coop (Figure 4). You can also contact a Language Advisor (LA) if you would like to have an LA track your reading progress and help you learn how to read extensively with Xreading. The Xreading virtual library provides access to thousands of books in both narrative and informational genres.
Figure 4. Xreading Access Card
3. A third way to get involved in Extensive Reading is to join a Bilingual Book Club. This semester, there will be three bilingual book club events. These are being organized by the CLA Team, a group of APU students and teachers who are writing and translating APU multicultural week Grand Show stories into short stories for Extensive Reading. For information, check out their free stories and events at www.studiocla.org. and watch Campus Terminal for our event notices (Figure 5). Each story is set in the cultural background of a different group at APU. The first one is written by Cece Pham, an APU student from Vietnam.
Her story is titled, Le Chi Vien: The Untold Story. This story is available in both a pre-advanced and intermediate level in English and Japanese. Come to one of these events, and better yet, sign up with a friend! Please consider coming to one of these events to meet other students at APU who enjoy reading in English and Japanese, and talking about culture. These are exchange events so you can practice talking about stories in your second language, and support friends who are learning your language (Figure 5).
Figure 5. CLA Bilingual Book Club Events
In conclusion, learning to read in your second language can be enjoyable, and fun. Teachers around the world have been working to develop reading materials at every level to create reading systems that will allow you to develop confidence in reading, and independence in terms of choosing books, and events to talk about stories with classmates from around the world. Remember, it is up to you to manage your reading practice outside of class, so consider making a book club, or joining one, to help keep you in touch with reading.
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Language Advisor
Paul SEVIGNY
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