What Makes a Good Graded Reader: Engaging with Graded Readers in the Context of Extensive Reading in L2

<p>It is widely accepted in the ESOL field that Extensive Reading is good for ESOL learners and there are many studies purporting to show that this is true. As a result, the publication of Graded Readers in English today is a major commercial concern, although David Hill (2008, p. 189), former director of the Edinburgh Project on Extensive Reading, in his most recent study of Graded Readers, comments that they are being produced 'in a hostile climate where extensive reading is little valued, practised or tested.' However, anecdotal evidence from teachers and researchers claims that learners do not read anywhere near the recommended one Graded Reader a week prescribed by Nation and Wang (1999, p. 355) to provide the necessary amount of comprehensible input for increasing vocabulary. If these claims and Hill's comments are true, there may be a mismatch between the kind of reading material produced for learners of English and the nature and teaching of the texts currently recommended by teachers and librarians. Such a situation would not only be a huge waste in terms of resources; it could also lead to the alienation of generations of English learners from a potentially valuable means of improving and enjoying language learning. My study investigates this discrepancy by looking at the perceptions of the main stakeholders in Graded Readers, namely the publishers, the judges and academics, the teachers and the learners, to see how they differ and why. As each population is different, the methodologies used in the study are various, making for an approach described as 'bricolage' (Lincoln & Guba, 2000a, p. 164). At the heart of the study are five case studies of learners, set against the backdrop of data gathered from all the stakeholders. As the results indicate that the purpose of the reading appears to govern the perceptions of the individual learner, I found Louise Rosenblatt's (Rosenblatt, 1978) Transactional Theory of Reading Response was an appropriate framework within which to interpret the data.</p>

What Makes a Good Graded Reader: Engaging with Graded Readers in the Context of Extensive Reading in L2

<p>It is widely accepted in the ESOL field that Extensive Reading is good for ESOL learners and there are many studies purporting to show that this is true. As a result, the publication of Graded Readers in English today is a major commercial concern, although David Hill (2008, p. 189), former director of the Edinburgh Project on Extensive Reading, in his most recent study of Graded Readers, comments that they are being produced 'in a hostile climate where extensive reading is little valued, practised or tested.' However, anecdotal evidence from teachers and researchers claims that learners do not read anywhere near the recommended one Graded Reader a week prescribed by Nation and Wang (1999, p. 355) to provide the necessary amount of comprehensible input for increasing vocabulary. If these claims and Hill's comments are true, there may be a mismatch between the kind of reading material produced for learners of English and the nature and teaching of the texts currently recommended by teachers and librarians. Such a situation would not only be a huge waste in terms of resources; it could also lead to the alienation of generations of English learners from a potentially valuable means of improving and enjoying language learning. My study investigates this discrepancy by looking at the perceptions of the main stakeholders in Graded Readers, namely the publishers, the judges and academics, the teachers and the learners, to see how they differ and why. As each population is different, the methodologies used in the study are various, making for an approach described as 'bricolage' (Lincoln & Guba, 2000a, p. 164). At the heart of the study are five case studies of learners, set against the backdrop of data gathered from all the stakeholders. As the results indicate that the purpose of the reading appears to govern the perceptions of the individual learner, I found Louise Rosenblatt's (Rosenblatt, 1978) Transactional Theory of Reading Response was an appropriate framework within which to interpret the data.</p>

The Digital Story as a Reading Response to the Literary Text Revisiting Camus’ The Outsider in the French Foreign Language Classroom

This contribution discusses the potentialities of the Digital Story as a complement to literary analysis in the French foreign language (L2) classroom. The case study examines the Digital Story as an instructional tool in the reading of Camus’ seminal text, The Outsider, reflecting on the role it may play in addressing learning challenges in the L2 classroom and in moving beyond traditional reading postures and approaches. The Digital Story is shown to cultivate a scholarship of engagement and collaborative action in the teaching of literature. Furthermore, as a multimodal, multigenre form, it fosters potential for mapping out new interactions between reader, text and technology in the context of emerging literacies.

MENINGKATKAN MINAT BACA, KEMAMPUAN MEMAHAMI BACAAN, DAN BERPIKIR KRITIS SISWA MELALUI PENERAPAN SUSTAINED SILENT READING (SSR) DAN READING RESPONSE [IMPROVING STUDENTS' READING INTEREST, READING COMPREHENSION, AND CRITICAL THINKING THROUGH THE IMPLEMENTATION OF SUSTAINED SILENT READING (SSR) AND READING RESPONSE]

<div><p class="1eAbstract-text">Reading is one of the many skills which is taught in Indonesian language lessons. During lessons, students are usually asked to read a passage of text and answer comprehension questions. This makes reading activities less interesting. Since students are not able to find enjoyment in reading and they gain limited vocabulary. Consequently, students think that the Indonesian language is hard to master. Students’ reading interest, reading comprehension and critical thinking skills are low. This situation has urged the researcher to apply Sustained Silent Reading (SSR) and Reading Response as an alternative solution to the problem, as an act of improvement. Through the method of class action research, this research aims to describe the process of implementing Sustained Silent Reading (SSR) and Reading Response; analyse the development of students’ reading interest, reading comprehension and critical thinking skills; and also to describe the constrains during the implementation. Data has been collected with field notes, observation and scores of the students’ work using rubrics. The research consists of 3 cycles after which data was processed qualitatively and analysed descriptively. The research showed that students’ reading interest, comprehension and critical thinking skill had improved.</p></div>

Teaching the 21st Century Skills (4Cs) in English Literacy Activities in SMKN 1 Singaraja in Academic Year 2019/2020

Literacy program has been echoed by the Minister of education and culture since 2015. Teaching other skills in the implementation of literacy activities are crucial to prepare the students to compete in working field, especially in Vocational School. This study aimed to investigate (1) the kinds of English literacy activities implemented in SMKN 1 Singaraja, (2) how to teach the 21st century skills (4Cs) in English literacy activities in SMKN 1 Singaraja which consisted of preparation, steps and assessment of the 4Cs skills, (3) Teachers’ challenges while teaching the 21st century skills (4Cs) in English literacy activities in SMKN 1 Singaraja. The design of this research was descriptive qualitative. The setting of this research was SMKN 1 Singaraja and the subjects of this research were 120 students and 3 teachers in this school. The techniques of data collection were observation, interview, note taking, document analysis and documentation. The finding showed that (1) there were five English literacy activities implemented in this school namely, reading response journal, news reading program, guiding object commentary, travel itinerary writing and cooperative literacy program. (2) In the implementation of those English literacy activities, the teachers taught the 21st century skills (4Cs). In reading response journal, the 21st century skills taught were critical thinking, collaboration and communication skills. In news reading program and cooperative literacy program, all of those 21st century skills (4Cs) were taught. In, guiding object commentary, there were three 21st century skills were taught namely critical thinking, creativity and communication skills. At last, there were three skills were taught in travel itinerary writing namely critical thinking, collaboration and creativity skills (3) In teaching the 21st century skills, the teachers still had challenges in teaching critical thinking, collaboration and communication skills. There was no challenge in teaching creativity skill in English literacy activities. This research was expected to be beneficial for the policymaker, schools, and teachers who had big effort in implementing effective literacy program in schools. Those activities and ways of teaching the 21st century skills could be adopted in order to enhance the level of literacy program.

The Relevance of the Reading Process in the Context of Estonian Literary Criticism

The importance of the reading experience has been accepted in literary studies ever since the advent of reading-response theories in the 1970s-1980s. Several notable scholars have stressed that meaning is created through the interaction between reader and text, highlighting the significance of the reader. Even though the main principles of reader-response have become commonplace, for some time, reading theories remained relatively stagnant. In the 2000s, however, the topic of reading was rediscovered as new perspectives for examining the reading experience and the reader’s relationship with the text were offered. These new theories shed new light on the figure of the reader and on the work that goes into the process of reading. While the question of the experience of reading has been under discussion in the Anglo-American context, it has never been widely discussed in Estonia. The purpose of this article is to give an overview of well-known reader-response theories that became popular in the 1970s. In addition, examples of a renewed interest in reader-response theories in recent decades are presented. Finally, the article will also examine how Estonian-language literary criticism has engaged with reader-response theories.

Hemodynamic Activity and Connectivity of the Prefrontal Cortex by Using Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy during Color-Word Interference Test in Korean and English Language

In daily living, people are challenged to focus on their goal while eliminating interferences. Specifically, this study investigated the pre-frontal cortex (PFC) activity while attention control was tested using the self-made color-word interference test (CWIT) with a functional near-infrared spectroscopy device (fNIRS). Among 11 healthy Korean university students, overall the highest scores were obtained in the congruent Korean condition 1 (CKC-1) and had the least vascular response (VR) as opposed to the incongruent Korean condition 2 (IKC-2). The individual’s automatic reading response caused less brain activation while IKC-2 involves color suppression. Across the three trials per each condition, no significant differences (SD) in scores and in VR since there was no intervention did. Meanwhile, SD was observed between CKC-1 and English Congruent Condition 3 (ECC-3) across trials. However, SD was only observed on the third trial of VR. In the connectivity analysis, right and left PFC are activated on ECC-3. In CKC-1 and IKC-2, encompassing dorsomedial and dorsolateral although CKC-1 has less connection and connectivity due to less brain activation as compared. Therefore, aside from VR, brain connectivity could be identified non-invasively using fNIRS without ionizing radiation and at low-cost.

The impact of incentive framing format and language congruency on readers’ post-reading responses to email advertisements

Purpose This paper aims to examine how incentive framing format and language congruency interactively influence readers’ post-reading responses to hotel-related email advertisements. Design/methodology/approach A 2 (incentive framing format: amount-off versus percentage-off) × 2 (language congruency: use of readers’ native language versus use of readers’ foreign language) between-subject experiment was conducted with 233 bilingual speakers from China. Findings The findings unveil that readers are more likely to be enticed to search for more information about the promoted hotel restaurant, click the call-to-action button and share the promotional message with friends and families if an email advertisement presents the incentive of a price promotion in the form of amount-off (versus percentage-off). The indirect impact of language congruency is also verified. Specifically, the impact of incentive framing format on readers’ post-reading response is more salient when information is communicated using readers’ native (versus non-native) language. Practical implications The findings provide actionable clues for hoteliers to optimize their email marketing campaigns. If hotels want to publicize a price promotion for their high-priced service (e.g. hotel restaurant dining) via email advertisements, marketers should present the incentive in the form of amount-off. Hotels should also personalize the language used in the email advertisements according to readers’ native language. Originality/value This study enriches the literature on email marketing by explicating how hoteliers can improve the efficacy of email marketing via personalizing the incentive framing format and language used in the email advertisement according to the readers’ preferences.