Implementing and Managing Online Exensive Reading

Student Performance and Perceptions

Abstract

Smartphones, tablets, and today's touch screen laptops are powerful
tools capable of serving hundreds of specialized, complex operations
and applications to anyone, seemingly anywhere in the world. For
second language learners and those who teach them, these tools
suddenly have the potential to recast the reading experience for 21st
century students and invigorate Extensive Reading (ER) research.
Exploration into digital ER exclusively through the medium of mobile
devices is only an emerging area of study in the English as a Lingua
Franca (ELF) classroom. This study reports on the implementation of a
15 week (one semester) pilot test of Xreading® (www.xreading.com),
an online Graded Reader (GR) library and learning management
system (LMS) devoted specifically to the implementation and operation
of extensive reading at a private university in Tokyo, Japan.
Participants in this study have access to a vast virtual library of graded
readers and are being instructed to read outside of class using a mobile
device. This paper reports on student engagement with this platform
exclusively for 15 weeks in regards to changes in reading speeds,
volume of reading, and correlations between these numbers and
TOEIC® IP test scores. The authors will reflect on student attitudes
and perceptions of reading digitally and lastly, present some
considerations for teachers and administrators who recognize the
benefits of ER and who, for various reasons, envisage implementing
extensive reading into their classroom syllabus or program curriculum.