Tom Robb
Kyoto Sangyo University (Emeritus)
About
Thomas Robb, Ph.D., University of Hawaii, is Professor Emeritus, Kyoto Sangyo University, where he was Chair of the Department of English, Faculty of Foreign Languages until he retired in March of 2017. 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. One site for extensive reading, mreader.org now has over 100,000 student users in 40+ countries. He has been President of JALT (The Japan Association for Language Teaching), has been on the Board of Directors of International TESOL, and a past president Pacific CALL. He is Chair of Extensive Reading Foundation, the editor of TESL-EJ, the first online journal for ELT. Recently he has been delivering workshops to teachers and ministry officials concerning Extensive Reading in various countries around the world.Sessions
School Diffusion of ER to the public schools in Asia: An iconoclastic view of extensive reading more
Sat, Aug 6, 19:00-21:00 Asia/Tokyo
This discussion is centered about the process of extensive reading (ER) program implementation in schools from a functional perspective. There are many factors that may have hindered the spread of ER into the public school systems of many countries such as the need for and expense of graded readers, the means to handle the lending and return of books, the general mindset geared to intensive study in order to pass examinations, and the already heavy demands placed on public school teachers. It makes an argument for a top-down approach being required for wide-spread implementation as well as the need for materials other than graded readers, which while being the gold standard for ER, cannot realistically be purchased by and managed in a large school system. The impact on student choice of what to read is also discussed. We will then proceed to a discussion with the participants concerning a way forward.