#3240

College and University Research-based Short Session (20 minutes)

Making Avid Readers out of Reluctant Readers: Factors that Motivate some Students to Finally Embrace ER on XReading

Permission to Record

Sun, Aug 7, 12:30-12:50 Asia/Tokyo

Location: Sunday afternoon

This preliminary study seeks to understand why some readers were at first reluctant to do Extensive Reading (ER) on XReading but later became avid readers and what caused this shift. As part of a university writing class for English majors in Taiwan, ER was introduced as a class component to help improve student writing. In the fall semester, many students failed to do the assigned reading but became motivated in the spring semester; embracing ER and surpassing the semester goal of 60,000 words within 6 weeks. Using a questionnaire and group interviews to investigate this change, this researcher expects that externally motivated factors, such as test exemption, better grades, and a grand prize, may play a large role in their motivation. It is hoped that educators can use this study to better motivate current Reluctant Readers (RR) or reduce the future number of RRs in their classes.

  • Taylor Melton

    Originally from the US, I have been living in Taiwan for 7 years. I currently teach in the Department of Applied Foreign Languages at Overseas Chinese University in Taichung, Taiwan. Additionally, I'm completing a MA in Linguistics at National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei with a focus on L2 syntax acquisition. I'm an avid user of extensive reading in my own L2 acquisition journey and incorporate extensive reading into my classes.

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