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Introduction

A widely recognized problem faced by learners throughout
the ESL/EFL world is that of slow reading (Hamp-Lyons 1983; Cooper 1984).
This has often been linked with classroom methodology in reading lessons,
particularly where such lessons focus on language development rather
than reading per se. A number of specialists have commented on a common
practice in intensive reading lessons, where texts are often treated
as vehicles for the presentation, practice, manipulation, and consolidation
of language points, rather than the encouragement of reading itself
(Nuttall 1982:20; Alderson & Urquhart 1984:246-247; Bartram &
Parry 1989:7; Hyland 1990:14; Susser & Robb 1990:161-162).

Using the library

Students can check out of the library up to two books at any one time at the start
of the term; this is subsequently increased to three books later in the term after
their reading speed has picked up. To check out a book, students write the title,
code and date checked out on an individual A4 reading record sheet, as well as indicate
the number of pages in the book.

Book reports

Students can be asked to write summaries and reports about the books that they read.
This can be done as a regular activity, or left to the end of term. There are many
possibilities here for integrating the skills further: see Greenwood 1992 and Hedge
1984 for further suggestions. On the one hand, such reports provide one assessment
tool for the teacher; on the other hand, they indirectly enable the students to
review and recycle key ideas and vocabulary from what they read.

Mid-term reports

It is important to be able to determine how students are coping, and which students
may be in need of extra guidance. This can be done through collecting in mid-term
reading reports. Students who are below a cumulative total of 250 pages by the end
of May will probably have difficulty in reaching the term goal. With these students, I
usually arrange group tutorials, where we review together what each person has been
doing; discuss ways to improve reading speed and time management; plan how many pages
a week each student is going to try and read from then until the end of term. Part of
an example mid-term reading report is reproduced below:

Show in the graph the total number of pages that you have read each week:

Figure 1 Example mid-term reading report rubric

End-of-term self-assessments

This is a one-page report written by the students in response to the following questions:

1. What is the total number of pages that you have read this term?

2. What was the most interesting book that you read? Why?

3. How do you think your reading has changed this term?

4. What are your personal goals from now on?

5. What are your reading goals from now on?

Three Features of SSS Method in the
Classroom

 Most English teachers agree that the total amount of English input
is one of the keys to acquiring good English skills. However, until now, this
was measured mainly by the hours that students studied English. The SSS method
is unique in that we measure the amount of input by the total number of words
that students read or listen to. By totaling the words and checking the records
students keep, teachers can estimate their students’ English level easily and
correctly and give appropriate advice according to their individual
levels. 

The
three main features of the SSS method through extensive reading in the
classroom are as follows:

<!--[if !supportLists]-->1)       
<!--[endif]-->Start with simple stories and
gradually increase the level, length, and difficulty of the books using various
titles from Leveled Readers (LR) written for native English speaking children,
Graded Readers (GR) written for English learners as a second language, books
for children and young adults, picture books and manga.

2)  Read books not only at home, but also
in the classroom.

3)  Record the titles students read, total
the number of words they read and give individual advice to students by looking
up the records they keep in their logbooks.

We
publish a special notebook as a logbook, which is known

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(ISBN:4902191267),
from Cosmopier Publishing Company.

It contains the
word count data for Penguin Readers,

Penguin Young
Readers, Oxford Bookworms,

Oxford Dominoes,
Cambridge English Readers,

Macmillan
Readers, Macmillan New Wave Readers,

Oxford Reading
Tree, Longman Literacy Land,

All Aboard
Reading, DK Graded Readers,

I Can Read
Books,  Puffin Easy-to-Read Readers,
R.I.C. Headlight Readers, Rookie Readers, Scholastic Readers, Step Into Reading
Readers and many children’s books.

9)
Make a list of the titles and the number of words in each book. This will help to motivate the students, as some students really want to read every book in a
series.

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1) Yomiyasusa Level

   We already have several ways of grading the difficulty
of English readers. The most famous of these for learners of English as a
second language is the EPER grading system, which was developed by the
Edinburgh Project on Extensive Reading (http://www.ials.ed.ac.uk/eper.html).
You can see details in “Extensive Reading in the Classroom” by Richard
R. Day and Julian Bamford from Cambridge University Press. The EPER system is a
very good one, but it is not well suited to English beginners in Japan. The
difference between English and Japanese is larger than the difference between
English and other European languages, so it is more difficult for Japanese
people to acquire English. Many native speaking English teachers think the
Penguin Easystarts series is very easy to read, so they are placed at the
lowest EPER level, but they are often too difficult for many students of
average English abilities at Japanese universities. We need to define the
levels more carefully for English learners in Japan.

The
Yomiyasusa level was invented by ordinary English learners (not teachers) who
read English books using the SSS method. “Yomiyasusa” means readability, and it
is often abbreviated as YL. We decide the YL of each book by considering the
following factors:

a)  difficulty of headwords

b)  grammar level

c)  average length of sentences

d)  total word counts

d)  size of fonts

e)  with or without pictures

f)  storyline

g)  easiness of proper names.

  YL ranges from 0.0 to 10.0. YL 0.0 indicates the
level of picture books without words except for the title on the cover. YL 10.0
indicates the difficult books that are not suitable for English learners. For example, Oxford Reading Tree Stage 1+ is YL 0.1 and the YL of
Penguin Easystarts is 0.8. Ulysses by James Joyce is YL 10.0. You can look up our YL tables in the reference [1], “Hyakumango
Tadoku Nyumon”(“Extensive Reading for Beginners”, ISBN 4902091250)
and “Tadoku Kanzen Gaido” (“The Complete Book Guide for Extensive
Reading”, ISBN: 4902091321).

Recently Dr. Rob Waring has created another new scale,  which
is more intuitive than that of EPERs. His new scale will soon appear at http://www.erfoundation.org . 

3) What type of ER Program should you
select?

It is widely believed that
students should learn English from English teachers in class, and that they
should read books not in the class, but at home.

Therefore,
the students perform the ER program as homework or as an extra curricular
activity. But in our experience, we have found that carrying out the ER program
in the class has many advantages.

a)  Teachers can observe the students
reading their books. They can give 
specific advice to each student.

b)  Students have little time to read at
home, as they are busy with homework from other subjects. Some students even
cheat in their reading log when they do not have time to read at home.  Reading in class ensures all students
meet the program’s requirements and do not fall behind other students.

c)  Students can talk about books they have
read and share the joy of reading.

Many
teachers who adapt the SSS ER methods share the joy of improved English ability
with their students.

6) Select Book Titles

Many English
teachers have a tendency to select books which are at a higher level than their
students’ true levels. It is also widely believed that there should be only one
copy of every title when the budget is limited.

My
advice is as follows:

a)
Try to select easier books than you think is appropriate, because most of your
students have not been trained to read English books without a dictionary.

b)
Choose books by asking for information about popular books from teachers who
have already started successful ER programs.

c)
For popular books, place an order for two or three copies each so that the
students can enjoy reading simultaneously and exchange ideas immediately after
reading.

This will highly enhance the motivation of
the students and also build confidence in their English reading. Confidence and
praise are keys to English learning. Book selection is important in running an
ER program successfully. You should be the first one to try out the
easy-to-read books. If you need any help, please feel free to ask an extensive
reading consultant in an ELT bookstore. Join the
Extensive Reading Association (ERA, http://www.seg.co.jp/era/ ), and get advice from
its members and also borrow books for ER from ERA.

) Decide on the Assessment Process

If we
emphasize the amount of reading too much, students are apt to cheat in their
book log, so it is desirable to assess their English ability independently from
the book log. Some teachers use comprehension tests, cloze tests, or tests from
outside the school, such as TOEIC, SLEP, and ACE.

9) Make a List of Book Titles and the Number of Words

In the
SSS ER method, students are required to keep a log in a notebook or on a  sheet of paper. It is important that
students can find the number of words in the books they read in an easy and
quick way. There are two ways to help students to find the number of words
easily. One way is to put a sticker with the number of words written on it on
every book in your library. The other way is to make a list  of the titles, YL and the word counts
in your entire library. If you make a list grouped by series, some students
will want to read every book in a series, and it can be an excellent motivation
to continue extensive reading. You can get information about the number of
words in books at the following websites;

http://www.seg.co.jp/sss_review/jsp/frm_a_130.jsp,

http://src.scholastic.
com/ecatalog/,

http://www.amazon.com/.

You can also consult “The Complete Book
Guide For Extensive Reading” or “The Notebook for Extensive Reading”(The
Orange Book).

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