The ER SIG participates in or holds 3 regular annual events.

 

Upcoming Events:

PresentERs

We will have a short talk about Extensive Reading from Nida Husna on Sunday 29 March 19:00-20:00. The event will involve a short 20-30 minute casual talk from our PresentER, followed by around 20-30 minutes of questions and discussion. PresentERs takes place on the last Sunday of each month online on Zoom. It is free for anyone to attend.

Abstract:

The aim of this study is to explore the nature and levels of students’ critical and emotional engagement in written peer responses to storytelling presentations within an Extensive Reading (ER) class. A sample of 100 comments was purposively selected from three undergraduate English classes, where students were required to view and comment on video-recorded storytelling presentations shared on a class-managed Facebook group. This study encompasses both analytical interaction—such as interpretation, evaluation, and relevance to narrative content—and emotional response, reflecting students’ affective connection to the story. Drawing on Paul and Elder’s critical thinking framework, Bloom’s revised taxonomy, and Rosenblatt’s transactional theory of reading, the study applies qualitative content analysis to identify patterns of cognitive and affective engagement. Findings reveal a spectrum of responses: while many comments demonstrate critical thinking through specific references and thoughtful questioning, a significant number also express emotional resonance, empathy, or moral reflection. These responses emphasize the ways in which students enrich their engagement by deepening their personal connections to the characters and themes of the stories. This study illustrates the bounds of critical and emotional literacy that can be fostered by feedback enhanced peer assessment and offer relevant pedagogical suggestions regarding the teaching of literature and assessment centered on learners in EFL contexts.

Zoom link to join the event

YouTube playlist of previous PresentER events

Temple University Japan Distinguished Lecturer Series

Rob Waring, Extensive reading, Input

Pages, Ears, Screens: Making Extensive Input Work in Real Classrooms
Professor:

Dr. Rob Waring (Notre Dame Seishin University, Japan)
Schedule:
Online Live: March 14, 15, 21, 22, 2026 (14:00 -17:00 JST)
Sign-up Deadline: Fri, Mar 13, 2026 12:00 p.m. JST
https://www.tuj.ac.jp/grad-ed/events/2026/03/14/making-extensive-input-w...
The JALT Pan-SIG Conference 
PanSIG 2025 Conference took place May 17-18, 2025 at Kanda Institute of Foreign Languages in Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture. We held our ER SIG Forum with a focus on how the challenges of running ER programs for languages other than English. There were also more than a half dozen extensive reading focused presentations this year. You can watch a video recording here.
PresentERs Summer Session July 2025
Our PresentERs give presentations about what they think goes well with ER in a language learning curriculum, then discuss these ideas. Audience Q&A follows. You can watch a video recording here.
Speakers:
Rob Waring (Professor emeritus Notre Dame Seishin University and visiting professor, Thammasat University)
Francisca Maria Ivone (Associate Professor Universitas Negeri Malang, Indonesia)
 
2024 ER Summer Seminar
August 3, 2024: The Extensive Reading Special Interest Group (ER SIG) of the Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT) sponsored a 1-day online event featuring a plenary speaker, a featured speaker, and a wide variety of short presentations from around the ER community. 2024年8月3日にオンラインERイベントを行います。基調スピーカーとERコミュニティーの様々なスピーカーによるショートプレゼンテーションを行います。You can watch a video recording here.
 
Events Archive
Site proposals
The ER SIG welcomes proposals for hosting future ER Seminars.
In very general terms, we look for the following things in a site. We would like a venue that is available to us on a Sunday or possibly both Saturday and Sunday, and that includes a dozen or more rooms available for presentations and at least one large meeting hall for plenary sessions and one large room or area suitable for materials exhibitors. It would be nice to have easy access by public transportation, hotels in the area, a good location for a reception there or nearby, and internet connectivity for presenters and participants. We need a site chair who is at the hosting institution and if there are two or more other local people willing to take on roles on the seminar committee it may help with smoothly planning and running the event.
If you are potentially interested in hosting the seminar, please contact er(at)jalt(dot)org for more information.