Reading is a core element in language education. Despite extensive research in second/foreign language (L2/FL) reading, relatively little is known about the differences between two common practices: Compulsory reading (i.e. reading assigned by teachers) and voluntary reading (i.e. self-initiated reading). This article reports two related…

The past 10 years have seen a major shift in English and English as a Second Language (ESL) placement and pedagogy in California's Community Colleges (CCC), driven by a developmental education reform movement known as acceleration. Popularized by the faculty-led California Acceleration Project (CAP), the acceleration movement focused on reducing…

Few studies have examined the effects of extensive reading (ER) on foreign language learners' acquisition of sight vocabulary, especially for partially known high-frequency words and reading fluency development. This study compared groups of non-English-major Japanese university-level students engaged in ER with intensive reading (IR) for two…

This article presents the results of a study carried out to explore the elements of Young Adult Literature (YAL) present in the prescribed texts for Malaysian secondary school English as a second Language (ESL) students (3rd cycle). The three novels studied were; "Captain Nobody" by Dean Pitchford, "Sing to the Dawn" by MinFong…

The COVID-19 pandemic and remote lessons changed extensive reading (ER) implementation because online libraries became the only way for educators to continue ER assignments. Online libraries with audio narration make audio-assisted reading easily available to L2 learners. Research on audio-assisted extensive reading has shown that there are…

The aim of the study was to explore the effect of Readers Theater on improving English reading prosody with L2 learners. The process of how reading prosody is improved through Readers Theater was examined. Sixty EFL undergraduate students, non-English majors, participated in this 6-week study. Two cycles of Readers Theater were implemented. Using…

The prevalence of COVID-19 worldwide and the length of the global lockdown period deeply affected students' academic study. This unexpected scenario posed a challenge to a considerable number of academic institutions around the world to formally adopt a new education system based on e-learning platforms. Therefore, this study aims to investigate…

This paper reports on the effectiveness of Interactive Reading Comprehension Teaching (IRCT) in improving the oral English communication ability of Prince of Songkla University (PSU) undergraduates. It is based on a preand post-test quasi-experimental study employing IRCT, composed of self-study reading assignments and a structured peer-teaching…

This article reports on the partial results of a longitudinal study I conducted to investigate the first-year students' experiences in dealing with the challenges they face while attaining the academic literacy skills required of them and constructing their academic identities at an American university in the UAE. While the challenges encountered…

Reading Thai and English is an essential skill for students in rural areas. This R&D research studies three levels of reading enhancement of upper elementary, junior high school, and vocational certificate students in rural areas of Nakhon Phanom. The sample group consisted of 108 students. Quantitative and qualitative research methods were…

This study aims to explore the effects of implementing the literature circles strategy for teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in levels 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 of a public university in the Amazon Region of Ecuador. For this purpose, three English language teachers conducted some action research. Two hundred fourteen students of English Arts…

This exploratory study analyzes learner-learner interactions within a virtual environment when collaboratively reading Spanish poetry in a Hispanic literature course at the college level via an ecological theoretical perspective (van Lier, 2004). The goals of the study are (a) to present empirical data that illustrate the theoretical construct of…

Although L2 reading is traditionally framed as an individual enterprise, digital annotation tools (DATs) have recently been developed allowing groups of readers to collaborate and provide mutual scaffolding through collective annotation of texts (Blyth, 2014; Thoms, Sung, & Poole, 2017). These tools reframe L2 reading as an interactive process…

Extensive reading is an approach to language education that has shown great promise for foreign language learners to acquire language; however, implementation reveals difficulty in maintaining student motivation to read over long periods of time. This study investigates students' experience of face-to-face talk about books in an extensive reading…

This article presents an overview of a newly designed course in materials development at a teacher education institute in the Netherlands. It also includes an evaluation of the course by its participants, student teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) in Dutch secondary schools. The course overview describes the aims and objectives of the…