M Reader

     As some of you know, I'm a big fan of extensive reading with graded readers! Today, I want to tell you about a great website called M-Reader. This website has quizzes for most of the graded reader books in our graded reader libraries (at both Tokai and Rikkyo University).

     This is useful because, when you have read a book, you can take a short quiz and prove to your teacher than you have actually read it! When you log in to M-Reader, you will see your own page, displaying all the books you have read and the total number of pages. It's a great way to keep a record of your reading.
     Also, if you like a challenge, you can try to read more books at a particular reading level than any other student from around the world. One of my students at Tokai University recently found that she was the top reader in the world at level 4. She was really happy and it motivated her to read even more books.

     To start using M-Reader, your teacher needs to join up. This is very easy. I am the administrator for Tokai University and have all the information your teacher needs, so tell them to talk to me. To get your teacher interested, you can suggest that he or she has a quick look at the following link:
http://mreader.org/mreaderadmin/s/html/about.html

English Books for Intermediate/Advanced Level Students

Many intermediate/advanced level students would like the challenge and satisfaction of reading English novels written for native speakers of English but do not know where to start. Therefore, I have made a list of books that I think 1) you will enjoy 2) should not be too difficult to read. Most of the books could be best described as 'young adult literature' (12 -18 years old).

Of course, some books will be a bit challenging because you are reading books that are a little beyond your current linguistic competence. However, I have chosen books that other students have enjoyed and you will benefit from lots of English reading input.

Here is the list, including publisher and author:



Holes (Bloomsbury) - Louis Sachar


The Boy in the Stripped Pyjamas Definitions) - John Boyne

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night (Vintage) - Mark Haddon

The Hunger Games (Scholastic) - Suzanne Collins

Twilight (Atom) - Stephenie Meyer

Northern Lights (Scholastic) - Philip Pullman

The Diary of a Young Girl (Puffin) - Anne Frank

The Graduate (Penguin) - Charles Webb

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Puffin) - Roald Dahl

Danny Champion of the World (Puffin) - Roald Dahl

I Know What You Did Last Summer (Atom) - Lois Duncan

The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Simon & Schuster) - Stephen Chbosky

Diary of a Wimpy Kid (Puffin) - Jeff Kinney

Mates, Dates and Sole Survivors (Piccadilly Press) - Cathy Hopkins

Crocodile Tears (Walker) - Anthony Horowitz

Survival (Red Fox) - Chris Ryan


Before you buy any of these books, it is a good idea to look at them at an online shop like Amazon. You can click on the book and read the first few pages to find out what it's like. This will help you to decide how interesting the book might be and how easy or difficult it might be for you to read.

I really hope that enjoy these books and please let me know how you get on.

Extensive Reading Resources

Extensive reading basically means reading a lot. It is the kind of reading you often do in Japanese for pleasure, such as reading a novel or magazine article. (It is, therefore, quite different to a lot of reading you do in university, where you read a short text slowly and carefully in order to try and understand it). Extensive reading can be a great way to improve your overall English proficiency because it provides you with a lot of English 'input'.

To practice extensive reading in English, you need books that you can read quite easily. Luckily, there is a kind of book made for that purpose. They are commonly known as 'graded readers' and your new library has several hundred of them.

Graded readers are books designed for learners of English that can be read without difficultly. They are also shorter than regular books in English and can be read quite quickly. They are published in different levels of difficulty, so you will be able to find books that are just right for your level. Put simply, choose a book that looks interesting for you and which you can read quickly without using a dictionary. I think 80-100 words per minute is a good reading rate.


You can find graded reader books in the new library on the first floor on rows 08, 26 and 27. The best books are the Oxford Bookworms but the Macmillan books are also very good. The Penguin books have nice covers and look great but they can be a bit harder to read.

I also have a quite a lot of graded readers in my office, which you are welcome to borrow anytime.

Finally, if you choose a book that is too hard or a bit boring, stop reading, take the book back and choose a better one. Extensive reading should be enjoyable.