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

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.