中部大学教育研究23

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1IntroductionStudentsmajoringinEnglishnaturallywanttoimprovetheirlanguageskills.Aseducators,weneedtofindwaysforstudentstoachievethisgoal.Orcoursewedowhatwecanintheclassroom,butthetimewithhavewithstudentsthereislimited.Onewaytohelpstudentsimprovetheirskillsistoprovideresourcesoutsideoftheclassroomforstudentstousetohelpthemintheirjourneytolanguageproficiency.In2010,theDepartmentofEnglishLanguageandCultureimplementedanextensivereadingprogramintoitscurriculum.Thispaperwillprovidethereasonsforthisimplementation,abriefhistoryoftheprogramandchangesthatweremadewhenthecoronaviruspandemichitandstudentswerenolongeroncampus.2ReasonsforExtensiveReading（ER）Extensivereadingishavingstudentsreadextensivelyatorbelowtheirlevel.Studentsshouldbeabletounderstandwhattheyarereading―15―＊1AssociateProfessor,DepartmentofEnglishLanguageandCulture,CollegeofHumanities,ChubuUniversity＊2Professor,DepartmentofEnglishLanguageandCulture,CollegeofHumanities,ChubuUniversityBeyondCOVID-19:OnlineExtensiveReadingandFace-to-FaceClassesDavidR.Laurence＊1andGregoryA.King＊2AbstractWiththesuddenmovetoonlineclassesbroughtaboutbytheCOVID-19pandemicinearly2020,muchofChubuUniversitywasforcedtosuddenlypivotfromface-to-facetoonlinelearningmethods.TheDepartmentofEnglishLanguageandCulturewasofcoursenodifferent,andoneofthebiggestchallengesthedepartmentfacedinthiswaywasitsextensivereadingcurriculum.Beforethepandemic,studentscametothedepartment'sgradedreaderlibraryandcheckedoutphysicalbookstoreadasanimportantpartoffirst-andsecond-yearstudents'generalEnglishcoursework.Withstudentsunabletocometocampus,thedepartmenthadtoquicklyfindandimplementanonlinealternative.Fortunately,suchanalternativewasfound,butitwasdifficulttodeterminetheeffectthischangehadonstudentengagementwiththeextensivereadingassignment,ortheirlearningoutcomesasaresultoftakingpartinit.Inordertoassessthisnewprogram,andtohelpmakeadecisionaboutwhethertocontinueanonlineprogrammovingforwardortoreturntothetraditionalprogramthathadbeeninusebefore,facultyoftheDepartmentofEnglishLanguageandCultureconductedastudy,focusingonstudentexperienceswithboththenewonlineprogramandthetraditionalprogram.Itwasfoundthatthemovetoanonlineprogramhadnoappreciablenegativeeffectonstudentattitudestowardsgradedreaders,orlearningoutcomesassociatedwithitsuse,butthattheonlinenatureoftheprogramhadpotentialnegativeeffectsintermsofcommunitybuildingandcohesion.KeywordsEnglisheducation,onlinelearning,extensivereading