Thank you Charles Browne and your Zemi students for inviting me to your Summer Zemi this year. It was an honor and a pleasure to participate and to witness your joy and enthusiasm for life and learning!

After my presentation, I made some changes based on our interactions. This is includes a reference list for relevant academic works and an algorithmic gamification of the Find Someone Who activity, which is now “Bingo Talk.”

All the best to you and “carpe diem!”

Click to download the PDF. 

In this two-part video presentation, I summarize the benefits of extensive (BIG) reading. In Part 1, I define extensive reading, using the phrase “reading BEE.” That is, extensive reading is Big, Easy, and Enjoyable.

In Part 2, I summarize the benefits of extensive reading, using the word MASTERFUL. That is, extensive reading helps promote MASTERFUL English because of its relationship to the following factors.

• Motivation: ER motivates reading and learning.
• Attitude: ER improves attitudes.
• Syntax: ER develops learner syntax and grammar.
• Thinking: ER improves thinking, that is writing.
• Ears: ER benefits listening skills.
• Riches: ER enriches physical, emotional, and intellectual life.
• Fluency: ER increases reading automaticity and fluency.
• Uber-text: ER employs the supreme form of content, namely stories.
• Lexis: ER improves vocabulary and word knowledge.

I’m posting these videos here for my linguistics students at Meiji Gakuin University, but if you find them helpful, please share them with your colleagues and friends.

(Part 1)

(Part 2)

iWordcount tools from BeeOasis.com are now free at iWordCount.net!

iWordCount.net is the free and easy way to count the words that you read or write. Just paste in your text and get your word count data. There are other features, too.

You can input your reading speed and get the reading time of your text. Reading data also shows you the *Reading Ease and the Reading Grade of your text.

If you sign in (it’s free!), you can track your words on your My Information page, just like at BeeOasis.com.

BeeOasis.com and iWordCount.net are helpful for learners and teachers who do extensive reading.

Readers can track word counts for books on the Log a Book page. Just input the Title, Publisher, and Total words in the book, and click “I read it! Honestly!”

Readers can also click “Search a book,” and our database will give you the Title, Publisher, and Total words of graded readers.

If you can’t find word count data for a book, use the WolframAlpha tool to estimate word counts. (1) Input the pages you read or will read. (2) Input the lines on one full page. (3) Input the number of words in three full lines. And (4) input the page space without text (pictures or blanks) in the first 20 pages of the book.

You can see a list of the books you read on your My Books Page. And with a free teacher’s account, teachers can track word counts for groups of readers. Contact support (at) beeoasis.com, and ask for a free teacher’s account for BeeOasis.com or iWordCount.net.

Make your words count at iWordCount.net! Brought to you by BeeOasis.com, with over 1,500 stories for learners of English, and where English learners read big!

*Reading Ease and Reading Grade are based on Flesch–Kincaid readability scores. Word counts for stories are only available at BeeOasis.com.

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