Yoko Yamashita, Akio Furukawa, David Beglar

The JALT Extensive Reading SIG and the Extensive Reading Foundation are hosting the 7th Extensive Reading World Congress in lovely Sapporo this Septempber. A diverse lineup of plenary and invited speakers will share their knowledge, expertise, and experiences with conference attendees and help to expand the awareness, understanding, and practice of Extensive Reading in educational contexts ranging from primary to tertiary levels in public and private institutions around the world.

Early bird registration is still open – until April 30! Get your discounted tickets soon: https://erwc7.edzil.la/

Plenary Speaker Bios:

Yoko Yamashita is a graduate of Sophia University with an MA TESOL from Tsuda University. She specializes in L2 reading and writing instruction. She wrote  “Tips for English Conversation that give 10 Times Better impression to others” 好感度を10倍あげる英会話術 and “The World’s Easiest English Writing Starting from Elementary School” 小学生から始める世界１わかりやすい英文ライテイング in Japanese. Yoko has often been invited as a featured speaker at the Kyushu and Kansai ER Seminars for Teachers to talk about her ER practice for Junior and Senior High School students.

Akio Furukawa started an ER-based English teaching program in 2001, and now over 2000 students from grade 7 to grade 12 are attending. He has published several books about ER in Japanese including ”Enjoy Studying English by Using Elementary School Children’s Textbooks” イギリスの小学校教科書で楽しく英語を学ぶ”, and co-authored “How to Read English books Extensively” 英語多読法, “Beginning Guide to ER in English” , 英語多読入門, “Reading Picture Books with your Children” 親子で英語絵本リーデイング, as well as 1st – 4th editions of ”Complete Guide to Graded Readers”  英語多読完全ブックガイド.

David Beglar is the Academic Coordinator for the M.S.Ed. and Ph.D. programs at Temple University, Japan Campus. He has published academic articles in Language Learning, Language Testing, Reading in a Foreign Language, Language Teaching Research, RELC Journal, JALT Journal, and The Language Teacher. He has also recently co-authored the fourth edition of an academic listening textbook, Contemporary Topics 3 (Pearson). His research interests include foreign language assessment, vocabulary acquisition, materials development, and reading fluency development.