Reading to write, writing to read" is an elective course that is being introduced with the aim of encouraging university students to read for pleasure and to become more actively engaged with texts by developing their creative writing skills."
This presentation will discuss the creation of an Extensive reading course with a creative writing component for second year Japanese university students in a rigorous English for Academic Purposes (EAP) program. Extensive reading (ER) has been gaining popularity as a method of instruction due to the advantages it confers in language acquisition. To capitalize on the benefits of ER, it has been suggested that students need to be involved in activities that relate to and engage them more with the texts that are being read (Day and Bamford, 1998; Green, 2005). "Reading to write, writing to read" is an elective course that was introduced with the aim of encouraging university students to read for pleasure and to become more actively engaged with texts by developing their creative writing skills. It is hypothesized that through experiencing the process of creative writing, students can develop audience awareness from instructor and peer feedback, and also that they can use short works of fiction to develop their writing skills with guided instruction. The basic premise for the development of the syllabus will be discussed, as well as the challenges and successes faced in implementation in regular versus online classes.
