During this session aspects of an action research project encouraging students to engage in extensive reading (ER) practices in Arabic that took place online will be discussed. The session will review some of the issues students face when reading in Arabic and showcase how the researchers sourced appropriate free online reading materials to include in the project. The online ER activities to engage students in reading will also be explained.

Grammar translation teaching styles in Japanese courses influence Japanese learners to conceive of reading as translating the propositional content of texts. However when reading extensively, learners may adopt different reading styles and patterns of behaviour, indicating that ER can enable students to develop more natural, normal ways of reading.