Using the World Café to Increase Motivation for Extensive Reading : A Cooperative and Constructive Book Discussion

Abstract

This paper demonstrates how the World Café, a type of discussion format that promotes group dialogue, can be adapted for use in an extensive reading program as a cooperative book discussion activity, and how it affects learners’ interest in reading English. Sixty-six Japanese university students participated in this study; their reflective comments, written/graphic works, and questionnaire responses indicated that the World Café operated in accordance with Kagan’s (1994) PIES, a useful set of principles that regulate cooperative learning, and increased the students’ interest in and motivation to read English. While the effectiveness of the World Café was enhanced by the measures incorporated to satisfy the PIES principles, the use of interactive writing during discussion, the World Café’s unique format, played a major role in promoting cooperative learning.