Julian Bamford
Julian Bamford is a British-born EFL teacher and researcher long based in Japan, best known as the co-architect (with Richard Day) of the modern case for extensive reading in second language education. He taught for many years at Bunkyo University in Japan and has been a driving figure in the Extensive Reading Foundation.
Bamford and Day's ten principles for extensive reading have become the working charter of the movement. Their argument — that learners should read a great deal of easy, self-selected material for pleasure, without being quizzed or exercised to death — was not new as a pedagogic instinct, but their writing made it evidence-based and teachable. Their edited volume Extensive Reading Activities for Teaching Language offered classrooms something to actually do with the principle.
Career
- Long teaching career in Japan, including Bunkyo University
- Co-founder of the Extensive Reading Foundation
- Long editorial involvement with Reading in a Foreign Language
Published Work
- Day, R. & Bamford, J. (1998). Extensive Reading in the Second Language Classroom. Cambridge University Press.
- Day, R. & Bamford, J. (2002). "Top ten principles for teaching extensive reading." Reading in a Foreign Language, 14(2).
- Extensive Reading Activities for Teaching Language (ed. with Day, 2004)
Influence
- With Richard Day, turned extensive reading from an enthusiasm into a principled, named pedagogy
- Their ten principles anchor professional-development talks and programme design worldwide
- Strong adjacent influence on the graded-reader publishing industry