Scholarships

Application Information

The Extensive Reading Foundation is pleased to announce its scholarship program for the Fifth World Congress on Extensive Reading, to be held at Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan, August 9-13, 2019.

Objectives of the ERF Scholarship Program

The mission of the Extensive Reading Foundation is to promote the “extensive reading approach” worldwide, as an extremely effective means of learning a language. To this end, we invite teachers and scholars who might not be able to attend the World Congress due to financial constraints, to take part in the event for their own professional development and for the future promotion of Extensive Reading in their home countries.

Scholarships will provide transportation (capped at $1,000 USD), lodging for 5 nights, a small per diem, and a fee waiver for the conference. Applications are welcome from anyone conforming to the following criteria.

Qualifications:

A record of involvement with Extensive Reading

  • Actively using an Extensive Reading or Extensive Listening approach in the classroom, OR
  • Having a record of presentations or research publications concerning Extensive Reading OR
  • Having contributed to the Extensive Reading Foundation’s activities, for example, through activity in the local ERF affiliate or the translation of the ERF Guide into your native language

Residence: Anyone residing in a country that is not on the World Bank’s list of “High Income Economies“ (see the list below).

Finances: Those who cannot afford to attend the Congress without financial aid (self-declared).

Willingness to participate in one of several planned panel discussions concerning the problems and successes of extensive reading/listening in your teaching/learning environment. There is no requirement to have a paper accepted. Scholarship holders are expected to be present for the three main days of the Congress (August 10-12) and may be required to attend various functions.

Previous recipients of World Congress Scholarships are not eligible.

Typically these grants are issued to practicing teachers or teachers in training. Students may apply but are much less likely to get a grant unless they have extensive experience with ER or have done high-level academic research in this area.

Deadline for submissions: All documents including the recommendation must be submitted by midnight, April 30, 2019, Taiwan time. Note that, while new submissions will be accepted until the deadline, no modifications will be permitted on submissions after April 1, 2019.

Notification of results: May 31, 2019.

Application procedure:

As a spam prevention measure, we ask you to do the following:

Send an email message, copying this address into the “To:” area of your email, replacing the asterisk (“*”) with a dot, and the characters “-at-” with the “@” mark: scholar-info-at-erfoundation*org. Use “Scholarship info request” as the subject of the message. You will then receive an automatic reply with instructions on how to create an account for yourself on the ERF moodle site. You will need to confirm your registration by email.

Enter the Scholarship page with the enrollment key provided in the email. If you have any problems with the above procedure, please contact scholarship-at-erfoundation*org.

You will find links there for you to upload your CV, your statement, and your travel cost estimate. Make sure that your name is part of each document name and that your name appears at the top of each document that you upload.

Required documents

The following documents must be submitted in English. All documents should be in either .doc, .docx, or .pdf format with the file names as specified below.

1) A current CV listing educational background, employment history, and any publications and presentations. Your CV file should be named “CV-“+your official name (Surname_Given names).  Example: “CV-Batista-Martinez_Maria.docx”

2) A “Statement of Purpose” outlining: a) How you have attempted to apply ER/EL to your classes or school; and b) What problems you see in expanding the use of ER/EL in your own teaching/learning environment as well as in your country as a whole. Use “Statement-“+ your official name (Surname_Given names) as the file name.

3) One recommendation from a current or previous supervisor (not a colleague). This document should be submitted directly to the ER Foundation by the recommender as an email attachment to <recommendations-at-erfoundation*org> and must arrive by the deadline. Please request the recommender to place the following in the subject line: “Recommendation for “+your full official name (Surname, Given names).

4) An estimate of the total cost of transportation from the airport nearest your home to Taoyuan (Taipei — TPE) or Taichung Airport (RMQ). The conference is committed to bringing scholars from all areas of the world, but since funds are limited, the cost of transportation will be a factor in the decision, particularly when there are multiple applications from the same region. Note that the cost of transportation is capped at $1,000 USD. Scholarship awardees will be requested to personally cover any additional funds required.

How your submission will be judged:

Each submission will be evaluated by three teachers with wide experience in Extensive Reading.  They will rate each proposal by the candidate’s experience, enthusiasm, and professionalism, as well as the potential of the candidate to help spread the word about the “Extensive Reading Approach” in his/her home country.

Applications are not accepted from residents of: Andorra, Australia, Austria, The Bahamas, Bahrain, Belgium, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Greenland, Hong Kong SAR China, Iceland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Israel, Italy, Japan, S. Korea, Kuwait, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Macao SAR China, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Oman, Qatar, Portugal, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan*, Trinidad and Tobago, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States . *Not a World Bank member economy, so added based on other indicators. “High Income Economies” determined in accordance with data from The World Bank — countries with a GNI (Gross National Income) of $15,000 (USD) or greater.