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What is EPER?
It is a non-profit making research
and development project set
up in 1981 by the Institute
for Applied Language Studies
in the University of Edinburgh.
We seek to promote the systematic
use of graded readers within
an extensive reading programme
that forms an integral part
of the ELT syllabus.
 What
do we do?
1. We maintain a library and
database of all graded readers
published in the UK. We assess
the quality of each title on
a 5-point scale, and classify
its difficulty on an 8-level
scale.
2. We advise publishers on the
production and development of
their series of graded readers.
3. We supervise postgraduate
students who wish to study an
aspect of extensive reading
within their course.
4. We give help and advice to
individual teachers, ministries
of education and educational
organisations who want to set
up a reading programme.
5. We publish our own materials
to support individual and class
use of graded readers.
Who works for EPER
David R Hill directs the project.
He taught English in secondary
schools in Uganda, the UK and
Malaysia before joining IALS
in 1981. As Project Director
he has given talks and led workshops
in Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong,
Thailand, Singapore, Brunei,
the Maldives, Saudi Arabia,
Greece, Spain, Argentina and
the UK, and corresponded with
teachers and education officials
in many other countries including
New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia,
Korea, China, India, Jordan,
Ethiopia, Tanzania, Namibia,
South Africa, Chile, Mexico,
USA, Canada, Norway, Poland,
Russia, Switzerland, Italy,
Germany, Czech Republic, France
and the UK.
 Aileen
Irvine, currently research officer
at IALS, has written one of
the EPER Placement/Progress
Tests and the EPER Extensive
Reading Tests. She has recently
completed a PhD thesis entitled
"Extensive Reading and
Language Learning Development
- a study of Hong Kong secondary
learners of English".
See also EPER-style
reading programmes and support
materials. For further information
please contact David Hill: eper.enquiries@ed.ac.uk
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