Is this a gerund, participle, or continuous infinitive?

just a quick question about what the word "reading" would be classified as in the following sentence:

The students get practice reading at home.

If the sentence didn't have the word "get" it would certainly seem to be a gerund, but with the addition of the word "get" I was having trouble identifying it exactly. I am still of the opinion that it is a gerund, but a friend was arguing that it is an infinitive of some type (continuous infinitive, perhaps).


Solution 1:

Migrating a comment by BillJ to the Answer section; if they add their own answer, I will delete this.

"Reading" is a verb here and hence "reading at home" is a clause functioning as an adjunct in clause structure.

Unlike a noun, it can be modified by an adverb as in "regularly reading". Further, an NP object could be added, as in "The students get practice reading suitable books at home".

I'm not sure what semantic subtype of adjunct it is, though it may be a peripheral case of means (cf. "The students get practice by reading at home").