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A man in a flat cap proudly harvests his splendid potato crop from his allotment. Artwork depicting An allotment gardener. A gardener sits on a pile of rocks holding a gerden fork, at the edge of his allotment. A seaman s allotment note by which a mother has sent money to her son aboard his ship Inverness. Terry Walton was born in in the Rhondda, and has lived in South Wales all his life. Data for the study were obtained from six major sources: The questionnaires and tests were administered three times over the course of the academic year. Before conducting the quantitative analyses on the data gathered with the above instruments, the dichotomous test and questionnaire data were analyzed usingthe Rasch rating-scale model to confirm the validity and reliability of the instruments and to transform the raw scores into equal interval measures.
In addition, all three experimental groups outperformed the intensive reading group in reading comprehension. Furthermore, results from the latent growth curve model showed that gains in reading self-efficacy were related positively to gains in reading comprehension. In a similar vein, the results showed that gains in reading strategy skill led to changes in reading self-efficacy, while reading amount was not significantly related to changes in reading self-efficacy. The results also suggested that those who more highly regard extensive reading as useful to improving reading comprehension exhibited higher levels of reading self-efficacy over the course of the study.
On the contrary, there was no significant difference in levels of reading self-efficacy between those who highly rated reading strategies as useful and those who did not rate them as highly. Finally, Pearson correlation coefficients showed moderately strong relationships between junior high and high school retrospective levels of reading self-efficacy and university current levels. These results underscore the importance of self-efficacy in the learning process and how the cultivation of self-efficacy should be a goal of any educator or administrator in an EFL context. The findings also highlight the detrimental effects of teaching methodologies, such as grammar-translation, that deprive learners of the opportunity to develop their own cognitive abilities.
Suggests a test which shows whether a student has actually read the material or has simply gained a superficial knowledge of it. Discusses advantages and disadvantages of multiple-choice. Suggests test exchange for interested teachers. Includes test on Steinbeck's "The Pearl. The purpose of this research was to explore the overall perceptions of EFL teachers toward the extensive reading approach as they experienced the approach first hand.
More particularly, EFL teachers' perspectives on the applicability issues of extensive reading for secondary level curriculum in Korea were captured. Also, their personal experience with the approach, including the effect of extensive reading on their foreign language anxiety, was investigated. A total of fourteen teachers in a professional development program participated in the study. They were situated in a print-affluent classroom replete with approximately books including graded readers, young adult books, some magazines, best sellers and steady seller books.
In the reading program, the teachers experienced sustained silent reading, and participated in classroom discussion and activities related to extensive reading. Also, these teachers were strongly encouraged to do outside reading. Data were collected from multiple sources to enhance the credibility of the study, that is, classroom observation including field notes and audio recordings, learner diaries, and interviews. The findings from the study showed that although the teachers were somewhat resistant to the idea of reading English-language books extensively prior to their participation, they became proponents of the approach once they had the experience of pleasure reading.
They also expressed a fondness for graded readers and literature for young adults because of the simplified language and appealing themes that characterize such reading materials, and were willing to introduce them to students in secondary schools. Teachers also recognized the linguistic benefits of extensive reading including vocabulary expansion, positive reading attitude, and a sense of accomplishment from reading extensively.
In terms of the applicability issue, however, the participating teachers recommended introducing the approach gradually rather than implementing it immediately, mainly because of the test-emphasized classroom culture of the secondary level curriculum in Korea. In a similar vein, teachers also addressed problematic factors that would be considered an obstacle to bringing the approach to the secondary curriculum.
Those obstacles were problems related to curriculum and evaluation, motivating reluctant and struggling students, and teachers' conflicted role in the extensive reading class. Therefore, as mentioned earlier, they proposed a gradual approach and the use of extra-curricular activities was mentioned as a possible first step to take.
Regarding the effect of extensive reading on foreign language anxiety, the data from the scale and from interviews indicated that participating teachers were not highly anxious even prior to the program. This article reviews the literature critical of readability formulas from the perspective of their use in second language reading contexts. This article argues for the need for both intensive and extensive reading in an EAP reading curriculum, and further argues that a principled curricular approach to combining both is through Task-Based Language Teaching TBLT.
Given the need for academic preparation programs that focus on college and university requirements so that students are taught literacy skills which are transferable to academic contexts, this paper argues that both intensive and extensive reading are necessary to prepare students for the task and texts they encounter in college. TBLT, which focuses on specific tasks, such as evaluated products in academic contexts e.
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Furthermore, TBLT provides a principled approach to the determination of relevant content. The present study has these objectives: During the academic year at West Virginia University, eight classes of Spanish 4 students four classes per semester were involved in the study. Experimental group students were tested to see if reading extensively for main meaning would affect reading and writing skills.
Two different graduate assistants taught each semester; each assistant taught one experimental and control group. Of all the classes involved, six met three times a week for 50 minutes, and two of the control groups met two times a week for an hour and 15 minutes. For the nine week treatment period experimental students read and summarized a variety of interesting material see Appendix A during the first 15 minutes of each class. Control groups spent the first 15 minutes of class practicing productive skills involving speaking or writing.
Reading comprehension was measured using the Advanced Placement Spanish Language exam, which has a twenty-six item multiple-choice format. Writing complexity was evaluated by comparing pre and posttest mean T-Unit lengths. A repeated measures analysis of covariance revealed no significant differences in writing scores. A seventeen-item Likert questionnaire, evaluated by means of a Chi-square test, showed that students thought reading helped reading and grammar skills.
A one-way analysis of variance showed that age, sex, education, and language background did not affect subjects' scores. There were no significant differences. More research is need to determine if a prolonged treatment period would yield better results in favor of extensive reading. The study investigated the effect of audio-assisted reading on reading rates and comprehension. Sixty-four year secondary EFL students received a treatment of either silent reading SR or audio-assisted reading AR over a week period for 90 min each week.
They read a total of 20 graded readers, 10 at level one and 10 at level two. A pre-test, a post-test, and a three-month delayed post-test were administered to all participants. The test results show that both groups improved their reading rates and their comprehension levels, and the improvement was maintained for up to three months without further treatment. However, the audio-assisted reading group's improvement in reading rates and comprehension levels was substantially higher than for the silent reading group. Reasons for the higher gains of the audio-assisted reading group are explained and pedagogical implications of the study are discussed.
EFL students read 26 passages five times each.
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Students answered comprehension questions after the first and fifth readings. Another group read the same number of passages but without repetition and answered comprehension questions only once. Both groups were tested for reading rate and comprehension before and after the intervention. The results of reading rates showed that the repeated reading students increased 47 words and 45 words per minute in the practiced and unpracticed texts respectively, but the non-repeated students increased 13 and 7 words only.
Possible reasons for the higher gains compared to previous studies are discussed. The author connects Ng's discussion of the changes inherent in Brunei's RELA project with those involved in Singapore's REAP project see Mok, , on which RELA was somewhat based, and stresses the need to investigate socio-cultural factors for their effect on second language acquisition.
She also emphasizes learning from and building upon current literacy practices in a given context, rather than seeking to eliminate them and begin from scratch. Extensive reading was an important part of this approach. Returning to these classrooms in , the author found that some of the positive changes of the s were now less visible. For instance, library corners did not always have the variety of books that once existed.
The author cautions that the increasing introduction of technology, well on its way in Singapore schools, should build on what is worthy from the past, rather than wiping it out and starting over. It first describes what is known about the Singaporean reader. Then it discusses some of the Ministry of Education's initiatives to nurture the reading habit in students by describing some of the extensive reading programmes that have been introduced into schools. This paper describes a pilot study conducted with English as a foreign language EFL students at a private university in Japan who used graded readers and the MReader website in class or independently to enhance their English reading skills.
Each semester students who read , words with MReader quizzes passed enter into the 'MReader Challenge,' a reading contest that recognizes students for their achievement. The study focused specifically on the attitudes of thirty-six EFL students who successfully completed the Challenge in the spring semester using graded readers and MReader, and their motivation to continue using English in the future. The attitudes of these students were measured using their responses to statements on a Likert scaled survey.
Follow-up semi-structured interviews were conducted with eleven students to gain additional insight into their opinions. The results from this study suggest that reading graded readers in general promoted intrinsic motivation among a majority of the participants. This study is preliminary and needs to be expanded and continued to assess the lasting impact of the extensive reading program. Limitations and future directions of the study are also summarized and discussed.
This article reports on an EFL reading programme that integrated extensive reading with task-based learning to promote L2 learners' language development, increase their motivation in reading, and help them build reading habits.
In this programme, students took an active role in selecting graded reading material relevant to their interests and participated in reasoning-gap, information-gap, opinion-exchange, and decision-making tasks in the classroom. Data were collected through interviews with students, classroom observation, students' reading logs, and reflective journals. The results indicated that the combination of interesting reading materials and meaningful tasks created positive experiences in language learning.
Comprehensible input from extensive reading and productive output in the follow-up tasks proved to be effective in facilitating language development. Most importantly, students reported feeling a sense of achievement when sharing what they read with peers and completing the tasks, which then motivated them to read more books and gradually develop reading habits.
Promoting S[econdary] 1 students in Hong Kong to read is a challenge in view of their limited reading experience and vocabulary size and very often their low motivation to read in the context of an examination-oriented and predominantly skill-based English curriculum. Proficient readers have shown language improvement in terms of understanding and writing.
The results also suggest that high-interest unsimplified series have great pedagogical value in the teaching of reading and vocabulary development if it goes with a careful plan of implementation and supporting strategies. An important implication of the study is that high-interest unsimplified series are linguistically accessible and thematically exciting to be used to promote reading for pleasure among young readers. Next, four female Korean immigrants to the U. The participant in the study had lived in the U. She was introduced to the Sweet Valley Kids series and told her reading would be voluntary, i.
Within one year, the participant did an impressive amount of reading - more than one million words - of that series and of more difficult material. At the same time, her L2 competence increased, based on the level of the books she read and on her estimation of her own proficiency level. Before the experience, few teachers reported that they did recreational reading in English. After the experience, nearly all teachers reported that they were interested in using sustained silent reading in their classes, and were interested in reading more in English on their own.
A single positive experience may not always be enough to stimulate a reading habit H. Kim and Krashen, Providing such experiences is not difficult, and the payoffs are potentially enormous, especially in foreign language situations where other sources of English input are scarce. As electronic books continue to attract attention as a pedagogical tool in language classrooms, the impact that e-books are expected to have on higher education cannot be ignored.
Despite the pervasiveness of e-book reading studies in higher education, most studies show that students' reactions to e-books are often negative. However, the effects of using e-books are considered beneficial in extensive reading programs in many first- or second-language classrooms. The different results may be due to different reading purposes. In addition, limited studies have investigated whether students' perceptions of e-books change over time since many of the e-book reading studies used a survey, rather than longitudinal, approach. Thus, this study intended to determine 1 English as a foreign language EFL college students' perceptions of e-books when they read for the purpose of responding to literature rather than for the purpose of intensively studying in an academic context; and 2 whether these perceptions change over time as based on a qualitative perspective.
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Twenty freshmen enrolled in a literature-based course participated in a semester-long e-book reading. The results showed that the students in this study generally valued the intangible nature of e-books. However, the e-book reading experience was still considered unpleasant to most of the participants in this study. This implies that the reading purpose may not have a great influence on students' perception of e-books. Despite the overall negative perceptions of e-books, the students also demonstrated some improved attitudes toward reading e-books for an entire semester.
The findings indicate that when students are given time and opportunities to read e-books, they are likely to develop e-book reading habits and strategies. It would be a pity if we gave up providing students e-books merely because of their initial negative attitudes. A literature review on the effects of incorporating sustained silent reading SSR in class was given and the key features of successful SSR were examined.
A general assumption about reading is that students improve their reading ability by reading a lot. Research on native speakers of English and students of English as a second language has shown that the amount of time spent reading is related to students' reading comprehension and vocabulary growth. Students also develop more positive attitudes towards reading after the SSR programs. The effects are more prominent when the students are allowed to select their own reading materials and the SSR programs are run for 6 months or more.
We investigated the relative efficacy of extensive reading ER and paired-associate learning PAL in the ability of second language L2 learners to retain new vocabulary words. To that end, we combined behavioral measures i. Behavioral results indicated that both ER and PAL led to substantial short-term retention of the target words.
The converging evidence challenges the assumptions of some L2 researchers and makes a significant contribution to the literature of vocabulary acquisition, because it provides the first ERP evidence that ER is more conducive to long-term vocabulary retention than PAL. Accordingly, this chapter aims to examine the role and place of literature in the language classroom in different historical contexts, including Ancient Times, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Eighteenth century, the Nineteenth century, and, last but not least, the Twentieth century.
However, to give a range of perspectives to the studied phenomenon, the researcher did not hesitate to apply multiple research techniques and diverse sources of data. By gathering data through a variety of means, the researcher, undertaking a qualitative research, was able to attend to various concerns with the varied quantitative data collection methods, making the research findings more robust. This study examines the characteristics and quality of simplification in graded readers as compared to those of 'normal' authentic English.
Two passages from graded readers are compared with the original passages. The comparison uses a computer programme, RANGE Nation and Heatley, to analyse the distribution of high and low frequency words in the passages. This is supported by a comparison of the texts in terms of Swaffar's characteristics of authentic message. The present study is in part a reanalysis and extension of Honeyfield's seminal study of simplification, but it reaches different conclusions. By not making the simplified versus original text comparison in absolute terms, but in terms of the respective readers, it finds that patterns of use of structure, discourse markers, redundancy, collocations, and high and low frequency vocabulary, are similar in both original and simplification.
This suggests that the writing in well-written graded readers can be, for its audience, experienced as authentic and typical of 'normal' English. As a result, the publication of Graded Readers in English today is a major commercial concern, although David Hill , p. Such a situation would not only be a huge waste in terms of resources; it could also lead to the alienation of generations of English learners from a potentially valuable means of improving and enjoying language learning. My study investigates this discrepancy by looking at the perceptions of the main stakeholders in Graded Readers, namely the publishers, the judges and academics, the teachers and the learners, to see how they differ and why.
At the heart of the study are five case studies of learners, set against the backdrop of data gathered from all the stakeholders. Publishing graded readers is big business, but there is evidence that the texts themselves are not being read in sufficient quantity to improve language proficiency. This article reports on a study of graded readers, focusing on interviews with some major publishers of graded readers, to investigate their production rationales.
The findings suggest that the opinions of the ultimate consumers, the learners, are not regularly researched, with publishers tending to base production more on the demands of teachers and librarians who buy the books. The largest quantity of graded readers is produced for the intermediate levels, although if pleasure reading is the main purpose of graded readers, it would seem logical to publish a greater number of texts at the lowest level, to inculcate good reading habits from the start. Among the suggestions given for setting up such a library are: However, significant diversity in scientific preparation and aptitude and in language proficiency was still found in the course population, both undergraduate and graduate.
The courses have since been designed for a broad target group, with emphasis placed on translation from Spanish to English and limited English-to-Spanish translation practice. The course content includes fundamental technological and scientific terminology in a variety of fields mathematics, physics and subfields, chemistry, biology, and automotive and computer technology. The methodology used involves extensive readings, vocabulary review, translation, oral reports, and examinations.
Instructional materials at varying linguistic levels and from a variety of fields are used. Student evaluations of the course have indicated satisfaction with the amount of learning in varied fields and with their newly acquired ability to translate technical texts. Student dissatisfaction relates to learning vocabulary in fields unrelated to career goals, text difficulty, and the instructor's lack of technical knowledge in some fields.
Course outlines are appended. For beginners, however, this presents a problem: How can they learn words through extensive reading if they don't have enough words to read extensively? Coady proposes that this dilemma can be overcome in two stages. First, learners should be given explicit instruction and practice in the 3, most common words in the language, to the point of automaticity. Second, they should then be allowed to engage in reading tasks they find enjoyable.
Of critical importance is the careful selection of reading materials: Drawing on Krashen's Input Hypothesis, Coady urges curriculum designers to adopt an approach in which there is comprehensible input, adequate and supportive feedback, and, above all, material that the learner finds interesting. In , it seems safe to say that the amount, quality, diversity, and availability of such text has exceeded expectations.
And yet it is not clear that the computer for its part is serving as more than delivery vehicle. This is a pity, because just as the text was more than expected, so are the opportunities for computers to do much more than simply download, distribute and print. I will provide concrete instances of questions resolved and opportunities provided in one exemplary domain, the theory and practice of extensive reading. Some parts of this paper take the form of a response to Krashen, a noted proponent of "buying books, not computers" if it comes to a choice.
I hope to convince the reader that books and computers are now complements rather than choices. Linguistic computing can make two important contributions to second language L2 reading instruction. One is to resolve longstanding research issues that are based on an insufficiency of data for the researcher, and the other is to resolve related pedagogical problems based on insufficiency of input for the learner.
The research section of the paper addresses the question of whether reading alone can give learners enough vocabulary to read. But computer processing also points to solutions to this problem. Through its ability to reorganize and link documents, the networked computer can increase the supply of vocabulary input that is available to the learner. The development section of the paper elaborates a principled role for computing in L2 reading pedagogy, with examples, in two broad areas, computer-based text design and computational enrichment of undesigned texts.
Cobb argues that free reading cannot provide L2 readers with sufficient opportunities for acquiring vocabulary in order to reach an adequate level of reading comprehension of English texts. The length of the period of study by the majority of pupils is a major consideration in fixing the objectives of modern language courses. The ability to read is generally recognized as the first goal. Investigations in teaching children to read the mother tongue provide material of value to modern language teachers and suggest a technique for the development of skill in reading a foreign language silently.
Pupils must therefore be quickly weaned from the hallmarks of the Committee of Twelve's Reading Method It is just that, for all but the top one-third of the pupils in a class, two years is not enough time for them to bear fruit. The teaching of fluent reading must be based on an understanding of the reading process, and of the principles of teaching reading in the first language, the first three of which are: Children learn to read by reading and they learn better if the reading practice is as nearly as possible like the reading they may be expected to do after they have learned to read fluently.
The best results are obtained from material adapted to the age, the interests, the abilities of pupils. Extensive reading is an important factor in increasing the speed of reading. Michael West's research and methodology show the way to develop fluent reading in a foreign language. Pupils begin by rapidly developing a recognition vocabulary of words, which allows them to start reading supplementary texts.
Hundreds of pages are read, in which new vocabulary is systematically introduced at the rate of one new item per 30 to 40 running words. After two years pupils can understand narrative texts with a vocabulary range of to words. The first value to be gained by studying foreign languages is the power to use the language for the purpose for which languages exist, namely, as a means of communication.
By establishing one-way communication through reading, teachers can get "for their pupils a larger net return in terms of language power for their investment of time and effort" p. The project studied the effect of additional reading instruction with emphasis on reading for pleasure. Series of graded readers were made available to students in the experimental group who were asked to turn in short reports on which they received teacher feedback. An average of 15 hours of after school reading was completed by students in the experimental group. Student achievement was evaluated via the short form of the English Language Skills Assessment ELSA , a multiple-choice cloze test, a dictation test, the Spew test vocabulary , and a self-assessment measure.
The difference between control and experimental groups was not significant. The following possible explanations are provided: This page booklet has detailed and thoughtful notes on structural and vocabulary controls. But just as a measure of power helps society to work, so a measure of grading helps language learning to work" p. The structure scheme was devised by Caroline Tutton et. There are lists of structures and words allowed at each level of the series Level 1: The experiment, with elementary school students in grades , was carried out daily for 15 weeks with the amount of time reading varying from grade to grade, ranging from 10 to 30 minutes per day.
Intact classes at each level were randomly assigned to the experimental or control group. The results showed that the experimental groups had progressed one-tenth of a book further, which was significant at the. There was no significant difference between the groups in the students' attitude towards reading. Participation in a sustained silent reading program during the time that was previously used for instruction in spelling and English did not appear to lower students' achievement in spelling and English when scores of the subtests of the Iowa Tests of Basics skills were used as the measurement criteria.
Those students who switched to pleasure reading seemed to make rapid improvement, whereas those who refused to switch to pleasure reading reportedly experienced little improvement. The class emphasized student-selected pleasure reading, supplemented with teacher-supplied magazine articles. Students began the course wishing to use traditional methods to improve their reading, such as looking up unknown words and asking about grammar.
However, with the author's guidance, such practices decreased dramatically or vanished. Students were not tested on their reading nor were they asked to write book reports. Instead, students wrote and responded to questions about the texts they had read, or, optionally wrote journal entries. As the course progressed, more and more students wrote journal entries and the length of these entries increased.
The author concludes, "Pleasure reading gave the results that we, as reading and language teachers, want: The goal was accomplished in an environment that was fun, relaxing, and interesting for all involved. Forty-three international university students, currently living in the United States, filled out a questionnaire probing years of English study, length of residence LOR in the US, free reading habits in the first and second language, and TV watching. Despite the fact that subjects reported little reading in English, this variable was a significant predictor of TOEFL test performance.
Although extensive reading is now recognised as an important element of language instruction, it appears that EFL students specialising in business studies do little reading in English beyond course requirements. This study illustrates the findings of a survey of reading frequency and attitudes related to extensive reading in English. A questionnaire administered to Italian EFL students at the University of Florence showed that even if frequency of reading in English is quite low, attitude towards it is clearly favourable. In addition, multiple regression analysis was used to determine potentially influential factors.
Reading in Italian and experience abroad were significantly correlated with both reading frequency and attitude. The correlation between past access to English books and reading attitude approached the significance level. A negative correlation was found instead between the number of years of past English study and reading attitude. These findings are useful for defining appropriate instructional actions and identifying areas for further research, with the aim of more effectively promoting extensive reading in English.
While a significant negative correlation was found between willingness to read and number of years of previous study. However, the cause of reported correlations are not known; past reading might be dependent upon a third unknown construct. The inferences made by the author are based on self-declared past reading frequency, and while the presence of reliability figures might assist the researcher argue that their inferences are valid, no such figures were reported. Texts are routinely simplified to make them more comprehensible for second language learners. However, the effects of simplification upon the linguistic features of texts remain largely unexplored.
Here we examine the effects of one type of text simplification: We use the computational tool, Coh-Metrix, to examine linguistic differences between proficiency levels of a corpus of news texts that had been simplified to three levels of simplification beginner, intermediate, advanced. The main analysis reveals significant differences between levels for a wide range of linguistic features, particularly between beginner and advanced levels.
The results show that lower level texts are generally less lexically and syntactically sophisticated than higher-level texts. The analysis also reveals that lower level texts contain more cohesive features than higher-level texts. The analysis also provides strong evidence that these linguistic features can be used to classify levels of simplified reading texts. Overall, the findings support the notion that intuitively simplified texts at the beginning level contain more linguistic features related to comprehensible input than intuitively simplified texts at the advanced level.
The opinions of second language learning L2 theorists and researchers are divided over whether to use authentic or simplified reading texts as the means of input for beginning- and intermediate-level L2 learners. Advocates of both approaches cite the use of linguistic features, syntax, and discourse structures as important elements in support of their arguments, but there has been no conclusive study that measures these differences and their implications for L2 learning.
The purpose of this article is to provide an exploratory study that fills this gap. Using the computational tool Coh-Metrix, this study investigates the differences between the linguistic structures of sampled simplified texts and those of authentic reading texts in order to provide a better understanding of the linguistic features that comprise these text types. The findings demonstrate that these texts differ significantly, but not always in the manner supposed by the authors of relevant scholarship.
This research is meant to enable materials developers, publishers, and classroom teachers to judge more accurately the value of both authentic and simplified texts. The brief ELT background and description of the reading programme's design and aims are first given. The paper then identifies the main problem areas in implementation and describes the broad approaches used to address them. Specific problems and the programme's response to them, relating to both Class Readers and Class Libraries are examined. Finally some conclusions are reached in the light of our experiences, which may have implications for the design and implementation of similar programmes.
One of the important aspects of learning a foreign language is vocabulary acquisition. Many scholars agree that even though direct instruction can contribute to learning vocabulary, the greatest part of vocabulary growth happens while learners are exposed to the target language.
As studies have shown that the range of vocabulary in spoken language is much smaller than that in written texts, it is believed that the main factor that influences vocabulary development is the quantity of texts that learners read. A number of studies have demonstrated that foreign language learners can acquire vocabulary through reading and that language learning programmes that include extensive reading are more effective than only explicit learning of vocabulary through decontextualized exercises.
Therefore, language instruction should include explicit vocabulary learning as well as vocabulary learning strategies and reading strategies, but it should also provide opportunities for incidental vocabulary learning through extensive reading, as it is one of the best ways of developing vocabulary knowledge and reading skills.
The chapter elaborates on the importance of extensive reading for language development with a focus on vocabulary acquisition. It includes studies on the effects of reading on learning vocabulary. The last section is devoted to the characteristics of successful extensive reading programmes, selection of reading materials and implications for teaching.
The authors examine various cultural patterns of the interactions of the characters in Malaysian and Philippine English novels written by local writers. These literary texts, as they highlight, provide an overview of Malaysian and Philippine cultures in a number of speech acts, which are further thoroughly discussed. The authors conclude that such exposure to various discourse norms can lead to a more successful communication.
As the author further highlights, findings such as these emphasize the importance of choosing reading texts which are aligned to known schema, so as to facilitate decoding. However, while useful, as she points out, such findings present reading teachers with a paradox, because if cultural unknowns are a sure source of misunderstanding in the reading classroom, then it can be argued that only texts that deal with known aspects of culture should be used in that classroom.
This, on the other hand, would prevent learners from learning about the unknown. Such student-generated materials help achieve the teachers' goal of encouraging their students to "write like readers and read like writers", because once you have written a book or other text of your own for a real audience, your whole view of the reading-writing process changes. The author begins this chapter by stating that "Simplicity is difficult". He goes on to describe some of the issues involved in simplification of language and its relation to authenticity. In conclusion he states, "In teaching our concern is with simplification, not with authenticity.
Everything the learner understands is authentic for him. It is the teacher who simplifies, the learner who authenticates. The Edinburgh Project in Extensive Reading EPER has done much to promote the aims and methods of extensive reading, and has successfully developed programmes in countries with such varied learning contexts as Malaysia, Tanzania, Hong Kong, and the Maldives. And yet, it seems that ERPs have not been adopted as readily as they might have been. This article considers the benefits of extensive reading, examines some of the reasons for its failure to 'take off', describes two programmes with which the writer has been intimately involved, and offers teachers some leading questions to help them develop their own programmes.
These students were enrolled in sixth-semester introductory foreign language literature courses. About two-thirds of respondents reported a positive attitude toward literature study. Variables found to be significantly related to attitude toward literature study were amount of leisure reading done in the L2, role of literature in the home, and preferred learning style. The authors recommend that reading instruction allow students to give their own interpretations of what they read and that Sustained Silent Reading in which students select what they read be done once or twice a week.
This article contains practical suggestions for running an extensive reading programme. The author concludes by emphasizing two points: Extensive reading in many ways resembles jogging. As it is under the control of the individual, the teacher's role "is to inspire, suggest, sustain, guide, and enthuse.
The article also summarizes the history of grading texts Michael West's vocabulary control; structural grading , and mentions comprehensible input, and the authenticity debate. They are encouraged to read easy and interesting books and to stop reading a book if it is too hard, too easy, or boring. Generally, students do not answer comprehension questions on the books they have read. This article shows how this can be done by suggesting two writing activities that are designed to help students improve their writing and, at the same time, allow them to demonstrate their understanding of the books they have read.
However, EFL teachers interested in using ER in their classrooms may not understand how to do this since it differs in many critical respects from other ways of teaching and learning English. In this article, I discuss how teachers can set up and conduct successful ER programs.
Most of the authors, recognized authorities on ER, discussed their views of the principles of ER, particularly in establishing and conducting ER programs. The purpose of this discussion is to review developments in the practice of and the research concerning ER since and to offer possible directions for the practice of ER. I begin with a discussion of the nature of extensive reading. This is followed by a presentation and discussion of a survey of the practice of ER and the research findings from to the present.
Based on the results of the survey of the practice ER, an extensive reading continuum is proposed. The discussion closes with a look ahead at what the practice of ER might look like. Part 1 consists of 13 activities for extensive reading, including ones by authors of other works in this bibliography, such as Bamford and Mason. The article begins with an explanation of what extensive reading is, the materials to be used, and the benefits that can derived from incorporating extensive reading in L2 instruction. The first part is the more theoretical, beginning with an explanation of what extensive reading ER and various related terms, such as free voluntary reading, mean.
The next chapters in this part situate ER in light of theories of the reading process, discuss the importance of affect and how ER can improve learners' attitudes toward reading, review research on ER, and consider the place of ER in the second language curriculum. The book's second part discusses a crucial issue regarding materials for use in ER programmes. The authors argue for the use of what they call language learner literature, works written or rewritten especially for language learners, e. Day and Bamford go on to illustrate what is involved in creating good language learner literature.
Further, the book's appendix provides a page bibliography of recommended works of this type. The last and longest part of the book describes the nuts and bolts of running ER programmes, including setting up the programme, finding and organising the materials, orienting the students to the programme, creating an on-going community of readers, evaluating the programme, and, last but not least, the role of the teacher. They conclude by emphasising that although successful ER programmes differ in many regards, they all have one element in common: Reviews of this volume Review by Willy A.
During the process of first language development, children learn new vocabulary incidentally from listening and reading situations. While it has been claimed that the same is true for second language learners, there is a paucity of empirical evidence. This paper reports the results of an investigation whose purpose was to determine if Japanese EFL students could learn vocabulary incidentally while reading silently for entertainment in the classroom.
The findings demonstrated that such incidental vocabulary learning did occur for both high school and university students. Numerous studies have reported that extensive reading ER has a positive influence on affect. Recent studies suggest that ER changes motivation. This study presents a model of complex and dynamic motivation for ER. This qualitative study examined the motivation for ER of nine learners of Japanese as a foreign language.
Data from interviews and journal entries were analyzed for factors influencing their motivation. The participants' motivation changed as different factors interacted, leading to different patterns of engagement with ER, which fit within the model. Implications concern the importance of varied materials and of making ER obligatory.
Reading is thought to be a crucial skill in the EFL learning process, and Extensive Reading a very useful strategy. However, very few teachers implement it on a regular basis. The process of introducing Extensive Reading ER is considered far too expensive, complicated, and time-consuming. One way to encourage its use would be to more deeply understand the multiple factors influencing its successful implementation. This paper considers two of these factors, one related to effectiveness and the other to attitude. On the one hand, it examines Extensive Reading's influence on the student's reading comprehension performance.
On the other, it explores the student's perception of this particular strategy. The study uses quantitative as well as qualitative data from students in the first year of a scientific reading course in a Venezuelan university. Findings suggest that reading comprehension performance was essentially the same with or without an Extensive Reading Program. Nonetheless, the program did seem to positively impact participating students. The ER Group did significantly better in the post-test than in the pre-test. Furthermore, the students' perception of Extensive Reading was very positive.
Besides being enjoyable, they felt it helped them build vocabulary, reading comprehension, reading skills and confidence. This study used self-report data to examine what participants felt was most helped them gain a high level of proficiency in English. Participants were 48 non-native English speakers from a variety of countries who were full-time faculty members at U.
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They completed a questionnaire that asked them about their formal and informal experiences in learning English and asked them to rate the utility of the various types of experience and to make recommendations as to what might most help current ESL learners. While results are not unambiguous, the researcher interprets the findings as supportive of an emphasis on language use and on participating in experiences that promote unconscious acquisition, rather than a focus on language usage and on working toward conscious learning of English.
The two types of exposure ranked least useful are formal ESL classes prior to and during university, while the two highest ranked are using English as a teacher or professor and as a student in regular university classes.
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In another table, free reading was ranked as the most helpful out-of-class activity. Among the many techniques and places on the Internet which Derewianka advises students and teachers to explore are: Keypals, the Internet equivalent of penpals; Chatrooms, where the fingers do the talking and the eyes do the listening; Learning Networks, which link students and teachers working together on a particular task or project; and Discussion Lists and Newsgroups, global forums for people with like interests to share ideas.
Teachers put together book bags, each of which contained a story appropriate to the children's reading level, a toy that matched the story, and a blank journal with a question related to story written on the opening page. Children took the bags home to read the book with their family, play with the toy, and write in the journal. The bags circulated among the class, with each new borrower adding an entry to the journal. These texts then were shared with fellow students. Among the suggested benefits of reading such books are their modern themes, fast pace, relatively short page length, uncomplicated plots, and contemporary language.
Sources of recommended titles are provided. A key advantage of these materials is that because they are created by students' own classmates, the texts are likely to meet two criteria for extensive reading materials: Dupuy and McQuillan provide guidelines for the writing, illustrating, and publishing of the Handcrafted Books, as well as an example book.
It is an approach which exposes students to a great variety of texts which they self-select and read during their free time. After briefly reviewing the literature on free reading, and outlining the rationale for its use, the author reports the reactions of two intermediate foreign language classes to the free reading approach, as well as their opinions regarding the impact of this approach on developing the language they study.
Looking for a way to bring students to read voluntarily in their second language and enjoy it? This article discusses a reading approach through which students are exposed to many books which they self-select and discuss in their literature circles, and reports the reactions of 49 French students towards this approach. By examining the preferences of 49 intermediate-level students of French as a foreign language concerning two classroom activities grammar instruction and practice, and extensive reading this study replicates and expands a previous study McQuillan, by surveying students studying a different language, and presenting the reasons behind their choice.
Similar to McQuillan , students in this study overwhelmingly found extensive reading to be not only more pleasurable but also more beneficial for language acquisition than grammar instruction and practice. Students explained that while reading was fun, interesting, and beneficial for language acquisition, grammar instruction and practice was dull and boring, and its effects small and short-lived. In this paper, the author reports on an alternative reading approach for the intermediate foreign language class.
It is an approach through which students are exposed to a great variety of books that they self select and discuss in their literature circles. After discussing the general principles of literature circles, the author will proceed to discuss how this approach can be implemented in the classroom. Third semester college students of French in one intact class saw the first five scenes of Trois homes et un couffin and read the next five scenes in class.
They were then surprised with a vocabulary test that contained highly colloquial words that were in the texts. Subjects performed significantly better than control subjects who were enrolled in another 3rd-semester French class as well as controls enrolled in a more advanced class, confirming that incidental vocabulary acquisition is possible in a foreign language situation. A conservative estimate of their rate of vocabulary acquisition was about.