Depicting the problems with teacher-centered English reading classes in Korea, this report proposes extensive reading as a possible means to address the issues related to intensive reading. Literature on extensive reading is reviewed to provide a rationale for including it in reading curriculum. Research has shown that extensive reading, with its focus on reading large amounts of self-selected, easy and interesting materials, offers a wide range of learning benefits to second language learners. Based on research findings, this report presents some pedagogical suggestions for the implementation of extensive reading in Korean secondary schools by exploring practical issues, including materials, teacher roles, activities, and assessment in an extensive reading program. / text

The purpose of this study is to determine whether extensive reading has positive effects on developing inferencing skills. Extensive reading is a language learning method of reading large amounts of comprehensible texts. This method limits the use of dictionaries while reading; therefore, extensive readers have greater practice in dealing with unfamiliar words than non-extensive readers. One of the ways to deal with unfamiliar words is to infer the meaning of the word using contextual clues. Knowing how to infer the meaning of unknown words is a helpful skill for language learners. Due to the fact that extensive readers have a greater practice in dealing with unknown words, this study examines whether there are any differences in the precision of inferencing skills between extensive readers and non-extensive readers. There were 39 participants analyzed in this study, 28 non-extensive readers and 11 extensive readers. The results showed that extensive reading has positive effects on language learners’ inferencing skills. In terms of accuracy, we could not see a statistical difference; however, the extensive readers had a higher percentage in accurately inferring the word meaning. In terms of the use of knowledge sources, extensive readers were able to choose the appropriate knowledge source when inferring the target word. These results indicate that extensive reading can enhance language learners’ inferencing skills.

This Report explores the importance of including extensive reading (ER) program in English as a second language (ESL) or English as a foreign language (EFL) context. To find benefits and implications of L2 extensive reading, the Report reviews comprehensive literature on L2 extensive reading. Research has found that extensive reading enables L2 learners to achieve both cognitive and affective gains. Based on these findings, the report provides some pedagogical implications for an L2 program in ESL/EFL contexts. The suggestions include practical tips such as materials, useful ER activities, and a discussion of teacher roles in an extensive reading program. / text

This degree project aims to investigate which methods five school teachers, in compulsory education, integrate into their practice when teaching ESL learners vocabulary through reading. Moreover, it aims to find out if the reported teacher practices reflect what is currently viewed as effective vocabulary instructions. The research question that guided this study was, what methods or underlying theories do ESL teachers, in South Sweden, find useful when teaching vocabulary through reading? The research used classroom observations, individual interviews, together with a thorough analysis of relevant research on the subject of SLA. Moreover, despite the vast research in this area regarding effective practices of vocabulary acquisition, teachers tend to use old fashioned, and simple methods when teaching and assessing vocabulary acquisition. Underlying reasoning is said to be lack of time, or knowledge of how to incorporate efficient practices in their teaching. To conclude, we believe that teachers would benefit from receiving further education on how to incorporate potent practices, so that they are able to more efficiently integrate them into their current language learning activities.

Word recognition skill is fundamental for readers to successfully process any given text. Proficiency in the component skills of word recognition, orthographic, phonological, and semantic knowledge, is what readers need to accurately and automatically decode words to apply meaning to what they have read. For second language readers, the challenge of reading is often hindered by a lack of word recognition skills and therefore, they often suffer from low reading rates and consequently poor reading comprehension. This study was a quasi-experimental longitudinal inquiry into the effects of extensive reading, word recognition training, and timed reading on second language reading comprehension. Through word recognition tasks focused on orthographic, phonological, and semantic knowledge development, the aim of this study was to (a) better understand the effects of orthographic, phonological, and semantic skill training on word recognition skills, (b) better understand the effects of word recognition training on reading rate and reading comprehension, (c) understand the effects of long-term word recognition training on reading comprehension, (d) investigate if changes in word recognition components correlate with changes in reading comprehension, and (e) better understand reasons for expected and unexpected outcomes of participants in the study. A total of 248 participants took part in the study. The participants were a combination of first- and second-year economics majors from a private university in western Japan. They were from ten intact classes that were randomly assigned to one of four groups. The first group acted as a comparison group and focused on intensive reading training. The second group did extensive reading and included sustained silent reading. The third group did extensive reading and received word recognition training. The fourth group did extensive reading, word recognition training and timed reading training. All participants took a reading course as part of the required English program that lasted for two 15-week academic terms. The first 30 minutes of each class were used for each group’s respective training, and the remaining 60 minutes were used to teach general reading strategies. Quantitative data were gathered using a variety of instruments that included a lexical decision test, an antonym pairs test, a pronunciation test, a reading comprehension test, and a reading rate test. Additional qualitative data were gathered via selected participant interviews and a post-study survey. The results showed that the participants who received word recognition training in conjunction with extensive reading, produced positive changes in reading comprehension. However, only two of the components of word recognition ability improved with training, semantic knowledge and phonological knowledge. This indicated that more focus on specific components of word recognition might provide better scaffolding to foster reading development. The results also indicated that the three treatment groups all performed significantly better than the comparison group in reading rate gain and those improvements were reflected in reading comprehension gains. With respect to word recognition and its impact on reading comprehension, there was evidence showing that word recognition training did positively impact reading comprehension, but that more time might be required than used in this study to see its full impact. Finally, there were data to indicate that there was a correlation between semantic knowledge and reading comprehension. This study shows that although extensive reading is an effective approach to teaching L2 English reading, the addition of word recognition training and timed reading can benefit readers by improving reading comprehension. The addition of word recognition training can assist lower-proficiency readers to automatize low-level cognitive processes such as orthographic, semantic, and phonological processes, and by doing so, reallocate cognitive resources to higher-level cognitive processes such as inferencing and schemata activation required for reading comprehension. Finally, the addition of timed reading seems to have contributed to overall reading rate and reading fluency development. / Applied Linguistics

The purpose of this study is to investigate the overall effectiveness of extensive reading, and whether learners' ages impact learning from extensive reading differently. The second purpose is to investigate whether the length of time that second language learners engaged in extensive reading influenced outcome measures, and if an effect is found, identify effective periods of time for learners to engage in extensive reading. Meta-analysis was used to investigate the trends shown by past empirical research, chart future research directions, and provide a means to create alternative hypotheses for future research. Two types of empirical studies were conducted: group contrasts of studies that included control groups and pre-post contrasts of studies that only include experimental groups. This meta-analysis included 34 studies that provided 43 unique effect sizes (22 effect sizes for group contrasts and 21 effect sizes for pre-post contrasts) and a total sample size of 3,942 participants. Students who received extensive reading instruction outperformed those who did not. The effect size was small for group contrasts (d = .46) and medium for pre-post contrasts (d = .71). Moderator variables for each contrast were examined to assess the impact of learners' ages and the length of instruction; however, all groups substantially overlapped with each other in terms of their confidence intervals, indicating no statistically significant difference among the groups. There was a small effect size for university students for the group contrast (d = .48), a medium effect for high school students (d = .61), a large effect for university students (d = 1.12), and a large effect for adults (d = 1.48) for pre-post contrasts. In terms of the length of instruction, both one semester of instruction (d = .36) and one year of instruction (d = .52) produced a small effect for group contrasts, while one year of instruction produced a medium effect (d = .74) for pre-post contrasts. In sum, the available extensive reading research to date suggests that extensive reading improves students' reading proficiency and should therefore be a part of foreign language reading curricula.   / CITE/Language Arts

The present study investigated the effects of concurrent reading and listening--in the form of the Reading While Listening (RWL) technique--as a means of improving word recognition and reading comprehension among intermediate L2 readers and compared these effects to a distinct top-down reading pedagogy in the form of Extensive Reading (ER) approach, an integrated pedagogy of both RWL and ER and a Control pedagogy of silent in-class reading. Drawing upon innate acquisitional mechanisms of phonological recoding as articulated by Jorm & Share's (1983) Self-Teaching Hypothesis (STH), the present research suggested the simultaneous presentation of identical orthographic and aural input as an ideal protocol for the exploitation of such a route to fluent word recognition in reading. Drawing upon innate acquisitional mechanisms of cognitive inferencing and whole language development as proposed by Goodman (1967, 1988), Krashen (1995, 2007) and Day & Bamford (1998), the present study also proposed the ER pedagogical approach as an effective top-down mechanism for cognitive inferencing in reading and whole language development as well as a tool for addressing L2 reader affect. In order to investigate the efficacy of RWL and ER respectively, while also as an integrated composite pedagogy of both RWL and ER, the present study employed a mixed-methods quasi-experimental design incorporating longitudinal classroom treatments of RWL, ER, RWL-ER and Control reading pedagogies over five weeks and among 51 intermediate ESL readers. Univariate and multivariate statistical analyses, alongside qualitative data reduction and display, supported the respective and significant efficacy of RWL and ER reading pedagogies over Control treatments on measures of reading rate, comprehension, vocabulary and grammatical knowledge gains as well as reader affect. Moreover, the composite RWL-ER treatment group demonstrated superlative gains above all other treatment types in a manner that supports the distinct advantages of such an integrated reading pedagogy, which pairs acquisitional approaches to both bottom-up word recognition and top-down cognitive skills development in tandem. Pedagogical implications for these findings are discussed alongside limitations and area for future research.

本研究旨在探討傳統英文閱讀教學與精讀及廣讀教學對於高職低成就生在克漏字測驗上之影響，並從克漏字中的文法選項、單字片語選項、轉折語選項、及整體成績，來分析此三種教學法是否有不同成效。 實驗對象為台北市某高職高一低成就學生，共95位。其界定低成就的方式為未通過英檢初級的同學。在經由3個月傳統英文閱讀教學與精讀及廣讀教學後，以英檢初級程度的克漏字試題測驗其成果。結果顯示，相較於控制組而言，實驗組在文法、單片及整體成績均達到顯著，但廣讀組與精讀組兩組間並沒有顯著差異。而就學生的態度而言，無論是廣讀組或是精讀組，他們都對閱讀持有正面的態度，並表示未來仍樂意從事閱讀活動。 本研究結果可提供教師幫助低成就生增進克漏字作答能力的方法，及對低成就生實行廣讀及精讀活動之參考。 / This study is intended to probe into the effects of traditional, intensive and extensive reading instruction on vocational high school low achievers in the performance of cloze test. Ninety-five language low achievers of the first grade at a northern vocational high school participated in this study. Their language proficiency was examined by the GEPT Elementary Level. After a three-month reading instruction, a 55-item cloze test was administered to these participants. The post-test indicated that the experimental groups improved significantly in grammar, vocabulary& phrases, and overall performance when compared with the control group. However, the improvement failed to reach the significant level for these two experimental groups. Besides, students in the experimental groups showed positive attitudes toward the reading activity and expressed willingness to be engaged in the reading activity in the future. The study could serve as a reference for language teachers in helping low achievers improve their cloze test performance, and provide insights into the feasibility of the extensive and intensive reading activity for low achievers.

The present thesis investigates to what extent contemporary ELT textbooks include reading materials as well as what types of texts are being used and what reading strategies they seemingly promote. Additionally, the study analyzes whether there is a noticeable discrepancy in teaching materials designed for the vocational and university preparatory and considers whether the design of the current textbook is representative of the current view of reading as a teaching tool as reflected in official policy documents. Through the means of a content analysis of a total of six in use ELT textbooks, the study discovers that few ELT textbooks include a satisfactory amount of reading materials and that there is a significant discrepancy between teaching materials intended for the separate orientations of upper secondary school in Sweden. It is also discovered that the set of textbooks largely reflect the current view of language teaching. The study concludes that the current practice of language teaching is ill-suited to counter the development of declining reading literacy and suggests an alternative methodology in extensive reading.

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 1000 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. Three surveys were also administered -- the Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale, The Teacher Foreign Language Anxiety Scale, and the Affective Questionnaire to Extensive Reading. 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. / text