Provincial and federal government surveys and commissions have consistently
reported that English literacy training for adults with no or limited English is urgently
needed and that access to training is limited. The effectiveness of existing literacy training
programs and instructional strategies at the adult level has not been well researched.
However, at the classroom level literacy training can be easily compromised by
instructional strategies that limit the concept of full-literacy by focusing ESL literacy
instruction on survival, functional and skill-building reading experiences. English and
second language reading research suggests that student self-selection of reading materials
and a high exposure to text are effective means of increasing vocabulary knowledge and
reading proficiency.
This study examined the effect of an Extensive Reading program on reading
proficiency and vocabulary knowledge for 2 classes (N=33) of adult low intermediate ESL
learners enrolled in a 15 week English language training program at a large Canadian
community college. This quasi-experimental treatment group participated in a reading
program supplemental to their regular classroom reading instruction. Subjects met weekly
with the researcher and self-selected reading material from a collection of graded readers.
Data on the frequency of the students' reading, their preferences in reading topics and
materials and self-evaluations of their first and second language reading abilities were
tallied for subjects in both groups. No statistical significant differences were found for the
treatment in the analysis of assessments of reading and vocabulary. However, the experimental group posted higher gains in the group mean score on reading proficiency
than the control group. Analysis of the Reading Behavior Survey suggests subjects in both
groups were low frequency readers (less than 5 hours of reading time in English per week)
who generally evaluated themselves fair to good readers in L2 but good to excellent
readers in LI. The inconclusive results for the effect of the treatment on reading
proficiency and vocabulary acquisition implies the need for future studies on the
effectiveness of extensive reading programs on literacy training in ESL programs where
literacy in English is a concern for students and educators.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/5378 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Lennig, Evelyn M. |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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