مشاعل سالم السالم

 By: Mashael Al- Salem 

 

The Effectiveness of Extensive Reading in Improving Students' Abilities in English Reading

In the real world, reading is a means to an end in itself. It is always a purposeful activity, and our job as teachers is to help students identify these different purposes and to master the strategies best suited to achieving them.

^{Ken Hyland, 1990}

1. Introduction

"Proclaim! (or Read!) In the name of thy Lord and Cherisher."[1] The first verse descended on prophet Mohamed constitutes the act of reading. Latha (1999) states, "Reading is a crucial skill in everyday activities." Even in education, "reading is central to the learning process." Debat (2006) adds by saying that the importance of reading seems to reach its highest level when it comes to students of English as a Second Language (ESL) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL). 

Students read textbooks, exam instructions, signs and post notes hung on the wall of their department. However, no matter how much we stress the magnitude of reading, most students' reading abilities are not to the optimal level. Many learners struggle through English reading skill; consequently, they score low in their exams. As such, it has become necessary to advise new methods to polish students' English reading skill. One of the many advised methods is extensive reading. Through this method, as Bamford & Day, 1998 states, "we simply try to help students to learn to read by reading. Students will enjoy reading and will be encouraged to read more if they are given the opportunity to choose what to read, when, how and where. Consequently, the more they read, the better they will be.

In this paper, I intend to address how the application of extensive reading helps students of English at the College of Languages and Translation (COLT) improve their reading skill, and how much effect this method has on their exam grades. But first, I will discuss the nature of extensive reading, its characteristics and advantages.

2. Data and methodology

The analysis in this paper is based on Data obtained from a classroom study. This study relies on data collected through a questionnaire, classroom observation, 1^st mid-term test results, and interview with the English reading course instructor.

3. Background on extensive reading

The method of extensive reading is not newly applied. Many educational professionals encourage the employment of extensive reading in the teaching programs. Extensive reading can enhance not only second language reading skill but also it can enforce and polish learners' reading skill in their native language.

3.1 What is Extensive Reading?

Extensive reading is also known as silent reading, pleasure reading or uninterrupted sustained silent reading. Extensive reading has received a great deal of interest over the last decade. Histosugi (2004) writes, "There are numerous reports of ER with students learning English in both foreign and second language settings and of the benefits of reading extensively in English."

Professionals of the field have provided us with various definitions of extensive reading. Bamford and Day (1997) write, "… to read extensively means to read widely and in quantity." They take the definition one step higher by adding "Extensive reading … is generally associated with reading large amounts with the aim of getting an overall understanding of the material. Readers are more concerned with the meaning of the text than the meaning of individual words or sentences."  

Hitosugi, C (2004) has defined extensive reading as an approach where "students read large quantities of books and other material that are well within their linguistic competence. Students select which books they are interested in reading, and read at their own speed."

Day, Harsch & One (2004) have also provided us with another description of extended reading. They write, "In extensive reading, English language learners read large quantities of easy material in English. They read for information and enjoyment, with the primary goal of achieving a general, overall understanding of the reading material."

From these listed definitions, I am strongly in favor of third one. Based on what I have stated above, I may define extensive reading as additional reading outside the restricted area of textbooks either for personal enjoyment or to fulfill one's curiosity towards a topic or an issue. Extensive reading is achieved by understanding any written materials from a singular paragraph to a 500 pages book. Any type of reading is considered Extensive Reading as long as the reading task adds to the reader's knowledge and increases his/ her reading ability and skill. 

3.2 The Characteristics of Extensive Reading

Bamford & Day (1998) have written heavily about extensive reading, and they have provided us with 10 basic characteristics of extensive reading. These are as follow:

1.      Students read as much as possible, perhaps in and definitely out of the classroom.

2.      A variety of materials on a wide range of topics is available so as to encourage reading for different reasons and in different ways.

3.      Students select what they want to read and have the freedom to stop reading material that fails to interest them. [If the student finds the chosen book difficult to read, it's advisable to change it with another book for better understanding.]

4.      The purposes of reading are usually related to pleasure, information and general understanding. The purposes are determined by the nature of the material and the interests of the student. [This point entails that extensive reading should not be utilized as an assignment since doing assignments is far from being described as delightful.]  

5.      Reading is its own reward. There are few or no follow-up exercises after reading.

6.      Reading materials are well within the linguistic competence of the students in terms of vocabulary and grammar. Dictionaries are rarely used while reading because the constant stopping to look up words makes fluent reading difficult.

7.      Reading is individual and silent, at the student's own pace, and, outside class, done when and where the student chooses.

8.      Reading speed is usually faster rather than slower as students read books and other material they find easily understandable.

9.      Teachers orient students to the goals of the program, explain the methodology, keep track of what each student reads, and guide students in getting the most out of the program.

10.  The teacher is a role model of a reader for the students -- an active member of the classroom reading community, demonstrating what it means to be a reader and the rewards of being a reader.   

3.3 The reading materials

Since extensive reading constitutes reading widely and a lot, it would be prudent to inquire about what is to be read and how much. In general, students are encouraged to select their own reading materials; however, teachers are entitled to step forward and provide guidance to their students when it comes to choosing the reading material. Nuttall (as cited in Shelton, 2000) offers an attractive acronym to describe the kind of materials to be used by students in extensive reading. Teachers may employ Nuttall's word as the four pillars supporting the extensive reading foundation. Nuttall's acronym is SAVE, and it stands for the following: "S for short. A for appealing. V for varied. And E for easy." (Shelton, 2000)

Furthermore, Bamford & Day (1997, ¶ 16) seem to emphasize and stress the importance of the notion of selecting authentic texts[2] when applying extensive reading. As for Day, Harsch & One, they have written, "Extensive reading materials can be any material in English that is easy enough for your students to read with overall comprehension." (2004, p.13)

Regarding how much reading students should do, the amount of extensiveness is not agreed upon. Some say the student should read thirty pages an hour, three pages an hour, or one page per day and three pages per day during summer vacation. Others disregard the number of pages read and focus on the number of hours spent on reading. To them extensive reading is accomplished if a student read an hour per evenings or five hours by a specified date. (Al- alsheek, 2006)

This difference in the amount of extensiveness shows that the quantity is not an absolute number of hours or pages. Therefore, quantity in extensive reading is not that important. What is important and of value is the students' realization of the magnitude of extensive reading. In other words, quantity by itself does not make the extensive reading procedure.

3.4 What to gain from extensive reading?

There are number of reasons to why encouraging extensive reading is beneficial. According to Day, Harsch & One, persuading language learners to read extensively will help to:

1.      improve their reading fluency, speed and understanding;

2.      increase their vocabulary repertoire;

3.      expand their grammatical knowledge;

4.      polish their writing proficiency and;

5.      promote self dependence and autonomous learning.   

Regarding points 2 & 3, Ibsen (1990) states that since students will be reading fast and much, "they will be able to absorb new vocabulary and idioms, and new grammatical structures will more or less unconsciously become part of their Linguistic competence". In addition, Nation (1997) indicates that extensive reading has been shown to be successful in reinforcing, confirming and deepening knowledge of vocabulary and expressions and of developing understanding of when and how to use words by reading them in context. As for the fourth point, I may say that I commonly hear and strongly believe that good readers are good writers in the sense that they have more topics and information to write about. Readers may also pick up a certain writing style due to the constant exposure to certain kinds of book.

Hedge (2000) indicates other beneficial factors when an English Language Reading Program has been launched in Malaysia. These include:

1.      exposing students to written English;

2.      motivating students to read and inculcate in them the reading habit and;

3.      introducing elements of literature into language teaching.

4. English 252 and extensive reading

English 252 (Reading Skill -4-) is one of the courses taken by level four English translation students in the College of Languages and Translation (COLT) at King Saud University (KSU). Mrs. Iman Al- Khateeb[3] is the instructor responsible for teaching two groups taking this course in the 1^st semester of the year 2007. The total contact hours of the course is 30 Hrs per semester, two hours per week. Mosaic 2 Reading is the textbook to be used for this course. The focus of this course is to increase students reading speed as well as promoting their reading comprehension through practicing inferring meaning using context clues and skimming and scanning[4] for general information.

Mrs. Iman has decided to use ER in Eng252 in both groups. At the beginning of the course, she informed her students that she has allocated 10% of the midterm grade to additional reading outside the reading text. Due to students' lack of interest, the instructor reduced the assigned mark to 5%. Students were instructed to find a topic to their liking and read about it not less than 500 pages. The reading may contain various articles downloaded from the net or one single book. After reading the required amount, students should write a summary and provide an outline of what they have read. 

Students have to have the instructor's approval on the topic to be read. This is but a preconscious procedure to ensure that the students' topics are religiously, culturally, and academically appropriate (see Appendix B for the list of topics chosen by the students). All students must submit the reading material(s), the summary and the outline to the instructor either on a combatable disc (CD) if the material is downloaded or as a hard copy in a file containing the books or the articles taken from magazines or newspapers for reading. Students are given almost six weeks to complete the reading task. The period is subject to extension.          

4.1 Classroom Study

I attended one of the Eng. 252 classes and monitored the class reading skill progression. The attendance occurred on Saturday the 8^th of December, 2007. The class lasted for 50 minutes (from 8 a.m. to 8:50 a.m.). The students have completed 12 weeks of the 15-week semester. They have also finished their extensive reading period and have submitted their reading project materials. Students, in addition, have taken their 1^st midterm exam. The instructor and the students were discussing page 71 of their textbook (see Appendix E).      

4.1.1 participants.

The study involves the students of one group taking Eng 252 and taught by Mrs. Iman. Students undergoing this study are 44 female English translation students at COLT. Their age range varies but almost fixed between 18 and 21 years old. Not all participants are level four students since some of them are in level five but taking this course either as course doublers or for other academic reasons[5]. All participants have completed three reading courses[6] before registering this course. The proficiency level of the subjects of this study is classified as upper-intermediate. 

4.1.2 Techniques of collecting data.

In order to determine the impact of the extensive reading program on the reading ability of Eng. 252 students and their performance in the reading exam, data has been collected through the administration of an affective questionnaire, inspection of 1^st midterm result and interviewing the course instructor.

1.      Questionnaire

A questionnaire was handed out to the students on the day I attended the reading class. There were 27 students attending the class that day, and only 24 of them accepted to fill in the questionnaire.

The questionnaire is made of two major parts plus the section designed to gather information about the subjects (see Appendix A). Part A consists of 26 statements. Students are to indicate their agreement or disagreement with each statement by ticking the box of one item in the scale used in this questionnaire. Part B is used to signal out the kind of reading material(s) mostly read by the students. Part B is further divided into two sections: fiction and non-fiction. Each section contains a list of items from which subjects can choose.

2.      First mid-term exam result

Students took their first midterm exam on Saturday the 1^st of December, 2007. The exam lasted for one hour (from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.). The instructor of the course was kind enough to supply me with the students' grades on that exam (see Appendix D). The exam was given after the students completed their reading project and handed in their work. The exam results are used to determine how much students progressed in their reading skill and ability after doing some extensive reading. These results will also tell us about this reading course in comparison to their answers in the questionnaire.

3.      Interview with the course instructor

On Wednesday the 12^th of December, 2007, I interviewed Mrs. Iman for about 15 minutes. I asked her about implementing extensive reading in Eng. 252. She explained her reasons for using this method and how it is done. She also commented on the overall attitude of her students towards extensive reading. She also provided me with her general impression about what she did.

Mrs. Iman decided to apply extensive reading in her course to encourage students to read outside the reading text. She said that Eng.252 is the last reading skill her students are going to take. After that students are immediately introduced to linguistics courses[7] where the books are made of chunks of paragraphs. According to Mrs. Iman, these students almost spend a month not knowing how to deal with these courses or read their books. So hopefully extensive reading will help these students to adopt more quickly with linguistic books.

About how extensive reading is set to be carried out, Mrs. Iman said that in the first session of her course she explained to her students the process. She told them that they will be required to do additional reading outside the classroom. Every student has to choose a topic she is interested in and read about it. The reading should not be less than 500 pages. The students immediately protested and complained that they cannot do such reading along with the requirements of the other courses. The students suggested that they do a reading of 50 pages (i.e., one tenth of the intended amount).  

Regarding the students attitude towards extensive reading, the instructor informed me that the students did not like this method, and only some of students (there number not exceeding the two hands in each group) took this method seriously.

The instructor at the end of the interview expressed her disappointment in the students' lack of interest and lack of enthusiasm to do such an advantageous task. She even had to reduce the amount of marks assigned on this project from 10 points to 5 points. She said that some students downloaded all sort of junks from the net put it on a CD and hand it in without reading. This act reached the point of downloading reference and bibliography pages about a certain topic. She is, however, proud of the students who did well and enjoyed the task, and she intends to do it with next semester students with some modifications.

4.1.3 Data analysis.

1.      Questionnaire

In order to compare the questionnaire result to the students' exam grades, I calculated the number of students' responses to each statement in part A then picked up the majority to represent positive or negative attitude towards Eng. 252. Of course, statements number 2, 6, 9, 11, 15, 16, 17, 18, and 25 are negative statements, so the higher the disagreement is the more positive the result will be.

Table 1: students' responses to each statement

From the results above, I created the chart below that indicates the students' attitude towards English reading and extensive reading.

Chart 1: students' responses form statement 1 to 13

     

  Chart 2: students' responses from statements 14 to 26

  

From these charts, one would only conclude that the subjects have a general positive attitude to Eng. 252. In addition, based on statements 13, 15, 19, 20, and 22, students seem to enjoy extensive reading and want to do it more often.

Regarding part B of the questionnaire, the chart below shows the students' choices of the reading material(s). The vertical axis indicates the number of the students while the horizontal axis indicates two reading genres: fiction and non-fiction.

Chart 3: students' choice of reading materials       

Through inspecting this chart, it seems that these students prefer reading fiction more than non-fiction. Students are even in more favor of short stories rather than the other types of the fiction genre.

2.      First mid-term exam result

If we are to take the students' responses in the questionnaire into consideration, then there should be a significant correlation between their positive opinion about Eng.252 and the extensive reading program and their exam results. One would assume that since the students enjoy the extensive reading program, and it helps them to pass their reading test, most of the students in this class should score high. Their 1^st midterm exam was out of 21. I divide the students score in this test to high, med, and low. High includes the marks between 21 and 17, med includes those between 16 and 12, and low is 11 and below. I choose the five-point standard because it is the criterion employed to distinguish between A+ and A, A and B+ and so on. The chart below indicates students level scored in their midterm test after doing some extensive reading. The vertical axis indicates the number of students while the horizontal axis represents the score category: high, med, or low.

Chart 4: students' standard in their mid-term exam

Based on the exam results, we can see that the majority of the students are placed into the med category (including 23 students) followed by low (12 students) and then high (9 students).    

3.      Interview with the course instructor

 In analyzing my interview with Mrs. Iman, it is clear that the extensive reading program did not achieve the optimal results and intentions. Extensive reading should have helped in increasing their speed-reading which will eventually contribute in their exam results. This I have sensed myself when I attended the class. Students showed no significant comprehension or advanced reading ability during the discussion of the reading passage (see Appendix C).   

4.4 Results.

Putting the data obtained for this study all together, I come up with the following conclusions:

1.      Students simply do not read and do the job to get their marks.

2.      Extensive reading has made no significant improvement neither in the students' exam results nor in their general comprehension proficiency.

3.      Students lack interest in doing any additional reading particularly during official time of studying.

4.      Students' speed- reading has not reached the required level.    

5. What went wrong?

I could not help but notice some shortfalls in the implantation of extensive reading in Eng. 252. For starters, extensive reading was introduced as a course assignment with specific amount of grades. This has caused students to view extensive reading as a course requirement and not as an additional work done for their general improvement in English Language. It is my belief that extensive reading aims at general comprehension and reduces teachers' demands on the student and vice versa.

Furthermore, extensive reading should possess and reflect some degree of pleasure and enjoyment. This, however, is far from being experienced when extensive reading is an assignment, and as assignments go, pleasure is far from being one of its feature. On top of this, Nell (1988) argues that one cannot take pleasure in reading something in a foreign language unless he has mastered that language. 

Another point is that the extensive reading is set to be carried out and finished during a specific time range (i.e., during the first eight weeks of the semester). I think it would have been more useful to apply the program during the whole semester in order to give the students more time and space to read and reflect on their reading. Finally, students were not given the opportunity to talk about what they read. If the instructor asked her students at the beginning of each session (let's say the first five minutes) to tell the class about the gist of what they read, these students may encourage one another, and some may even inspire or activate the curiosity trigger in others to read more about what has been said.           

6. Recommendations for future development

I am a big supporter of extensive reading. I applied it with my students at the Health College. However, to ensure that extensive reading is beneficial and effective it would be wise to:

1.                          Start a reading club at COLT which takes place after the schools hours. I call it a reading club and not a book club to allow for the variety of the reading materials. However, the meeting should not exceed one hour a day and should not take place everyday.  

2.                          Instructors not an instructor should join the students in the program to demolish the atmosphere that it is a regular class with an instructor and students.

3.                          Allow students to read parts of their material, a paragraph or even a line, they find quite interesting and let them talk about it.

4.                          Arrange for a place that accommodates and promotes the reading environment (e.g., a place with tables, chairs, books, newspapers, and magazines).

5.                          Extensive reading is additional and optional, so students sign in or join on their own free well and not because there are marks attached to it.  

7. Questions for further research   

   In this study, extensive reading showed no effect on students' exam results or on their reading abilities in class. As such it would be useful to investigate some questions related to reading.

The following questions seem to be worthy of investigation:

1-                          How much effect does the native language of the students have on a second or foreign language extensive reading?

2-                          Does our Saudi culture and society affect the way we read?

3-                          Should English students have more than one course of reading in the same level? And if so will this promote reading extensively?

4-                          Is mastery of the foreign or the second language encourages students to read more, less or it has no significant contribution to the process?  

8. The conclusion

In conclusion, despite the unsatisfactory result of this study, I am more inclined to encourage and enhance the incorporation of extensive reading at the College of Languages and Translation. This study was strictly carried out for writing this paper and its results are not finite. As a matter of fact, I would say that eight weeks is not a sufficient time to expect some positive influence on the reading ability of the English language students at COLT.

The discussion above deals with extensive reading, its characteristics and befits. There is also a specific indication to the role of extensive reading in influencing students' exam results and reading abilities.  A classroom study has been done for the purpose of this paper. Data has been gathered and analyzed for the same purpose and to verify any results found. I have also included some questions that would be useful for further research in the same area 

Appendix A:

The questionnaire below is adopted from Hitosugi (2004). For this study I added the participants' data section, modified statements, and included part B.

READING (Eng. 252) QUESTIONNAIRE

Data on participants: (underline one please)

Age:          

18-19                                 20-21                                   22-23                                 Other

Level:       

Beginner                  lower-intermediate                 upper-intermediate              advance

Sex:

Male                        Female

Years of studying English:

1 year                     1 and a half                    2 years                            more than 2 years

_____________________________________________________________________

A. Indicate your agreement or disagreement with each of the statements by choosing one from this scale: Strongly Agree / Agree / Disagree / Strongly Disagree

_____________________________________________________________________

B. what kinds of reading materials would like to read? Choose as many as you like by Ticking the circle(s).

1. Fiction

O novel (underline your favorite(s))

- Romance    - science fiction      - thrill      - mystery & horror       - myths        - epics

O drama

O poetry

O short stories

2. Non-fiction

O research paper

O newspapers

O articles (in magazines or on the net)

O diaries

O science & computer

Appendix B:

The table below indicates students' choice of reading topics in extensive reading.

Appendix C:

Below is a classroom transcription of the teaching session held on December the 8^th, 2007.

The students were seated then the teacher entered, and Greetings were exchanged.

T: Good morning ladies.

B (some students greeted back and they did so individually): good morning

T: so how was your weekend?

B (one student answered): we had to study.

T: oh so you have an exam then?

B: yes

T: and you studied during the weekend?

B: yes.

T: I see. So what is the difference between weekend and weekdays?

B: in weekends I sleep a lot.

C: I watch T.V.

D: I do my homework

E: go shopping and eat in a restaurant.

T: speaking of homework, did you do the homework I assigned to do?

(Answers vary between yes and no.)

T: ok. Those who did their homework please submit your work at the end of the class. I believe we need to finish chapter 4. Please open your books and go through page 71. I want you to look quickly at the passage and tell me what it is about (skimming). I will give you one minute.

The teacher checked her watch and after one minute she asked:

T: can any of you tell me what the reading passage is about?

Ss: mystery.

T: Is it about mystery in general or a specific kind of mystery?

B: Unsolved mysteries.

T: yes. Unsolved mysteries, where?

B: in South America

T: What is South America? Can you give me Examples?

Ss: Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Paraguay…etc.

T: right. Now I will give you three minutes. I want you to read the first paragraph.   

(Students were not asked to prepare previously. Students were reading silently. The teacher kept going around to check that the students are on the right page. While the students were reading, the teacher talked to the researcher attending the class and explained a bit of what they were doing. Mrs. Iman said, "We are doing speed-reading + comprehension. Student should be able to read 150 words per minute. My goal is at the end of the semester students will reach 200 words per minute." "Some are progressing. Others are not practicing," she added.

T: ok girls time is up. How many of you were able to finish reading the paragraph?

(Only 3 students confirm that by raising their hands.)  

T: girls you need to practice at home and cheek your speed. Now I want you to go through the passage again and write a sentence about each paragraph.

(Students then were engaged in questions.)

T: Since we are working with phenomenon, can any one explain to me why all of you are sitting at the back?

(Students did not respond.)  

T: in the first paragraph the author talks about unsolved mysteries. Can you give me reasons to why some mysteries are not solved? )

(Students gave ideas about why mysteries are not solved. The teacher then asked the students to read paragraph two followed by general discussion of the content of the paragraph. The discussion then moved on to include paragraph 2 and 3)

T: can you tell me what paragraph 3 is about? Yes the girl with red sweater.

S: I did not read it.

(Students participation is very low. The teacher every now and then tries to extract answers from the student. The teacher advises the students of using the pen while reading to keep with their speed-reading. During the time of reading some students were playing with their pens. For students who did not finish reading during the time given, they start reading from the beginning when asked to finish reading. Generally the students are reading but not concentrating, and the teacher realizes that, and she points that out.)

 Appendix D:

Below is a table containing the students' results in their 1^st midterm exam.

 

 

Appendix E:

Below is a copy of the reading material discussed during the class observation. This is copy is obtained from the textbook: Mosaic 2 Reading, p 71.

 References:

Alasheek, R. (2006). The Role of Extensive Reading in Teaching EFL. Unpublished paper.

Bamford, J., & Day, R. (1997). Extensive Reading: What Is It? Why Bother? Retrieved December 8, 2007, from http://www.jalt-publications.org/tlt/files/97/may/extensive.html

Bamford, J., & Day, R. (1998). The Characteristics of an Extensive Reading Approach. Retrieved December 8, 2007, from http://www.extensivereading.net/er/ERChar.html

Day, R., & Histosugi, C. (2004). Extensive Reading in Japanese. Retrieved December 1, 2007, from http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/rfl/April2004/hitosugi/hitosugi.pdf

Day, R., Harsch, K., & Ono, L. (2004). Tips for Reading Extensively. English Teaching Forum, 42 (4), 12-16.

Debat, E. (2006). Applying Current Approaches to the Teaching of Reading. English Reading Forum, 44 (1), 8-14.

Hedge, T. (2000). Teaching and Learning in the Language Classroom. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Hyland, K. (1990). Purpose and Strategy: Teaching extensive reading skills. Selected articles from the English Language Fourm, (89-93), 104-109.

Ibsen, E. (1999). The Double Role of Fiction in Foreign-Language Learning: towards a creative methodology. Selected Articles from the English Teaching Fourm, (89-93), 143-153.

Latha, R. (2005). A Reading Programme for Elementary Schools. English Teaching Forum, 43 (1), 18-23.

Nation, P. (1997). The Language Learning Benefits of Extensive Reading. Retrieved December 16, 2007, from http://www.jalt-publications.org/tlt/files/97/may/benefits.html

Shelton, S. (2000). Encouraging Extensive Reading. Retrieved December 6, 2007, from http://www.developingteachers.com/articles_tchtraining/extread2_scott.htm  

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