MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY
D&D
INTEGRATING EXTENSIVE READING IN FIRST-YEAR ENGLISH-MAJOR
INTENSIVE READING COURSES: A SURVEY AT TRA VINH UNIVERSITY
TRUDNG DAI HOC Md TP.HCM
THU VIEN
A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
MASTER OF ARTS (TESOL)
Submitted by NGUYEN THI NGOC HUONG
Supervisor NGUYEN HOANG TUAN Ph.D
Ho Chi Minh City, October 2011
Trang 2ABSTRACT
This study investigated the first-year English major students’ responses to and suggestions on the implementation of Extensive Reading (ER) in their Intensive Reading (IR) courses in two semesters in order to give students and the instructor the experience to reflect how it was done and would be done better in the future as well as getting the language benefits The twenty-nine participants practiced ER in the fifteenth weeks of semester onc and one more participant joined the group in semester two in the same treatment duration of
time Students read graded readers and Andrew Lang’s fairy stories out of class time and wrote reading logs of what they read and kept the reading record to reach the target of 250 and 500 pages of ER in scmester one and two respectively Besides informal discussions journals and interviews a survey questionnaire was used to collect the data from students ‘he findings showed that students had positive responses to ER and gave valuable constructive suggestions to improve ER as they found ER benetits in improving their reading skills, reviewing their grammar and increasing their vocabulary Several pedagogical implications in implementing ER were withdrawn from
Trang 3TABLE OF CONTENT Page Statement of authorshIp con cho ¬— setae eeaeenaes i [YA.4)191415457530113))1-aiiiiiidđiẳẳaiiiddiiiẳẳáaảảả EES ii FNS 1-0] cc iil Table 0Í COn†€nt uc HH HE TH nh TH nà nh nh nh nhà IV LiSf oftableS SH SH SH KH HT nh nh nh xu KH nh ke Vill LISt Of ChaFfS cece ence cece nee e neater renee need e ne ee etna etree e tae ete teens 1X LIst of Abbreviaflons neo " e cree X CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 The context 8001,155:)uaIIIIỢIAIiiiiiiia l
1.2 ER trlals ch ¬ 3
1.3 The rationale of the Sfudy .-QQcQ n n n ng nh nà nh Hà _ 6 1.4 The aims of the study and statements of rescarch qucstlons 9 1.5 Significance of the study 0c cece ccce nce eee e nee eet e ee eee enna tenet eneeteeneeeea 10
1.6 MS Ì vu u51 .Ả 11
1.7 The method of the Study c2 HH HH nh kh ky ch kv vn 11
P2000 no vi (4 — 12
1.9 The structure of the study + ¬ ene renee Ene center eae Ee Ete ena teeter ete nae Ea 12 CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF LITERATURE
2.1 Extensive reading (ER) c QQQQ ng TH pH By kh nà tk kà 14 2.1.1 Definitions of Extensive Reading .c 14
2.1.2 The characteristics of Extensive Reading 15
Pa n:(ca SẼ nae 18
PP N .Ša(0)aaiiiiiiaiiẳiẳiẳẳẳảẢẢ 18
Trang 42.2 The differences between Extensive Reading (ER) and Intensive Reading (IR) 21 2.3 Benefits of Extensive Reading ch kh hs 24 2.4 Different approaches to ER «20.0.0 0 ce cce cece ence ee eee rece eee ene ene eee eeeeeetent ene ea 26 2.5 ER Research at tertiary level in EFL context Decne eee e eee ee ease e teat eaeeae cates 27 2.6 Theoretical issues In IInOVAfIOT .c 2022 SH nh ky kho 3l 2.6.1 Innovation and change_ nh nhe 32 2.6.2 Teaching context and cÏassroom culÌture Án vu vn 32 2.6.3 Model ofinnovation and roles of stakeholders 33 2.6.4 Types of social chang€ cn TT TH HH nh nh kh kg 34 2.6.5 Innovation in a reading course: The assessment and the requirement of ER 37
PVC O) 006 |
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Trang 53.3.7 °) tr.) he a 54 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
4.1 Results oo ccc cece ee Eee Een EEE EEE EES ee Eee Een EES 55 4.1.1 Students' responses to ER benefi{S nen nen es 55 4.1.2 Students’ feedback on ER difficulties .- -<<- 56 4.1.3 Students' responses to ER mafterlals cŸẰĂŸŸẰ, 58 4.1.4 Students’ responses to ER activities .0 cece eect eee ees —— 59 4.1.5 Students' responses to ER amount requiremenI .-.- 60 4.1.6 Students’ suggestions to improve ER implementation 62 4.1.7 The teacher researcherˆs observation and self¬ refleclton 63 4.2 Discussion ofthe Íindings_ ch nh nh hưu 64
CHAPTER 5: SUMMARY OF THE STUDY, PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS, LIMITATIONS, CONCLUSION, AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1L Summary of the sfudy cà ¬—— 68 5.2 Pedagogical ImpliCAflO'S .cQ Qn n HH HH HH nh nh km cm kg 69 5.3 Limitations of the S{UY .- n2 SH SH HT nh nh nh kh hy 73 Xe 11010139 (0) 1 74 5.5 RecommendatiOnS .-.‹ cọ n nen enn EE ere Ee 74 REFERENCES ¬——DD 77 APPENDIXES | Appendix A: Questionnaire on Extensive Reading (English and Victnamcse A763 50) 0) 83
Trang 6Appendix H: Appendix I: Appendix J: Appendix K: Appendix L: Appendix M: Appendix N: Appendix O: Appendix P: Appendix Q:
Table 1- Distribution of class time and ER activities in reading course | Table 2- Distribution of class time and ER activitics in reading course 2 Table 3- Distribution of class time in two reading courses in year | Table 4- The amount of ER pages read by students in year 1 Table 5- The amount of ER pages read by students in ER trial- group 1 Table 6- The amount of ER pages read by students in ER trial- group 2 Table 7- The amount of ER pages read by students in ER trial- group 3 List of websites for ER stories and important ER websites
Data collected from the questionnaire
Trang 7Table 2.1 Table 2.2 Table 2.3 Table 2.4 Table 3.1 Table 3.2 Table 3.3 Table 1 Table 2 Table 3 Table 4 Table 5 Table 6 Table 7 LIST OF TABLES Page
Welch?s table: The differences between ER and [R 22
The differences between ER and IR (ERF’s Guide to ER 2011) 22
The differences between ER and IR (MacLeod n.d.) 22
The relative advantages and disadvantagcs of sel†-selectcd eroup and 26 class readers Interactions Ï Reading: Themes, reading titles and pages 40
Summary of the participants” information in semester — 44
Summary of the ER materials form the English department library and researcher's 10114 NHƯ{iđđ.Ẽ ret tees nee e et en es 46 Distribution of class time and ER activities in reading course | 102
Distribution of class time and ER activities in reading course 2 104
Distribution of class time in the two reading courses - year |] 104
The amount of ER pages read by students In year Ì 106
The amount of ER pages read by students ¡in l:R trial- group Ì 107
The amount of ER pages read by students in ER trial- group 2 108
The amount of ER pages read by students in ER trial- group 3 109
Trang 8Chart 4.1 Chart 4.2 Chart 4.3 Chart 4.4 Chart 4.5 Chart 4.6 Chart 4.7 Chart 4.8 LIST OF CHARTS Page
ER benefit and I like ER .0 0cccccceeeecceceeeceseeeteeeeeeeeeeeeas 56 Responses to ER difficulties .0 cece cece eee eee 57 Responses to ER mafterlalS cọ nen nhe 58 Students’ preferences in topics of ER materials oe 59 ER activities preÍ€renC€S cành, 59 ER amount read by studenfs in general -c - 60 ER amount read by individual students 61 Students’ opinions and suggestions on ER amount requirement 62
Trang 9EFL: ER: ERF: ESL: IR: MOET: TVU: LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS English as a Foreign Language Extensive Reading
Trang 10CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
Trang 11
2,
four-year English language program, students learn some non-major subjects such ormation technology, physical education, and so on However, students spend a lot
e learning English as their major subject which they would use in their workplace
r reading English materials in their professional work, and so on In English, they
the four language skills (i.e listening, speaking, reading and writing) and other
.such as literature, presentation skills, translation and interpretation, and so on As
005, p 3) says “the advantages of knowing a foreign language are clear to your
dents — better jobs, access to literature or whatever Reading is usually recognized as a
ry part of these activities”, students learn seven reading courses in the whole
tarting from the first semester of their first year
J, in fact, reading instructors and students had to follow a reading course book in school year In the first year, students’ reading course book has been Interactions (silver edition) by Elaine Kirn and Pamela Hartmann (2007), published by W-ELill It is a skill-based text book, which offers little practice on reading fluency P has around 45 pages of texts for students to read in a whole first year In ere was no extra reading assigned for students to read outside class From s, the researcher found that students who had finished their study in two years book Interactions 1-Reading and Interactions 2-Reading did not have enough ractice to become good readers at their level Thus the reading courses certainly
Trang 123
ould extensive reading be integrated in the intensive reading courses? It is shown tensive Reading Foundation’s (ERF) guide that extensive reading is good for development (ERF’s guide to ER, 2011) Research studies have pointed out the
"after class Therefore, she attempted to implement ER trials in intensive .):courses to TVU English majors in the first year and third year of their four- lish program ER trials were mainly done to freshman English majors with the
'thát ER would later be kept on till-the second, third and fourth year so that
Trang 134
_ traditional reading classes in Vietnam, especially at TVU, the IR approach is used Also, in Vietnamese context, especially at Tra Vinh University, running ER
avoluntary stand-alone program at a university seemed costly and complicated at the
en t because of the cost for managing, running the program monitoring students’
maintaining and evaluating the effectiveness of the program A voluntary ER l-alone program which does not assess students might motivate and encourage o come to read and borrow books at the first stage, but when students have full- dules, assignments to do in their study examinations they will stop reading It -
ords, there were not any ER activities in class As the result, only a fev
Trang 145
ourses One very strong student expressed that she was surprised when she
dd the novel “Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone” by J K Rowling
jors (n= 17) when the researcher asked another reading instructor to add ER to ses as a supplementary part and the ER accounted 30% of the course final ch was 3.0 marks) and the final exam 70% (7.0 marks) However, in this ER nt, students read story books outside class or at home, and wrote ER logs to he teacher whenever they came to their IR classes in fifteen weeks At the the course the reading instructor asked the researcher to come to her class X ofientation as well as the sample reading logs and the blank reading logs for
II in later The major reading materials were Andrew Lang’s fairy stories
from the e-book collection of the University of Adelaide in Australia The tor was asked to collect the students’ reading logs and keep the records of pages There were not any ER activities in class Hence, ER did not bring
atmosphere to the usual IR class Thanks to the 30% assessment scores on
s venteen the students (100%) exceeded the amount of the ER pages (250 ler one and 500 pages in semester two) in which three strong students read : pages in the whole year (see appendix M) At the end of the school year, | lked to the reading instructor about some ER activities that might have in : lass but they would occupy her in-class instruction time However, the he IR course, who knew nothing about ER at first, reflected that she would end the last five or ten minutes of her instruction time for a couple of ihe class about the books they had read at home The good results in this
§
Trang 15
- ER trial was done to a different group of sixty-four third-year English majors 64) in the second semester of the school year 2009-2010 They were asked to read
ages in fifteen weeks and wrote reading logs about what they read Students
arn 35 % of the final scores (which was 3.5 marks) if they read 2,000 ER pages
ieir final examination accounted 65% (which was 6.5 marks) of the course The iR materials which were downloaded from the internet and printed out were Andrew ry stories, Grimm stories (The fairy-tales of the brothers Grimm), short stories
Henry short stories) from the website of The Literature Network (see appendix
he v Xa of ER stories) Less than half of the students (28 students - 44.4%)
t IX courses — the researcher spoke to other instructors about ER This happened
eading courses were being revised The talk positively influenced instructors n charge of revising‘ reading course outlines and also saw the ER trials and its benefits; ER has consequently become an official compulsory part as a sessment tool and now accounts for 20% of the final course grades
ionale of the study
haVe been taking place in English language education, from curriculum
ents to teaching methodology, at Tra Vinh University (TVU) in the Mekong
Trang 16ngs, TVU English instructors are gradually innovating their courses in an
ve learners a better language program and reading courses have been
evious reading courses, which were IR, had some shortcomings which gave oblems or negative attitudes towards reading
dents did not have much reading practice In the previous reading courses, ajors students who are majoring in English ‘and will later work with the
Trang 17
structors did not ask them to do this They did not spend much time on reading, as
2quence, they became slow readers
r, at Tra Vinh University, in most of the reading classes, intensive reading 1 is widely used but extensive reading is not As a routine of having a textbook to the teacher and students tried to cover everything in the text books in which tems such as vocabulary practice, recognition of parts of speech, or reading with several practice exercises were often scrutinized in detail, the correction or
scki 2 answers to the exercises might have slowed down the reading speed
nts seemed to be over-reliant and dependent on teachers and course books It
irgautonomy to learning and did not give the pathway to life long learning uality of one’s learning is virtually exclusively dependent on the excellence achers” (Hofstede, 1997, p 34) This somehow limited the students’ and creativity When being asked, students from the previous reading courses
lad not experienced ER at all admitted that they were not interested in reading
‘ts, they did not have motivation to read after or outside class, and they were Mnlident readers when they faced with academic reading texts in the course books
thad been some problems in teaching reading so that it prepares students careers, the introduction of an ER component goes a long way to addressing
ok p'to more than 700 pages in the first year), supplementing graded readers
Trang 183 Ifeading, and providing students an opportunity fo select what to read and read
R has officially become a compulsory part as.a formative assessment tool in the
urses, there has been no official guideline on how to do ER in reading course
ee
70 examine the students’ responses towards ER
To elicit students’ feedback and suggestions on ER to improve it and to lay
ground for further research
dy fécuses on ER materials, activities, amount of reading required, advantages sadvanitages of ER on students’ side Therefore, the research attempts to get
e following research questions:
w do English-major students respond to ER in terms of (a) ER benefits, (b)
difficulties, (c) ER materials, (d) ER activities and (e) ER amount
Trang 1910
achers The study is expected to be beneficial in several ways “
ersity level and to first year students in a long-term treatment, in both two yf a school year Hence, the current study is expected to fill in this gap
as the applicable value to put ER in practice It might be also expected to e Ir stitution the chance to see how ER could be practically included in one of
| 10
Trang 2014 ate 6 attitudes towards reading and the IR instructions are excluded The students’
quasi-experimental study on one group of twenty-nine students (n= 29) in the id thirty students (n= 30, same group plus one more student) in the second
3 ided them how to select books and read extensively Students were asked aders, write reading logs, and keep a record of their ER pages Students d to fead 250 pages of graded readers in semester one and 500 pages in ads õ compulsory part of formative assessment section in their current fheir ER pages would account 20% each of final semester scores At the ter, the instructor conducted informal talks with the students to get -on ER At the end of the school year, a survey questionnaire was
Trang 21; 1.2
{0o them to get their feedback on ER Besides, students wrote their reflection on a
# to send the teacher when the school year ended Finally the teacher interviewed
ected students for further feedback and suggestions on ER
ecord: A record to indicate how much a student has read so far, usually he number of pages or books
ders: “The most well known graded or simplified materials available for the re Graded Readers (also known as Basal Readers or Simplified Readers or
)? (Waring, 1997)
1 cture of the study
§ ivided into five chapters as hereunder:
ne is the introductory chapter which introduces the overview of the study with
12
Trang 22
1g, and extensive reading research in EFL context lescribes the method of the study in detail which consists of the setting of
Soon gs
on ER benefits, ER difficulties, ER materials ER activities, ER amount
aent, and ER implementation
is the concluding chapter with the summary of the study, discussion of the
Trang 23CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF LITERATURE 4
30Hnsists 0ƒ (l1) Extensive Reading with the definitions of ER, characteristics 'purpose, amoumt, materials, activities, and ways to conduct ER, (2) the tween Extensive Reading (ER) and Intensive Reading (IR), (3) the benefits ferent approaches to ER, (5) ER research at tertiary level in EFL context, 6) the oretical issues in innovation
nsive reading
1i initions of Extensive reading
stm “extensive reading” (ER) originally came from Harold Palmer and ER is also das‘ pleasure reading” or “abundant reading” (as cited in Day & Bamford, 1998,
shers also call ER in different types such as “Free Voluntary Reading” oF simply “free reading” (Krashen, 1993b), “Sustained Silent Reading” (SSR)
Trang 241S _ Read quickly and bi _ Enjoyably with
imford (1998) carefully provide the following ten characteristics of successful
dene encouraged to read as many books as possible The purpose is for the
Trang 25
its are free to choose the books they like to read The teacher can give mendations but the students decide which books they finally borrow home to Mlso, they can stop one book they are reading if they find it too difficult, too ng (Hitosugi & Day, 2004, p 21) They can select another one which they
ad grammar Dictionaries are rarely used while reading because the
a AG
Trang 26
»pping to look up words makes fluent reading difficult” (Day & Bamford,
1d where the student chooses” (Day & Bamford, 1998, p.8)
ud ig not persuaded except for pronunciation practice (Day, personal n; August 20, 2008) That also explains why Krashen (1993b) refers ER
d Silent Reading Students can read while waiting for a bus or riding on a
re bedtime as they like
{is usually faster rather than slower as students read books and other
ney find easily understandable” (Day & Bamford, 1998, p.8)
> fluency objective that ER aims at If students read fast, they will read a »chance for them to encounter words increases Students are advised to ks to develop reading speed, In case they encounter an unfamiliar word,
ess the meaning or just ignore it (Hitosugi & Day, 2004)
tent students to the goals of the program, explain the methodology, keep at each Student reads, and guide students in getting the most out of the
ay & Bamford, 1998, p.8)
D Day & Bamford (1998) the teacher should start by telling students the
Trang 27ot epee eye a F wT)
reading and the students are encouraged to move up one level by reading e difficult books to develop their language over a certain amount of ER
Hitosugi & Day, 2004) {8
ther is a role model of a reader for students - an active member of the
fds of being a reader” (Day & Bamford, 1998, p.8)
:
ụ
1
a
ld be easy for teachers to recommend books to students and discuss books with © to students when teachers also read extensively xa
ie prominent characteristics of ER are in the variety of reading materials, the
tide to extensive reading (ERF, 2011, p |) emphasizes “The aim of ng is to help the student become better at the skill of reading” because
read extensively, they read very easy, enjoyable books to build their d reading fluency” To reading course designers, ER “allows students to
in its natural context and see how it works in extended discourse lage met in textbooks” and because “Textbooks and other study materials faneuage patterns but typically they don*t appear often enough in a variety of
ilitaté a deep understanding of how the patterns work” Therefore, ER
tu
here mete nền answers presented in Robb and Susser’s article (1989) as
: 4§
Trang 2849
a, 1987, p 120); (c) an hour per evening (Krashen, 1981, p 105); (d) five hours date (Bowen, Madsen and Hilferty, 1985, p 239); (e) an hour of extensive
, p 16); (I) one reader per week (Stoller, 1986, p 65; Eskey, 1973, p 176; cited in Bamford, 1984d, p 260); (m) at least two books a week (Carroll,
0 LỆ : (n) 60 hours over 3 months (Hafiz and Tudor, 1989, p 7); (0) a minimum of
Trang 29
rials should meet the five characteristics of ER (characteristics 1, 2, 4, 6, and
ied above Therefore, graded readers are uséd as the main ER materials as
Z40 ER (2011) explains: +0
"`
ñded-Readers (also called ‘Readers’) are books (both fiction and non-fiction)
1 especially for language learners to build their reading speed and fluency ive them chances to practice ‘real’ reading for pleasure They are called
d’ireaders because they are written according to a ng syllabus ‘has increasing grades, or levels, of difficulty They are graded through ontrol of the plot, vocabulary, and grammar and judicious use of images
“hooks have many words which appear malt one or two times whereas
hers control the vocabulary in graded readers to get rid of low frequency aid to make useful words appear more frequently to help learning liReaders are not to be confused with books written for school -year
Si (ERF’s guide to ER, 1011, p 2) |
ands of graded readers from dozens of publishers and Extensive Reading
later offer “activities to encourage students to talk about what they have
forcing its effect and motivating them to try books others have read and 2005, p 355) The ER activities are recommended in Bamford and Day
actors’ reflection after experiencing them The ERF’s guide (2011) also
s However, instructors have to keep in mind Helgesen’s saying
e main focus is
do something else as evidence of their reading, but th
id-Watts & O’Brien, 2007, p.3) 20
Trang 30
Va to conduct ER _ 24
ling to Day and Bamford (1998), there are four possible ways to conduct ER an be run as a separate reading course Secondly, ER can be integrated in an
pee “4 }
ie
on firstly gives the definition of intensive reading, and then goes onto the
and the teading speed of students as in the following table (table 2.1): off
Trang 31Table 2.1: Welch’s table: The differences between ER and IR of “
| Extensive READING Intensive
| General understanding and enjoyment PURPOSE Language study
Often difficult =|
Easy (graded readers) LEVEL a
(materials for native speakers)
A lot AMOUNT Not much
Fast and fluency SPEED Slow
Welch (1997, p 51, as cited in Jarrell, 2003, p.202) ERF’s guide to extensive reading (2011, p 2), ER and IR are differentiated as follows:
Table 2.2: The differences between ER and IR (ERF’s Guide to ER, 2011) Extensive READING Students “learn to read” For information
Deepen their knowledge of already met language items
‘
CHARACTERISTICS
Intensive Students “read to learn” For something about the language
Pre- and post- reading activities Comprehension questions Build reading speed, fluency PURPOSE Learn something about the language itself graded readers MATERIALS textbooks
Actually driving on the road AN EXAMPLE
Trang 32MacLeod (n.d.) gives a detailed description of IR and ER which can be summarized in he table below: 22 Table 2.3: The differences between ER and IR (MacLeod, n.d.) “READING | Intensive ae 1/ Extensive
* "to achieve a general understanding of a text" What it is IR "calls attention to grammatical forms,
(Brown, 1989) discourse markers and other surface
* “Students read large amounts of high interest structure details for the purpose of
material, usually out of class, concentrating on understanding literal meaning,
meaning, "reading for gist" and skipping implications, rhetorical relationships, and
unknown words." (Long and Richards, 1971, the like*(Brown, 1989)
p.216) It is a "detailed in-class" analysis of
* to build reader confidence and enjoyment vocabulary and grammar points, in a short
ER is always done for the comprehension of passage." (Long and Richards, 1971)
main ideas,
* for pleasure information and general Characteristics to build more language knowledge rather
understanding than simply practice the skill of reading
nand definitely outside class usually: classroom based
’ Reading speed is usually faster than slower students focus on linguistic or semantic
(Day & Bamford, 1980) details ofa reading
Vith demands for simplicity and authenticity, Materials usually very short texts - not more than e levels and interesting to students: 500 words in length
d readers, authentic materials, web chosen for level of difficulty ces
ipleting any of the following: a reading log, a Students’ looking at_ main ideas versus details
ing, a reflection on what they noticed about activities understanding what is implied versus
wn reading, a book report or summary, a stated
ling of part of the text, a book project making inferences
no reading comprehension exercises or formal Assessment In the form of reading tests and quizzes
essments multiple-choice questions and free- termined by marks given for reading reports, response,
ing journals, book reports and projects
{ lives recommendations on reading materials, Roles of Chooses suitable text,
sed on student's interests teachers Chooses tasks and activities to develop des students in choosing appropriate levels skills
material, beginning with easy books Gives direction before, during and after des students in choosing a variety of reading
erials of their interest This may especially Prepares students to work on their own, ecessary for students that choose the same Often the most difficult part is for the
over and over teacher to "get out of the way” | Guides students in setting specific goals for Encourages students through prompts
amounts read without giving answers
' The students may develop a "reading habit", Advantages It provides a base to study structure,
more confidence in reading, improve their tude towards reading and become more
ivated to read, increase reading prehension, improve overall language petence, be more prepared for further emic courses because they have read large
23 vocabulary and idioms
It provides a base for students to develop a greater control of language
It provides for a check on the degree of comprehension for individual students
9 y
Trang 3324 n Extensive Reading program may be costly |Disadvantages/| e There is little actual practice of reading
and time-consuming to set up if materials are Challenges because of the small amount of text not already available It may be difficult to get e The text may or may not interest the
Support from Administration reader because it was chosen by the teacher Extensive READING Intensive
foking at the characteristics of ER and IR in MacLeod’s (n.d.) table above, if ER Buses on general understanding while IR is for linguistic or semantic details of a ding, these two types of reading could be related to the top-down approach and fof approach as Nuttall (2005, pp 16-17) compares the top-down approach to “an igle’s eye view of the landscape” and “‘a reader adopts an eagle’s eye view of the text lien he considers it as a whole and relates it to his own knowledge and experience” and ly ottom-up approach to “a scientist with a magnifying glass examining the ecology of
fansect — a tiny part of the landscape the eagle surveys”
tem ER was integrated in an IR course, it seemed that most of the class time was bvoted to IR because of the constraint to finish the reading textbook; hence ER was ual y done mostly outside class This is actually not a problem as “reading for
ase” and “‘student’s selection of materials” are key components of ER
Trang 34vo <5
siest and most effective way of improving their reading skills” The study by Hafiz id Tudor (1989, p 10) reveals that “extensive L2 input in a tension-free environment pc significantly to the enhancement of the learners’ language skills, both ve ’and productive” In the ER research to Vietnamese adult learners studying
Singapore, (Renandya, Rajan, & Jacobs, 1999, p 51), the participants “found ry, learners who practice ER have a lot of benefits such as ER:
enhanced language learning in such areas as spelling vocabulary, grammar, and text structure
2 increased knowledge of the world
improved reading and writing skills
4, [offered] greater enjoyment of reading
EWhelped students to have |more positive attitude toward reading 6 [provided] higher possibility of developing a reading habit
(Renandya & Jacobs, 2002, p 298)
xtensive Reading Foundation’ Guide to Extensive Reading (2011, p 1) also points
EI s good for language development” when ER:
| “allows students to meet the language in its natural context”
2 “builds vocabulary”
3 “builds reading speed and reading fluency”
4, “builds confidence, motivation, enjoyment and a love of reading which makes students more effective language users” oar,
5 “allows students to read or listen a lot of English at or about their own ability level so they can develop good reading and listening habits” 25
Trang 35ent approaches to ER 4
7 pp 4-6) has pointed out and used three approaches to ER: self-selected,
lass readers as follows:
eted (or self-selected reading): \t is when each student freely selects the titles ie likes This is similar to individual reading Students read at their own paces
p Readers (or group-reading): \t is when students select and read the same title
ips This gives students a chance to discuss the same title or book in a group
Trang 36of T *_ students select and read the same title in groups of about four
' *_ the teacher selects the titles and each is read by the entire class
_*.’ = not so good, ‘+’ = better, ‘++’ = best
(Rosszell, 2007, p 4)
| the table above (Rosszell, 2007, p 4), it is easily seen that with self-selected ng approach, each individual has the freedom to pick up the book of their favor and
ds at their own speed, but it is somehow hard for another student who does not read
e sammie book to discuss about the book With the group-reading approach, it would give lea ‘to them Discussing the same book gives students several advantages such as ; eloping friendship, learning language items, boosting lively discussions, and sading infectious enthusiasm among groups In the ma weak students might fiom strong ones Finally, with class-reading approach, it is economical when all tiembers can read one title
Research at tertiary level in EFL context
as been under investigations as a stand-alone reading program or integrated with er second language courses in countries around the world such as Fiji, USA, England, in Pakistan, Singapore and Hong Kong (Day & Bamford, 1998, p 34) There was a at amount of studies on ER done both outside and inside Vietnam, but to the relevant
tly, in colleges and universities where students learn EFL, ER has been explored in
dus aspects This review of relevant literature will look at ER research in Asian ries like Taiwan, Korea, Japan, and Thailand where English is used as a foreign age and these countries somehow have similar teaching and learning cultures to
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la Shen (2008) measured the reactions of eighty-five first-year English majors = 85) in two groups in a reading class at a technical university The responses from Idents indicated that “material selection’ (Shen, 2008, p 119) is the most important
tor in that ER program and students favor student-student cooperative learning activity
12: to compare the extensive reading approach with the skill-based approach found
% extensive reading procedure is an effective and pleasurable way for students to learn
pad | English as a foreign language as an alternative to translation or skills courses”
pbb & Susser, 1989, p 248) Secondly, Yamashita (2004) tried ER as a compulsory fin foreign language classes and examined the relationship between students’ attitudes
ards reading in first language (L1) and second language (L2) on fifty-nine students
59) in one semester Yamashita’s study confirmed “the transfer of reading attitudes
Mm Ll to L2” (Yamashita, 2004, p.13), and “a positive affective status facilitates 0 fmance in extensive reading” (p.15) Thirdly, Taguchi, Takayasu-Maass, and
Trang 38dy habits and task-specific motivation were two significant predictors of reading 29 amount
n the other hand, Rosszell (2006) investigated vocabulary acquisition from ER of two foups of totally forty students (n=40) with the delayed test administered two months fier the post-test The results indicated that “ER can play a major role in the evelopment of a learner’ vocabulary knowledge”, however “without some mplementary form-focused instruction and/or study, vocabulary learning for learners in reign language context will remain an inefficient and haphazard process” (p 401) ix hly, Poulshock (2010) implemented ER in the liberal arts and science on two groups [students in one semester per each group and resulted a students’ enjoyment in this specific area Finally, Karlin and Romanko (2010) considered the gains in an ER program iterms of student affect, vocabulary, and reading fluency in one setting on one hundred ind ten students in one semester, and the results showed that students got significant ins in student affect and reading fluency, but not in vocabulary knowledge (pp.193-
itses which were done by Nguyen (2006), Do (2008), and Hoang (2008) but there was y one research on ER done by Huynh (2008) actually using graded readers in
stitutions of higher education ‹?3
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Trang 40tion and change, innovation in a reading course, the teaching context and om fculture, types of social change, the model of innovation, and roles of
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