Extensive Reading is Good for you - TESOL · the)Reading)skillshould)be)devoted)to)extensive) reading. Gillian Claridge, 32 Recommendations)!Any)questions? Gillian Claridge, 33 Gillian

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Extensive Reading is Good for you

Why don’t L2 learners of English do more of it?

Gillian Claridge International Pacific College, Palmerston North,

New Zealand

 English as a means of communication:  ‘In a world where ‘econo-‐technical superiority is what counts ….English makes the world go round.’ (Fishman 1992 p 23)

 The internet reflects a largely English-‐dominated cyberculture (Rattle 2010 p 46)

 Use of the internet is predicated on literacy

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The need to read in English

 The more proficient English learners are at reading, the more control they have over the Anglophone environment

 But proficiency in reading is not just basic decoding.  Proficiency means fluency.  Fluency can only be gained by practice.  Practice means extensive reading.

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Reading brings empowerment

 Many reading experts agree on the virtues of extensive reading: (Nuttall 1996 p 128; Day & Bamford, 1998, p 5; Nation 1997; Takase 2007).

 Nation and Wang (1993) recommend at least one Graded Reader a week to increase vocabulary

 Extensive reading is also called pleasure reading

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Extensive Reading

 It appears that learners of English do very little extensive reading (Day & Bamford 1998, Hill 2008, Grabe 2009, Renandya 2007, Macalister 2010, evidence from a tertiary college in NZ).

 But if it’s a pleasure, and if it’s good for you…

WHY NOT?

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Who does it?

 For information: product reading  For experience: process reading  Process reading can be subdivided into reading for excitement, or reading for relaxation: an upper or a downer.

 Nell (1998 p 225) describes pleasure or ‘ludic’ reading as ‘an altered state of consciousness, similar to dreaming or drug induced states.

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Reasons for reading

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1.  Reading ability 2.  Positive expectations 3.  Correct choice of book 7.  These antecedents are inter related. 8.  They can be applied to L2 readers 9.  Their relationship can be explained within the

framework of Rosenblatt’s (1986) Transactional Theory of Reading Response.

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Nell’s 3 antecedents to pleasure reading

 One text can be read for many purposes.  The purpose dictates the reader’s ‘stance’.  The ‘stance’ can be situated along a continuum from ‘aesthetic’, or pleasure, to ‘efferent’, or information.

 If the initial purpose is not appropriate to the choice of text, the stance may have to change.

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Rosenblatt’s Transactional Theory of Reading Response

 Pleasure reading should be an enjoyable experience  Therefore pleasure reading should be done primarily for the process, (aesthetic stance) not the product (efferent stance).

 Therefore it should be almost effortless (Nell)….  …It should be easy.

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L2 learner readers’ problems with choice

 L2 learner readers tend to read texts that are too difficult to be ‘pleasure’ reading, and this is de-‐motivating: maybe that’s why they don’t do it very much.

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Hypothesis

1.  How much reading and what type of reading did a group of learners do?

2.  What were their attitudes towards reading? 3.  What factors made the learners enjoy reading? 4.  What factors prevented them from enjoying

reading? 5.  Were they reading texts above their language

proficiency level?


Research Questions

 39 learners of English at a tertiary college in New Zealand

 One year Foundation English: 25 hours language per week

 Second year beginning Degree or Diploma programmes: 4 hours language per week


Background of the Study

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 Different methodologies were employed to answer the questions.

 For clarity, each question has been itemised with the appropriate methodology and results.


Methodology and results Question 1: How much reading?


  Methodology: Library records were analysed by number of fiction and

non-‐fiction books borrowed.   Results 1.  Borrowings decreased over the 5 terms. 2.  Ratio of fiction to non fiction changed. 3.  Consistently fewer books read than recommended

rate of 1 Graded Reader per week.


Borrowings of Fiction, Non-Fiction and Own Language

0

100

200

300

Term

Nu

mb

er

of

bo

rro

win

gs

FictionNon FictionOwn Language

Fiction 218 163 27 25 35

Non Fiction 117 173 91 75 46

Own Language 23 23 36 17 11

T1 T2 T3 T4 T5

 Methodology: A likert scale survey was conducted on the 39 learners. 6

questions were asked in each of the following categories: 1) reading in their own language, 2) reading in English and

3) reading in college. The most positive attitude is represented by 24 points in each

category, and the most negative by 6 points. Result: Attitudes were neither very positive nor very

negative, and did not change much over the 5 terms


Question 2: General attitude towards reading


Ap

pendix 3a: Q

uestionnaire

Reading Attitude scores


AVERAGE SURVEY SCORES N39

-1

4

9

14

19

24

SURVEY 1 SURVEY 2

Reading type

Sco

re /

24 Own langEnglishCollege

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  The 39 respondents were asked to answer the following questions, in English or their own language:

1.  When you choose a particular book, what makes you enjoy it?

2.  When you enjoy reading a book, what do you enjoy about it?

3.  When you don’t enjoy reading a book, what don’t you enjoy about it?


Which factors make reading enjoyable or not?


Impressionistic view of factors suggests:  Interest and content for enjoyment  Difficulty, not interesting, story and (lack of ) understanding preventing enjoyment


Which factors make reading enjoyable or not? 2

Methodology:  The Common European Framework used as a benchmark

 Library records in process of being tagged with the publishers’ assessment of their CEFR level

 Case studies from the group interviewed to provide rich data

 Learners’ TOEIC scores for each term interpreted according to their CEFR level as per the English Testing Service (www.ets.org)


Question 5: Were the readers reading above their level of proficiency?

CEFR level A1 A2 B1 B2 C1 C2TOEIC reading 60-115 116-275 276-385 386-455 456-495 495

Oxford BookwormsStarter Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 4 Stage 5 Stage 6Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 5 Stage 6

Stage 4Cambridge ReadersLevel 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5 Level 6Penguin Readers Level 1 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5 Level 6Macmillan Readers Starter Elementary Pre Int Intermed Upper Int

Beginner


CEFR equivalents

 This analysis is incomplete at the time of writing, because the data input is not finished.

 Therefore, to indicate a trend, the results of three of the case studies whose data sets were complete are presented below.


Library borrowings

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 Student 24: Sally Level: Began at A2, went down to A1 in Term 2 81 borrowings: 73 above current level, 2 at the same level.

But according to interviews, read very little after Term 1, and always read very slowly. Extracted information from books, did not usually finish reading.

Stance: always efferent: fact magpie, little information processing. She had to adopt this stance, as the texts were too hard to read aesthetically.

Choice: mostly Junior Non Fiction (B2) Attitude: started at 52 out of 72; decreased to 47


Case Study 1: Sally

 Student 22: Annie  Level in Term 1 was A1, marginally achieved A2 by Term 5  Borrowings: Out of 32, 23 above her proficiency level, 8 at her level,

1 below. Read slowly and unwillingly  Stance: Efferent; like Sally she had to adopt this stance, as the texts

were too hard to read aesthetically. Chose in hope of enjoyment  Choice: Humorous texts  Attitude: Started at 36 out of a possible total of 72, and ended with

35


Case Study 2: Annie

 Student 21: Suzie  Level: proceeded smoothly from A1 to A2  Borrowings: out of 28, 6 are above her proficiency level, 2

are the same, and 20 are below. According to interviews, enjoyed reading

 Stance: aesthetic. She was able to read easily because in the main, she chose books below her level

 Choice: love stories, intrigue, ghost stories, books ‘that make me happy.’

 Attitude: This started at 52 out of a possible 72, and ended at 69.


Case Study 3: Suzie  On average,the group of 39 learners displayed a fairly neutral attitude to reading

 The decrease in reading over the 5 terms may be accounted for by:

Ø No extensive reading classes after Term 2

Ø Other commitments: essay writing etc

Ø Perceived difficulty of texts


Discussion: the group

 Suzie, the only reader who usually chose below her level, adopted the appropriate reading stance for pleasure reading; She expected it to be effortless and engaging, so chose accordingly. She read a lot in her first two terms and for her it was a pleasure. Her reading attitude summed up in her words:

‘When I read I can forget even time.’  Sally initially believed that reading was good for her, and

borrowed many books. But she almost never chose at or below her level, got discouraged by the difficulty, and read very little after Term 1. She never forgot ‘time’ when reading. When asked in Term 2 if reading helped her English, she replied, ‘No. Learn vocabulary help English.’


Discussion: the case studies 1

 Annie:  She admitted that she had never been interested in reading, even in her native language.

 Her stance reinforced her opinion: she did choose humorous books that she thought she might enjoy, but she never enjoyed them, because she always read above her level.


Discussion: The Case Studies 2

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 If Extensive Reading is not taught in class, it is unlikely to be done.

 If Extensive Reading is presented as pleasure reading, but is too hard, it is unlikely to be done very much.

 The case study who adopted an appropriate reading stance maintained a positive attitude to reading, because her reading experience was what she had expected.

 The case studies who did not adopt an appropriate stance for their levels, never found that pleasure reading was a pleasure. Their reading experiences were at odds with their expectations, because they were always trying to read something that was too hard for them, so they did not enjoy it.


Conclusion

 Readers should be encouraged to make strategic extensive reading choices according to their ability: they should choose BELOW their language proficiency level: I -‐ 1

 The ratio of extensive reading to intensive reading in class time should be equalised, particularly on Foundation English programmes. In the context of Nation’s Four Strands proposal for ESOL teaching, half the total time allocated to the Reading skill should be devoted to extensive reading.


Recommendations

 Any questions?

Gillian Claridge, 33 Gillian Claridge, 34

References

Claridge, G. (2011). What makes a good graded reader : engaging with graded readers in the context of extensive reading in L2 Department of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics. Wellington, Victoria. Crystal, D. (2005). How Language Works. London, Penguin Books, Allen Lane. Day, R. and J. Bamford (2002). "Top Ten Principles for Teaching Extensive Reading." Reading in a Foreign Language 14(2). Fishman, J. A. (1992). Sociology of English as an Additional Language. The Other Tongue: English across cultures. B. Kachru. Illinois, US, Urbana: 19 - 26. Grabe, W. (2009). Reading in a Second Language: Moving from Theory to Practice. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Hill, D. (2008). "Survey Review of Graded Readers in English." ELT Journal 62(2): 184-204. Macalister, J. (2010). "Investigating Teacher Attitudes to Extensive Reading Practices in HIgher Education: Why isn't Everyone Doing It?" RELC Journal 41(1): 59-75. Nation, I. S. P. and A. Heatley (1996). RANGE programme. I.S.P.Nation. Wellington, LALS Victoria University of Wellington Nation, P. and K. M.-T. Wang (1999). "Graded Readers and Vocabulary." Reading in a Foreign Language 12(2): 355-380. Nell, V. (1988). Lost in a Book. New Haven & London, Yale University Press. Nell, V. (1988). "The Psychology of Reading for Pleasure: Needs and Gratifications." International Reading Association 23(1 (Winter, 1988),): 6-50. R.Day and J.Bamford (1998). Extensive Reading in the Second Language. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Rattle, R. (2010). Computing our way to Paradise: the role of internet and communication technologies in sustainable consumption and globalization. Lanham, Maryland US, Altamira Press A division of Rowlman and Littlefield Publishers Inc

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Extensive Reading is Good for you - TESOL · the)Reading)skillshould)be)devoted)to)extensive) reading. Gillian Claridge, 32 Recommendations)!Any)questions? Gillian Claridge, 33 Gillian