What is Extensive Reading

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Extensive reading: why it is good for our

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TeachingEnglishExtensive reading: why it is good for our students# and for us.Submitted by Alan Maley on 8 December, 2009 - 14:41

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In this, the first of two articles for TeachingEnglish, Alan Maley considers the benefits extensivereading can bring to English language learners and teachers.

What is Extensive Reading (ER)?Extensive Reading is often referred to but it is worth checking on what it actually involves. Richard Day has provided a list of key characteristics of ER (Day 2002). This is complementedby Philip Prowse (2002). Maley (2008) deals with ER comprehensively. The following is a digestof the two lists of factors or principles for successful ER:

Students read a lot and read often.1.There is a wide variety of text types and topics to choose from.2.The texts are not just interesting: they are engaging/ compelling.3.Students choose what to read.4.Reading purposes focus on: pleasure, information and general understanding.5.Reading is its own reward.6.There are no tests, no exercises, no questions and no dictionaries.7.Materials are within the language competence of the students.8.Reading is individual, and silent.9.Speed is faster, not deliberate and slow.10.The teacher explains the goals and procedures clearly, then monitors and guides thestudents.

11.

The teacher is a role model#a reader, who participates along with the students.12.

The model is very much like that for L1 reading proposed by Atwell (2006). It has beenvariously described as Free Voluntary Reading (FEVER), Uninterrupted Silent Reading (USR),Sustained Silent Reading (SSR), Drop Everything and Read (DEAR), or Positive OutcomesWhile Enjoying Reading (POWER).

So what are the benefits of ER?Both common sense observation and copious research evidence bear out the many benefitswhich come from ER (Waring 2000, 2006). There are useful summaries of the evidence in Dayand Bamford (1998: 32-39) and The Special Issue of The Language Teacher (1997) includingarticles by Paul Nation and others, and passionate advocacy in Krashen’s The Power ofReading. (2004). The journals Reading in a Foreign Language and the International Journal of

Extensive reading: why it is good for our students… and for us. http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/print/10403

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Foreign Language Learning are also good sources of research studies supporting ER. (seereferences for websites) And there is the indispensable annotated bibliography,http://www.extensivereading.net/er/biblio2.html

So what does it all add up to?

ER develops learner autonomy.There is no cheaper or more effective way to develop learner autonomy. Reading is, by its verynature, a private, individual activity. It can be done anywhere, at any time of day. Readers canstart and stop at will, and read at the speed they are comfortable with. They can visualise andinterpret what they read in their own way. They can ask themselves questions (explicit orimplicit), notice things about the language, or simply let the story carry them along.

ER offers Comprehensible Input.Reading is the most readily available form of comprehensible input, especially in places wherethere is hardly any contact with the target language. If carefully chosen to suit learners’ level, itoffers them repeated encounters with language items they have already met. This helps them toconsolidate what they already know and to extend it. There is no way any learner will meet newlanguage enough times to learn it in the limited number of hours in class. The only reliable wayto learn a language is through massive and repeated exposure to it in context: precisely whatER provides.

ER enhances general language competence.In ways we so far do not fully understand, the benefits of ER extend beyond reading. There is ‘aspread of effect from reading competence to other language skills ~ writing, speaking andcontrol over syntax.’ (Elley 1991) The same phenomenon is noted by Day and Bamford (1998:32-39) but they even note evidence of improvements in the spoken language. So readingcopiously seems to benefit all language skills, not just reading.

ER helps develop general, world knowledge.Many, if not most, students have a rather limited experience and knowledge of the world theyinhabit both cognitively and affectively. ER opens windows on the world seen through differenteyes. This educational function of ER cannot be emphasised enough.

ER extends, consolidates and sustains vocabulary growth.Vocabulary is not learned by a single exposure. ER allows for multiple encounters with wordsand phrases in context thus making possible the progressive accretion of meanings to them. Bypresenting items in context, it also makes the deduction of meaning of unknown items easier.There have been many studies of vocabulary acquisition from ER (Day et al 1991, Nation andWang 1999, Pigada and Schmitt, 2006). Michael Hoey’s theory of ‘lexical priming’ (Hoey 1991,2005) also gives powerful support to the effect of multiple exposure to language items incontext.

ER helps improve writing.There is a well-established link between reading and writing. Basically, the more we read, thebetter we write. Exactly how this happens is still not understood (Kroll 2003) but the fact that ithappens is well-documented (Hafiz and Tudor 1989) Commonsense would indicate that as wemeet more language, more often, through reading, our language acquisition mechanism isprimed to produce it in writing or speech when it is needed. (Hoey 2005).

ER creates and sustains motivation to read more.The virtuous circle - success leading to success - ensures that, as we read successfully in the


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foreign language, so we are encouraged to read more. The effect on self-esteem and motivationof reading one’s first book in the foreign language is undeniable. It is what Krashen calls a‘home run’ book : ‘my first’! This relates back to the point at the beginning of the need to find‘compelling’, not merely interesting, reading material. It is this that fuels the compulsion to readthe next Harry Potter. It also explains the relatively new trend in graded readers toward originaland more compelling subject matter. (Moses)

So why don’t teachers use ER more often?A good question. When I conducted an inquiry among teachers worldwide, the answers camedown to these:

a) Insufficient time.

b) Too costly.

c) Reading materials not available.

d) ER not linked to the syllabus and the examination.

e) Lack of understanding of ER and its benefits.

f) Downward pressure on teachers to conform to syllabi and textbooks.

g) Resistance from teachers, who find it impossible to stop teaching and to allow learning totake place.

Oddly, the elephant in the room: the Internet culture of young people, was not mentioned.There is work on the non-linear reading required by Internet users in Murray and Macpherson(2005), and articles on hypermedia by Richards (2000), and Ferradas Moi (2008) and someinteresting reflections in Johnson (2006). The ‘non-reader’ issue will not go away but it is tooimportant to deal with here and needs a separate article.

Extensive Reading for TeachersMy contention is that reading extensively, promiscuously and associatively is good for teacher,and for personal development. ‘The idea of the teacher having to be someone who is constantlydeveloping and growing as a whole human being as a prerequisite for being able to trulyhelp his or her pupils to be able to do the same, is such a core truth of teaching, yet it istypically ignored in FLT. (Peter Lutzker)

ER helps teachers to be better informed, both about their profession and about the world. Thismakes them more interesting to be around – and students generally like their teachers to beinteresting people. For our own sanity we need to read outside the language teaching ghetto.For the sake of our students too.

It also helps teachers to keep their own use of English fresh. As we saw, the research onlanguage learner reading shows how extensive reading feeds into improvements in all areas oflanguage competence. (Krashen 2004) If this is true for learners, how much more true forteachers, who risk infection by exposure to so much restricted and error - laden English or whoonly read professional literature? Regular wide reading can add zest and pleasure to our ownuse of the language.

Teachers who show that they read widely are models for their students. We often tell students


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to ‘read more’ but why should they read if we do not? Teachers who are readers are more likelyto have students who read too.

Furthermore, the books we read outside our narrow professional field can have anunpredictable effect on our practice within it. So much of what we learn is learnedsub-consciously. Its effects spread more by infection than by direct injection. And it is highlyindividual. Individuals form associative networks among the books they read. This results in akind of personal intertextuality, where the patterns form and re-form as we read more differentbooks. This gives us a rich mental yeast which we can use to interact with others, while stillretaining our individual take on the texts and the world.

So Extensive Reading has a lot to offer - both for our students and ourselves Read on!.

References.

Atwell, Nancie. (2006) The Reading Zone: how to help kids become skilled, passionate,habitual, critical readers. New York: ScholasticBamford, Julian and Richard Day. (2004) Extensive Reading Activities for TeachingLanguage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Day, Richard, R. (2002) ‘Top Ten Principles for teaching extensive reading.’ Reading in aForeign Language. 14 (2)Day, Richard, R , Omura, Carole, Hiramatsu, Motoo. (1991) ‘Incidental EFL vocabularylearning and reading.’ Reading in a Foreign Language. 7 (2)Day, Richard, R and Bamford, Julian.(1998) Extensive Reading in the Second LanguageClassroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Elley, W.B (1991) ‘Acquiring literacy in a second language: the effect of book-basedprogrammes.’ Language Learning. 41. 375-411Ferradas Moi, Claudia. (2003) ‘Hyperfiction: Explorations in Texture’ in B.Tomlinson (ed) (2003) Developing Materials for Language Teaching. London/New York: Continuum, pp221-233Hafiz, F.M and Tudor, I. (1989) ‘Extensive reading and the development of languageskills.’ ELT Journal 43 (1) 4-13Hoey, Michael (1991) Patterns of Lexis in Texts. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Hoey, Michael (2005) Lexical Priming. London: RoutledgeJohnson, Steven (2006) Everything Bad is Good for You. New York: Riverhead.Krashen, Stephen (2nd edition. 2004 ) The Power of Reading: insights from theresearch. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.Kroll, Barbara (ed) (2003) Exploring the Dynamics of Second Language Writing.: Chapter10 Reading and Writing Relations. New York: Cambridge University Press.Maley, Alan (2008) ‘Extensive Reading: Maid in Waiting’ in B. Tomlinson (ed) EnglishLanguage Learning Materials: a critical review. London/New York: Continuum pp133-156.Moses, Antoinette, (2004) Jojo’s Story. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Murray, Denise and Pamela McPherson (eds) (2005) Navigating to Read – Reading toNavigate. Teaching in Action (series) Sydney: NCELTR, McQuarie UniversityNation, Paul (1997) ‘The language teaching benefits of extensive reading.’ TheLanguage Teacher. 21 (5)Nation, Paul and Wang Ming-Tzu, Karen (1999) ‘Graded readers and vocabulary.’Reading in a Foreign Language. 12 (2)Pigada, Maria and Norbert Schmitt (2006) ‘Vocabulary acquisition for extensive reading.’ Reading in a Foreign Language. 18 (1)Prowse, Philip. ‘What is the secret of extensive reading?’ http://www.cambridge.org


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/elt/readers/prowse 1.htm (accessed 4 April 2007)Prowse, P. (2002) ‘Top ten principles for teaching extensive reading: a response.’Reading in a Foreign Language. 14 (2)Richards, Cameron (2000) ‘Hypermedia, Internet communication and the challenge ofre-defining literacy in the electronic age.’ Language Teaching and Technology. 4 (2,)59-77.Scmidtt, Ken Lower level Extensive reading Opportunities for Lower-level Learners ofEFL/ESL. on http://tesl-ej.org/ej13/int.htmlWaring, Rob (2000) The ‘Why’ and ‘How’ of Using Graded Readers. Oxford UniversityPress, Japan. (free publication accessible on www.oupjapan.co.jp/teachers/tebiki/tebiki.shtml)Waring, Rob (2006) ‘Why Extensive Reading should be an indispensable part of alllanguage programmes’. The Language Teacher 30 (7): 44-47

Useful Websites

http://www.extensivereading.net/er/biblio2.html

http://www.extensivereading.net/er/whatis.html

http://sdkrashen.com

http://ijflt.com

www.nflrc.hawaii.edu/rfl/

http://www.extensivereading.net

www.erfoundation.org

http://www.readingonline.org/articles/art_index.asp?HREF

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