Intergrating extensive reading in firstyear English major intensive reading courses A survey at Tra Vinh university

ABSTRACT 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 i

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

ABSTRACT

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reviewing their grammar and increasing their vocabulary Several pedagogical implications in implementing ER were withdrawn from

this experiment.

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

2.2 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

3.] The setting of the study in cloS€-UP SH k kh kg 39 3.2 Research questions and hypotheses 0 ccc eccece cece eee sent ee eee ene eteenaeennes 42 3.3 The design of the study cece eee cence ence nee ne eee t ee eene eens sense teeenaeeeeees 42 3.3.1 "` ÈYo‹v,u .Ẽ d 43 3.3.2 ElR maferlialS QQQnQ ĐH HH KH kg nh ch hhy 44 3.3.3 Research Instrum€nS SH nen 46

3.3.3.1 The reading [OgS cence eee en tenes teen tena nae 46 3.3.3.2 The ER "vo 0 e cece cence eee ete e teen tenet ene neenee nage 48 3.3.3.3 The informal talks and discussions 48 3.3.3.4 The questionnaire on E cv 49 3.3.3.5 The reflective writing: the final Journal 50 3.3.3.6 The INf€TVICWS HH nh như hà xin 51 3.3.3.7 _ The teacher researcher’s observation and self-reflection 52 3.3.4 DelimifationS HS ST TT KH nh nh nà tk hy 52 3.3.5 Procedures for ER implemenfation cà 52 3.3.6 Data collection DTOC€SS QQQQQ cnet eee nese ene eeaseeneenaeees 53

3.3.7 °) 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

5.5 RecommendatiOnS .-.‹ cọ n nen enn EE ere Ee 74 REFERENCES ¬——DD 77 APPENDIXES |

Appendix A: Questionnaire on Extensive Reading (English and Victnamcse

Appendix B: Reading record 2.0.0.0 ccc cence eee een e teen ence gene ees 91 Appendix C: Reading Log ~ The Form uscd in IR trials 92 Appendix D: Reading Log — Form | 0 cece ccc e cece cent ene en es " 93 Appendix E: Reading Log — FOrm 2 -.- cà cà nen nh nh nh kh nha 94 Appendix F: /zerview í Reflective Writing (journal) Questions 95 Appendix G: ER Book list: ER Materials used ín the study 96

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 Samples of students’ ER logs and ER recofds

Table 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

Vil

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

Vill

Extensive Reading Foundation

English as a Second Language

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

his research was done as a requirement to fulfill a master degree, not as a part of an itutional research policy

training programs as possible Among the programs offered at TVU, English anguage program is the one that has been undergoing an innovative process in which tourses are being updated or revised, and reading courses are being innovated ¿

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

Jditional section on extensive reading (ER).

"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

ould have a long and continuous exposure to ER 3

4

_ 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

ried to read some story books that the teacher lent them, but they soon stopped

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

§

isly came from the close monitor on ER of the instructor

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

Mf Vietnam TVU English curriculum designers and program committees have ssions and meetings to improve education programs as well as educators at are committed to making innovations in their classes to better prepare students for

ngs, 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

eeific, in the first year there are 18.5, and 26.5 pages of reading texts in

we in semester one, and reading course two in semester two respectively uriber is 45.0 pages of reading texts for students to read in the whole first itely not enough reading practice for students to become good readers

ng instructors hardly assigned extra reading passages or texts for students thide class So, students did not have much exposure to reading practice

h

ist students were slow readers, Most students at Tra Vinh University usually

‘reading time on translating or checking up the dictionary although ne result was that they did not finish their reading when they

+

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

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

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

> i

10

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

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

M4

{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

gives the reviews of relevant literature of ER including definitions of ling characteristics of extensive reading, the differences between extensive

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

ogical implications, limitation of the study, and recommendations for

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)

choose their books to read for “pleasure information and general

imford (1998) carefully provide the following ten characteristics of successful

dene encouraged to read as many books as possible The purpose is for the

15

ng (Hitosugi & Day, 2004, p 21) They can select another one which they

ad grammar Dictionaries are rarely used while reading because the

16

»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

section, the benefits of ER, then show them how

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

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

here mete nền answers presented in Robb and Susser’s article (1989) as

18

0 LỆ : (n) 60 hours over 3 months (Hafiz and Tudor, 1989, p 7); (0) a minimum of

j readers per year (Hill, 1983); (p) 60 books a year (Bright & McGregor, 1970,

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

a

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

21

Table 2.1: Welch’s table: The differences between ER and IR of “

| General understanding and enjoyment PURPOSE Language study

Often difficult =|

(materials for native speakers)

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)

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

Actually driving on the road AN EXAMPLE

TO COMPARE Doing driving lessons at a school

MacLeod (n.d.) gives a detailed description of IR and ER which can be summarized in

* "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

' 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

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

24

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,

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

Rea ders (or class-reading): It is when the teacher selects the titles and each is

' *_ 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

+7

27

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

a _ m ER with ape Reading (RR) eprom in —

dy habits and task-specific motivation were two significant predictors of reading

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

29

30

ific ER activity However, the research did not ask for the students’ attitude towards

i gefieral The writer also finds that selecting texts is the crucial part deciding the

tion 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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