More emphasis has been attached to the teaching of reading at tertiary level as the mastery of reading is of great importance for the second language development.
Trang 1TRIỂN KHAI DỰ ÁN ĐỌC RỘNG:
NHẬN THỨC CỦA SINH VIÊN DỰ BỊ TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC HÀ NỘI
Vũ Th Huyn, Nguyn Văn Trào
Trường Đại học Hà Nội
ñược chú trọng nhiều hơn vì nó ñóng vai trò quan trọng
trong việc nâng cao năng lực ngôn ngữ Trong các
phương pháp ñọc thì Đọc rộng ñược coi là một phương
pháp hiệu quả giúp nâng cao khả năng ñọc cho sinh
viên học tiếng Anh là ngoại ngữ hoặc ngôn ngữ thứ hai
Chính vì thế, việc lồng ghép Đọc rộng vào chương trình
giảng dạy là một nhu cầu thực tiễn
Bài viết này trình bày về một dự án nghiên cứu ñịnh
lượng tìm hiểu cảm nhận của 15 sinh viên dự bị của
Trường Đại học Hà Nội về việc triển khai một chương
trình Đọc rộng Dữ liệu về sự thay ñổi thái ñộ của sinh
viên ñối với hoạt ñộng Đọc rộng ñược thu thập qua ba
công cụ gồm Bảng câu hỏi khảo sát, Nhật ký cảm nhận
của sinh viên và Phỏng vấn Kết quả cho thấy hầu hết
sinh viên tham gia ñã có cảm nhận tích cực với chương
trình Đọc rộng và coi Đọc rộng là một phương pháp
hiệu quả ñể học ngoại ngữ Dựa trên kết quả nghiên
cứu, các tác giả ñã ñưa ra những ñề xuất có tính sư
phạm ñể giáo viên tiếng Anh có thể thực hiện những
chương trình Đọc rộng tại lớp học của mình
T khóa: thái ñộ, ñọc rộng, phương pháp ñọc
Abstract: More emphasis has been attached to the
teaching of reading at tertiary level as the mastery of
reading is of great importance for the second language
development Among reading approaches, extensive reading (ER) has been put forward as an effective strategy in developing EFL and ESL learners’ reading ability and the inclusion of ER into the curriculum has been considered a real need in the second language learning context
This paper reports on a qualitative research project investigating the perceptions of 15 pre-university students at Hanoi University towards the implementation of an ER project Three instruments namely questionnaires, journals and interviews were designed to investigate the changes in the students’ attitudes towards extensive reading after they participated in a two-month extensive reading project The results showed that the majority of the students expressed positive feelings towards the implementation
of the extensive reading project and perceived ER as
an effective approach in the second language learning Based on the research findings, important pedagogical implications are drawn and included to provide the English teachers with the guidelines on the implementation of ER projects in their classroom
Key words: attitudes, extensive reading, reading
approach
THE IMPLEMENTATION OF AN EXTENSIVE READING PROJECT:
PERCEPTIONS OF PRE-UNIVERSITY STUDENTS
AT HANOI UNIVERSITY
1 Introduction
Reading has been emphasized as one of the
most important skills to be acquired by ESL/EFL
learners because the mastery of reading skill is
proven to be essential for the development of
language proficiency Among reading approaches,
extensive reading (ER) has been regarded as an effective learning approach in promoting reading skills in particular and English language proficiency in general This is also stated by Nuttall (1982, p.168) who wrote, “The best way to improve your knowledge of a foreign language is
Trang 2to go and live among its speakers The next best
way is to read extensively in it." Extensive reading
is regarded as an effective strategy in developing
the reading ability for an ESL/EFL learner A bulk
of studies over the past decades have asserted the
need to include extensive reading into the
curriculum (Takase, 2007) to nurture learners’
habit of reading in English and to positively
influence students’ attitudes towards reading in a
foreign language
Extensive reading has been defined in a
number of ways by various linguists, researchers
and educators over the past decades Among these,
Harold Palmer, a renowned applied linguist, was
regarded as the first to coin the term “extensive
reading” in 1917 (Iwahori, 2008) Since that time,
ER has been known as supplementary reading,
pleasure reading, book flood or free voluntary
reading Though it was termed with different
names, it all means reading books after books
rapidly to grasp the general content of the reading
text The emphasis of ER is on the meaning of the
text, not the structure or the language used
Therefore, Harold Palmer (1917) termed it
“extensive reading” to distinguish it with intensive
reading which involves reading a passage
carefully to acquire its specific meaning to develop
different reading strategies and to boost the growth
of vocabulary (Renandya, 2007)
The theory behinds ER is based on the
“comprehension input” developed by Krashen
(1982), a famous linguist and researcher who has
a renewed interest in conducting research on
reading Krashen (1982) put forward the theory in
which language can be acquired naturally when
learners are exposed to sufficient comprehensible
input in a comfortable and relaxing environment
As the focus of extensive reading is on the
meaning rather than the form, learners are not
aware of language acquisition; therefore, they can
achieve “incidental learning” (Krashen, 1989, p
440, cited in Iwahori, 2008)
ER programs have been based on the recommendations made by Day and Bamford (1998) about how an appropriate ER program could be set up and carried out so that it can benefit the learners In fact, numerous ER programs which have been implemented so far follow the ten principles of ER recommended by Day and Bamford (2002) These guiding principles include:
• The level of the reading material is easy
• Learners are able to get access to various reading materials with different genres
• Learners are empowered to choose their reading material
• Learners read as much as they can
• Pleasure, information and general understanding of the reading text are the emphasis
of ER
• Reading is its own reward
• Learners often read with a fast speed
• Reading is an individual and silent activity
• Teachers are to provide guidance and orientation
ER has been researched by numerous researchers and teacher-practitioners all across the globe and the benefits of ER both in terms of the language aspect and non-language aspect have been well-documented Regarding the first, ER has been reported to have a positive effect on reading comprehension and reading fluency (Bell, 2001; Krashen, 1993; Morgado, 2009; Nation, 1997); vocabulary acquisition (Cho & Krashen, 1994; Horst, 2005; Nation, 1997; Pigada & Schmitt, 2006); grammar enhancement (Elley & Mangubai, 1983) Regarding the second aspect,
ER has been claimed to increase language learners’ motivation and enhance their positive attitudes towards learning (Leung, 2002; Murphy, 2010; Yamashita, 2004) These studies have been
Trang 3conducted in various parts of the world and
provide valuable insights on the practice of ER;
however, most of these studies have focused on
investigating whether ER is beneficial to language
learners rather than how these language learners
respond to the implementation of ER program In
addition, few studies have provided a clear picture
about the problems and difficulties that these
learners encounter during their participation in the
ER program as well as the learners’ aspiration for
an ER program
In this paper, the perceptions of the language
learners when they engaged in a two-month ER
program are explored It is hoped that the findings
of the research could provide valuable information
about the impacts of ER on the language learners
and what they experience when participating in
the program Two main research questions guided
the analysis:
1) What are the perceptions of the
pre-university students at International Education
Centre, Hanoi University of the
implementation of the ER project?
2) How do their attitudes towards ER
change over time?
The remaining of this paper is structured as
follows First, we will discuss the method of the
present study which includes the information
regarding the research settings, the data collection
and the procedures of implementing the ER
project Second, the findings and discussion will
be reported to shed light on the participants’
perceptions of ER Third, we will discuss the
limitations as well as propose the implications of
the study Finally, we will draw the conclusion of
the research
2 Method
2.1 Participants
15 pre-university students consisting of 9
females and 6 males aged 18 to 21 were selected
to participate in the study They were the students
at Class B at International Education Centre, Hanoi University These students had formal English education at school for at least seven years; therefore, their English learning background before they participated in this study was somehow comparable However, these students were familiar with the traditional way of teaching English at secondary schools and high schools that played the most emphasis on teaching grammar, which resulted in the students’ reluctance in reading outside the classroom and reading for pleasure in English
Most of the participants in this ER project had failed their entrance exam into university and they, therefore, seized another opportunity to be admitted by La Trobe University’s Offshore Programs in coordination with Hanoi University
In order to be eligible for La Trobe University’s Offshore Programs, they were required to achieve 6.0 IELTS They registered to study English intensively at International Education Centre, Hanoi University so that they could improve their English proficiency Their English proficiency level was at the lower intermediate level at the time the research project was conducted
2.2 Materials
As aforementioned, the participants were at the lower intermediate level when the study was conducted; therefore, the selection of books at level 2, level 3, level 4 and level 5 according to the classification system of Cambridge English Readers, Oxford Read and Discover or Penguin Readers would provide the participants with a wide choice of the reading materials which correspond to their linguistic competence However, when the ER project was introduced to the participants, all of them were advised to start with the books at the lower levels and once they read these books comfortably, they could move on
to the next level
Trang 432 graded readers on different themes and
genres were made available in order to provide
some variety and to cater for the different needs of
the participants The levels of these books were
clearly labeled so that the participants could easily
select the books that were appropriate to them In
addition, the students were encouraged to share
their reading experience with each other, discuss
with each other the books they read and help each
other to select the books which suit their taste and
level of competency
2.3 Data collection
Data were collected through questionnaires,
interview and journal Three instruments were
used to triangulate and to enhance the reliability of
the data gathered
Questionnaires were frequently utilized by the
researchers conducting research on the
relationship between ER and motivation or
attitudes The pre-questionnaires were delivered at
the commencement of the program and the
post-questionnaires were delivered at the conclusion of
the research to gather the information regarding the
students’ attitudes in reading for pleasure, their
reading habits and how their attitudes changed
upon the implementation of the ER program
Interviews have been employed by numerous
researchers to gather qualitative data as interviews
are aimed at accumulating the data which is not
directly observable When the ER program
completed, semi-structured interviewed were
administered to collect data regarding the
participants’ perceptions of the ER program
Semi-structured interview was employed because
it allowed the certain degree of flexibility and it
could create the most comfortable atmosphere for
the interviewees to express their views Interview
questions cover such aspects as attitudes towards
the ER program, the perceived benefits of ER and
the difficulties the participants encountered during
the ER program
Journal has been utilized as an activity to promote language development in EFL classroom, but it is also regarded as a communication channel between learners and teachers Journal writing was used in this ER program to seek information about the participants’ practice of ER Journal entries composed by the participants provided the information about how they reacted to the reading materials, the specific difficulties they met or the elements they particularly enjoyed when they read the reading materials
2.4 Procedures
The pre-questionnaire was delivered in the first week when the program started Specifically, in the first reading class, the pre-questionnaire was handed to the learners after they were introduced about ER and the ER programs The pre-questionnaire was aimed at collecting information about the students’ reading habits in English, their beliefs about reading along with their preferences for reading materials Also in this first week, the guidelines for the journal writing activity were presented and the sample of journal writing was distributed to the students so that they were fully aware of what they were required to do The first author clarified that the journal writing was chosen to get information about the students’ response to the ER program rather than to test their writing competency; therefore, they could use either English or Vietnamese to compose their entries From week 1 to week 8, the students had
to record their reading in the journal and reflect their feelings and thoughts about the books they have read The first author checked the students’ progress when she read their journals and gave comments In addition, the journal helped the first author detect any problem when it arose so that the program could run smoothly
In week 9, when the program came to an end, the post-questionnaire and the focus group interviews were administered to seek the evidence about how the students feel about ER and the ER program
Trang 53 Findings and Discussion
The data collected from questionnaires,
interviews and journals are mainly qualitative
The data reported in this section is grouped
thematically for analysis The participants are
given pseudonyms to ensure their rights to privacy
3.1 General Evaluation of the ER Program
The data from the three research instruments
indicates the positive evaluation of the participants
towards the ER project In response to the
question “How do you feel about the ER project?”
the participants’ overall impression on the ER
project was good Five participants reported that
they liked this program very much; nine
participants said they liked this ER program and
one student said they thought it was generally
acceptable
When being asked whether they would
continue the habit of reading extensively after the
completion of this ER, the majority of the students
responded that they would continue to read
extensively One student was not sure about
continuing this habit as he was concerned about
finding the suitable the ER materials
3.2 Perceived Benefits of ER
The results from three data collection methods
revealed that the participants reported the benefits
of ER in improving different aspects of their
language proficiency and their knowledge The
improvements in language proficiency are
categorized in different themes namely reading
speed, reading comprehension, vocabulary
development and the consolidation of grammar
structures The improvement in knowledge is
coded as non-language benefits
3.2.1 The Improvement in Language
Proficiency
Reading speed
In this regard, 12 out of 15 participants
perceived the improvement in the reading speed as
the most valuable gain from ER One student
mentioned that her reading speed was improved as she had not stopped to check the meaning of the new words in the books She mentioned this in the interview, “I can read faster when I don’t care about checking the new words” Another student also reported the benefits in reading speed and explained that he was no longer disturbed by some new words in the reading; therefore, he could keep reading as long as he understood the general meaning of the reading text
Below are some other excerpts from the semi-structured interview in relation to the reading speed:
“I think that thanks to this reading project, I could read faster I don’t have to use dictionary so often, so I could save a lot of time ” (Duong, int)
“I often read for the general meaning of the book so I often read quite fast.” (Linh, int)
The improvement in the reading speed reported
by the participants in this study is correlated with the results in Bell’s study (2001) In Bell’s study, the data collected robustly supported the hypothesis that the participants in the extensive reading group would experience the more significant achievement in the reading speed in comparison with the learners belonging to the intensive reading group Although the achievement in the reading speed in the present study was perceived by the participants rather than measured statistically as in Bell’s study; the data showed positive reactions of the participants towards the extensive reading program
Reading comprehension
Five participants mentioned the benefits of ER practice in improving their ability to comprehend reading materials Binh, Giang, Khanh, Nam and Son commented that they could understand the general content of the book they had read To be more specific, Giang reported that her experience with ER was quite different from reading the short passages in class She went on explaining that she could understand the main story or the main topics
Trang 6in the books she had chosen but during the reading
lessons in class, she met a lot of difficulty
comprehending a short text In his journal, Son also
mentioned this aspect of improvement as below:
“ I could understand the main story of this
book although there are new words in the book”
(Son, jour)
“ There are some parts of the book I don’t
understand clearly but I think I understand the
main points in it In the reading lessons in the
class, I think the reading is more difficult to
understand” (Binh, int)
• Vocabulary development
The majority of the participants mentioned the
benefits of ER in improving their vocabulary
Duong, Cuong, Anh and Oanh reported that they
could learn a few new words from each reading if
these words were repeated frequently In the
meantime, Hai, Minh, Son and Cuong believed
that ER helped them to reinforce the words they
already knew but they rarely used them In other
words, they had the opportunities to activate the
words they already knew Some of the
respondents (Phuong, Giang and Nam)
commented that their guessing techniques were
improved since they felt more confident in
guessing because ER was done at home and they
felt no pressure; therefore, they could exercise this
skill better
Nam explained his experience in more details
He reported in the interview:
“At first I guessed the words based on the
reading and sometimes I used the dictionary to
check their meaning again to see if I got it right
Most of the time I guessed the new words
correctly After that I felt more confident in
guessing and I didn’t use dictionary to check the
meaning anymore.” (Nam, int)
Cuong, Hai, Minh and Son mentioned more
about the influence of ER in reinforcing their
vocabulary Here are some of the comments about
the impact of ER on their vocabulary
“The first three books I chose were at level 2 and level 3 do not have a lot of new words, so I can read comfortably When I moved to higher level, I tried to understand the main things in the book but I felt it was okay for me because I have more chances to see the words I already know I don’t care much about new words ” (Hai, int)
“I am surprised to see many words I used to learn in the reading I don’t often use these words
in my writing or speaking but now I can see them again I think this helps me not to forget words I learned.” (Son, int)
“This book [All About Space] is quite above my level, but I can understand most of it thanks to the pictures in this book There are quite of new words for me but I think I can guess the meaning of some words What I think is useful is that I have the chances to remember words I learnt before.”
(Minh, jour)
In a number of studies on the relationship between ER and the acquisition of vocabulary, the results are very encouraging Specifically, Horst (2005) reported that the participants in his study had learned more than half of unfamiliar vocabulary items encountered in the simplified reading materials The result from Pigada and Schmitt (2006) was even more encouraging when the participants’ lexical knowledge of approximately two-thirds of the target words was enhanced However, it should be noted that this does not necessarily mean that all the lexical knowledge aspects were fully mastered by the participants In this present study, the participants also gave good comments about the impacts of the
ER project on their vocabulary development or vocabulary reinforcement, which could be seen as
a positive result although the actual improvement was not measurable
• Grammar Structures
The perceived benefit of ER on the grammar structures was less frequently reported in comparison with the perceived improvement in vocabulary; however this perceived aspect of improvement is worth mentioning
Trang 7Duong, Khanh and Quyen perceived learning
grammar structures as a benefit from the ER
activities The comments made from them showed
that their knowledge of sentence structures was
enhanced when they read more Indeed, when they
saw the way the grammar structures were used in
the real context, they had more opportunities to
get used to these structures Duong claimed that:
“ when the reading material is at low level, I
can read quite fast and don’t pay much attention
to grammar structures When the book is at a
higher level, I have to read more slowly and I take
time to notice some grammar structures that I find
useful but this can make my reading slower ”
(Duong, int)
In addition, one participant mentioned the
grammatical improvement might be associated
with the practice of writing journal entries as
follows:
“Although the teacher had explained that
journal writing activity was not for the benefit of
writing practice, I paid a lot attention to writing
correct grammatical sentences That’s why I think
this reading program is helpful for grammar as
well.” (Quyen, int)
3.2.2 Non-language Benefits
Non-language benefits that the participants
mentioned are related to general knowledge and
cultural understanding
• General knowledge
Eight participants reported that they gained
more knowledge from reading extensively
According to Binh, Cuong, Giang, Hai, Minh,
Oanh, Quyen and Son the information on different
topics provided in the books was new and
interesting to them Among these participants, Hai
and Oanh perceived that ER contributed to
broadening their horizons They were of the
opinion that if they continued ER, their background
knowledge would be improved significantly and,
as a result, their English would be better because
the enhanced background knowledge would assist
them in other language skills
Below are the comments made by the participants:
“I like this book [All About Space] very much This book is very interesting I got more information about our Earth and other planets in the solar system.” (Hai, jour)
“This book [City Of Lights] has a very exciting story and I was very interested in it Although it is
a science-fiction story, it has a lot of useful information about space exploration I always wonder if there is alien somewhere and I really like stories like this.” (Hai, jour)
“The book Desert Life helps me get more
information about how plants and animals live in the desert I think the information like this is very useful.” (Binh, jour)
• Cultural understanding
The perceived benefit of ER on the promotion
of the cultural understanding is also acknowledged
by Cuong, Hai and Quyen Quyen believed that gaining more knowledge about the cultures of other countries, especially the English speaking countries such as England and America would be valuable to their study and their general knowledge Here are her comments in her journal entries after she completed the books entitled
“Bride Price” and “British Life”
“ I love the story in the book It is a very sad love story in a very far country in Africa, Nigeria From this book, I know more about people and customs in Nigeria These things are very different from here in Vietnam I feel we are much luckier than the girls in Nigeria because we can decide who to get married [to] ” (Quyen, jour)
Here is another comment from the participants’ journal entries in regards to the influence of ER on the enhancement of cultural knowledge
“My teachers often say that we need to know more about the world and [that] our background knowledge is limited When there are some questions about cultures of other countries in the world, we don’t know much So I think reading
Trang 8books like this can help us know more things.”
(Cuong, int)
The empirical evidence on the impacts of ER on
the promotion of general knowledge and cultural
understanding is extremely limited although this
dimension is frequently mentioned by a number of
researchers as one benefit of reading extensively
Despite the lack of empirical evidence, it is
undeniable that reading broadens the readers’
horizon and students are more likely to
comprehend a text with familiar topic than a text
with an unknown theme
3.3 Changes in the Participants’ Attitudes and Motivation
When the ER project was introduced to the participants of the present study, a pre-treatment questionnaire was delivered to them to collect data regarding their practice ofeading outside the classroom This pre-treatment questionnaire was aimed at accumulating the data about the participants’ motivation and attitudes towards the practice of pleasure reading before the commencement of the ER project The chart below summarizes the number of books in English that the participants had read during the past 12 months before the ER started
Figure 1: The number of books read before the ER program
As can be seen from the chart, the number of
books the students had read before the
commencement of the ER program is rather
limited The overwhelming explanation for the
participants’ limited practice with reading outside
the class was their lack of interest in reading in
English Another reason specified by four
participants was that they believed their English
level would not be sufficient to understand books
written in English Three participants explained
the reason for not having regular practice with
pleasure reading in regards to the availability of
the suitable reading materials
“I am scared to read an English book I don’t
think I could do this.” (Anh, pre-ques)
“I had a lot of difficulties when I read some
passages in the reading lessons I don’t think I can
read a long book in English” (Duong, pre-ques)
“I like speaking and listening in English than
reading Although I know reading is important, I
am lazy One more thing is I don’t know where to
find books in English” (Giang, pre-ques)
“ because I don’t know English book which is suitable with me When I see a thick English book,
I feel tired because I think I will be very difficult”
(Minh, pre-ques)
In brief, before the ER project was carried out, the participants generally lacked motivation in reading outside the class and were also reluctant in pleasure reading This source of data was valuable
to the first author as it offered the first author a foundation for the comparison of attitudes held by the participants at the beginning and at the end of the study The detailed comparison of attitudes and motivation between these two periods is presented in the following section
At the end of the ER project, the number of books the participants finished reading showed a significant improvement in comparison with the data collected from the pre-treatment questionnaire The number of books that the participants completed during the ER program is shown in the following chart
4 students
8 students
3 students
Reading no books Reading 1- 2 books Reading 3-4 books
The number of books read before the ER program
Trang 9Figure 2 The number of books read during the ER program
In addition, the triangulation of
post-questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and
journal entries provides valuable information
regarding how the participants responded to the
practice of ER The comparison between the data
collected in the pre-questionnaire and the data
collected from three other instruments at the end
of the ER project shows the changes in the
participants’ attitudes towards pleasure reading
The positive feelings about ER are divided in
different categories as follows:
Satisfaction
Five participants commented that reading
books provided in this project gave them the
satisfaction The satisfaction they reported came
from the fact that they could read books in English
comfortably and understand their content The
ability to comprehend the content of the books
gave them the confidence in reading English and
also proved to them that reading a book in English
was something within their reach, not beyond their
ability as they had thought before participating in
this project Below are some comments made by
the participants:
“What I like most about this project is that I
could understand the books I used to think that I
couldn’t read a book in English but now I think I
could do it This is so good.” (Son, int)
“Before this project, I didn’t read English
books at home because I thought it was difficult for me I feel very happy when I could finish a book and understand its story.” (Anh, post-ques)
“I feel satisfied about myself when I could read
a long book.” (Giang, int)
Pleasure to read
The data accumulated from the participants’ journal entries demonstrated that the participants had pleasure and fun when they read books in English For some of the participants, reading the books with interesting content was like an entertainment activity which brought joy and fun
to them After finishing a book with an interesting story or interesting information, they were eager
to find another book to continue Linh and Khanh explained that they found the pleasure in reading these books because there was no pressure of doing reading comprehension exercises Linh and Khanh wrote about the pleasure they found from reading interesting books in their journal entry as follows:
“The story is about an English girl who works
as an assistant for Dr McCall in Kenya Teresa Dunn didn’t believe Dr McCall and misunderstood him That’s the reason why the ending of the story is very surprising The story is short, but it is interesting because I can’t guess the ending Reading this story brings me joy and pleasure I feel happy when I know its ending.”
(Linh, jour)
2 students
8 students
4 students
1 students
Reading 4-5 books Read ing 6-7 books Reading 8-9 books Reading 10 books
The number of books read during the ER
program
Trang 10“The story [Indonesian love story] is an
interesting story about love I feel reading this
book has no pressure because I do not have to do
exercises I like reading this book because it’s fun
and suitable for me.” (Khanh, jour)
Confidence in reading
A few participants perceived their participation
in this ER project as one factor to promote their
confidence in reading English books Before the
commencement of ER project, there were
participants who expressed their fear and
reluctance when he had to read a book in English
because they thought their English was not enough
for them to read the whole book Cuong and Anh
wrote in the pre-questionnaire that they were scared
to read a book in English but after participating in
the ER project, they felt more confident in reading
extensively outside the class “If I could find a
book which is both interesting and not very long, I
could read it easily.” (Cuong, int)
“I can’t believe it I have read some books and
I could understand them I think I will continue to
read.” (Oanh, post-ques)
“Reading books in English is not very difficult
I think I could do it now.” (Son, int)
Previous studies on the impacts of ER on the
affective dimensions such as Asraf and Ahmad
(2009), Morgado (2009), Leung (2002) and
Nishino (2007) also report the positive attitudes
towards reading extensively among the
participants Although the scope of the present
study and the previous studies on learners’
attitudes towards extensive reading in particular
and reading in general is limited, the research
findings from these studies can indicate that ER
can motivate learners to read and develop more
positive attitudes towards reading
3.4 Challenges that Learners Experience
The difficulty most frequently encountered by
the participants in this ER project is the number of
unfamiliar words used in the books Although the
practice of guessing might help them to deal with
this difficulty, the high frequency of unfamiliar vocabulary would affect their reading fluency and their interest in reading Binh, Duong and Linh did not finish the books they chose to read because these books contained many new words and using guessing techniques was not sufficient in comprehending the text
I didn’t finish this book [Great Crime] I just finished 7 pages of the book then I had to stop because there were too many new words to me I tried to guess them but they were too difficult.”
(Binh, jour)
The difficulty mentioned by the participants indicates that reading materials should have been selected with more control and caution In addition to this, a wider choice of reading materials in the levels proportional to the students’ level of proficiency should have been made available so that the difficulty some students encountered could have been overcome
3.5 The summary of the research findings
The perceived benefits of ER perceived by the students include the improvements in language aspects such as reading fluency and speed, vocabulary and grammar together with the enhancement in non-language aspects such as general knowledge and understanding as well as the affective dimensions The data collected also indicates the changes in the way the students felt about ER The participation in the ER program turned the students from being reluctant and scared to being confident in the practice of reading extensively However, there were certain challenges encountered by the students when they participated in the ER program The difficulties most of the learners met were related to the difficulty level of the reading materials and the high frequency of the new vocabulary This suggests that the reading materials for the ER program should have been selected more carefully
4 Limitations
Although the research project yields the