The merits of extensive reading to the english majors at the university of finance marketing in ho chi minh city

As pointed out by Day and Bamford 1998 the benefits of extensive reading include “not only the obvious improvements in students’ reading skills and reading speed but changes in their gen

UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE

    

THE MERITS OF EXTENSIVE READING TO THE ENGLISH MAJORS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF FINANCE - MARKETING

IN HO CHI MINH CITY

Submitted to the Department of English Linguistics & Literature in partial fulfillment

of the Master’s degree in TESOL

By

LE VU HOANG VY

Supervised by

Assoc Prof Dr NGUYEN THANH TUNG

HOCHIMINH CITY, MAY – 2013

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CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled

THE MERITS OF EXTENSIVE READING TO THE ENGLISH MAJORS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF FINANCE - MARKETING IN HO CHI MINH CITY

in term of the Requirements for Theses in Master’s Program issued by the Higher Degree Committee The thesis has not previously been submitted for any degree or diploma at Universities and Institutions

Ho Chi Minh, May 5th, 2013

Le Vu Hoang Vy

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RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS

I hereby claim that I, Le Vu Hoang Vy, being the candidate for the M.A in TESOL Degree, accept the requirement of the University relating to the retention and use of Master’s Theses deposited in the Library

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the Library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for the care, loan or reproduction of theses

Ho Chi Minh City, May 5th, 2013

Le Vu Hoang Vy

I would also like to sincerely thank the Dean, Dr Nguyen Hoang Que and all

my colleagues at the Department of Foreign Languages in the University of Marketing for their encouragement, suggestions and support during my time of conducting the research

Finance-I owe many thanks to all the students of classes 11DTA1 and 11DTA2 who wholeheartedly participated in this study and shared with me all the ups and downs throughout the study I really appreciate their valuable cooperation which has made great contribution to the success of my study

I am greatly indebted to some of my best friends who are willing to talk to me and share with me their ideas on my study

Last but not least, my special thanks must go to my parents, sisters and brother who are always beside me and give me strong support and encouragement during my years of being a postgraduate student

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ABSTRACT

Extensive reading has been reported to be beneficial to most of the readers in various ways in much research around the world As pointed out by Day and Bamford (1998) the benefits of extensive reading include “not only the obvious improvements

in students’ reading skills and reading speed but changes in their general language proficiency and in their attitudes toward reading and language learning.” To examine whether students’ reading comprehension and their attitude toward reading in English would positively change in the Vietnamese context, an empirical study was conducted

at the University of Finance-Marketing in Ho Chi Minh One hundred English major freshmen were assigned into two groups The control group followed the traditional teaching method; meanwhile the experimental one was guided with an extensive reading program besides the traditional one The data, both qualitative and quantitative, were collected through the pre- and post-test, the pre- and post-questionnaire, and the weekly journals The findings showed that there was a significant improvement in the experimental students’ reading comprehension, especially their Reorganization and Inference skills Likewise, their reading attitude toward reading English books, especially their enjoyment, positively changed In the light of findings, some recommendations for a better program were given

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TABLES OF CONTENTS

Certificate of originality ……….i

Retention and use of the thesis ……… ii

Acknowledgements ……….……….iii

Abstract……….iv

Table of contents ……….……… v

List of tables ……… …… xi

List of charts ……… ……xiii

List of abbreviations ……… ….xiv

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Background of the study 1

1.2 Aim of the study 3

1.3 Research hypotheses and questions 3

1.5 Significance of the study 4

1.6 Organizations of the study 5

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 The nature of reading comprehension 6

2.2 Definitions of ER 9

2.3 An ERP in practice 11

2.3.1 Ways of implementing an ERP 11

2.3.2 Materials used in an ERP 15

2.3.3 Teacher’s roles 17

2.4 The role of ER in developing reading comprehension 19

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2.4.1 The effects of ER on reading comprehension from a theoretical perspective 19

2.4.1.1 Automatizing word recognition 19

2.4.1.2 Raising lexical access 19

2.4.1.3 Supplying background knowledge 20

2.4.2 The effects of ER on reading comprehension in empirical research 20

2.5 The influence of ER on the attitude toward English book reading 23

2.5.1 From a theoretical perspective 23

2.5.2 The effects of ER on reading attitude in empirical research 24

2.6 Summary 27

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 28

3.1 Study setting 28

3.2 Participants 29

3.3 Empirical application of the ERP 31

3.3.1 The practice of the ERP 31

3.3.1.1 Preparation stage 31

3.3.1.1.1 Book selection and preparation 31

3.3.1.1.2 In-class post-reading activities 33

3.3.1.2 The ERP in practice 36

3.3.2 Evaluative instruments 37

3.3.2.1 Pre-test and post-test 37

3.3.2.2 Pre-questionnaire and post-questionnaire 40

3.3.2.3 Weekly journal 41

3.4 Analytical framework 41

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3.4.1 Quantitative analysis of the pre- and post-tests 42

3.4.2 Quantitative analysis of the pre- and post-questionnaires 42

3.4.3 Qualitative analysis of weekly journals 43

3.5 Summary 43

CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 44

4 1 Results of students’ reading comprehension through the pre- and post-test 44

4.1.1 Comparison between two groups in the pre-test 44

4.1.2 Comparison between two groups in the post-test 46

4.1.3 Comparison of the mean differences of two groups between the pre- and post-test ……… 48

4.1.4 Summary 50

4 2 Results from the pre- and post-questionnaire 51

4.2.1 The overall attitudinal changes of the control and experimental group through the pre- and post-questionnaire 51

4.2.1.1 The control group’s attitudinal changes through the pre- and post-questionnaire 51

4.2.1.2 The experimental group’s attitudinal changes through pre- and post-questionnaire 52

4.2.1.3 Comparison of the attitudinal changes between the pre- and post-questionnaire of the control and experimental group 52

4.2.2 A detailed analysis of the result of the pre- and post-questionnaire of the experimental group 53

4.2.2.1 Changes of four aspects of reading attitude in the pre- and post-questionnaire of the experimental group 53

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4.2.2.2 Changes of each individual item in the reading attitude through the pre-

and post-questionnaire of the experimental group 55

4.2.2.2.1 Utility 55

4.2.2.2.2 Development 57

4.2.2.2.3 Enjoyment 58

4.2.2.2.4 Escape 59

4.2.2.2.5 Summary 60

4.2.3 Summary of students’ weekly journals on the benefits of reading English books 61

4.2.3.1 Utility 61

4.2.3.2 Development 63

4.2.3.3 Enjoyment 66

4.2.3.4 Escape 69

4.2.3.5 Summary 70

4.2.4 Students’ record of the time spent reading English books through weekly journals 70

4.2.5 The students’ preference for post-reading activities 72

4.2.6 The students’ evaluation of the overall ERP 73

4.2.7 The execution of the ERP in the next semester 74

4.2.8 The suggestions for future program 74

4.3 Discussion of the findings 76

4.3.1 Students’ performance on reading comprehension 76

4.3.2 Students’ attitude toward reading English books and their reflection on the ERP ……… 78

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4.3.2.1 Positive findings on the general reading attitude 78

4.3.2.2 Findings on four specific aspects of reading attitude 80

4.3.2.2.1 Questionnaires 80

4.3.2.2.2 Weekly journals 81

4.3.2.2.3 Students’ suggestions for a better ERP 82

4.3 Summary 84

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 85

5.1 Answers to the research questions 85

5.2 Limitations of the study 86

5.3 Recommendations for the practice of an ERP in the coming terms 87

5.3.1 The practitioners of ERP and the teachers of English 87

5.3.2 Educational administrators 89

5.4 Suggestions for further study 90

REFERENCES 91

APPENDICES 96

Appendix 1: Reading Comprehension Test 96

Appendix 1.1: Pre-test 96

Appendix 1.2: Post-test 101

Appendix 2: Questionnaire 106

Appendix 2.1: Pre-questionnaire in English version 106

Appendix 2.2: Pre-questionnaire in Vietnamese verson 109

Appendix 2.3: Post-questionnaire in English version 112

Appendix 2.4: Post-questionnaire in Vietnamese version 115

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Appendix 3: Form of weekly journals 118

Appendix 4: Handout “Oral Questions” 119

Appendix 5: Handout “Act it out” 119

Appendix 6: List of Graded Readers used in the ERP 120

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.3.2: EPER levels for language learner literature in English ……… 17

Table 3.2: The background information of the control and experimental group 30

Table 3.3.1.1.2: Description of in-class post-reading activities 36

Table 3.3.2.1: A detailed description of 3 tasks in the pre- and post-test 39

Table 4.1.1: Statistical analysis of the pre-test scores of both groups 44

Table 4.1.2: Statistical analysis of the post-test scores of both groups 46

Table 4.1.3: Descriptive statistics of the mean difference between the post- and pre- test scores of both group 48

Table 4.2.1.1: Statistical analysis of the control group’s pre- and post-questionnaire 51

Table 4.2.1.2: Statistical analysis of the experimental group’s pre- and post-questionnaire 52

Table 4.2.2.1: Statistical analysis of experimental group’s four attitudinal aspects in the pre- and post- questionnaire 55

Table 4.2.2.2.1: Statistical analysis of each item of utility in the pre- and post- questionnaire of the experimental group 56

Table 4.2.2.2.2: Statistical analysis of each item of development in the pre- and post- questionnaire of the experimental group 57

Table 4.2.2.2.3: Statistical analysis of each item of enjoyment in the pre- and post- questionnaire of the experimental group 58

Table 4.2.2.2.4: Statistical analysis of each item of escape in the pre- and post- questionnaire of the experimental group 59

Table 4.2.3.1: Summary of students’ weekly journal data on Utility aspect 61

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Table 4.2.3.2: Summary of students’ weekly journal data on Development aspect 64 Table 4.2.3.3: Summary of students’ weekly journal data on Enjoyment aspect 67 Table 4.2.3.4: Summary of students’ weekly journal data on Escape aspect 69 Table 4.2.5: Students’ preference for post-reading activities 72

xiii

LIST OF CHARTS

Chart 4.1.1: The mean score of the three parts in the pre-test of both groups 45

Chart 4.1.2: The mean score of the three parts in the post-test of both groups 47

Chart 4.1.3a: Comparison of the changes in students’ reading scores in the pre- and post-test between the control and experimental group 49

Chart 4.1.3b: The mean difference of the three parts in pre- and post-test between the experimental and control group 50

Chart 4.2.1.3: Comparison of the changes in students’ overall attitude in the pre- and post-questionnaire between the control and experimental group 53

Chart 4.2.2.1: Comparison of the experimental group’s four attitudinal aspects between the pre- and post-questionnaire 54

Chart 4.2.2.2.5: Summary of all items having significant mean gains 60

Chart 4.2.4: Changes of students’ reading time during four phases 71

Chart 4.2.6: Students’ evaluation of the ERP 73

Chart 4.2.7: Students’ opinions on the execution of the program in the next semester 74

Chart 4.2.8: Students’ suggestions for a better ERP 75

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CFE First Certificate in English

EFL English as foreign language

ERP Extensive reading program

SSR Sustained Silent Reading

PET Preliminary English Test

UFM University of Finance and Marketing

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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the study

Since Vietnam’s integration into the World Trade Organization in 2007, there has been a great change in our country in all fields, especially economic areas The co-operation and competition is not only taking place inside its boundary but also expanding to many other countries around the world More foreign-invested companies have been established, which requires a larger amount of a professional workforce working in an international environment To guarantee a professional workforce in the future, Vietnamese government is speeding up the quality of teaching and learning English at school Specifically, more international schools are opening to meet human demand for better English learning environment The teaching and learning of English is now taking place not only at high schools but also at primary schools Especially, on February 14th, 2012, the decision from the Minister of Education and Training to add Block A1 containing 3 subjects Maths, Physics and English to the national entrance exam stabilized the importance of English This block has been welcomed by most universities of economics with the hope to train the future economists to be fluent in English Thus, it can be concluded that English becomes more crucial and is of great concern for the government and society

With the current integration, English books and newspapers are appearing plentifully in Vietnam This is a great chance as well as a challenge for its people These sources provide us a great amount of information in all fields, such as culture, economy, education, entertainment, and politics However, to exploit them, readers need to equip themselves with certain knowledge and necessary reading skills to collect essential information However, it seems that we have not taken advantages of these sources (Ha, 2007, p 9) The reason lies in the limit of their language knowledge and their poor reading ability Especially, there is no habit of searching

by Quach (2007, p 1), “the English language teaching and learning in Vietnam mostly involves the exploitation and study of short passages that are available in textbooks…, which is actually not reading at all.” Such a method of teaching EFL reading has shifted students’ focus to the linguistic aspects rather than reading comprehension as its nature

Another problem is raised from the overuse of reading strategies to successfully complete the reading tasks or exercises rather than to fully comprehend

or enjoy the content of the reading texts From our observation, the teaching and learning process in class just aims to train students’ reading strategies to answer the various kinds of questions, to get them prepared for the exams such as midterm tests, final tests, and some other international tests like TOEIC, TOEFL or IELTS They do the reading under time pressure to ‘defeat’ the questions, not in order to discover something new or to satisfy their curiosity Once they cannot recognize or understand the value of their reading, they will easily get bored with what they read Consequently, the reading to them is a burden rather than a joy or a hobby

Finally, the materials used to teach and learn EFL reading in classes are so limited It seems to be very non-persuasive or illogical to say there are not enough materials for students to read in such an informative time, when information is everywhere and under every form Nevertheless, both teachers and students have not

There is, thus, one suggested solution for the problem raised above That is the implementation of an extensive reading program (ERP) With this program, students will be encouraged to read a lot for their interests and pleasures, and focus on the meanings of the reading texts rather than on the linguistic aspects As written by Bamford and Day (1998, p 2), “ER is a prime means of developing a taste for foreign language reading.” Nevertheless, this program has not been widely applied in Vietnam Therefore, the researcher hopes that this useful program will, to some extent, contribute to the improvement of students’ reading comprehension and raise their interest in reading English books

1.2 Aim of the study

The study aims to explore the educational merits of ER in improving students’ reading comprehension and raising their positive attitude toward the reading of English books

1.3 Research hypotheses and questions

The following hypotheses should be tested to support the educational value of

an ERP as established in the previous section

What are the educational values of implementing an ERP?

(1) To what extent can an ERP improve students’ reading comprehension?

(2) What is students’ attitude toward EFL reading with the implementation of an ERP?

1.5 Significance of the study

The findings of the study can make some significant contributions to the following aspects

Although many studies on ER conducted in many nations all over the world have proved its considerable benefits to learners of English in many ways, the study

of ER done in Vietnam is so limited Therefore, this study will provide empirical evidence for the effects of ER in teaching and learning English in the Vietnamese context

Besides, this study, when successfully implemented, will hopefully raise both teachers’ and students’ awareness of the values of ER They both will find it a supplementary approach to teach and learn EFL reading effectively in the Vietnamese context

Additionally, this study gives the recommendations on available sources of English graded readers collected by the researcher for those who are of the same level and have the same interests with the students in this study

1.6 Organizations of the study

This thesis consists of five chapters Chapter 1 presents an introduction to the topic, background, the aim, hypotheses, questions, and significance of the research Chapter 2 reviews the literature relevant to the practice of ER and its influence on reading comprehension and reading attitude Chapter 3 justifies the research methodology in terms of study context, participants, the application of the ERP, the evaluative instruments and the analytical framework Chapter 4 first reports and analyses the data from the pre and post-test; the pre and post-questionnaire; and the weekly journals It then discusses the findings drawn from the data analysis Chapter

5 comes to the conclusions, reviews some limitations and presents some recommendations, and suggestions for further study

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CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

In this chapter the researcher examines the theories which set as a foundation

to carry out an empirical ERP at the University of Finance - Marketing (UFM) The answers to the thesis questions cannot be obtained without solid theoretical foundation Firstly, this chapter examines the nature of reading English as a foreign language Secondly, it explores the concept of ER Thirdly, it reviews the practice of implementing the ERP in other previous experimental research Finally, it reviews the role of ER in developing reading comprehension and changing students’ attitude toward reading English books from a theoretical perspective and empirical research

2.1 The nature of reading comprehension

Reading English as a foreign language is becoming more popular and taking place in different forms, such as reading articles on newspapers or magazines, advertisements on the street, news on television, instructions of operating working machines, labels on medicine bottles, and messages or mails in a mail box Despite readers’ various purposes when dealing with different kinds of reading texts, their common and final goal is, according to Nuttall (1996, p 3), to comprehend the meaning of the texts or to get the messages implicated by the writers This purpose is also presented by Grabe (2009), who states that “comprehension is the ultimate goal

of reading process since the purpose of all types of reading is to obtain the meaning from printed materials.” To be more specific in terms of comprehension, Swan (1990,

p 6) clarifies that if a student is good at comprehension, he or she can “read accurately and efficiently, so as to get the maximum information from a text with the minimum of misunderstanding.”

Considering how much is called “maximum”, Barrett (1968, as cited in Alderson & Uquart, 1984) develops a taxonomy in which five categories of reading comprehension are presented from the lowest to the highest The lowest one, or the

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easiest to achieve by students, is literal recognition or recall This is the stage at which they are required to locate or identify ideas or information explicitly stated in the reading text Next is the reorganization category This stage requires students to analyze, synthesize, and/or organize ideas or information explicitly stated in the selection At the third stage of inference, based on these ideas and information, they then use their prior knowledge or personal experience to infer some other information that is beyond the printed paper As the fourth one, evaluation requires evaluative judgment of readers It can be done by comparing the ideas presented in the text with external criteria provided by the teacher, other authorities, or other written sources, or with internal criteria provided by the students’ experiences, knowledge, or values Finally, the hardest stage to achieve by students is appreciation which calls for their emotional and aesthetical reactions to reading texts

Thus, reading comprehension seems to be a very complicated process whose nature needs to be explored to improve students’ reading ability According to Day and Bamford (1998, p 13), the process of comprehension includes four component processes described as follows: (1) Reading begins with the accurate, swift, and automatic visual recognition of vocabulary, independent of the context in which it occurs; (2) Automatic recognition of a word allows lexical access; (3) The phonological representations of the words in a sentence hold the words in working memory long enough for comprehension to occur; and (4) Comprehension draws on the reader’s prior knowledge of the language, world, text type, and topic

The first three component processes, in the view of Grabe (2009, p 22), are called the lower-level processes that have potential to become strongly automatized, and this automatization is a requirement for fluent reading He also states that word recognition is considered by many researchers as “one of the most important processes contributing to reading comprehension.” When we read, we actually focus visually on almost all (about 80%) of the content words that we read and about 40%

of the small function words (Harrison, 1992, as cited in Day & Bamford, 1998, p 13)

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So it can be concluded that “fluent reading comprehension is not possible without rapid and automatic word recognition of a large vocabulary” (Grabe, 2009, p 23) However, as Stanovich (1992, as cited in Day & Bamford, 1998, p 13) states,

“Efficient word recognition seems to be a necessary but not sufficient condition for good comprehension.”

Good comprehension also requires readers an efficient lexical access which is known as “the automatic calling up from memory of the word’s meanings and its phonological representation” (Day & Bamford, 1998, p 13) However, it is true in some certain contexts that the readers can “initiate word recognition but lead to no or very little lexical access” (Grabe, 2009, p 26) For example, children can sometimes read words aloud but do not understand what they are reading In these cases, they may not be accessing the meaning component of these words, but they are accessing the phonology and an entry Such “inefficient lexical access, slow and effortful, makes it more difficult for working memory to do its work” (Perfetti, 1985, p 113)

The working memory is also important in constructing the meaning If the readers cannot hold the clause or sentence in working memory long enough to construct the meaning, then comprehension will be severely disrupted

The fourth component in the process involves the readers’ prior knowledge Day and Bamford (1998) state, “the construction of meaning involves the reader connecting information from the written message with previous knowledge to arrive

at meaning – at an understanding.” Also, Grellet (1991, as cited in Day & Bamford,

1998, p 14) emphasizes that meaning is not inherent in the text, but “each reader brings his own meaning to what he reads based on what he expects from the text and his previous knowledge.” In other words, Smith (1971, p 4) asserts that “what the brain tells the eye is more important than what the eye tells the brain.” Thus it can be inferred that readers with considerably more background knowledge on a topic will read a text differently and more efficiently

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In a nutshell, reading for comprehension is not a simple process as it is viewed

on its surface When we deeply explore its nature and its procedure to interpret the full meaning, we find it a really complicated process It covers not only the literal recognition and reorganization which can be stated explicitly from the text, but also the inference, evaluation and appreciation which require the student a large amount of background knowledge to deal with Therefore, four component processes of reading comprehension need to be practiced more frequently to become automatized so that the reading texts will be dealt with more fluently, smoothly and effectively A suggestion for automatizing this process is ER

2.2 Definitions of ER

ER can be considered as an approach to teach and learn reading skill However, to apply this approach effectively in teaching and learning English, we need

to clarify its nature

With its fundamental meaning, the word “extensive” is defined in the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (2010, p 538) as “great in amount” When this word combines with the word “reading” in the phrase ER, it can be understood as “reading

a great amount of materials”

This definition, to some extent, is in accordance with what Palmer, the first person to apply this in foreign language pedagogy (Day & Bamford, 1998, p 5), means: “reading books after books”

It seems not enough for Richards and Schmidt (2002, p 193) with such a definition of ER when they add one more characteristic, which is “reading in quantity and in order to gain a general understanding of what is read." In this way, the purpose

of ER is determined

Powell (2005) presents another purpose of ER when stating that “the basic goal

of ER is to get students to read as much as can be reasonably expected and hopefully

Susser and Robb (1990) also show their agreement with those researchers above in defining ER However, one added characteristic in their definition which is that “books are not discussed in class” seems to cause argument

… Reading (a) of a large quantity of materials or long texts; (b) for global or general understanding; (c) with the intention of obtaining pleasure from the text Further, because (d) reading is individualized, with students choosing the books they want to read, (e) the books are not discussed in class

The definitions above seem to cover many characteristics of ER They mention not only the amount of reading materials that learners should read, but also the purposes (general understanding, and pleasure), and the manner (individualized) of

ER All of these characteristics are then included in the definition by Day and Bamford (1998), which can be seen to be the most detailed and sufficient to understand the nature of ER

 Students read as much as possible

 A variety of materials on a wide range of topics is available

 They select what they want to read

 The purposes of reading are usually related to pleasure, information and general understanding

 Reading is its own reward

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 Reading materials are well within the linguistic competence of students in term of vocabulary and grammar

 Reading is individual and silent

 Reading speed is usually faster rather than slower

 Teacher guide and keep track of student progress

 Teacher is a role model of reader for students (Day & Bamford, 1998, p 8) Based on what has been discussed above, the operational definition of ER is presented below as the corner stone for this study

“ER is defined as individual reading of a large amount of comprehensible materials chosen by the learners themselves for general understanding and pleasure, and with the teacher’s guidance and encouragement.”

2.3 An ERP in practice

2.3.1 Ways of implementing an ERP

An ERP has been widely implemented around the world and proved to be effective in different contexts However, to attain those beneficial effects in the context of Vietnam, researchers should invest time in studying some appropriate and efficient ways to carry out the program Below is a description of some features that

need to be considered for an effective ERP

The first thing to consider for realizing an ERP is “how ER might be included

in a variety of second language classrooms, courses and programs”, as Day and Bamford (1998, p 40) state They list four ways to integrate ER into second language program: as separated, stand-alone course; as part of an existing reading course; as a noncredit addition to an existing course; and as an extracurricular activity

All the four ways above have been applied in most of the ERP research Depending on the purposes and the teaching conditions, researchers choose a suitable way to apply However, among the four ways, the last two are rarely used in doing

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research about the effects of ER It can be explained that ER which is applied in the last two ways is considered to be optional That is to say, it does not matter whether students read extensively or not because it is just a non-credit addition and extracurricular activity Once ER is not a formal part of a course, not many students voluntarily read extensively They are likely to spend their free time on doing other exciting activities rather than reading English books This shortcoming is pointed out

by Asraf and Ahmad (2003, p 88) who state that “without incorporating ER as part of

a class program, the students might not read English books on their own” because not many students who study English as a foreign language have the habit of reading English books Accordingly, researchers might encounter many difficulties in measuring the effectiveness of an ERP if it is conducted as a noncredit addition or an extracurricular course

In contrast, most researchers have been in preference for carrying out the ERP according to the first two ways due to its formality as an official course Some aspects pertaining to the implementation of the program as an official course such as

“organizing the program, establishing routines and expectations, implementing related activities, and monitoring the progress of students’ reading” are emphasized (Asraf & Ahmad, 2003, p 91) So it is rather advantageous for doing research That is the reason why many ER specialists such as Asraf and Ahmad (2003), Hitosugi and Day (2004), Macalister (2007), Susser and Robb (1990), Powell (2005), and Yamashita (2004) try to have a separated ER course or integrate it into an English course as a formal part

The second controversial feature when implementing the ERP is where to read extensively: in class, out of class or both For instance, Macalister (2007) asks his students to read extensively in class: “The nature of the ERP was 20 minutes a day of sustained silent reading (SSR) in class, at the end of the three-hour morning session each day.” However, this amount of time seems to be too short for what to be called

ER Oppositely, Maley (2008, p 143) encourages that ER should be done out of class

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He explains that readers read “at different rates, with different degrees of attention or commitment, with differential comprehension and interpretation, and with different personal preferences for what they read and how they read it.” Therefore, requiring everyone to read the same text, at the same pace and for the same purpose is a seriously distorted version of ER However, if ER is done completely out of class, teachers do not have a chance to guide their students, keep track on their work and encourage them to read more In other words, ER done either in class or out of class still has some shortcomings Thus, a suggestion of combining both inside and outside

is a good idea for ER as done in the research by Asraf and Ahmad (2003), Hitosugi and Day (2004), and Yamashita (2004) The advantages of this combination are as follows: Students have time to enjoy their reading at home and teachers have a chance

to guide them how to read, check their works regularly, and then encourage them to read more in class This idea is clearly stated by Hitosugi and Day (2004, p 28) in their research of ER in Japanese language class as follows:

We believed that it was imperative to link the reading that the students were doing outside of the classroom with their formal learning of Japanese Accordingly, we decided to use a small portion of class time, approximately 30 minutes once a week, to create a positive classroom environment that supported and encouraged the students’ outside reading and promoted their learning of Japanese

Thirdly, should extra activities be included in the program? There have been two contrary opinions towards extra activities in ER On the one hand, Maley (2008,

p 135) asserts in his study that “there are no tests, no exercises and no questions” when reading extensively, for it will interrupt students’ reading process Additionally, when the students put much focus on those activities, they cannot catch up with the flow of ideas that they are reading Krashen (2007) explains that the more we check comprehension, the less readers understand, and the less they acquire More seriously, these activities can also spoil students’ reading enjoyment, as stated by Renandya,

On the other hand, in many studies, extra activities have been applied For instance, Powell (2009) in his research on the effect of ER requires his students to write a summary of one book over the summer vacation Asraf and Ahmad (2003) ask the students to spend part of their time on silently reading and the rest on retelling stories One reason for the application of some extra activities stated by Yu (1993, p 7) is that “most of our students have not developed their good reading habit yet, so post reading tasks are still recommended, especially to reluctant readers.” In fact, not many students taking part in this ERP have motivation, self-consciousness or interest

in reading English Therefore, extra activities should be included to raise their motivation, self-consciousness or interest, especially to measure the effects of the experimental ERP As Asraf and Ahmad (2003, p 91), who include telling stories as a post-reading activities in their study, state, “telling their classmates about the stories they had read would help to motivate the students to read more books, as it creates a sense of accomplishment in having read one book after another.” Renandya, Rajan and Jacobs (1999, p 3) also affirm,

Post-reading tasks, if carefully designed, can serve useful purposes Post-reading activities can be used to (a) reinforce what students have learned from their reading; (b) give students a sense of progress; and (c) help students share information about materials to read or avoid

Hitosugi and Day (2004, p 28) also add “there was another unexpected benefit

of taking time in class for ER activities: it served as an incentive for the students to do the outside reading.” Thus, it can be inferred that extra activities in the ERP if carefully chosen and designed will bring students more goods than harms These

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activities should not be tedious comprehension questions or tests or exercises that interrupt their reading process, but should be some communicative activities or a short summary to motivate them and to check their work indirectly

In short, there has been a variety of ways for the practice of the ERP in terms

of how to integrate it into an English course, where to practice it and whether to assign the post-reading activities in it With a thorough and argumentative analysis of the practice of the ERP in some research, the researcher finds it more beneficial to integrate it as an official part into an English course, carry out it both inside and outside the classroom, and include some communicative post-reading activities to serve as an encouragement rather than a burden for students Besides these integral factors, another key element that needs considering to make a contribution to its success is the materials

2.3.2 Materials used in an ERP

One of the prominent characteristics of an ERP is the materials that students read Materials for an ERP, as defined in the definition of ER above, should cover a wide range of topics, be within students’ reading comprehension and especially appeal their interest In other words, Harris and Sipay (1990, p 674) use the term “a lure and a ladder” as a description for reading materials In Day and Bamford’s (1998,

p 96) words, “the lure”, in ER, is the interesting and attractive materials designed to hook students and reel them in and “the ladder” is the wide range of materials, from very easy to challenging, that allow them to progress upward in small steps as their reading fluency develops Thus, graded readers which include both suggested characteristics have been recommended by most researchers doing on ER as an ideal choice

Graded readers, according to Waring (1997), are books written specifically for language learners to develop their reading ability They are made easy to read by simplifying the vocabulary and grammar so the learner can easily understand the story Hill and Thomas (1988, p 44) define a graded reader as a book “written to a

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grading scheme,” whether it is a simplified version of a previous written work or an original work written in simple language That is to say, each graded reader is different in the level of difficulty by using grammar and vocabulary limited to that level Nation (2005, p.13) also mentions that “the levels in these series are not identical with each other in number of levels, the amount of vocabulary at each level,

or the vocabulary lists on which they are based.” Therefore, students at different levels of reading ability can choose books that are comprehensible to them

There are great deals of graded readers available for EFL learners They cover

a wide range of genres from adventure, ghost, horror, love story, to social and cultural issues They also come from different publishers such as Oxford Bookworms, Oxford Progressive English Readers, Streamline Graded Readers, and Penguin Readers These publishers have different ranking scales depending on the number of headwords and grammatical structures written in the books However, this diversity of ranking scales from different publishers often frustrates readers when choosing a book

to read Therefore, the Edinburgh Project on ER (EPER), ‘a non-profit-making unit within the Institute for Applied Language Studies of the University of Edinburgh’, is developed The EPER categorizes graded readers of different publishers into eight levels of difficulty to make readers feel easier to choose their favorite reading materials Its purpose is “to promote ER as a major element in the teaching of foreign languages, with a special focus on the teaching of English as a foreign or second language” (Day & Bamford, 1998, p 169)

Below is the table setting out the EPER levels and the corresponding level within the Cambridge, TOEFL, and TOEIC system

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EPER

level

Average Vocabulary

Student level Cambridge TOEFL TOEIC

Starter Beginner Elementary Low intermediate Intermediate High intermediate Advanced Bridge

1999, p 8; Hitosugi & Day, 2004, p 2; Susser & Rob, 1990, p 9)

p 36) Another reason for being a model stated by Bright and McGregor (1970, p 69)

is that “a teacher who does not read can hardly inspire their students to do so.”

In addition, the teacher also plays the role of a motivator or an encourager Although it is supposed that the materials themselves will be the source of students’ motivation in the ERP, this sole motivation is not strong enough to result in the desired outcome with newly-involved students To encourage them to reach “a reading target,” Hitosugi and Day (2004, p 26) decide to give 10% toward their final grade if any students read 40 books in ten-week period Also, “a bonus scheme” with

an additional 5% is set for reading an additional 20 books Meanwhile, Powell (2005) chooses another way, which is called token prize, to encourage his students to read more English books It is described in detail as follows,

The number of books read by each student is recorded on a wall chart in the classroom Every time a student completes a book, she gets to choose a cartoon character sticker to put next to her name on the chart This enables both teacher and students to see how the class is doing and acts as an incentive to others, as well as providing a small touch of humor

In brief, the success of an ERP is largely dependent on the teacher’s roles However, covering all the roles mentioned above seems to be a demanding task Anyway, even if those roles are not perfectly performed, they should be of attention to practitioners or researchers when conducting an ERP

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2.4 The role of ER in developing reading comprehension

2.4.1 The effects of ER on reading comprehension from a theoretical perspective

As mentioned in Section 2.1, the nature of reading comprehension, ER plays

an important role in fostering four component processes to make the overall process

of reading comprehension become more fluent and effective However, how an ERP operates to promote the operation of this process is still a matter of concern that needs

to be explored

2.4.1.1 Automatizing word recognition

As stated by Grabe (2009, p 17), “Words are almost never learned on a reader’s first encounter with the word, no matter how intensive it is.” Research shows that the average word must be met 15 to 20 times before it is learned That is to say, the reader has to encounter the words repeatedly, again and again, until they become familiar and are automatically recognized by him/her Therefore, by reading a great amount of materials, or reading extensively, he/she can raise the frequency of word encountering, the word familiarity and word recognition automaticity

2.4.1.2 Raising lexical access

When words are automatically recognized, readers try to grasp their meaning The amount of vocabulary that the readers possess, to some extent, can decide the level of their reading comprehension According to Nagy and Herman (1987, p 27),

“children who know more words understand the text better.” Carver (1994, as cited in Grabe, 2009, p 28) states that “fluent readers also have very large lexicons in relation

to their normal grade-level reading, so they encounter relatively few unknown word forms.” Therefore, fluent readers need to equip themselves with “a massive receptive vocabulary that is rapidly, accurately, and automatically accessed” (Grabe, 1998, p 63)

To assist this process, reading extensively gives readers more chances to learn the words incidentally, which is supposed to be “the easiest and single most powerful

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means of promoting large-scale vocabulary growth” (Day & Bamford, 1998, p 17) They also advise that readers “must read and read some more both to learn words from context through multiple encounters and to become better readers so that incidental vocabulary learning becomes easier.” Also, Maley (2008) confirm that reading extensively can also offer learners repeated encounters with language items they have already met, thus aiding their consolidation and giving them the opportunity

to extend what they know

2.4.1.3 Supplying background knowledge

Harris and Sipay (1990, p 533) assert that wide reading can not only increase word-meaning knowledge but also produce gains in topical and word knowledge that further facilitates reading comprehension Maley (2008, p 148) compares extensive reading to “opening windows on the world seen through different eyes.” Day and Bamford (1998, p 45) strongly argue that “ER may play a role in developing the capacity for critical thinking” which can be achieved only when readers read a lot to expand their knowledge about that matter

In a word, ER has, theoretically, made a great impact on three important components of reading processes which are word recognition, lexical access and background knowledge which can promote students’ fluency in reading comprehension Based on this theoretical impact, many researchers have carried out studies to assert the role of ER

2.4.2 The effects of ER on reading comprehension in empirical research

Although a considerable amount of research has been taken to examine the benefits of ER, this part of the theory chapter only reviews five studies working on reading comprehension The purpose of examining them is to see how effective the

ER is in developing students’ reading comprehension and to discover how reading comprehension is implemented and evaluated through the ERP

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The first study was done by Bell (2001) to measure the reading speed and comprehension at the British Council English Language Center in Sana’a, Yemen Two groups of 26 elementary learners were involved in an intensive and extensive reading program The experimental group received graded readers to read for the ERP, while the control group read shorts passages focusing on grammar, lexis, and rhetorical patterns in the book “Basic Comprehension Passages” by Byrne (1986) After two semesters of implementing this program, the reading comprehension tests consisting of three texts accompanied by questions containing modified cloze, true/ false and multiple choice items were used to measure the students’ reading comprehension The score of the tests showed that the gains in reading comprehension were three times greater in the extensive group than in the intensive group It can be concluded that ER leads to much greater improvement in learners’ reading comprehension than the intensive one

The second study was implemented by Tanaka and Stapleton (2007) at Japanese high school Like the first one, this one encouraged the students in the treatment group

to read graded readers at home After five months of implementing, the result showed that the students in the experimental group significantly outperformed those in the control one in reading comprehension, especially those who reported reading a larger number of graded readers outside of the class

The third study done in Vietnam by Quach (2006) has made the results presented above more persuasive The study was carried out on 25 freshmen who studied English as a foreign language at the College of Foreign Languages in Hanoi City during a period of four months With the higher mean gains of the experimental group after the pre- and post-test, the study came to accept the given research hypotheses that “students who take part in the ERP will make more improvement in their reading proficiency as measured by a proficiency test than those who do not participate in such a program.” That means there was a significant improvement in

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reading proficiency of the students who took part in the ERP in comparison with those who followed the traditional reading program

Fourthly, it is worth considering the series of three experimental studies done

by Mason and Krashen (1997) Some researchers argue that the time spent doing the experimental study in some studies above is too short (from 3 to 5 months) to give reliable results Meanwhile, this study was carried out in a period of nearly five semesters in some academic years, long enough to give relatively reliable results The three experiments were conducted at three various universities and colleges in Japan with the purpose to find out the values of ER in EFL reading The results of three experiments allowed the researcher to come to a conclusion that “ER proved to be superior to traditional approaches on measures of reading comprehension.”

Last but not least, Robb and Susser (1989) carried out an experiment

comparing the improvement in reading comprehension of Japanese college freshmen taught by either a skill-based procedure or ER ER was defined as reading 500 pages

as a minimum during one year of experiment, while skill-based reading was defined

as reading 79 pages and using skills to comprehend the text Of the four areas that the study focused on, the researcher found out that there were no significant differences between the two groups in the respect of “getting the main ideas” and “making reference”, but the experimental group scored significantly higher on “understanding the important facts” and “guessing vocabulary from context” In other words, ER may

be somehow more effective than skill building reading

In a nutshell, all five studies discussed above have shown that ER was proved

to be superior to the traditional teaching approaches in improving students’ reading comprehension and reading proficiency However, there has not been detailed description of how students’ reading comprehension was measured in the first four studies, so we doubt whether the results presented above are reliable As discussed in Section 2.1, the nature of reading comprehension, reading comprehension is a complicated process including five categories (Barrett, 1968) Therefore, it is not

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persuasive enough to make a general conclusion of the improvement of reading comprehension Instead, we need a more specific explanation for which categories of reading comprehension the ER has the more effects on Among five studies above, the one done by Robb and Susser (1989) gives the most specific conclusion when indicating which categories of reading comprehension are improved and which are not

2.5 The influence of ER on the attitude toward English book reading

2.5.1 From a theoretical perspective

Attitude is an abstract aspect that psychologists or researchers have tried to figure out An attitude, according to Good (1973, as cited by Kush & Watkin, 1996, p 315), is a “predisposition … to react specifically towards an object, situation, or value which is usually accompanied by feelings and emotions.” Fishbein and Ajen (1975, p 6) give the same nature of attitude but express in a different way when stating that it is

“a learned predisposition to respond in a consistently favorable or unfavorable manner with respect to a given object.”

The definition seems more specific in the term “reading attitude” when we can define an object of attitude Alexander and Filler (1976, p 1) define reading attitude

as “a system of feeling related to reading which causes the learner to approach or avoid a reading situation.” Similarly, Smith (1990, as cited by Kush & Watkin, 1996,

p 315) views reading as “a state of mind, accompanied by feelings and emotions that make reading more or less probable.” Thus, one of the prominent properties of reading attitude that can be observed from the definition is the evaluation This property refers to “how positive or negative” “how pro versus con,” “favorable versus unfavorable,” or “supportive versus antagonistic” people are toward reading

The overall reading attitude, generally speaking, consists of three components: cognitive (the facts, knowledge structures, beliefs, and inferences), affective (the emotional feelings) and conative (the behavioral intentions) (Fishbein & Ajen, 1975; McGuire, 1969; Reeves, 2002; Shavitt & Brock, 2005, as cited in Stokman, 1999, p

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247) However, as stated by Stokman (1999, p 247), many researchers tend to

“restrict the conceptualization of reading attitude” to the affective and cognitive components only, and the conative components is not considered as a construct of reading attitude, but is affected by the reading attitude

Cognitive and affective components can be conceptualized as beliefs that people hold about the consequences of reading English books which are summarized

as consisting of four functions, Utility (educational and vocational value), Development (value gained for self, others or life in general), Enjoyment (pleasure derived from reading) and Escape (means of relaxing and forgetting personal worries) “The utility and development function were postulated to be indices of the cognitive component; the enjoyment and escape function were regarded as indices of the affective component” (Stokman, 1999, p 257)

Thus, to make a positive change in students’ overall attitude toward EFL reading, the researcher needs to change their attitude toward four aspects constructing the overall positive attitude However, making a change in their reading attitude is rather difficult because it is presumed to be “relatively enduring and stable” (Stokman, 1999, p 246) But it does not mean that it is unchangeable According to Day and Bamford (1998), one important element that affects the attitudinal change toward reading is the classroom environment That is, “if the students had favorable feelings and experiences with teachers, materials, tasks, activities and so on, they can forge their positive attitude toward reading in second language” (p 22) Therefore, the implementation of an ERP with some of its outstanding features hopefully can promote students’ favorable feeling toward reading English books

2.5.2 The effects of ER on reading attitude in empirical research

With different approaches of investigation, most of the studies of the ER effects on reading attitude have agreed that reading extensively can develop students’ positive attitude toward reading English books

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With the aim to describe how students at three Malaysian rural schools responded to a program on ER, Asraf and Ahmad (2003) used classroom observation, teacher diaries and an open-ended, in-depth interview as effective tools to examine their attitude toward reading After a period of four months, they were happy to recognize that the majority of the students in their study developed a positive attitude

toward reading in English although they were initially reluctant readers

In the same vein, Powel (2005)was successful with his two year experimental program on the Special English Course at Hijiyama High School in Hiroshima, Japan

In this program, the questionnaires were given to 36 students during their third and final year at high school According to the survey, 25/36 stated that “sometimes they now read in English purely for pleasure, i.e other than homework and home readers,” and 6/36 said they often did This result led to a conclusion that “student come to enjoy and benefit from free reading once given the chance” and that “the more they read, the more enjoyment will be obtained, attitude will improve and learning will increase.” The students also indicated that “without ER, they may never have had the chance to discover the joys and benefits, linguistic, intellectual and emotional, that reading can bring.” Before the program, according to the survey, only three students, among 16, thought that English reading was enjoyable But this number increased up

to 15 after the program These numbers showed an improvement in the students’ attitude toward reading in English Around 12 of them changed their attitude toward reading in English from negative (difficult) to positive (enjoyable)

Another study was done by Hitosugi and Day (2004) at the University of Hawaii to investigate the attitudinal changes toward Japanese reading among students after incorporating an ERP A 22-item questionnaire was used to measure the affective aspect of ER The results indicate that the ER students reported a greater overall increase in positive affective responses than those who followed the regular syllabus