The effect of extensive reading on students reading speed, word retention, and their attitude toward reading an experiment at national economics university

T hey further emphasize that students may make better progress in reading comprehension and vocabulary developm ent through extensive reading than in traditional instructional reading i

A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T S

F irstly , I w o u ld lik e to a c k n o w le d g e a n d e x p ress m y d e e p g ra titu d e a n d sincere

a p p re c ia tio n to m y su p erv iso r, M r H o an g V a n H o a t，M A fo r his in ten siv e revisions,

p a tie n t g u id a n c e , e n c o u ra g e m en t, in sig h tfu l su g g estio n s a n d k in d su p p o rt th ro u g h o u t

m y research

S e c o n d ly ，m y sp ecial th an k s g o to D r V u V a n D ai a n d M s N g u y en T h a i H a, M E d o f

th e D e p a rtm e n t o f P o stg rad u ate S tu d ie s fo r th e ir c o n sta n t su p p o rt a n d c o n c e rn w hile

th e w o rk w as in p ro g ress

T h ird ly , I a lso w ish to th a n k a ll m y c o lle a g u e s fo r th e s tim u la tin g a n d cre a tiv e w ork

e n v iro n m e n t; a n d m y stu d en ts a t N atio n al E c o n o m ic s U n iv e rsity f o r th e ir interest,

c re a tiv ity a n d k in d a ssista n c e d u rin g th e tim e I c o lle c te d d a ta f o r th e study

F in a lly , I a m d e e p ly in d e b te d to all the su p p o rt and e n c o u ra g e m e n t th at m y fam ily has

so lo v in g ly o ffe re d m e

A B S T R A C T

R eading s k ill is one o f the most d iffic u lt s k ills in le a rn in g and teaching fo re ig n languages in general and in E nglish in p a rtic u la r In fa c t, m any teachers fin d it hard

to m ake reading lessons in s p irin g and enjoyable The m ain g o a l in th is study is to fin d

o u t i f there is any correspondence between teaching extensive reading and students '

re ad in g s k ill im provem ent, especially reading speed, w o rd retention and student's

a ttitu d e to w a rd reading at interm ediate le ve l o f E nglish p ro fic ie n c y a t N a tio n a l

E conom ics U n ive rsity (N EU ) An experim ental research was chosen to c a rry o ut fo r the study 45 students p a rtic ip a te d in the study were d ivid e d in to 2 groups, 22 in the experim enta l and 23 in the c o n tro l group Both o f tw o groups are given the p re-te st to make sure th a t they are p re tty much o f reading level The experim ental group was

d e live re d extra intensive reading docum ent to do a t home and suggestions to search

f o r in fo rm a tio n re la tin g to the to p ic they read in class The c o n tro l group was

d e live re d extra reading docum ent o f the designed syllabus A fte r the experim ent time, the p o st test was used to measure students’ reading s k ill im provem ent The data

co lle cte d fro m the p re-te st and post-test results was com puted and analyzed by means

o f t-tests, using p a i re d՜ sam ple and independent-sam ple t-tests A t the beginning and the end o f th is course, questionnaires are d is trib u te d to ge t these students ' a ttitu d e

to w a rd reading This study shows th a t extensive readings are o f g re a t benefits fo r both teachers a n d students I t helps teachers create an enjoyable and fle x ib le learning environm ent w hich m otivates students to lea rn reading lessons Students can the refore im prove th e ir reading a b ility , especially reading speed, w o rd retention and change th e ir reading a ttitu d e as w ell Extensive reading is therefore h ig hly recom m ended being used in E nglish language classroom s.

TABLE OF CONTENT

A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T S

A B S T R A C T

T A B L E O F C O N T E N T

L I S T O F T A B L E S

L IS T O F F I G U R E S

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Ba c k g r o u n d t o t h e s t u d y

1.2 Ai m a n d s ig n if ic a n c e o f t h e s t u d y

1.3 Re s e a r c h q u e s t io n s a n d r e s e a r c h h y p o t h e s e s•••• 1.4 Sc o p e o f t h e s t u d y

1-5 Or g a n iz a t io n o f t h e t h e s is

C H A P T E R 2 : L I T E R A T U R E R E V I E W

2.1 Th e o r e t ic a l b a c k g r o u n d o f r e a d in g s k i l l

2.1.1 D e fin itio n s o f re a d in g

2.1.2 Purpose o f reading

2.1.3 Type o f re a d in g

2 1.4 R ole o f re a d in g

2 1 5 R eading a ttitu d e

2.2 Ex t e n s iv e r e a d in g

2.2.1 D e fin itio n s o f E xtensive re a d in g

2.2.2 B e n e fit o f extensive rea ding in language le a rn in g 2.2.3 E xtensive re a d in g vs In te n sive re a d in g

2.2.4 E xtensive vs G raded R e a d in g

2.3 Pr e v io u s r e s e a r c h s t u d ie s

2.4 Su m m a r y

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

3.1 Re s e a r c h q u e s t io n s a n d h y p o t h e s is r e s t a t e d

3.2 Ex p e r im e n t a l r e s e a r c h

3.3 Va r ia b l e s

3.3.1 In d e p e n de nt va ria b le s

3.3.2 D ependent v a ria b le

3.4 Su b j e c t s o f t h e s t u d y -

3.5 Da t a c o l l e c t io n in s t r u m e n t s

3.5.1 D e s ig n in g p re -te st a n d po st-test

3.5.2 Q uestionnaires (see A ppendix I and 2)

3.6 De s c r ip t io n o f d a t a a n a l y s is t o o l s

10

Í

7

9

о

о

о

1

/ 7

2

շ

2 5

/

1

շ

շ

շ

շ

2 2 2

շ

2 2 2

3.7 Pr o c e d u r k s 26

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 29

4.1 Re s u l t s o f t h e r e a d in g te s ts (Se e Ap p e n d ix 5 FOR ALL SECTIONS AND OVERALL SCORES O F TESTS) 29

4.1.1 Test re s u lt o f th e c o n tro l g ro u p 29

4.1.2 Test re s u lt o f th e expe rim e nta l g ro u p 31

4.1.3 Test re s u lt between C o n tro l a n d E x p e rim e n ta l G ro u p s 32

4.2 Dis c u s s io n o f t h e t e s t r e s u l t s 34

4.3 Re s u l t s f r o m q u e s t io n n a ir e s (Se e Ap p e n d ix 6 FOR THE WHOLE RESPONSES OF QUESTIONNAIRE) 37

4.3.1 Q u e stio n n a ire 1 37

4.3.2 Q u e stio n n a ire 2 39

4.4 INFLUKNCES OF APPLIKI) E R ON EXPERIMENTAL STUDENTS (Se e Ap p e n d ix 10 FOR SOME E R DOCUMENTS DELIVERED FOR STUDENTS AS HOMEWORK) - 42

4.5 Su m m a r y 43

CHAPTER 5: RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION 44

5.1 Re c o m m e n d a t io n s 44

5.2 Lim it a t io n s o f t h e s t u d y a n d s u g g e s t io n s f o r f u r t h e r r e s e a r c h•••••45 5.3 Co n c l u s io n 46

REFERENCES 48

VPPENDIX 53

Ap p e n d ix 1: Qu e s t io n n a ir e s 1 (FORPRE-TEST) 53

A p p e n d ix 2： Q u e s t io n n a ir e s 2 (FOR POST- TEST) 54

Ap p e n d ix 3 : Pr e-t e s t (p o s t- t e s t) f o r s t u d e n t s o f b o t h c o n t r o l a n d EXPERIM ENTAL GROUPS 5 5 A p p e n d ix 4： M a r k i n g s c h e m e f o r t h e p r e - t e s t a n d p o s t - t e s t - 75

Ap p e n d ix 5: Pr e-t e s t a n d Po s t-t e s t r e s u l t s 76

Ap p e n d ix 6: Qu e s t io n n a ir e s r e s p o n s e 78

Ap p e n d ix 7 : Co u r s e s y l l a b u s 80

A p p e n d i x 8 : S c h e d u l e o f m a i n e r a c t i v i t i e s f o r e g 8 6 Ap p e n d ix 9: Sa m p l e l e s s o n p l a n sf o r b o t h g r o u p s 87

A p p e n d ix 10: S a m p le e x te n s iv e r e a d in g d o c u m e n t 92

Ap p e n d ix 11: Su g g e s t e d w e b-l i n k s 103

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

N E U : National Economics U niversity

E FL: English as Foreign Language

ESL: English as a Second language

ER: Extensive reading

LIST OF TABLES

Table I : Four form s o f reading

Table 2: Five factors o f language learning fram ework

Table 3: English learning duration o f the students

Table 4: Pi e- and Post-test Results o f the C ontrol Group

Table 5: Pre- and Post-test Results o f the Experimental Group

Table 6: The Test Results between C ontrol group and Experim ental Group

Table 7: The Section Test Results between Control Group (CG) and Experimental

G roup (E G )

Table 8: Students' o p in io n on the statements number one to fo u r o f Questionnaire 1 Table 9: Students’ o p in io n on the statements number fiv e to eight o f Questionnaire 1 Table 10: Students’ opinion on the statements number one to fo u r o f Questionnaire 2 Table 1 1 : Students’ opinion on the statements number fiv e to seven o f Questionnaire

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Pre- and Post-test Results o f the C ontrol Group

Figure 2: Pre- and Post-test Results o f the Experimental Group

Figure 3: The Test Results between C ontrol group and Experim ental Group

Figure 4: The Section Test Results between C ontrol G roup (C G ) and Experimental

G roup (EG)

C H A P T E R 1: IN T R O D U C T IO NThe current study is intended to investigate the effects o f extensive reading on reading speed，

w이d retention and the students’ reading attitude o f the firs t year E nglish m ajor students at National Economics U niversity (N E U ) It begins w ith this in troductory chapter，w hich describes the background to the study and indicates the aim and research question I t also discusses the scope o f the study and provides the organization o f the study

Teachers must believe that language teaching should aim at developing s k ills among students They must provide opportunities to students through w h ich they learn ho w to acquire knowledge by exposing them to d iffe re n t reading materials in the classroom They can help students become good English readers and develop confidence in them that they can read and understand E nglish language (D e v i，2009)

Krashen and T errell (1989) state that reading is an im portant source o f comprehensible input and can make a sig n ifica n t con trib u tio n to competence in a foreign language They also explain that the research shows students w h o do more pleasure reading are better readers，better w riters and have a greater vocabulary and gram m atical competence T hey also suggest that Mfree vo lu n ta ry reading" (p 131) may be a pow erful w ay o f im p ro v in g reading

ab ility, vocabulary and gram m atical competence T hey further emphasize that students may make better progress in reading comprehension and vocabulary developm ent through extensive reading than in traditional instructional reading i f they are encouraged to read whatever they want in self-selected reading

Therefore, encouraging students to be invo lve d in th e ir foreign language through extensive reading provides the p o ssib ility o f learning the language, m otivation, and this also reinforces points that they have learnt w ith o u t pressure Goodm an and B u rke (Cited in lie m e y，Readence and D isher，1985) agree on extensive reading stating that the readers are encouraged to make judgm ents in natural reading situations They also add that pleasure reading helps to develop th e ir awareness o f effective reading fro m easy to d iffic u lt material Therefore, readers may become fa m ilia r w ith the unknow n words

Despite undeniable im portance, in her teaching, the researcher notices that teachers at N E U generally prefer and e m p lo y the traditional method in teaching reading T hey usually present

a subject in the textbook and ask students to read w hether sile n tly o r lo u d ly , and then studentshave to answer the questions that fo llo w In reading ESP lessons, the students pay less

attention to reading as they com plain that the reading classes are b oring，the texts are d iffic u lt and they do not lik e reading They are lik e ly to get bored and kn o w a little about the subject they are reading about It is the reason w hy teachers need som ething new and fresh to

im prove reading s k ill fo r the students Students should be taught how to read and teachers should motivate them in order to create life lo n g readers

English faculty in N E U has tw o departments, non- E nglish m ajor D epartm ent and Business English Departm ent (m a jo r English department) E nglish m ajor students at N E U are offered reading course in Strategic Reading B ook II (Richards and E ckstut-D ider, 2003) fo r one hour and a haft each week in 15 weeks and other extra m aterial fo r self-study (see appendix 7 fo r the course syllabus) Due to the lim ita tio n on tim e and the length o f the reading lessons in the course book，the students do not have enough tim e to do extra reading m aterials in the class

M oreover, the extra reading lessons given by the course syllabus are not suitable w ith the course book Students have to encounter quite a lo t o f problem s in learning reading A fte r the course, the students are assessed basing on a w ritte n test o f reading T h a t is the reason w h y the first year students often read and do the reading exercises passively, they lo o k up the new words, w rile d o w n every thing the teacher says The result is that after a semester, their reading skills seem to stay the same For a ll above reasons，the researcher wants to try something new in her teaching method by using extensive reading to im prove student’ s reading s k ill, especially reading speed, w ord retention and change the o ld a ll - reading - lessons • are - b oring attitude o f the student, m otivate them to he fast and s k illfu l readers.Thus，the current experim ent was carried out w ith the purpose o f in vestigatin g whether extensive reading im proved the students’ reading speed，w ord retention and change their attitude toward reading

1.2 A im a n d s ig n if ic a n c e o f t h e s tu d y

The researcher intends to investigate whether extensive reading im proves the firs t year English m ajor students’ reading speed, w ord retention and change th e ir attitude toward reading It is hypothesized that em plo yin g the extensive reading m aterials w o u ld sig n ifica n tly

im prove student’ s reading speed，w ord retention and make them have an o p tim is tic view on reading lessons in the class For the realization o f this objective, tw o groups o f participants

w ill be em ployed and put in the tw o fo llo w in g testing conditions:

• Experimental group w ill be instructed through em ploying the extensive reading materials delivered fo r hom ew ork and self-study at home as w e ll as teacher’ s suggestion on surfing on the internet fo r searching reading documents relating to the topic in the class.

• C ontrol group w ill be instructed in normal way w ith o u t extensive reading materials but the extra reading document prescribed in the course syllabus

The comparison o f mean scores made by subjects o f the two groups w ill provide evidence to

co n firm i f there are differences between two teaching strategies o f reading It is expected that the study w ould make the teachers as w e ll as students at N E U be more aware o f the important role o f extensive reading in teaching and learning reading The results o f the study probably suggest an e fficient w ay o f im proving students’ reading skill

1.3 R e s e a r c h q u e s tio n s a n d r e s e a r c h h y p o th e s e s

W ith a focus on reading s k ill im provem ent, especially reading speed, w ord retention and reading attitude, the current study is designed to examine the effects o f extensive reading by com paring two ways o f teaching: teaching reading s k ill w ith and w ith o u t extensive reading materials

Therefore, the study aim s at answering the fo llo w in g research questions:

L Can E R be a fa c to r to a ffe c t re a ding speed o f the f ir s t y e a r E n g lis h m a jo r students

in N E U ?

2 Can E R im p ro ve th e students9 w ord re te n tio n a fte r 15 weeks?

3 D o stu d e n ts，a ttitud es to w a rd re a d in g E n g lish change fo llo w in g a p e rio d o f

1.4 Scope of the study

The main focus o f the study is the role o f extensive reading in the reading teaching process to the firs t year English m ajor students (intermediate level) at N E U Research studies have pointed out the significance o f E R activities as an integral part o f the process The researcher decided to carry out the experimental application on 44 firs t year English m ajor students at

N E U in the second semester o f the 2008 ֊ 2009 academic year The study had a duration o f

15 weeks from early February to late M ay in 2009

1.5 O rg a n iz a tio n o f the thesis

T his thesis is d ivided into five chapters and appendices Chapter 1，In tro d u c tio n , states the

reason fo r the choice o f the research topic and some desirable targets (objectives) that the study aims at achieving It also states the research questions to be answered as w e ll as the research direction Chapter 2，L ite ra tu re Review, includes the theoretical background o f

reading s k ill; the d e fin itio n and benefits o f Extensive reading ; previous studies and summary It shows a gap in literature by review ing and analyzing the previous researches related to the same topics o f teaching reading in question Chapter 3，M ethodology’ explains

the research methods chosen fo r the study, w hich involves the fo u r basic components o f the experimental study: the subjects, variables, data collection instruments，and the research procedures Chapter 4, Results and D iscussion includes the presentation o f the findings

resulted from the investigation, analyses o f the data as w e ll as practical im plications and recommendations Chapter 5，C onclusion addresses the lim ita tio n o f the research before

g ivin g some practical im plications fo r both teachers and researchers o f reading s k ills fo r their further studies

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

Chapter 2, Literature Review, is composed o f four sub sections The firs t section deals w ith the theoretical background o f reading s k ill including the d e fin itio n o f reading s k ill, the purpose o f reading, types o f reading, and roles o f reading The second section outlines some aspects o f extensive reading such as benefits o f using extensive reading in the classroom and the benefits gained from using it fo r language learners and teachers The third section focuses

on the previous research on effects o f extensive reading on learners，reading speed and word retention The fourth section summarizes this chapter

2.1 • T h e o re tic a l b a c k g ro u n d o f rea d in g s k ill

2 / / D e fin itio n s o f re a d in g

Reading is often referred to as the most im portant o f the fo u r language skills fo r E F L learners (Gu, 2003), as it enables students to gain exposure to the target language and receive valuable linguistic input to build up language proficiency (Erten & Razi, 2003) In response to the question “ W hat is reading?” many people may say that they know what reading is but they cannot find the right words to define it M eanwhile, there are a lo t o f authors defining the term “ reading” in d iffe re n t ways due to d iffe re n t conceptions o f reading process, either reading as a passive and receptive process o r an active and interactive process

W alker (1988) defines reading as an active，problem solving process that involves predicting

01 guessing what ihe author says，based on expectations about story events He claim s that reading involves recalling an individual's life experience and tryin g to understand what is written He also states that reading is comprehending and also developing o f human learning;

in other w ords，reading is more than ju s t receiving meaning in a lite ra l sense

Anderson (1999，p 1) explains:

“ Reading is an active, fluent process w hich involves the reader and the reading material in b u ild in g meaning Meaning does not reside on the printed page; it combines the words on the printed page w ith the reader’ s background knowledge andexperiences.”

U r's d e fin itio n (1996，p 138) is “ reading means reading and understanding” Goodman (1987) describes reading as a psycholinguistic process in that it starts w ith a linguistic surface representation encoded by a w rite r and ends w ith meaning w hich the reader constructs According to Harmer (2001), reading is an exercise dominated by the eyes and the brain The eyes receive messages and the brain then has to w o rk out the significance o f these messages

!n all reading has been the most emphasized s k ill in traditional E F L teaching, and even reading today it is s till the mainstay o f EFL instruction based on com m unicative approach (Robb & Susser, 1989) C arell (1998) states that reading is an im portant means by w hich, not

o n ly is new inform ation learned，but also by w hich new language sk ills are required Reading involves a reader, a text, and a w riter Reading skills are developed in an active process This process involves the surface representation encoded by a w rite r and ends w ith interpretation

o f the w ritten text and interchanges between the w rite r and the reader The reader utilizes all resources to construct meaning So，teachers must vie w the text，in conjunction w ith students，

p rio r knowledge, student strategies, the task and the classroom situation as a whole to achieve comprehension

In short，reading is a com plex process that is affected by many factors, p articularly prior knowledge and as the d e fin itio n o f U r (1996, p 138) “ reading means reading and understanding，, The author supplies inform ation that the reader does not possess I f a reader

is to ta lly u n fa m ilia r w ith a text they w ill fa il to understand it Therefore, teacher must enrich students’ background knowledge p rio r to reading in order to achieve a better understanding

o f the text fo r their students

2.1.2 Purpose o f re a d in g

The purpose o f reading is either fo r pleasure o r fo r inform ation Greater emphasis is laid on this a c tiv ity as it serves several purposes It is necessary fo r social identification Gates presents evidence that in certain instances failure in reading may be a contrib u tin g cause o f

ju ve n ile delinquency as w e ll as various other kinds o f antisocial behaviors (Gates, 1933) It plays a vita l role in decision m aking In order to achieve awareness concerning the facts and solutions o f the nation and o f one’ s onus to contribute one’ s share, a citizen o f democracy ought to possess the competence o f reading It is essential fo r national integration and international understanding, too The students’ learning, w hich ought to be independent when their career is started, is done on ly through reading They are introduced to m anifold unknown matters, related to science, technology, history, philosophy etc T his acquired knowledge, w hich is stored in the m ind o f students in the form o f schema, w ill later be applied to fetch success to them

Scanning reading ra p id ly to fin d a specific piece o f inform ation

S k im m in g reading ra p id ly fo r the m ain points

Extensive

reading reading a longer text, often fo r pleasure w ith emphasis on overall meaning

Intensive

reading reading a short text fo r detailed inform ation

Table 1: F o u r fo rm s o f rea ding

Beside the above types o f reading，one article in the W o rld W ide W eb wiki.answers.com has classified reading into some other types o f reading, depending on the purpose fo r w hich thereaders are reading a text They are as fo llo w s：

The fist one is SQ3R - technique o f reading This technique o f reading was developed by Robinson in his book "E ffe ctive Study"(1970) SQ3R stands fo r the in itia l letters o f the five steps in studying a text: Survey s ’ Question Q, Read R, Recall R, and Review R “ Survey” means skim m ing through to gain an overview and not key points “ Question，，means devising questions the reader hopes the text w ill answer “ Read” means reading slo w ly and carefully

“ Recall，means recalling from m em ory，w ritin g down the m ain points made by the chapter

•‘Review，，means revisiting questions, com paring these to the recall and establishing how w ell the text has answered them; fillin g in any gaps by further reading and note-taking

The second is lig h t type o f reading It is the w ay to read fo r leisure w hich tends to be lig h t’ This type o f reading means to read at a pace w hich feels com fortable, to skim the boring, irrelevant passages An average lig h t reading speed is 100-200 words per minute T his form

o f reading does not generally require detailed concentration

ᄂasily w ord by word type reading is time consuming and demands a high level o f concentration Some material is not readily understood and so requires a slow and careful analytical read People use this type o f reading fo r u n fa m ilia r words and concepts, scientific formulae It can take up to an hour ju s t to read a few lines o f text.

2.1.4 R ole o f reading

Reading plays an inevitably im portant role in comprehending a text and using the foreign language appropriately and fluently Language teachers, who give importance to reading in their schedule，always keep in their m ind the question o f "W h y should teachers want theirstudenls to read in a foreign language?”

W illia m s (1984) suggests some answers to this question Firstly, learners can have further practice in the language that they have learnt Secondly, learners can practice language in order io reuse it in other skills such as speaking and w ritin g T h ird ly ，learners can learn how

to get benefit fro m the texts to extract the inform ation they need Fourthly, learners can find enjoym ent o r interest through reading

Researchers consider that Suggestions 1 and 2 are the most im portant purposes in reading as they are the ways to encourage the learners to be involved in the language Alexander (cited

in W illia m s, 1984, p 14) also supports this idea presenting the fo llo w in g order:

N othing should be spoken before it has been heard N othing should be read before it has been spoken N othing should be w ritten before it has been read

It may be concluded from the order mentioned above that in order to teach a language to learners，a ll the language skills are important

Researchers believe the third and fourth suggestions are also im portant as the focus is on reading fo r a purpose rather than reading fo r practice Reading fo r inform ation and reading

fo r pleasure o r interest can be d iffic u lt to understand because o f u n fa m ilia rity o f the language

in a chosen text T his can be achieved by choosing the texts according to the tastes o f individuals in the classroom Therefore, teachers should try to arouse the m otivation o f the learner by choosing interesting texts to give purpose to the reading T m s also helps learners to read fo r purpose outside the classroom Therefore，the emphasis o f extracurricular reading is

on "grow th" on the part o f the learner rather than on the pari o f the teacher

In order to arouse m otivation in the learner's development, the fo llo w in g model may be

learner achievement results in development in

strategies fo rusing system

language(speaking/listening/

2.1.5 R eading a ttitu d e

Reading attitude is a com plex theoretical construct It is defined in various ways，fo r example, "a system o f feelings related to reading w hich causes the learner to approach or avoid a reading situation" (Alexander and F ille r, 1976, p l) o r "a state o f m ind, accompanied

by feelings and emotions that make reading more o r less probable" (Sm ith, 1990，P.215)

A ccording to an extensive and in-depth review o f literature by Reeves (2002)，there is considerable agreement among contemporary researchers that reading attitude is defined by three components: cognitive (personal, evaluative beliefs), affective (feelings and emotions), and conative (aclion readiness and behavioral intentions) T his tri-com ponent view is most

e x p lic itly stated by Mathewson (1994), and these components can also be identified in other

m ajor models dealing w ith reading attitude，such as those o f M cKenna (1994) and Ruddell and Unrau (1994) Attem pts to understand students' reactions to reading by using this tr i­component model have now been reported (e.g.，M izokaw a and Hansen-Krening, 2000).The present study focuses on tw o o f the three components o f reading attitude: cognitive and affective- The reason fo r not including the conative component is due to the d iffic u lty o f operationalising it in the context in w hich the study was conducted The conative component pertains to actions and behaviors w hich may promote o r hinder reading For example, "going

to a lib ra ry frequently", w hich is one o f the possible statements representing the conative component, w ould not represent the second language com ponent，because not a ll libraries have English books，o r even i f some do，the collection is lik e ly to be relatively sm all As mentioned above，the present study intends to investigate reading attitudes，and fo r this purpose, it attempts to construct an instrument that measures reading attitudes in a sim ilar

manner Due to this constraint, the study focuses on cognitive and affective components, tw o

o f the components that are regarded as constituting reading attitude

2.2 Extensive re a d in g

2.2 /• D e fin itio n s o f Extensive reading

According to H ill (2006) from the Edinburgh Project on Extensive Reading, the concept is defined as reading in quantity w ith the purpose o f learning the language and o f acquiring fluency fo r extensive w ritin g He makes the difference between lib ra ry extensive reading, which is based on the quantity o f books that students read, and class reading related to the quality o f the reading experience and, as mentioned earlier, w ith the possibility that learners can interact w ith texts and over the content o f the book w ith the teacher o r among themselves T his class reading can be conducted in lockstep o r by in d ivid u a l students, each reading different books and at different paces

Bami'ord and Day (2004) explain extensive reading as a set o f ten principles The firs t one is that texts should be o f easy access to students Ideally, there should be a very few number o f

u n fa m ilia r w o rd s to learn ers It is su g g e ste d th at there sh o u ld b e n o m o re th a n o n e o r tw o for beginners and fo u r o r fiv e fo r intermediate students per page Secondly, teachers should present students w ith a variety o f reading materials; that is, different topics and genres fo r them to read fo r different purposes (i.e fo r pleasure o r fo r in form ation, to m ention but a few) Likewise, educators should provide learners w ith a variety o f a ctivities w hich develop in them abilities such as predicting，skim m ing, scanning，etc T h ird ly , students should be given the possibilitv o f selecting what they want to read and g ivin g their opinions Fourthly, readers should read as much as they can because in this resides the success o f the programme

F ifth ly , extensive reading promotes fluent reading Learners can also read fast because they are presented w ith easy texts Likew ise, they should be encouraged to guess the meaning o f unknown words from the context and not to use the dictionary because this lowers the pace o f their reading S ixthly, the purpose o f extensive reading is fo r pleasure，inform ation and overall understanding Learners are not expected to understand every single detail that texts present Seventhly, extensive reading should be silent and at the students’ pace E ig h th ly，

students are asked to complete fo llo w -u p tasks after reading B roadly speaking, these tasks are aimed at relating the reading experience w ith some other area o f the school curriculum and at integrating reading w ith listening, speaking and/or w ritin g N in th ly , the teacher’ s role

is that o f a fa cilita to r o f students’ reading processes She guides and assesses learners* work

and helps them in getting Ihe most out o f the reading experience And fin a lly , teachers should

be good models o f readers by reading the same materials that students are reading and exchanging opinions about them w ith learners

As m cnlioned above, extensive reading can be conducted in d iffe re n t ways O ut o f them，school lib ra ry extensive reading appears to be the most d iffic u lt one fo r teachers to be engaged in as participants w ith learners In the school library context，educators are rather more obliged to supervise student w ork and control discipline Furthermore, students can do the reading in the lib ra ry but not at the same reading pace, w hich provokes that they cannot

be engaged as pairs/groups in further activities when their rhythm is d iffe re n t as there are individua l differences in a classroom

However, setting up a classroom lib ra ry fo r extensive reading purposes can be m otivating and enriching fo r learners They can bring their ow n materials fro m home and share them w ith

th e ir classmates and teacher during the year T his together w ith the p o ssib ility o f selecting themselves the materials that they want to read provide them w ith autonomy at classroom work As a strong believer in interactional processes o f learning, the researcher thinks that classroom extensive reading promotes interaction between reader and text and also between

o r among peers over the content o f the reading text T his interaction is not fu lly feasible in the school lib ra ry ; let alone at home where learners do not have the p o ssib ility o f ta lkin g over their reading experiences w ith classmates o r teachers C onlrastively, extensive reading as lockstep or in a classroom lib ra ry turns reading interactively in to a realistic possibility

2 2 2 Benefit o f extensive reading in language learning

B e ll ( 1998) identifies some benefits o f extensive reading as follow s:

The firs t one is that it can provide comprehensible input Krashen (1982) argues that extensive reading w ill lead to language acquisition, provided that certain preconditions are met These include adequate exposure to the language，interesting m aterial，and a relaxed, tension-free learning environment Elley and Manghubai (1983，p.55) warn that exposure to the second language is norm ally ” planned, restricted, gradual and largely a rtific ia l." The reading program provided in Yemen, and the choice o f graded readers in particular, was intended to o ffe r conditions in keeping w ith Krashen's model In this research, F ijia n school children were provided w ith high-interest storybooks，revealed sig n ifica n t post treatment gains in w ord recognition and reading comprehension after the firs t year, and w id e r gains in oral and w ritten skills after tw o years

The second is that it can enhance learners' general language competence Grabe (1991) and Paran ( 1996) have emphasized the importance o f extensive reading in p roviding learners with practice in autom aticity o f word recognition and decoding the symbols on the printed page (o iie n called bottom -up processing).

Next, it increases the students' exposure to the language The q u a lity o f exposure to language that learners receive is seen as im portant to their potential to acquire new form s from the input E lley view s provision o f large quantities o f reading m aterial to children as fundamental

to reducing the exposure gap' between L I learners and L 2 learners He reviews a number o f studies w ith children between six and twelve years o f age，in w hich subjects showed rapid grow th in language development compared w ith learners in regular language programs There was a "spread o f effect from reading competence to other language skills - w ritin g , speaking and control over syntax," (E lley, 1991, P.404)

The forth is that it can increase knowledge o f vocabulary Nagy & Herman (1987) claim ed that children between grades three and twelve (US grade levels) learn up to 3000 words a year It is thought that only a small percentage o f such learning is due to direct vocabulary instruction，the remainder being due to acquisition o f words fro m reading T his suggests that traditional approaches to the teaching o f vocabulary, in w hich the num ber o f new words taught in each class was ca re fu lly controlled (words often being presented in related sets), is much less effective in prom oting vocabulary grow th than sim ply getting students to spend time on silent reading o f interesting books

Then，it can lead to im provem ent in w ritin g Stotsky (1983) and Krashen (1984) reviewed a number o f L I studies that appear to show the positive effect o f reading on subjects' w ritin g skills, indicating that students w ho are p ro lific readers in th e ir pre-college years become better w riters when they enter college L 2 studies by H a fiz & T u d o r (1989) in the U K and Pakistan, and Robb & Susser (1989) in Japan，revealed more significant improvement in subjects' w ritte n w o rk than in other language skills These results again support the case fo r

an input-based, acquisition-oriented reading program based on extensive reading as an effective means o f fostering improvements in students w riting

The sixth benefit o f ER is that it can motivate learners to read Reading m aterial selected fo r extensive reading programs should address students' needs, tastes and interests, so as to energize and m otivate them to read the books In Yemen, this was achieved through the use

o f fa m ilia r m aterial and popular titles reflecting the local culture (e.g A la d d in and H is

Lamp) B ell & Campbell (1996，1997) explore the issue in a South East Asian context, presenting various ways to motivate learners to read and explaining the role o f extensive reading and regular use o f libraries in advancing the reading habit.

And it can consolidate previously learned language Extensive reading o f high-interest material fo r both children and adults offers the potential fo r reinforcing and recombining language learned in the classroom Graded readers have a controlled gram m atical and lexical load，and provide regular and sufficient repetition o f new language form s (W odinsky & Nation, 1988) Therefore, students autom atically receive the necessary reinforcement and recycling o f language required to ensure that new input is retained and made available fo r spoken and w ritten production

The eighth benefit is that it helps to build confidence with extended texts Much classroom reading w ork has tra d itio n a lly focused on the exploitation o f shorts texts, either fo r presenting lexical and grammatical points o r fo r providing students w ith lim ite d practice in various reading skills and strategies However, a large number o f students in the E F L/E S L w orld require reading fo r academic purposes, and therefore need training in study sk ills and strategies fo r reading longer texts and books Kembo (1993) points to the value o f extensive reading in developing students’ confidence and a b ility in facing these longer texts

M oreover, it encourages the exploitation o f textual redundancy Insights from cognitive psychology have inform ed the understanding o f the way the brain functions in reading It is now generally understood that slo w，w ord-by-w ord reading, w hich is common in classrooms, impedes comprehension by transferring an excess o f visual signals to the brain T his leads to overload because only a fraction o f these signals need to be processed fo r the reader to successfully interpret the message K alb (1986) refers to redundancy as an im portant means

o f processing, and to extensive reading as the means o f recognizing and dealing w ith redundant elements in texts

ER facilitates the development o f prediction skills One o f the currently accepted perspectives

on the reading process is that it involves the exploitation o f background knowledge Such knowledge is seen as p roviding a platform fo r readers to predict the content o f a text on the basis o f a pre-existing schema When students read, these schemas are activated and help the reader to decode and interpret the message beyond the printed words These processes presuppose that readers predict, sample，hypothesize and reorganize th e ir understanding o f the message as it unfolds w h ile reading (Nunan, 1991)

The last but not less, ER can improve the reading speed M any research studies show that

beside other roles，HR can im prove the learners’ reading speed B e ll (2001) proved that extensive reading could lead to significant improvements in learner's reading speeds

2.2.3 E xtensive re a d in g vs In te n sive reading

Exiensive reading develops at the student's own pace according to ind ivid u a l ability (http://taculty.ksu.edu.sa) It w ill be selected at a low er level o f d iffic u lty than that for intensive reading Where frequency word counts are available fo r the language being learned, extensive reading w ill conform to a low er frequency word count than intensive reading

M aterial w ill be selected whose choice o f structure is habitually less com plex and whose vocabulary range is less extensive The purpose o f extensive reading is to train the students

to read d ire ctly and flu e n tly in the target language fo r enjoym ent w ith o u t the aid o f the teacher Where graded texts are available，structures in texts fo r extensive reading w ill be already fa m ilia r, and new items o f vocabulary w ill be introduced slo w ly in such a way that their meaning can be deduced from context o r q u ic k ly ascertained The student w ill be encouraged to make intelligen t guesses at the meaning o f u n fa m ilia r items M aterial consists

o f authentic short stories and plays，o r inform ative o r controversial articles fro m newspapers and magazines A few adaptations o f vocabulary and structure w ill be made The style o f

w ritin g should entail a certain amount o f repetition w ith o u t m onotony Novelties o f vocabulary should not coincide w ith d iffic u ltie s o f structure It means reading in quantity and

in order to gain a general understanding o f what is read It is intended to develop good reading habits, to bu ild up knowledge o f vocabulary and structure and to encourage a lik in g

fo r reading, increase total comprehension, enable students to achieve independence in basic

s k ill development, acquaint the student w ith relevant socio-cultural material, and encourage recreational reading

In contrast，the prim ary goal o f intensive reading is to practice and learn the grammar and vocabulary o f the target language through reading T his type o f reading is called intensive reading because the learner is intensively involved in looking inside the text at the vocabulary and grammar, and is concentrating on a 'careful reading’ o f the text Intensive reading aims

to develop language knowledge rather than reading skill

According to Holden (2003)，there are ten features o f an intensive reading approach Firstly, the m aterial is usually selected by the teacher，not the students Secondly, a ll the learners read the same m aterial at the same tim e (usually in class) T h ird ly ，the text is quite short (often

ihese texts are no more than 300 words) Fourthly, there is a heavy emphasis on using the text

to learn vocabulary and grammar F ifth ly ，there are many d iffic u lt words (the aim is to teach Ihem) S ixthly, vocabulary is taught by translation Seventhly, there is a pre-reading task Eighthly, coni prehension is tested N in th ly , there are ‘ post-reading，grammar and vocabulary exercises F inally, students rarely meet new vocabulary again in later chapters

W ith this type o f approach, there is very little practice o f the s k ill o f reading because very little text is being read The learner w ill not be able to read q u ic k ly because many o f the

\v이ds are unknown The learner frequently stops reading to use a dictionary, ask fo r a definition , o r analyze the text w ord-by-w ord, due to the frequent occurrence o f unfam iliar lexis o r grammar The learner w ill not be able to read at her ow n level o f reading a b ility, because all the learners must read the same material The text may o r may not hold interest

fo r ihe learners because it was selected by the teacher There are few chances lo learn the patterns in English because there is ty p ic a lly very little text to read

Nevertheless, intensive reading does o ffe r the learner the opportunity to learn new vocabulary, practice grammar, and become more fa m ilia r w ith the topic o f the text，all o f

w hich are, o f course, necessary However，intensive reading alone is not sufficient; the learner needs practice to develop the skills used by fluent readers, w hich is more easily accomplished through extensive reading

2.2.4 E xtensive vs G raded R eading

Holden (2003) states that the terms extensive reading and graded reading are often confused Fundamentally, graded reading makes use o f specially prepared (eg “ graded” ) materials, whose prim ary features include a lim ite d set o f lexical items and sim p lifie d grammar and syntax Graded readers are therefore “ non-authentic” texts，aimed at language learners Publishers usually establish d iffe re n t levels fo r these readers according to the number o f headwords For example，a 1200 headword reader w ould be w ritten so that very few words fall outside the publisher’ s 1200 most frequently used w ord fam ilies

The goal o f graded reading is fo r students to read extensively enough that they are able to read progressively more challenging texts, and eventually able to approach authentic texts

w ith a reasonable degree o f fluency In theory，readers develop su fîicie n t fluency and other forms o f lin g u is tic knowledge at low er levels, w hich in turn enables them to read more

d iffic u lt graded readers, and later progress to authentic reading material

On the other hand, extensive reading can make use o f specially prepared materials, but does not necessarily do so Extensive reading requires a greater degree o f reading a b ility than does graded reading Extensive reading seeks to promote reading fluency and reading confidence The learner reads a large volume o f text w ith in his current reading a b ility to b u ild reading speed, reading confidence and fluency The focus is on general comprehension and on developing Ihe a b ility to read fluency Because the learner consistently reads large volume o f text, he regularly encounters high-frequency vocabulary, grammar and structure in a variety

o f contexts

Extensive pleasure reading has been demonstrated to lead to increased m otivation to read，

w hich in turn leads to further reading, N u tta ll (1982，P.42) calls ‘ the virtuous circle o f reading’ Both Extensive and Graded Reading w ill help students to develop vocabulary, process words faster and enable them to read intensively w ith greater fa c ility and accuracy They w ill also learn to learn by reading w hile developing and re fin in g their inference and deductive skills, w hich are necessary fo r comprehending the texts encountered elsewhere.Features o f an extensive reading approach，as proposed by Day and Bam ford (1998) are that: Students read as much as possible, in and out o f the classroom A variety o f materials on a wide range o f topics is available so as to encourage reading fo r d iffe re n t reasons and in different ways Students select what they want to read and have the freedom to stop reading material that fails to interest them The purposes o f reading are usually related to pleasure, inform ation and general understanding The purposes are determined b y the nature o f the material and the interests o f the student Reading is its ow n reward There are few o r no

fo llo w -u p exercises after reading Reading materials are w e ll w ith in the linguistic competence o f the students in terms o f vocabulary and grammar D ictionaries are rarely used

w hile reading because the constant stopping to look up words makes flu e n t reading d iffic u lt Reading is in d ivid u a l and silent, at the student's ow n pace, and, outside class, done when and where the student chooses Reading speed is usually faster rather than slow er as students read books and other material they fin d easily understandable Teachers orient students to the goals o f the program, explain the m ethodology, keep track o f w hat each student reads，and guide students in getting the m ost out o f the program The teacher is a role model o f a reader for the students, an active member o f the classroom reading com m unity，demonstrating what

it means to be a reader and the rewards o f being a reader

2.3 P revious research studies

Susser and Robb ( 1990) survey the literature on extensive reading and establish a working

de fin itio n o f extensive reading as a language teaching/learning procedure In this jo u rn a l，

ihey definite o f "extensive reading" as a language teaching/learning procedure is that it is reading o f large quantities o f m aterial o r long texts; fo r global o r general understanding; w ith the intention o f obtaining pleasure from the text Further, they give some reasons from other researchers that because reading is individualized，w ith students choosing the books they want to read, the books are not discussed in class

Besides, T ig n a n e lli’ s (2007) subjects are group o f 5th form students at a bilingua l institution

in the province o f Buenos A ires, Argentina She proved that E R is not on ly im portant and com pulsory in L I but also can be extended to L 2 and F L programmes since the teaching o f another language apart from the mother tongue is included as com pulsory in the curriculum ,

in her conclusion, she said that，educators w ill necessarily have to w o rk on ER more in these days when a w o rld in constant change w ill need，in the near future, students w ho can enlarge their knowledge o f the w orld through their native as w e ll as another language

M acaiister (2008) claim ed that the integration o f the reading reflected teacher and learner differences, and supported the b e lie f that the way in w hich extensive reading is included in a programme should be determined by the specific language learning environment

Renandya, Rajan, and Jacobs (1999) conducted a study on the im pact o f extensive reading (ER) on the language p roficiency o f a group o f Vietnamese government o ffic ia ls studying English They came to a conclusion that ER can indeed be b e neficia lly implemented w ith second language learners beyond the age o f university undergraduates

Concerning to reading speed，data-based evaluations o f reading speed courses were offered

by H ill (1981), and Richard (1982) H ill examined a course in rapid o r effective reading w ith advanced students at the U niversity o f Leuven in Belgium He showed that his advanced students could achieve an average increase in their reading speeds o f 57 percent over a three year period In terms o f the speed categories used in the course, an average student therefore progressed fro m the ’slow' band (200 words per minute) through to the ’m edium fast' category (314 wpm ) Some o f his subjects reached speeds o f 600 words per m inute o r better leading him to cla im that "students and others who read extensively fo r professional purposes should aim to cover routine m aterial at speeds between 300 and 600 words per m inute" ( H ill, 1981, p.271) Richard (1982)，w orking in Japan, compared the reading speeds o f students using

traditional paper exercises w ith those using a reading machine (projector)，and found that speeds in the latter group increased significantly more than in the form er (p < .05).

Comparisons o f courses using traditional speed reading methodologies w ith programs

em phasizing reading in quantity B ell (2001) examined extensive reading and intensive reading and compare their relative effectiveness in developing basic reading speed He noted that a number o f researchers have warned o f the possible negative consequences o f intensivereading on reading speeds

On extensive reading, however, W illia m s (1984) has argued fo r extensive reading as a way to develop adequate general reading speed, and H ill (1986) calls fo r the provision o f class sets

o f graded readers as a means to the same end

The next issue to be examined is the relationship between reading speed and reading comprehension W hile it is generally argued that the tw o are closely related, the precise nature o f the lin k between them has been the focus o f an on-going debate lasting more than

h a lf a century They may be com pletely independent，o r correlated, o r cause and effect What

is thought clear, however, is that a very slow reader is more lik e ly to read w ith little understanding, as his memory is taxed by the in a b ility to retain inform alion in sufficiently large chunks to progress through a text w ith adequate retention o f the content in the message Before he reaches the end o f a page, o r even o f a sentence, he has forgotten the beginning Lopez ( 1993) makes the useful d istinction between 'tim ed readings', in w hich learners read at their own pace and then calculate their speeds in words per m inute，and 'paced readings' where the teacher controls the tim e allow ed and taps on the desk to indicate times when a certain marked place in the text should be reached In her study, carried out in Venezuela，she found that students increased their reading speeds on average fro m 120 to 170 words per minute (a 50 percent increase)，after fo llo w in g a course based on a com bination o f timed and paced readings However, she also noted a slight drop in comprehension over the same period, fro m 78 percent to 67 percent T his reminds the teachers o f the danger，o f developing reading speed at the expense o f comprehension Coady's advice (1979，p 12) on this point appears salutary " comprehension is achieved by reading neither too fast nor too slow".Numerous studies have measured reading comprehension, as these reviews indicate, but few

o f them have compared extensive reading w ith other classroom approaches to reading As already indicated, few studies have actually related classroom reading m ethodology to the variables o f reading speed and comprehension One such study was Robb & Susser (1989)

They compared extensive reading w ith a 'skills-b u ild in g ' approach and found that subjects in the form er group made significantly greater gains in reading speeds and on some o f their measures o f reading comprehension Measurements made on getting the m ain idea and making inferences did not, however，reach significant levels B oth this study，and those reviewed above seem to suggest that gains in reading speed may be easier to accomplish than advances in reading comprehension, and therefore that the form er objective should not be prioritized at the expense o f the latter, i f teachers wish to serve the interests o f ESLÆ FL learners in reading development and improvement.

A ll the studies prove that ER is good fo r students, like Krashen (1993, P.23) states after review ing hundreds o f research studies in both firs t and second language learning contexts:Reading is good fo r you The research supports a stronger conclusion, however Reading is the only way, the only way we become good readers, develop a good

w ritin g style, an adequate vocabulary, advanced grammar，and the o n ly way we

become good spellers

2.4 S u m m a r y

There are a lot o f definition s concerning reading in general and extensive reading in particular but it can be summarized w ith some main points F irstly, reading is often referred

to as (he most im portant o f the fo u r language skills fo r E F L learners T ra d itio n a lly ，the types

o f reading are divided into scanning，skim m ing, extensive reading and intensive reading

S e c o n d l y , B a m f o r d a n d D a y ( 2 0 0 4 ) e x p l a i n e x t e n s i v e r e a d i n g a s a s e t o f t e n p r i n c i p l e s

T h ird ly ，extensive reading can be conducted in different ways

Bell (1998) provides several role o f extensive reading in language learning such as ER can provide comprehensible input, enhance learners’ general language competence，increase the students’ exposure to the language，and increase knowledge o f vocabulary It can lead to improvement in w ritin g , m otivate learners to read, consolidate previously learned language, help to b u ild confidence w ith extended texts，encourage the exploitation o f textual redundancy, facilitates the development o f prediction skills A n d the researcher also knows that w ith regard to the practical use at N E U , i t can bring more effectiveness to the students The researcher wants to show that it is possible to introduce and im plem ent ER at N E U to help students to feel more confident w ith their English abilities M aybe, the students w ill feel more confident w ith their reading speed，w ord retention after the course, and extensive reading w ill promote a positive attitude toward reading and at least, th e ir m otivation fo r choosing an English book fo r themselves

C H A P T E R 3: M E T H O D O L O G Y

T his chapter discusses a ll aspects related to the design and execution o f the main study It starts by presenting the research question and operations o f the relevant concepts It also describes in detail research design, participants, treatments (reading activities) and tests

R e lia b ility and v a lid ity issues are also studied in this chapter

3.1 Research questions and hypothesis restated

As mentioned in section 1.2, the aim o f the study is to explore extensive reading activities utilized by experimental students Thus, the study emphasizes to seek the answer to the

fo llo w in g research questions:

/ Can ER be a factor to affect reading speed o f the first year English major students in

N E V ?

2 Can E R im prove the stu d e n ts' w o rd re te n tio n a fte r 15 weeks?

3 D o students ’ a ttitu d e s to w a rd re a d in g E n g lish change fo llo w in g a p e rio d o f a p p lyin g

E R ?

In this study Hypotheses can be seen as:

N u ll hypothesis: Extensive reading w ould not sig n ifica n tly im prove reading s k ill o f the firstyear English m ajor students

Alternative hypothesis: Extensive reading would significantly improve reading skill of students

3.2 E x p e rim e n ta l research

The present study is concerned its e lf w ith the process and the relationship between the process (ER) and the product (acquisition) and is predom inantly cognitive in nature It investigates language learning w ith in a fram ework o rig in a lly developed by Jenkins (1979) and adapted and expanded by H u ls tijin (1989) T his fram ew ork comprises fiv e factors:

Factors Notes

Processing model The way in w hich the linguistic input is

processed by the learner

Target structures Linguistic characteristics o f the w ritin g

features to be learned

N um ber and frequency W ith w hich the target structures appear in the

input

C o m p a tib ility Between learning and retention tasks

Table 2 : F ive fa c to rs o f language le a rn in g fra m e w o rk

In this research, target structures w ill be considered as ideas and vocabulary w hich students can use d uring the w orks o f discussion they have in the class’ s lessons and in the post-test Discussion in classes are tools to inspire students themselves to learning reading s k ill, and help them avoid being bored and d iffic u lt w ith reading lessons they have lo consume

3.3 V a ria b le s

3.3.1 Indepe n de nt variables

The independent variables o f the study are extensive reading activities In the control group, the students learn reading w ith traditional activities supplied b y th e ir teacher as the syllabus Meanwhile, in the experimental group，extensive reading activities are given to students These independent variables are called the treatment, and it is presumed to be the cause o f changes in the values o f the dependent variables The independent variables are chosen to teach in the experim ent because o f th e ir advantages being presented in section 2.2.2 These extensive reading activities are (1) Extensive reading documents delivered as hom ework; (2) students use internet to search inform ation, reading documents relating to the topics in the class; and (3) Discussion in class

3.3.2 D ependent variable

As stated above, the aim the study is to examine the effects o f extensive reading on students' reading speed and w ord retention and reading attitude Therefore, the dependent variable is

the students* reading speed, w ord retention and reading attitude The students’ reading speed, word retention and reading attitude were reflected in the test results.

In order to analyze the data conveniently，the subjects participating in this study were coded

As the results, the students o f the control group were coded from C G I to CG22 and all participants in the experimental group had code numbers from EG1 to EG22

These students according to the researcher are the most appropriate subjects fo r this study because o f fo llo w in g reasons First, this is an English m ajor course at N ational Economics

U niversity Therefore, it receives lots o f attention and care from the board o f directors as w ell

as teachers There are iw o classes participating in this study，but not a ll the students in each class were selected They were selected random ly Second，the students are the same age and have the same long duration o f learning English, details as follow s:

3.5.1 Designing pre-test and post-test

The instruments used to collect the data in the research are tests: pre-test and post-test In Older to ensure the re lia b ility o f the pre- and post-test o f the study，the researcher administers

a tesl-retest Test-retest methods lo o k at the s ta b ility o f test scores over tim e by g iv in g the same test to the same people after a reasonable tim e interval These methods try to separate out the amount o f error in a score related to the passing o f tim e (“ Psychom etry R e lia b ility，2009) Test-retest is also suitable fo r an ESP p ro ficie n cy test because an ESP program concentrates more on language in context than on teaching gram m ar and language structures,

it m ight emphasize the development o f reading s k ills in students w ith various d iffic u lt and easy contents w ithout new gram m ar and structures Thus, pre-test is retested as post-test after treatment condition and post-test scores w ill not able to be affected b y test-retest because after a fifteen-w eek interval, the students may forget pre-test’ s content Test was used to collect data about the students' reading speed and w ord retention Therefore the tim e fo r each section that used to measure the reading speed o f the students is rather short Besides，after pre-tesl, researcher d id not correct the test so when the students d id it again they were not able to remember what they had done，what was correct, w hat was wrong

Although in d ivid u a l data is not interpretable，aggregated group data is I f the researcher suspects that taking the pre-test m ay e ffe ct how w e ll one does on the post-test and has a lim ited num ber o f participants，it is a good way to chose counterbalancing the measures.The test-retest was designed fo r the firs t year business E nglish m ajor students at N E U The author d id not design the test herself The pre-test is designed based on the speed reading online test from the W o rld W ide W eb speedreaderxreview.com and basic-leam ing.com The researcher had changed and m o d ifie d the test and also changed the requirem ents o f the test, formatted it in order to be suitable w ith the students participated in the study In a ddition , test was given to a group o f teachers w ith m any years experience in teaching business English

w ith M A degree and tw o o f them w ith higher D ip lo m a in E nglish teaching methods They all tried to do the test previously and then they supported th e ir ideas and suggested some changes in the tests to be able to investigate the differences The researcher got a ll the feedback and m odified them accordingly

The test measures reading speed o f students based on tw o sections Each test lakes 60 minutes to complete The firs t one requires students to read a short text in 20 second and circle the reading speed they have (see A ppend ix 3) The second one requires the student to read a longer text care fu lly, a fte r that; students do a com prehension task to check the accuracy o f th e ir speed T o measure the reading speed o f the students in the second and th ird sections, the researcher uses the countdow n clock to help students w rite d o w n the tim e they use to fin ish the reading task In the pretest, there is a lis t o f 434 vocabularies taken fro m their

course book arranged in the order from unit 1 to unit 14 The students have to w rite down the meaning o f these words in Vietnamese A fte r conducting pre-test, the researcher applies ER

to the experimental group and traditional teaching to control group u n til the end o f semester (in 15 weeks) The post test fo r students is the same as the pretest There is only one difference in the vocabulary list that the researcher randomizes all the words to make them presented in a d iffe re n t order

Test-retest w ith total 100 points consists o f 3 sections w ith in 60 minutes (Appendices 3) as

Section 1 (20 points) requires student to read a short text in 20 seconds The text has 20 lines equivalent to 20 stages o f time When the time is up，w hich line the students stop at is the reading speed that they reach

Section 2 (20 points) consists o f one reading passage w ith 10 comprehension questions The students have to w rite down the tim e they start to read and the time they fin ish reading on the paper T his lets the teacher to measure the time they use to read this reading passage This reading comprehension test was designed such that it should not be d iffic u lt to check that the students had already read the required text

Section 3 (60 points) is to test the word retention o f the students T his section has 434 new words that taken from the course book It requires the students to w rite dow n the meaning o f those English words in Vietnamese However，w ith the post test，the researcher randomizes the vocabulary list, that can test the students' word retention more precisely

The pre-test (A ppend ix 3) was given to the students in the firs t week o f the course The post­test (A ppendix 3) was administered to the students at week 15 after the pre-test and treatment.The results o f the post-test were computed and compared w ith the results o f the pre-test toassess the effects o f ER activities on the students’ reading speed and w ord retention

The researcher found it suitable when using the test from the W o rld W ide W eb to evaluate the a b ility o f students The content o f test has reflected the students’ reading speed precisely and also can ensure the v a lid ity o f both tw o tests fo r measuring the im provem ent o f students，

and it is more realizable to compare between tw o groups and w ith in one group before and after treatments

Beside conducting the pre-test and post-test on both groups, the questionnaires w ill be distributed to both experimental and control groups to fin d out attitudes toward reading The result can be used to support the questionnaire data as w ell as exploring students1 attitude, expectations in learning reading, how it change after 15 weeks applying ER.

T w o questionnaires (Questionnaire 1 and Questionnaire 2) were conducted among 44 students o f both experimental and control groups before and after the course o f teaching ER The tw o questionnaires are adopted from Yamashita’ s (2004) questionnaires Questionnaire

I includes eight statements that require students to state their own attitude from S D - Strongly Disagree, D -D isagree，U-U ndecided, A -A g re e ， to S A -S tro n g ly agree The purpose o f this questionnaire is to collect the cognitive reaction o f the students before the course Therefore, this can show the in itia l b e lie f o f the students about reading before the researcher applies ER A ll the statements in this questionnaire are starting w ith the block o f word 44I th in k” The statement number 1，4 ，and 7 ask fo r the students reading a b ility The entire statements concern w ith the advantages o f reading in English Questionnaire 2 has seven statements and also requires students to state their ow n attitude from SD—Strongly Disagree, D -D isagree, U -U ndecided, A -A gree, to S A -S tro n g iy agree T his questionnaire intends to collect the affective reaction o f the student after the course, it finds out not only the b e lie f o r personal idea o f the student but also the feelings and em otion o f them about reading after taking an ER course These statements can help the researcher collect the attitude o f the students and fin d out the changes in the students attitude after the E R course That data after being analyzed quantitatively and qualitative ly w ill be discussed to make the finding more convincing

3.6 D e s c rip tio n o f d a ta analysis tools

To get data and result o f students after one experimental semester, SPSS is used to analyze data and fin d out that ER can help students to take interest into reading and make it better or not, under w hich they can improve their reading s k ill

T-tests are used fo r data analysis in this study A ccording to W ikip e d ia “ A t-test is any statistical hypothesis test in w hich the test statistic fo llo w s a Student's t distribution i f the null hypothesis is true, it is most com m only applied when the test statistic w o u ld fo llo w a normal distribution (a continuous probability distrib u tio n that describes data that cluster around a mean o r average) i f the value o f a scaling term in the test statistic were known W hen the

3.5.2 Q uestionnaires (see A ppendix 1 a n d 2)

scaling term is unknown and is replaced by an estimate based on the data, the test statistic (under certain conditions) fo llo w s a Student's t distribution.” In this kin d o f test，the null hypothesis is usually rejected and the alternative hypothesis is accepted i f the probability value - (p) value (w hich is a number obtained from the research results using Statistical Package fo r the Social Sciences (SPSS), produces the scores w hich is less than o r equal to the significance level 0.05 (p < 0.05) It means that i f (p) is less than o r equal to 5 percent and the results declared statistically significant at 0.05 o r 5 percent significance level On the conlrary i f (p) is greater than 0.05 the null hypothesis is not rejected and the results are declared to be statistically non-significant The reason to choose SPSS is that it is among the most w idely used programs fo r statistical analysis in social science It is used by market researchers, health researchers, survey companies， government, education researchers,

m arketing organizations and others By this m odel，it is easy to compare not on ly the over all results among two groups o r w ith in one group, but also each pair o f criteria in m arking to

w rite out specific relationship between subjects

T w o types o f t-test (independent group and paired samples) were used to analyze the collected data, basing on the assumption that the data met the rule o f norm al distribution

F irst，the results o f the pre-test were compared between tw o groups to check their w ritin g paper q uality Independent group t-test was conducted fo r this purpose Second，the results o f pre and posi test were compared w ith in each group，using paired samples tests, to determine how (he leaching nielhod (either using Extensive reading o r not) affected students*

im provem ent T h ird ，the post tests results were analyzed，using independent groups to compare reading s k ill im provem ent between tw o groups after the experiment Finally, questionnaire was conducted to fin d out students’ attitudes toward reading and how these attitudes changed after the course

Through data analysis，it came to the answers o f the questions on the effectiveness o f extensive reading on firs t year students，reading s k ill im provem ent especially reading speed，

word retention at NEU

The data was collected by the researcher during fifteen weeks from February to M ay 2009 The data collection procedure could be described as fo llo w s The reading pre-test was designed (A ppendix 3) to test the students in week 1 before the experiment was carried out Then, their papers were collected, marked and calculated the mean scores to the students The pre-test results were shown in Appendix 5 Beside taking the pre-test, students were delivered

a questionnaire (Questionnaire 1，see appendix 1) w hich was used to co llect the students’

co g n itive reaction B y this w ay，the teacher can have the attitude o f the students toward reading at the beginning o f the course

Fourteen reading lessons were taught in 14 weeks The tim e allow ed fo r the whole reading lesson is 90- m inute -class hours, including 10-15 minutes fo r extensive reading activities The I'ourieen reading lessons (see appendix 7 fo r the course syllabus and appendix 8 fo r the main ER activities) in the textbook “ Strategic Reading 2” w hich is currently used fo r the firs t year business English m ajor students prescribed by the English Faculty at N E U were taught

to tw o groups during experiment

T ra d itio n a l w ay was planned fo r teaching the control group In the traditional way, the researcher taught the control group the reading lessons in the traditional way w hich was illustrated in the teacher's book The traditional way was presenting the topic o f the questions，

asking students who belong to the control group to read sile n tly and sometimes loudly, and then asking students to answer the questions that fo llo w each reading comprehension lesson

in the textbook Next, students were asked to do the exercises in the w orkbook A t home，the students d id the hom ework as stated in the syllabus and read some stories as required

The experim ental group was taught the sample lesson plan They s till had to fu lf ill the reading requirements from the course book, however，in the last 10 o r 15 minutes o f each lesson，the teacher delivered to the students some reading documents that relate to the next lopic they w ill learn in the next lesson and instructed them to search inform ation and reading documents also related to this topic on the internet or fro m books to read at home Besides, the teacher let the students feel free to discuss about the things they read at home w ith friends and shared th e ir ideas，new words, new inform ation and knowledge a ll around the topic they had learnt (See appendix 8 fo r the schedule o f the ER activities o f EG) The teacher could observe the improvement o f the students o f the enrichment o f the vocabulary，their word retention and reading speed through this a ctivity For exam ple，in the seventh week, the teacher delivered an ER document to the students about the to p ic com m unication，and instructed students to search fo r inform ation from the internet about this topic In the eighth

week, they learned about com m unication on their reading lesson A fte r fin ish in g the required tasks as other class from the syllabus, in the last 15 minutes, the teacher let students to discuss about the things they read at home and shared their ideas w ith friends D uring the lesson, the teacher could observe the students’ reading speed, their use o f new words and Iheir eager in reading in English.

D etail o f one sample lesson plan was shown in Appendix 9

The two groups were given the post-test (Appendix 3) to measure the effects o f using the two teaching reading strategies to calculate the tw o groups achievement scores and mean scores

in week 15, the last week o f the experiment The data collected fro m the post-test was statistically analyzed to find any differences between the C ontrol and Experimental Groups

T o do this, an independent samples t-test was run using the Statistical Package fo r Social Sciences (SPSS version 16) The students were also delivered the Questionnaire 2, so that the teacher could collect the students’ attitudes in the end o f the course

C H A P T E R 4 : R E S U L T S A N D D IS C U S S IO NThe aim o f this chapter is to report the results o f the study and to present some discussion o f the m ajor findings The results w hich have been collected fro m the research，the pre-test, post-test and questionnaires w ill be presented and analyzed in this chapter The answers fo r the research questions o f the experimental study w ill be revealed through evaluation o f applied a ctivities，the result o f pre-test between groups, the result o f post-test between groups, the result o f pre-test, post-test w ith in groups，discussion o f the test results and a summary.

4.1 Results o f the re a d in g tests (See Appendix 5 fo r a ll sections and overall scores o f tests)

լ 11 this section, the results o f pre-test and post-test o f each group were analyzed and compared

by using paired-sample t-test in order to determine whether there was any im provem ent in reading comprehension in each group after experiment

4.1 Ì Test re s u lt o f the c o n tro l gro up

Table 4 and Figure I present the results o f pre- and post-test o f C ontrol Group

Figure I: Pre- and Post-test Results o f the Control Group

As can be seen in Table 4 and Figure 1, the overall results o f the pre- and post-test implied that there was little im provem ent in reading s k ill im provem ent o f the control group But the finding was backed up by the specific data, w hich was shown in Figure 1 indicates that in spite o f the little im provem ent in reading s k ill o f control group between the pretest and post test w ith the means o f 38.18 and 41.13，respectively W ith each section, there was not significant difference o f the pre- and post-test results (p = 0.28 fo r section 1 and p = 0.193 fo r section 2，and p= 0.248 fo r section 3), all the sections had the p value w hich is higher than 0.05 It can be seen that, after the course，the control group had some im provem ent in reading speed and w ord retention; however, it is not enough to prove that the method o f teaching reading fo r this group took effect after 15 weeks

By com paring results o f before and after the reading course w ith paired sample t-test, it is easily to see the relationship between not on ly the total results but also score o f each section Therefore，it comes to the conclusion that the difference between pre-test and post-test results was not statistically significant

4.1.2 Test resu lt o f th e ex p erim en ta l group

In this part, the results o f pre- and post-test o f the experimental group were analyzed and compared to see whether there was any the links between ER and reading s k ill performance improvement fo r firs t year students in N E U The results o f pre-test and post-test o f theexperimental group are described Table 5 and Figure 2

Table 5: Pre- and Post-test Results o f the Experimental Group

Figure 2: Pre- and Post-test Results o f the Experimental Group