Top Ten Principles for Teaching Extensive Reading1
Richard Day
University of Hawai`i at Manoa
and
Julian Bamford
Bunkyo University
Abstract
This article puts forward ten principles for an extensive reading approach to teaching reading. They deal with the nature of extensive reading and the conditions and methodology necessary for its success. In the interests of professional development, the authors encourage teachers to use the principles as a tool to examine their beliefs about reading in general and extensive reading in particular, and the ways they teach reading.
keywords: extensive reading, principles, teaching reading, professional development, teacher beliefs
In an article published in 1986, Ray Williams discussed his top ten principles for teaching foreign language reading. He used his top ten to begin his reading seminars by asking participants to evaluate them and add new ones. His purpose, Williams wrote, was to get teachers to examine their own beliefs. The article had its desired impact on us. Now, years later, they remain as stimulating as when we first read them. Consider, for example, his first two principles:
In the absence of interesting texts, very little is possible.
The primary activity of a reading lesson should be learners reading texts--not listening to the teacher, not reading comprehension questions, not writing answers to comprehension questions, not discussing the content of the text (1986: 42).
Another that still rings clearly is Williams' fifth:
Teachers must learn to be quiet: all too often, teachers interfere with and so impede their learners' reading development by being too dominant and by talking too much (p. 44).
Williams' top ten principles relate primarily to one approach to the teaching of reading, viz., intensive reading. We would like to extend the discussion to extensive reading. Extensive reading, apart from its impact on language and reading ability, can be a key to unlocking the all-important taste for foreign language reading among students. After all, teaching reading to students without such a taste is, as Eskey (1995), nicely phrased it, like teaching swimming strokes to people who hate the water.
In the same spirit as Williams, we offer our top ten principles for teaching extensive reading as a tool for professional development.2 These are what we believe are the basic ingredients of extensive reading. We encourage teachers to use them as a way to examine their beliefs about reading in general and extensive reading in particular, and the ways they teach foreign language reading. We posit these ten principles in the hopes that others will consider them and react to them.
1. The reading material is easy.
This clearly separates extensive reading from other approaches to teaching foreign language reading. For extensive reading to be possible and for it to have the desired results, texts must be well within the learners' reading competence in the foreign language. In helping beginning readers select texts that are well within their reading comfort zone, more than one or two unknown words per page might make the text too difficult for overall understanding. Intermediate learners might use the rule of hand -- no more than five difficult words per page. Hu and Nation (2000) suggest that learners must know at least 98% of the words in a fiction text for unassisted understanding.
It follows that, for extensive reading, all but advanced learners probably require texts written or adapted with the linguistic and knowledge constraints of language learners in mind. In discussing first language reading development, Fry observes that "Beginning readers do better with easier materials" (1991: 8). This is all the more true with extensive reading because learners read independently, without the help of a teacher. Those teaching English are fortunate that the art of writing in English for language learners is well-developed: a great variety of high-quality language learner literature is published for learners of all ability levels (see Hill's best picks, 1998, and survey review, 2001).
The use of easy material is controversial. There is still a pervasive view that, to accustom students to real-world reading, real-world texts should be used for extensive reading. This is to confuse the means with the end, and paradoxically to rob students of exactly the material they need to progress to the goal of reading real-world texts. For students to be motivated to read more and study more, and to be able to ladder up as their foreign language and reading skills improve, they must be reading texts that reflect their language ability -- texts they find easy and enjoyable at every step of the way.
2. A variety of reading material on a wide range of topics must be available.
The success of extensive reading depends largely on enticing students to read. To awaken or encourage a desire to read, the texts made available should ideally be as varied as the learners who read them and the purposes for which they want to read. Books, magazines, newspapers, fiction, non-fiction, texts that inform, texts that entertain, general, specialized, light, serious. For an inside track on finding what your students are interested in reading, follow Williams' advice: "Ask them what they like reading in their own language, peer over their shoulders in the library, ask the school librarian..." (1986: 42).
Varied reading material not only encourages reading, it also encourages a flexible approach to reading. Learners are led to read for different reasons (e.g., entertainment; information; passing the time) and, consequently, in different ways (e.g., skimming; scanning; more careful reading).
3. Learners choose what they want to read.
The principle of freedom of choice means that learners can select texts as they do in their own language, that is, they can choose texts they expect to understand, to enjoy or to learn from. Correlative to this principle, learners are also free, indeed encouraged, to stop reading anything they find to be too difficult, or that turns out not to be of interest.
What Henry noticed about her L1 non-reading undergraduates is no less true in foreign language reading: "my students needed to read for themselves, not for me" (1995: 6). For students used to working with textbooks and teacher-selected texts, the freedom to choose reading material (and freedom to stop reading) may be a crucial step in experiencing foreign language reading as something personal.
Further, although there may be a class or homework assignment, extensive reading puts the student in charge in other important ways. As Henry observes, "compliance means reading books, but other than that, the purposes and pleasures to which students put their reading are entirely their own" (p. 69). This encourages students to become responsible for their own learning. Samuels, in discussing first language reading, claims that "unless we phase out the teacher and phase in the learner, many of our students will fail to become independent because throughout their education they were always placed in a dependent role -- dependent on the teacher" (1991: 17).
4. Learners read as much as possible.
This is the "extensive" of extensive reading, made possible by the previous principles. The most critical element in learning to read is the amount of time spent actually reading. While most reading teachers agree with this, it may be the case that their students are not being given the opportunity or incentive to read, read, and read some more.
There is no upper limit to the amount of reading that can be done, but a book a week is probably the minimum amount of reading necessary to achieve the benefits of extensive reading and to establish a reading habit. This is a realistic target for learners of all proficiency levels, as books written for beginners and low-intermediate learners are very short.
5. The purpose of reading is usually related to pleasure, information and general understanding.
In an extensive reading approach, learners are encouraged to read for the same kinds of reasons and in the same ways as the general population of first-language readers. This sets extensive reading apart from usual classroom practice on the one hand, and reading for academic purposes on the other. One hundred percent comprehension, indeed, any particular objective level of comprehension, is not a goal. In terms of reading outcomes, the focus shifts away from comprehension achieved or knowledge gained and towards the reader's personal experience.
A reader's interaction with a text derives from the purpose for reading. In extensive reading, the learner's goal is sufficient understanding to fulfill a particular reading purpose, for example, the obtaining of information, the enjoyment of a story, or the passing of time.
6. Reading is its own reward.
The learners' experience of reading the text is at the center of the extensive reading experience, just as it is in reading in everyday life. For this reason, extensive reading is not usually followed by comprehension questions. It is an experience complete in itself.
At the same time, teachers may ask students to complete follow-up activities based on their reading (see Bamford and Day (in press) for a wide variety of extensive reading activities for teaching foreign language). The reasons for this are various: to find out what the student understood and experienced from the reading; to monitor students' attitudes toward reading; to keep track of what and how much students read; to make reading a shared experience; to link reading to other aspects of the curriculum. For such reasons, students may be asked to do such things as write about their favorite characters, write about the best or worst book they have read, or do a dramatic reading of an exciting part of a novel. Such activities, while respecting the integrity of students' reading experiences, extend them in interesting and useful ways.
7. Reading speed is usually faster rather than slower.
When learners are reading material that is well within their linguistic ability, for personal interest, and for general rather than academic purposes, it is an incentive to reading fluency. Nuttall notes that "speed, enjoyment and comprehension are closely linked with one another" (1996: 128). She describes "The vicious circle of the weak reader: Reads slowly; Doesn't enjoy reading; Doesn't read much; Doesn't understand; Reads slowly. . ." (p. 127) and so on. Extensive reading can help readers "enter instead the cycle of growth. . . . The virtuous circle of the good reader: Reads faster; Reads more; Understands better; Enjoys reading; Reads faster. . ." (p. 127).
In the service of promoting reading fluency, it is as well to discourage students from using dictionaries when they come across words they don't understand. Extensive reading is a chance to keep reading, and thus to practice such strategies as guessing at or ignoring unknown words or passages, going for the general meaning, and being comfortable with a certain level of ambiguity.
8. Reading is individual and silent.
Silent, individual extensive reading contrasts with the way classroom texts are used as vehicles for teaching language or reading strategies or (in traditional approaches) translated or read aloud. It allows students to discover that reading is a personal interaction with the text, and an experience that they have responsibility for. Thus, together with freedom to choose reading material, individual silent reading can be instrumental in students discovering how foreign language reading fits into their lives.
Extensive reading means learners reading at their own pace. It can be done both in the students' own time when and where the student chooses, or inside the classroom when part or all of a classroom period is set aside for silent, self-selected reading. In the latter case, teachers may witness, as Henry describes it, "the most beautiful silence on earth, that of students engrossed in their reading" (1995: xv).
9. Teachers orient and guide their students.
As an approach to teaching reading, extensive reading is very different from usual classroom practice. Students accustomed to wading through difficult foreign language texts might drown when suddenly plunged into a sea of simple and stimulating material. Serious-minded students, for example, in thrall of the macho maxim of foreign language reading instruction, No reading pain, no reading gain, might not understand how reading easy and interesting material can help them become better readers.
Students thus need careful introduction to extensive reading. Teachers can explain that reading extensively leads not only to gains in reading proficiency but also to overall gains in language learning. The methodology of extensive reading can be introduced, beginning with choice: students choosing what to read is an essential part of the approach. Teachers can reassure students that a general, less than 100%, understanding of what they read is appropriate for most reading purposes. It can be emphasized that there will be no test after reading. Instead, teachers are interested in the student's own personal experience of what was read -- for example, was it enjoyable or interesting, and why?
The final component of orientation is practical. Students are introduced to the library of reading materials and how it is divided into difficulty levels. It should be remembered that students unaccustomed to browsing foreign language reading material may need assistance in selecting appropriate texts of interest to them.
Orientation is the first step. Guidance throughout the extensive reading experience is also needed, in light of the independence and choice extensive reading allows learners. Teachers can keep track of what and how much each student reads, and their students' reactions to what was read. Based on this information, teachers can encourage students to read as widely as possible and, as their language ability, reading ability and confidence increase, to read at progressively higher levels of difficulty. Guidance implies a sharing of the reading experience, which leads us to the final principle of extensive reading.
10. The teacher is a role model of a reader.
Nuttall famously said, "reading is caught, not taught" (1996: 229). Maley explains the implications of this for teachers when he says, "We need to realize how much influence we have on our students. Students do not just (or even) learn the subject matter we teach them; they learn their teachers. Teacher attitude, more than technical expertise, is what they will recall when they leave us" (1999:7). In short, effective extensive reading teachers are themselves readers, teaching by example the attitudes and behaviors of a reader. In Henry's words, teachers are "selling reading" (1995: 52), and the primary way to do that is to be a reader.
Further, in Henry's opinion, teachers of extensive reading "have to commit to reading what their students do" (1995: 52). She explains, "By reading what my students read, I become a part of the community that forms within the class" (p. 53). When students and teachers share reading, the foreign language reading classroom can be a place where teachers discuss books with students, answer their questions and make tailor-made recommendations to individual students. It can be a place where students and teachers experience together the value and pleasure to be found in the written word.
Conclusion
Our top ten principles for teaching extensive reading complement the ten principles for teaching foreign language reading offered by Williams. We hope that our ten principles will give teachers food for thought and reflection as they consider their beliefs about how best to help their students become proficient foreign-language readers.
Tampilkan postingan dengan label Extensive Reading. Tampilkan semua postingan
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Selasa, 15 Desember 2009
Graded and Extensive Reading
Graded and Extensive Reading
This paper will seek to clarify what is meant by Graded Reading. It will provide reasons for its importance in a language programme, will inform readers where reading materials can be located, and will provide some hints for the classroom. Responses to some common objections to Extensive Reading programs will also be provided.
What is Graded Reading?
Graded Reading is also known as Basal Reading or Simplified Reading. The rationale behind using graded materials is to allow the reader to read without difficulty. Graded Reading therefore involves the reading of material which has been made easy to read. The material can be graded (i.e., simplified) according to the use of high frequency vocabulary rather than vocabulary a native speaker might use; simplified phrasing or sentence structure; the use of illustrations; and so on.
What is the relationship between Graded Reading and Extensive Reading?
Extensive Reading is often called Graded Reading and vice versa, and the terms are often used interchangeably. There are, however, important differences between the two. First, Graded Reading uses specially prepared materials while Extensive Reading can, but need not do so. Second, Extensive Reading requires fluent reading while Graded materials can be used for extensive or intensive reading. Third, Extensive Reading sees pleasure as a goal leading to increased motivation. Graded Reading has a specific purpose: for readers to read enough material at one level to develop sufficient fluency and other forms of linguistic knowledge to enable them to move to a higher level. The ultimate goal of Graded Reading is to do so much of it that the learner can deal with native level texts fluently.
Why do Graded Reading?
There are several reasons. First, I shall discuss four linguistic benefits: building reading speed, lexical speed access, reading fluency, and the ability when reading to move from working with words to working with ideas (see Nation, this issue, for a more thorough account). A short review of reading theory is necessary here to explain the need for Graded Reading.
A learner beginning to read in a second language starts by looking at each letter of each word to decode the word, and keeps each word in working memory while the next word is processed. By the time she gets to the end of the line, the first word can easily be forgotten and very little meaning of the text is retained. As the reader reads more, she can decode words faster and remember earlier words more easily. She can therefore read more words within the limited space of her memory. This then allows the reader to move from the word by word level of decoding to the processing of chunks of text -- short phrases or "ideas."
The old lady took her dog to the park
A beginner reader will see each of the nine words separately and will read word by word. A more experienced and proficient reader will read the sentence as three ideas or propositions:
The old lady took her dog to the park
This is a vital stage in the learner's development because she is no longer working with words; she is working with ideas. At this level she can make more effective use of background information about the topic to fill in non-comprehended parts of the text. It is well known that we tend to remember ideas much better than actual words. For example, one is able to relate an article from this morning's paper in one's own words far more easily than trying to recall the exact words in which the article was written. In order to remember a text well, we therefore need to work with ideas, not words. This also explains why we understand more when we read faster.
There are psychological benefits too. Mason and Krashen (forthcoming) found that reluctant readers can become motivated readers. Extensive Reading tends to be a pleasurable activity which makes learning easier.
What happens if we don't do Graded Reading?
If a student is asked only to decode texts, through intensive study of them, then her eye is not receiving sufficient practice at moving smoothly over the page to learn to move up to the "ideas" level. She will remain bogged down in the decoding of the linguistic puzzle that is her text. How does one tell whether students are reading intensively or extensively? (See Bamford & Day, this issue, for a definition of these terms.) It's easy. Are they using a dictionary? Is the text they are reading covered with notes and translations? If the answer is "yes," then they are trying to decode the text and are reading intensively. Too much of this kind of work does not allow readers to develop fast and fluent eye movements that bounce along the text with each idea or proposition. Unfortunately, texts well above a learner's reading level are what most of our students only ever learn to read -- the kind of passages which appear on language tests.
But my students only want to pass their tests, so reading extensively will not help them, or can it?
Extensive and Graded Reading will help students to process words faster and they will be better able to read intensively. They will also learn to learn from reading. As students read they are constantly practising the "guessing from context" skill, so vital for work with the difficult texts that appear on tests.
What Graded Materials are available for my class and where can I obtain them?
A teacher can create her own materials for use in class, but this takes a lot of time. Many teachers find it useful to use published materials. The most well known graded or simplified materials available for the classroom are Graded Readers (also known as Basal Readers or Simplified Readers or just Readers). Some readers are written for complete or false beginners, and others for all levels up to advanced and beyond. Readers are short books between 15-130 pages, depending on the difficulty and the story, and are available in various genres. The stories are often modified versions of popular novels, or else are originals written for a particular audience. Others are biographies, travel books, and other non fiction works.
Most bookstores that sell English books stock dozens if not hundreds of readers. They are not children's books, but are written for adult language learners, with the specific aim of helping them to improve their reading skills. (See David Hill's review article in this issue.)
How do I know the "level" of a Graded Reader?
Publishers usually establish different levels for these materials according to the number of headwords. For example, a 1200 headword reader would be written so that very few words fall outside the publisher's 1200 most frequently used word families. It is therefore possible for anyone choosing a book or creating a school or class library to obtain books of similar difficulty from different publishers. It should be noted, however, that as publishers use their own frequency lists (which can differ considerably, especially at the higher levels), it can sometimes be difficult to categorize books from different publishers.
But what about native speaker books, magazines and so on? Aren't they helpful for reading?
Yes they are, but a reading teacher must establish objectives when using them. If the learner is not able to deal with the text fluently, she will decode it and reconstruct it in her mind. She will try to understand the whole picture, like she would a jigsaw. This is fine and can lead to a lot of learning. But if the text is too difficult then it will lead to a lot of frustration and demoralization.
If decoding (intensive reading) is the objective, then by all means use native material. However, learning from graded materials can be easier as they are more accessible to learners and the input is more comprehensible.
But surely they must read authentic materials, because learners must be exposed to natural language.
Native speaker materials can be motivating for learners whose reading ability approaches native competency. However, if the text is too difficult the learner will become frustrated and will form negative opinions about reading. Worst of all she may just give up. Countless thousands of students graduate from colleges having spent two years slogging through a classic work of literature and never want to pick up another book in English as long as they live. Their reading was hardly a pleasurable experience. Reading must be pleasurable, but pleasurable does not necessitate the lack of serious intent. (See Bamford & Day in this issue for more on this topic.)
So, if doing Extensive Reading is just reading, why do it in class? Aren't there more important things to do?
Extensive Reading is primarily an out-of-class activity. After an initial lesson explaining the program, and the borrowing and reporting systems, the administration of the reading takes up only a very small part of each class.
Some teachers maintain a Sustained Silent Reading section in their classrooms where members of a class read self-selected material. This ensures that all learners read individually at the same time, and gives the teacher time to speak with learners about their reading, and to administer the program. It is advisable that, on occasion, the teacher also reads at this time to provide a model for the learners. The learners are not reading simply for the sake of reading. They are improving their fluency, learning new words, collocations, patterns, and so on.
How do I organize the out-of-class reading?
Beniko Mason and Tom Pendergast (see their article in this issue) provide their learners with a small booklet which explains the reasons for this kind of reading. Mason and Pendergast found that once learners understand that they will not improve their reading without practice, they become more motivated. They also found that reluctant readers enjoy this kind of reading. Some teachers require learners to maintain records of their reading and ensure that page targets have been met. If teachers do not set page targets for each semester, then little reading may be done. The number of pages to be read per semester depends on the learners' level, time, motivation, and the accessibility of materials.
How do I know the reading out-of-class is being done, and how do I assess it?
There are several ways. First, the teacher can require the learner to write a short report about the reading, thus extending the reading into speaking and writing, integrating the learning. Research has shown that written language use improves with the amount of reading done (Tsang, 1996). Follow up tasks (such as those outlined by Marc Helgesen in the My Share section of this issue) can check if reading has been done and understood.
It is not necessary to test the learners on every book as doing so would be very time consuming. It also sends the message that reading is just like any other subject that needs testing, and the reason we do reading is to be tested on it. We need to cultivate the view that reading is pleasurable. This does not mean we should not assess the reading, however. The monitoring must move the reading onward, and not just check that work has been done. As the program develops, the monitoring should become more learner-centred as learners become more familiar with the techniques of self-monitoring (see Ellis & McRae, 1991, pp. 10-12). You may not need to write tests for each Reader as many Readers include comprehension check tests inside their back covers.
Book reports (where learners write 200 words about the content of their books) can give some idea of whether or not the contents were understood. Another way to assess Extensive Reading is to measure reading speed at the beginning of the term and at the end. Provided the same level of material is used in both tests, a learner would be expected to read more words per minute at the end of an Extensive Reading program. Another common technique is to ask learners to keep Reading Diaries in which they document what was read, elements of the learners' own monitoring, as well as teacher directed monitoring.
How do the learners decide which Readers to use? How do I find their level?
In Extensive Reading, the material is self selected. One way for learners to determine their levels is to read a page or so from various books, and then to use their own judgment. I ask my learners to assess their own levels, and then go down one level. This makes the reading more manageable for them. My guideline for difficulty is to check whether they can read a page in two minutes, understanding all but two to three words (not including proper nouns).
Does it matter if the Reader is too easy or too difficult?
It certainly matters from an Extensive Reading perspective if the reader is too difficult. The reading becomes a decoding (intensive) task rather than an Extensive Reading task. The Extensive Reading aim to develop fluent readers will not be reached. Reading material which is "too easy" will allow learners to read faster. This is one of the aims of Graded Reading and learners should be allowed to read very simple material from time to time.
Do I need to teach Intensive Reading too?
There are many opinions about this. Some people say that reading in itself will improve a learner's overall proficiency. Others say that a learner needs to build specific reading skills along side the fluency skill. Such skills would include guessing unknown words from context, finding text organization, finding main ideas, understanding inferences, and so on. There are many good books to help learners develop these skills, including Mikulecky and Jeffries (1990) and Mikulecky (1996).
Does this mean that Intensive Reading is bad and that Extensive Reading is good?
Not at all. They serve different purposes. Neither is it the case that just reading a lot will increase vocabulary automatically. A balance is required. Our learners need plenty of Intensive Reading to learn new vocabulary, to look at text organization, to help them discover and develop reading skills, and so on. This does not mean a critical review or literary analysis however -- this should be done in the Literature course, not the reading skills course. These skills can be practised by reading extensively. One type of reading without the other will leave our learners unprepared to deal with more difficult texts.
But doesn't it take a lot of time?
Yes, of course. A learner cannot learn to speak by studying dialogues alone, she has to practice with many partners. The same applies to reading. A reading teacher who requires learners to read (or translate) only one short passage for each class will not help to develop fluent readers. Much more time needs to be allocated to the development of fluent reading skills.
Where else can I find information about Graded Reading and Extensive Reading?
Other helpful texts include a guide to using Class Readers (books that all members of the class read together) by Greenwood (1987). Ellis and McRae (1991) and Hedge (1985) provide helpful hints and advice for using Readers. Hill (1992; this issue) provides insights into how to set up an Extensive Reading program. The forthcoming book by Day and Bamford is destined to become a major reference work in this area.
The members of group :
M. Nazuril Ikhwan
M. Novrianto
M. Rais
This paper will seek to clarify what is meant by Graded Reading. It will provide reasons for its importance in a language programme, will inform readers where reading materials can be located, and will provide some hints for the classroom. Responses to some common objections to Extensive Reading programs will also be provided.
What is Graded Reading?
Graded Reading is also known as Basal Reading or Simplified Reading. The rationale behind using graded materials is to allow the reader to read without difficulty. Graded Reading therefore involves the reading of material which has been made easy to read. The material can be graded (i.e., simplified) according to the use of high frequency vocabulary rather than vocabulary a native speaker might use; simplified phrasing or sentence structure; the use of illustrations; and so on.
What is the relationship between Graded Reading and Extensive Reading?
Extensive Reading is often called Graded Reading and vice versa, and the terms are often used interchangeably. There are, however, important differences between the two. First, Graded Reading uses specially prepared materials while Extensive Reading can, but need not do so. Second, Extensive Reading requires fluent reading while Graded materials can be used for extensive or intensive reading. Third, Extensive Reading sees pleasure as a goal leading to increased motivation. Graded Reading has a specific purpose: for readers to read enough material at one level to develop sufficient fluency and other forms of linguistic knowledge to enable them to move to a higher level. The ultimate goal of Graded Reading is to do so much of it that the learner can deal with native level texts fluently.
Why do Graded Reading?
There are several reasons. First, I shall discuss four linguistic benefits: building reading speed, lexical speed access, reading fluency, and the ability when reading to move from working with words to working with ideas (see Nation, this issue, for a more thorough account). A short review of reading theory is necessary here to explain the need for Graded Reading.
A learner beginning to read in a second language starts by looking at each letter of each word to decode the word, and keeps each word in working memory while the next word is processed. By the time she gets to the end of the line, the first word can easily be forgotten and very little meaning of the text is retained. As the reader reads more, she can decode words faster and remember earlier words more easily. She can therefore read more words within the limited space of her memory. This then allows the reader to move from the word by word level of decoding to the processing of chunks of text -- short phrases or "ideas."
The old lady took her dog to the park
A beginner reader will see each of the nine words separately and will read word by word. A more experienced and proficient reader will read the sentence as three ideas or propositions:
The old lady took her dog to the park
This is a vital stage in the learner's development because she is no longer working with words; she is working with ideas. At this level she can make more effective use of background information about the topic to fill in non-comprehended parts of the text. It is well known that we tend to remember ideas much better than actual words. For example, one is able to relate an article from this morning's paper in one's own words far more easily than trying to recall the exact words in which the article was written. In order to remember a text well, we therefore need to work with ideas, not words. This also explains why we understand more when we read faster.
There are psychological benefits too. Mason and Krashen (forthcoming) found that reluctant readers can become motivated readers. Extensive Reading tends to be a pleasurable activity which makes learning easier.
What happens if we don't do Graded Reading?
If a student is asked only to decode texts, through intensive study of them, then her eye is not receiving sufficient practice at moving smoothly over the page to learn to move up to the "ideas" level. She will remain bogged down in the decoding of the linguistic puzzle that is her text. How does one tell whether students are reading intensively or extensively? (See Bamford & Day, this issue, for a definition of these terms.) It's easy. Are they using a dictionary? Is the text they are reading covered with notes and translations? If the answer is "yes," then they are trying to decode the text and are reading intensively. Too much of this kind of work does not allow readers to develop fast and fluent eye movements that bounce along the text with each idea or proposition. Unfortunately, texts well above a learner's reading level are what most of our students only ever learn to read -- the kind of passages which appear on language tests.
But my students only want to pass their tests, so reading extensively will not help them, or can it?
Extensive and Graded Reading will help students to process words faster and they will be better able to read intensively. They will also learn to learn from reading. As students read they are constantly practising the "guessing from context" skill, so vital for work with the difficult texts that appear on tests.
What Graded Materials are available for my class and where can I obtain them?
A teacher can create her own materials for use in class, but this takes a lot of time. Many teachers find it useful to use published materials. The most well known graded or simplified materials available for the classroom are Graded Readers (also known as Basal Readers or Simplified Readers or just Readers). Some readers are written for complete or false beginners, and others for all levels up to advanced and beyond. Readers are short books between 15-130 pages, depending on the difficulty and the story, and are available in various genres. The stories are often modified versions of popular novels, or else are originals written for a particular audience. Others are biographies, travel books, and other non fiction works.
Most bookstores that sell English books stock dozens if not hundreds of readers. They are not children's books, but are written for adult language learners, with the specific aim of helping them to improve their reading skills. (See David Hill's review article in this issue.)
How do I know the "level" of a Graded Reader?
Publishers usually establish different levels for these materials according to the number of headwords. For example, a 1200 headword reader would be written so that very few words fall outside the publisher's 1200 most frequently used word families. It is therefore possible for anyone choosing a book or creating a school or class library to obtain books of similar difficulty from different publishers. It should be noted, however, that as publishers use their own frequency lists (which can differ considerably, especially at the higher levels), it can sometimes be difficult to categorize books from different publishers.
But what about native speaker books, magazines and so on? Aren't they helpful for reading?
Yes they are, but a reading teacher must establish objectives when using them. If the learner is not able to deal with the text fluently, she will decode it and reconstruct it in her mind. She will try to understand the whole picture, like she would a jigsaw. This is fine and can lead to a lot of learning. But if the text is too difficult then it will lead to a lot of frustration and demoralization.
If decoding (intensive reading) is the objective, then by all means use native material. However, learning from graded materials can be easier as they are more accessible to learners and the input is more comprehensible.
But surely they must read authentic materials, because learners must be exposed to natural language.
Native speaker materials can be motivating for learners whose reading ability approaches native competency. However, if the text is too difficult the learner will become frustrated and will form negative opinions about reading. Worst of all she may just give up. Countless thousands of students graduate from colleges having spent two years slogging through a classic work of literature and never want to pick up another book in English as long as they live. Their reading was hardly a pleasurable experience. Reading must be pleasurable, but pleasurable does not necessitate the lack of serious intent. (See Bamford & Day in this issue for more on this topic.)
So, if doing Extensive Reading is just reading, why do it in class? Aren't there more important things to do?
Extensive Reading is primarily an out-of-class activity. After an initial lesson explaining the program, and the borrowing and reporting systems, the administration of the reading takes up only a very small part of each class.
Some teachers maintain a Sustained Silent Reading section in their classrooms where members of a class read self-selected material. This ensures that all learners read individually at the same time, and gives the teacher time to speak with learners about their reading, and to administer the program. It is advisable that, on occasion, the teacher also reads at this time to provide a model for the learners. The learners are not reading simply for the sake of reading. They are improving their fluency, learning new words, collocations, patterns, and so on.
How do I organize the out-of-class reading?
Beniko Mason and Tom Pendergast (see their article in this issue) provide their learners with a small booklet which explains the reasons for this kind of reading. Mason and Pendergast found that once learners understand that they will not improve their reading without practice, they become more motivated. They also found that reluctant readers enjoy this kind of reading. Some teachers require learners to maintain records of their reading and ensure that page targets have been met. If teachers do not set page targets for each semester, then little reading may be done. The number of pages to be read per semester depends on the learners' level, time, motivation, and the accessibility of materials.
How do I know the reading out-of-class is being done, and how do I assess it?
There are several ways. First, the teacher can require the learner to write a short report about the reading, thus extending the reading into speaking and writing, integrating the learning. Research has shown that written language use improves with the amount of reading done (Tsang, 1996). Follow up tasks (such as those outlined by Marc Helgesen in the My Share section of this issue) can check if reading has been done and understood.
It is not necessary to test the learners on every book as doing so would be very time consuming. It also sends the message that reading is just like any other subject that needs testing, and the reason we do reading is to be tested on it. We need to cultivate the view that reading is pleasurable. This does not mean we should not assess the reading, however. The monitoring must move the reading onward, and not just check that work has been done. As the program develops, the monitoring should become more learner-centred as learners become more familiar with the techniques of self-monitoring (see Ellis & McRae, 1991, pp. 10-12). You may not need to write tests for each Reader as many Readers include comprehension check tests inside their back covers.
Book reports (where learners write 200 words about the content of their books) can give some idea of whether or not the contents were understood. Another way to assess Extensive Reading is to measure reading speed at the beginning of the term and at the end. Provided the same level of material is used in both tests, a learner would be expected to read more words per minute at the end of an Extensive Reading program. Another common technique is to ask learners to keep Reading Diaries in which they document what was read, elements of the learners' own monitoring, as well as teacher directed monitoring.
How do the learners decide which Readers to use? How do I find their level?
In Extensive Reading, the material is self selected. One way for learners to determine their levels is to read a page or so from various books, and then to use their own judgment. I ask my learners to assess their own levels, and then go down one level. This makes the reading more manageable for them. My guideline for difficulty is to check whether they can read a page in two minutes, understanding all but two to three words (not including proper nouns).
Does it matter if the Reader is too easy or too difficult?
It certainly matters from an Extensive Reading perspective if the reader is too difficult. The reading becomes a decoding (intensive) task rather than an Extensive Reading task. The Extensive Reading aim to develop fluent readers will not be reached. Reading material which is "too easy" will allow learners to read faster. This is one of the aims of Graded Reading and learners should be allowed to read very simple material from time to time.
Do I need to teach Intensive Reading too?
There are many opinions about this. Some people say that reading in itself will improve a learner's overall proficiency. Others say that a learner needs to build specific reading skills along side the fluency skill. Such skills would include guessing unknown words from context, finding text organization, finding main ideas, understanding inferences, and so on. There are many good books to help learners develop these skills, including Mikulecky and Jeffries (1990) and Mikulecky (1996).
Does this mean that Intensive Reading is bad and that Extensive Reading is good?
Not at all. They serve different purposes. Neither is it the case that just reading a lot will increase vocabulary automatically. A balance is required. Our learners need plenty of Intensive Reading to learn new vocabulary, to look at text organization, to help them discover and develop reading skills, and so on. This does not mean a critical review or literary analysis however -- this should be done in the Literature course, not the reading skills course. These skills can be practised by reading extensively. One type of reading without the other will leave our learners unprepared to deal with more difficult texts.
But doesn't it take a lot of time?
Yes, of course. A learner cannot learn to speak by studying dialogues alone, she has to practice with many partners. The same applies to reading. A reading teacher who requires learners to read (or translate) only one short passage for each class will not help to develop fluent readers. Much more time needs to be allocated to the development of fluent reading skills.
Where else can I find information about Graded Reading and Extensive Reading?
Other helpful texts include a guide to using Class Readers (books that all members of the class read together) by Greenwood (1987). Ellis and McRae (1991) and Hedge (1985) provide helpful hints and advice for using Readers. Hill (1992; this issue) provides insights into how to set up an Extensive Reading program. The forthcoming book by Day and Bamford is destined to become a major reference work in this area.
The members of group :
M. Nazuril Ikhwan
M. Novrianto
M. Rais
Different between Extensive and Intensive Reading
Extensive Reading Task
No Different Extensive Reading Intensive Reading
1. Purpose General understanding and enjoyment Language study
2. Level Easy (graded readers) Difficult (the material is written for native speaker)
3. Amount a lot (a book a week) Not much
4. Speed Fast and fluently Slow
5. Selection Learner selects Teacher selects
6. What Materials All learners read different things All learners study the same materials
Explanation :
1. Purpose :
- In extensive reading the purpose is to understanding generally what the book tells about, usually, the vocabulary of extensive reading is the easy one or the vocabulary that usually use the readers only a little bite that difficult one. So that, the readers to be enjoyment what they read not to borring. And, they have a fantastic spirit for finishing it and try to read more book like it too.
- In Intensive reading the purpose is to language study. This reading class only for the learners who want to study the english especially. So that, this is dislike by beginning learners who want to happy for reading not to difficult them.
2. Level :
- In extensive reading the level is focus on the beginner learners. That learners are divided into easy (graded reading). The materials is written to the beginner learners.
- In Intensive reading the level is difficult focus on the native speaker. This reading class only for native speakers who have many knowledge about the language. And they know more than the beginners.
3. Amount
- In extensive reading the amount is a lot. Because the reading is easy the readers can to read many book. Maybe can to read a book a day, or a book a week.
- In intensive reading the amount is not much. Because the reading is difficult the readers can not to read more. They read slowly for understanding what book about. Maybe they only can to read a book a week or a book a month.
4. Speed
- In extensive reading the speed of the readers is fast and fluent. This cause is the reading is easy so that, the readers can to read fast because they easy for understanding the reading.
- In intensive reading the speed is slow. This cause is the readers must to understanding all of the reading. They must to read slowly to easy for understanding.
5. Selection
- In extensive reading the selection is for learner selects. Because the reading is easy this focus on the learner selects.
- in intensive reading the selection is for teacher selects. Commonly the teachers have more knowledge to understand the difficult reading.
6. What materials
- in extensive reading, all learners read different thing because the materials is easy the learners can to read fast and if they finished it they can to move to other different thing.
- in intensive reading, all learners study the same materials because they read the reading slowly till they understanding, so, they can not to move to other thing. They only focus on the same materials.
No Different Extensive Reading Intensive Reading
1. Purpose General understanding and enjoyment Language study
2. Level Easy (graded readers) Difficult (the material is written for native speaker)
3. Amount a lot (a book a week) Not much
4. Speed Fast and fluently Slow
5. Selection Learner selects Teacher selects
6. What Materials All learners read different things All learners study the same materials
Explanation :
1. Purpose :
- In extensive reading the purpose is to understanding generally what the book tells about, usually, the vocabulary of extensive reading is the easy one or the vocabulary that usually use the readers only a little bite that difficult one. So that, the readers to be enjoyment what they read not to borring. And, they have a fantastic spirit for finishing it and try to read more book like it too.
- In Intensive reading the purpose is to language study. This reading class only for the learners who want to study the english especially. So that, this is dislike by beginning learners who want to happy for reading not to difficult them.
2. Level :
- In extensive reading the level is focus on the beginner learners. That learners are divided into easy (graded reading). The materials is written to the beginner learners.
- In Intensive reading the level is difficult focus on the native speaker. This reading class only for native speakers who have many knowledge about the language. And they know more than the beginners.
3. Amount
- In extensive reading the amount is a lot. Because the reading is easy the readers can to read many book. Maybe can to read a book a day, or a book a week.
- In intensive reading the amount is not much. Because the reading is difficult the readers can not to read more. They read slowly for understanding what book about. Maybe they only can to read a book a week or a book a month.
4. Speed
- In extensive reading the speed of the readers is fast and fluent. This cause is the reading is easy so that, the readers can to read fast because they easy for understanding the reading.
- In intensive reading the speed is slow. This cause is the readers must to understanding all of the reading. They must to read slowly to easy for understanding.
5. Selection
- In extensive reading the selection is for learner selects. Because the reading is easy this focus on the learner selects.
- in intensive reading the selection is for teacher selects. Commonly the teachers have more knowledge to understand the difficult reading.
6. What materials
- in extensive reading, all learners read different thing because the materials is easy the learners can to read fast and if they finished it they can to move to other different thing.
- in intensive reading, all learners study the same materials because they read the reading slowly till they understanding, so, they can not to move to other thing. They only focus on the same materials.
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