Extensive reading

2. Extensive reading in EFL

Getting students to read extensively is the easiest and most effective way of improving their reading skills. It is much easier to teach people to read better if they are learning in a favourable climate, where reading is valued not only as an educational tool, but as a source of enjoyment.

Nuttall, 2005

2.1 Definition of extensive reading

As it is suggested in the previous subchapter, extensive reading differs from the intensive one considerably. Bamford and Day (2004) define the term extensive reading as an approach to language teaching in which students read a lot of easy material in the new language for pleasure and general understanding. Unlike in the intensive reading, learners need to focus on the meaning as studying the language is not the aim. The reading is individualized, what means that students choose books according to their interest and language level, they read without dictionaries and independently of the teacher, with minimum post-reading tasks (Bamford and Welch, 2000). Moreover, they are encouraged to stop reading whenever they consider the material not interesting or too difficult. As Day and Bamford (ibidem) emphasized the aim of extensive reading in language teaching is 'to get students reading in the second language and liking it'.

Extensive reading can be introduced to any kind of EFL class whatever the content, intensity, age of students or their language level are. The only condition is that students already have a basic knowledge of foreign language and are literate in it (Bamford and Day, ibidem).

2.2 Basic principles of extensive reading

In connection with the aspects of extensive reading noted above, there is a set of specific principles and particular i...

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..., but also interest and content. The number of graded readers has increased in recent times so there is an opportunity to select the right ones that fulfill the learners’ needs (Hedge, 2000).

To conclude, well selected simplified materials can be used as a means of improving the learners' reading competence, allow them to read complete books without struggle and gradually gain self-confidence to move to authentic materials. According to Grabe (2009), 'little evidence exists that extensive reading with ‘authentic’ texts would lead to improvement over extensive reading with a graded reader series'. Day and Bamford (2004) add that 'simplification is no more than a term […] to refer to writing to language learners; and that any simplicity detected in such writing is not something gained at the expense of authenticity but is the very expression of authenticity itself'.