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A guide to Extensive Reading
- 1. The Extensive Reading Foundation’s Guideto Extensive Reading
- 2. WHAT IS EXTENSIVEREADING? • The aim of Extensive Reading is to help the student become better at the skill of reading rather than reading to study the language itself. • Extensive Reading is sometimes known as Graded Reading or Sustained Silent Reading. Read quickly and Enjoyably with Adequate comprehension so they Don’t need a dictionary
- 3. WHY DO EXTENSIVEREADING? Extensive Reading: 1. allows students to meet the language in its natural context. 2. builds vocabulary. 3. helps students to build reading speed and reading fluency. 4. builds confidence, motivation, enjoyment and a love of reading which makes students more effective language users. 5. allows students to read or listen to a lot of English at or about their own ability level. 6. helps students get a sense of how grammatical patterns work in context.
- 4. EXTENSIVE READING VS.INTENSIVE READING • reading to learn : 1. Students read a text to learn something about the language itself.(textbook) 2. We could call it ‘study reading’. 3. The passages are short and often have a lot of language the students don’t know. 4. The aim of this reading is to help teach the language or a reading skill (guessing the topic of an article). IR can be compared with doing • learning to read: 1. Students practice the skill of reading by reading for information(reading a story book). 2. The aim is to build reading fluency, and to deepen their knowledge of already met language items. 3. This allows them to process language faster and improves comprehension and enjoyment.
- 5. WHAT ARE GRADEDREADERS? • Graded Readers are books written especially for language learners to build their reading speed and fluency • It also gives them chances to practice ‘real’ reading for pleasure. • They are written according to a pedagogical syllabus which has increasing grades, or levels, of difficulty. • They are graded through tight control of the plot, vocabulary, and grammar and judicious use of images. • Publishers control the vocabulary in graded readers to make useful words appear more frequently to help learning.
- 6. WHAT ARE THEBENEFITS OF USING GRADED READERS? • allow students to meet lots of comprehensible language • allow students to ‘step-up’ their reading ability gradually level by level • provide motivating interesting reading materials • are a bridge to the eventual reading of native-level reading materials.
- 7. KINDS OF EXTENSIVEREADING • Most Extensive Reading courses have students choose their own book at or about their own fluent reading level. This means all students are reading something different, and in their own ‘comfort zone’. We might call this individualized reading, or self-selected reading and this is sometimes called Sustained Silent Reading (SSR) or Drop Everything and Read (DEAR). • Some courses have students read the same book either together in class or as homework, often chapter by chapter over several lessons.
- 8. READING AT THERIGHT LEVEL • In order for students to benefit from their Extensive Reading, they should be reading at an appropriate difficulty level and at a good speed (150-200 words per minute or a little lower for beginning students) with a major aim of practicing the skill of reading itself. • The reading is at an ‘instructional’ level when the students know between 90% and 98% of the words on a page. • If the students know 98% or more of the words, then they are in the extensive reading ‘sweet spot’. • If the students know everything, or almost everything, on the page, they can then read it very quickly and can use it to build reading speed and their natural reading ability.
- 9. USING ‘AUTHENTIC’ BOOKS •’Authentic’ reading materials are usually not the best materials with which to teach foreign language learners to read. • English language students don’t have this knowledge and usually find authentic books very difficult. • These are written for English-speaking children or teens who already know thousands of words and most of the grammar of English before they start to read.
- 10. SELECTING THE RIGHTBOOK • Selecting appropriate reading materials can help build reading confidence, reading ability and build a life-long love of reading in English.
- 11. PLANNING AND SETTINGUP AN EXTENSIVE READING PROGRAM • To be successful, an Extensive Reading program should ideally: 1. involve everyone – students, teachers, and maybe even parents 2. be part of the teaching timetable and be seen as an essential part of the curriculum 3. involve students in its set up and management 4. have funding for new reading materials 5. have a variety of interesting materials at appropriate levels 6. have systems for cataloging, labeling, checking out, recording and returning reading materials 7. have clear language learning objectives 8. have ways to assess the reading
- 12. STEP 1 :PLANNING YOUR LIBRARY – ‘THINK BIG, START SMALL’ • How much do students need to read, and how often? • Should class time be allocated to this? If so, how much and when? • How many books do we need to cover different levels of abilities and interests? • Should we integrate Extensive Reading into an existing class, or have a special Extensive Reading class? • Where should we keep the books? How should we manage the library? • When, and how often, do students change their books? • How do we assess the students? • How do we find money for this? • Who is responsible for running this program?
- 13. HOW MUCH SHOULDTHEY READ? HOW MANY BOOKS DO I NEED? number of × number of × number of = The number of ER classes students per class books per student books needed • The bulk of your library should be at about the level of your average student with slightly fewer books below and above this level so all students are catered for. • If not much money is available, you may need to start with fewer books. • It’s often wise to spend only 80% of your budget initially and spend the rest to adjust your library once you know what materials are most needed.
- 14. STEP 2 :SETTING UP THE LIBRARY – ‘BE PRACTICAL AND REALISTIC’ • Choosing the books • Cataloging the books • Organizing a book borrowing system
- 15. STEP 3 :INTRODUCING EXTENSIVE READING – ‘STEP-BY-STEP’ • Teachers should introduce the ER program well so that it starts well. • There are two main steps - introducing ER with class readers, and then moving on to self-selected reading. • These steps are designed to not overwhelm the students initially and gradually build to self-selected reading.
- 16. THE FIRST STEP– WHOLE CLASS READING • This first stage models ER by asking students to do some reading as a class so they get used to the idea of reading a longer text. • The teacher should start by choosing a very easy book – one that even the weakest student can read so then all students will be able to grasp the notion of ER. • The aim at this stage is to make the reading easy and focus on enjoyment and quick reading so you can later contrast it with the more difficult reading they are probably doing in their textbook.
- 17. THE SECOND STEP– SELF-SELECTED READING Stage 1 – Student orientation This stage allows the teacher to explain to students why this type of reading is important. Stage 2 – Student’s first book Explain to the students that they can choose any book they want to read but it should be at their ability level. Stage 3 – Out of class reading
- 18. EVALUATING EXTENSIVE READING •Teachers often feel they should check students’ understanding of their reading directly through tests and quizzes or even just to assess whether the reading has been done. 1. Online test of graded readers • On the Extensive Reading Foundation website there is a free online graded reader testing system which can do this. • The student logs in and selects the book they have been reading, they take the test and are told if they pass or fail. • The teacher is told how many and which books their students read and whether they passed the test
- 19. EVALUATING EXTENSIVE READING 2.Indirect assessment A. Book reports, summaries, presentations and posters B. Giving grades C. Measuring reading speed D.Informal monitoring E. Informal oral comprehension checks while, or after, reading a book
- 20. EXTENSIVE LISTENING -USING AUDIO AND VIDEO • Extensive Listening is the sister to Extensive Reading. • They need to meet input through extensive listening to build up their automaticity in recognizing words aurally and to get a sense of how the language fits together. • Almost all graded readers come with audio recordings. • Teachers and students should be aware that a student’s fluent reading ability is unlikely to be the same as their fluent listening ability.