Extensive Reading

Abstract

Extensive reading involves reading lots of texts that contain few unknown words. The research on extensive reading shows that the inclusion of an extensive reading programme in a course is the most effective change a teacher could make to a language course. Chapter 4 looks at the goals and limitations of extensive reading and describes the steps for setting up and running an extensive reading programme. These include finding the learners’ vocabulary level, providing plenty of interesting and appropriate texts particularly graded readers, encouraging and monitoring large quantities of reading, supporting and supplementing extensive reading with language-focused learning and fluency development, and helping learners move through the levels of graded readers. Extensive reading can occur through narrow reading, and through electronic reading. There is a discussion of the need for graded readers and the difficulties of reading unsimplified text.