Using Extensive Reading as a Remedial Program for Elementary English Underachievers-Implementation, Problems, and Solutions

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to report the implementation process of an extensive reading (ER) program used as a remedial program for elementary English underachievers, problems and difficulties encountered during the process, and solutions. Three fourth-grade English remedial students participated in 30 half-hour ER sessions carried out over one full semester. The researchers collected data through participant observation, interviews, review of documents, running records of oral readings, weekly evaluation sheets, researcher's journal. a letter identification test, and two high-frequency word recognition tests. The results showed that after participating in the ER program, all three underachievers made progress in English performance. In addition, the data also revealed that the extensive reading program has affected the three participants' motivation and attitude positively. However, some problems were found: the remedial students' lack of confidence to read independently, reluctance to tape record their oral readings, limited vocabulary size, difficulty in selecting appropriate books to read, and some unwanted interference to the environment. Using an emergent research design, the researchers made real-time judgments, developed and applied solutions tackling these problems, and thus made the program a better-fit remedial program for elementary school English underachievers. These solutions included employing reading partnership, adding sight word readers to the book selection, adjusting the layout of the physical environment, and seeking for administrative support. Based on the findings, the researchers provide suggestions on how to implement an ER program effectively with elementary school English underachievers.