课件简介

Advantages of Extensive Reading in Language Learning
1. Extensive reading can provide “comprehensible input”.

Krashen (1982) argues that one of the key elements in language learning is “comprehensible input”, among which he lists extensive reading. He argues that extensive reading will lead to language acquisition, provided that the texts include adequate exposure to the language, interesting material, and a relaxed learning environment.  Krashen and others emphasize that the quality of the language to which the learners are exposed is very important if they are to learn from the input.  Elley (1991) notes the existence of “an exposure gap” between L1 learners and L2 learners, and reports on a number of relevant studies, showing that children between 6 and 12 years of age provided with extensive reading materials showed rapid growth in language development compared with other groups.

2 Extensive reading can enhance learners’ general language competence.

There is much evidence to support this view. For example, the book flood project in Fiji revealed significant  improvements in word recognition and reading comprehension after the first year; after two years, wider gains were recorded in both oral skills and writing. (Elley and Manghubai 1983). The studies cited by Elley　(op.cit) indicated “a spread of effect from reading competence to other language skills writing, speaking, and control over syntax.” Similar points are made by Grabe (1991) and Paran (1996). Most relevant in China perhaps is the study by Tsang (1996) in secondary schools in Hong Kong.

3 Extensive reading can enhance students’ general knowledge.

While developing the widely-used series Junior and Senior English for China, Liu Daoyi reported that time and again, one of the key motivating factors in English classrooms was the desire to increase the students’ knowledge of the world, (Liu Daoyi, personal communication). The same applies to non-English majors in College, who have comparatively little intrinsic interest in learning English.  One of the most popular elements in Active English, the series this author was involved in, was the “Enrichment reading” component.  Students reported that they liked the texts provided because they were interesting, authentic, and “enable us to learn about the world.” (Gu Yueguo, personal communication.)

4 Extensive reading motivates learners to read

Motivations can come from many sources: the desire for general knowledge is one f them, but the intrinsic interest of the texts is another. Students in China greatly value authenticity, so if the text is written by a native speaker in good contemporary English, that in itself can be a big draw.
The issue of motivation has a large literature which cannot be explored fully at this time. Bell’s account of work in Yemen (Bell 1998) provides some good evidence of how well-chosen books can motivate readers, though the students themselves were in an older age-group (17 – 42). .More relevant is a very good South East Asian case study reported in Bell and Campbell (1996, 1997).

5 Extensive reading consolidates and increases knowledge of vocabulary

A study by Nagy and Herman (1987) claims that children between grades 3 and 12 in the United States learn up to 3000 words a year.  Clearly, these words are simply, not formally taught in class: they are learnt by acquisition, largely if not exclusively through reading.  It s possible that the time we spend teaching new vocabulary in China may be to some extent better spent by simply asking our students to read!
It is also the case that extensive reading can consolidate vocabulary and language forms already treated in the classroom. In the past, the emphasis has traditionally been placed on graded readers, which have a controlled grammatical and lexical load, and these certainly have the advantage of  providing regular repetition and reinforcement of language forms. (Wodinsky and Nation 1988). However, the development of the “real books” movement, particularly in the UK, has led in recent years to an increased emphasis on “real” books written in authentic English, rather than the pre-digested, controlled reading diet offered by traditional graded reading schemes. Others have attempted to arrive at a compromise – real books written in authentic English roughly tuned to the likely language level of the readers. Grading, if it occurs, is as much focused on interest levels and relevance to the students, rather than language forms. This characterizes the approach used by the latest series published by the People’s Education Press and Hong Kong Commercial Press. (PEPUPYE series 2002).  An added impetus to this approach is provided by the increasing variations in educational policy across China, both within and beyond provinces and autonomous regions, as local curriculum initiatives make it increasingly difficult to adjust language levels to targeted segments of the student population.

6 Extensive reading can lead to improvements in writing

Krashen (1984) reviews a number of studies in an L1 learning environment to support this view, but more relevant in China are studies of L2 learners.  Robb and Susser (1989) found that extensive reading seems to led to an improvement in Japanese high school learners writing skills, and Hafiz and Tudor (1989) reached similar conclusions in studies carried out in the UK and Pakistan.

7 Extensive reading can develop autonomous learning

The classroom focuses inevitably on shorter texts, and extensive reading provides learners with the opportunity of reading longer texts, on more varied subjects, on their own, and in their own way. This is a very important aspect of extensive reading: students do need to be liberated from dependence on the teacher, and reading gives them the opportunity to do so. Many of our students go on from Senior Middle School to formal on informal learning situations, where they may have to study extensively on their own.  Extensive reading can give them the confidence and competence to cope with longer texts.
However, a word of caution is required on this issue: most texts selected for wider reading tend to be fiction; fictional texts are a very different genre from the non-fiction that learners have to use in academic study, and it is questionable how far the reading strategies and approaches appropriate for fiction are also appropriate for non-fiction. We cannot assume that there is transfer from one genre to another, and for this reason it is strongly urged that non-fiction as well as fiction – in fact, as wide a range of genres as possible – should feature in an extensive reading programme. For this reason, the PEPUPYE series already alluded to does include a wide range of genres, and a healthy infusion of non-fiction as well as fiction. It is to be noted that this is also one of the requirements of the latest Ministry of Education syllabus.