Arranged in Chronological Order

Note: This is a static copy of the bibliopgraphy, created in April of 2008. Click here to view a current copy.

*While most of this book is not about extensive reading, the following parts are relevant. The beginning of chapter 1 asks teachers to think about the role of reading in their life, past and present, and on the influence of family, community, school, culture, and individual characteristics in defining the role of reading for them. Pages 43-44 discuss an approach to reading instruction based on extensive reading. Included is an account by a teacher who taught a reading course based on extensive reading. One of her reasons was that she wanted to give students more responsibility. Pages 181-183 explain what a reading journal is and include two entries from students' journals.

[Note: This study is significant for its finding that extensive reading was unpopular among the subjects.]

Scope and method of study. The main purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between EFL learners' perceived reading strategies, vocabulary size, and reading comprehension. In addition to providing descriptive information about each variable in this relationship, the study examined how certain learner variables such as gender, and the amount of extensive reading may impact this relationship. The participants in the study were 226 (117 females and 109 males) first-year university students enrolled in seven different higher education institutions in Saudi Arabia. Participants completed a reading strategies survey and took a vocabulary size test (Schmitt, 2000) and a reading comprehension test. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to describe the participants' performance on the two tests and their reported reading strategies use, and to assess the relationship between the study's three main variables. Analysis of variance and t-tests were also used to examine gender and proficiency differences in the participants' perceived use of reading strategies, vocabulary size, and reading comprehension. Findings and conclusions. In general, Saudi EFL first-year university students had a low reading ability and an estimated small vocabulary size (500–700 word families), which is far below the threshold level needed for reading unsimplified English texts. Except for a few strategies like critical reading, summarizing, using typographical aids, and noting text characteristics, the participants reported using most of the reading strategies with high and moderate frequencies. They also reported significantly more frequent use of problem-solving strategies. However, extensive reading was found to be an unpopular activity among EFL learners in Saudi Arabia. Significant gender differences favoring females were found in the participants' performance on the two tests and their reports of reading strategies use. A statistically significant relationship was found between the participants' vocabulary size at the 2000 word level and their performance on the reading comprehension test (r = .60, p < .001). Participants with larger vocabulary size and higher reading proficiency reported using reading strategies more frequently than lower proficiency students. The study concludes with some pedagogical implications and recommendations for further research.

Research indicates that extensive reading has been an effective approach for learning a language and therefore, more investigation in different contexts is needed. One major requirement for the success of the extensive reading approach is the availability of large amounts of materials for doing extensive reading. In many countries including Saudi Arabia, it has not been easy to gain access to such materials; however, the Internet has become as a potential solution for the lack of these materials.

This qualitative research explores the experiences of Saudi female and male EFL learners in doing extensive reading through the Internet. Five female and five male Saudi EFL learners are interviewed in this study. A skeptical group of three females and two males was adde d to the study to learn more about their attitudes towards Internet reading. Samples of the participants' writing that were written over a period of time are analyzed. Emails are used for facilitating and arranging the interviews and for follow up questions whenever needed. Using multiple qualitative methods including interviews, documents, and emails, this study attempts to answer three research questions about the attitudes and beliefs of the participants concerning the following issues: (1) the benefits, features, and problems of Internet reading; (2) the impact of Internet reading on the participants, writing styles; (3) the impact of Internet reading on the participants, cultural-awareness.

This study shows that the majority of the participants have positive attitudes and successful experiences with Internet reading. The participants stated that Internet reading has many benefits, features and some problems. Based on the responses of this study, Internet reading has a positive impact on writing styles as well as cultural awareness.

This qualitative study describes the attitudes and beliefs of two groups of ESL learners regarding extensive reading of authentic texts. In particular, it aims to focus on their beliefs and attitudes regarding vocabulary development through extensive reading of authentic materials. It investigates their point of view toward their experience with extensive reading in a three-month ESL course called Reading Club in which extensive reading was the main focus of the course. The participants consist of two groups of ESL learners, one of which includes five students while the other includes four students. Using multiple qualitative methods including interviewing, document analysis, notes, and email follow-ups, this study has attempted to answer a group of research questions relevant to the following points: (1) the attitudes and beliefs of ESL students regarding extensive reading of authentic texts; (2) their attitudes and beliefs concerning vocabulary development through extensive reading of authentic texts; (3) the strategies they report they have used when handling unknown words encountered while reading; (4) the difficulties they report they have encountered when reading authentic texts; (5) the benefits they think they gain from extensive reading of authentic materials in terms of language improvement in general, and vocabulary development in particular; and (6) their attitudes and motivation regarding whether they would continue to do extensive reading and recommend it as a means of language development. The findings indicate that despite various reading difficulties they have encountered, the students of both groups have positive attitudes toward extensive reading of authentic texts and are motivated to read after the course has finished. The findings also show that extensive reading has helped students develop and improve various language skills, including vocabulary, reading for meaning, grammar, listening, speaking, and pronunciation. The most salient finding is that both approaches, incidental and intentional vocabulary learning, have been employed to develop second language vocabulary.

Vocabulary is an integral part of language. Without adequate vocabulary knowledg e, a second language learner's conversational fluency and reading comprehension suffer. Today, many ESL students have access to the Internet, where they can read extensively in L2 and improve their reading skill as well as vocabulary knowledge. This dissertation project is a qualitative study that describes the approaches and attitudes of ESL business students towards learning vocabulary through Internet reading. It also examines the participants' vocabulary knowledge throughout an 8-week period.

Eighteen advanced ESL MBA students participated in the present study. They were divided into two groups of 9 students each, referred to as readers and non-readers. Both groups were asked to complete a questionnaire and take a pretest and posttest, in order to assess their receptive vocabulary size. Readers were asked to read extensively on the Internet, keep regular vocabulary logs, write journal entries, participate in interviews, and take a final vocabulary written test tha t assessed the deep knowledge of the vocabulary items they attempted to learn during the 8-week period.

The results showed that readers scored higher in the posttest, compared to their mean score in the pretest, while non-readers maintained the same mean score both in the pretest and posttest. In the vocabulary interviews, the readers' scores at the word familiarity and word meaning levels were higher than their scores at the word form and word usage levels. Similarly, in the final vocabulary written test, readers obtained relatively high scores at the word meaning level, while their scores at the word usage level were relatively low.

Based on the interviews, the journal entries, and the vocabulary logs, readers read extensively on the Internet about a wide range of topics such as business, entertainment, health, politics, and shopping, in addition to reading academic articles. They also employed some common vocabulary learning strategies including guessing the word's meaning from context, using a dictionary, and keeping a vocabulary notebook. These participants showed positive attitudes towards extensive reading and vocabulary learning on the Internet.

For years the quality of Ethiopian education has been lamented over and one of the factors in the students' inability to benefit from their lessons is their lack of reading skills. In response, many organisations, such as The British Council, are providing primary schools with readers.

This thesis examines if there is any tangible effect on the students' reading skills by conducting a comparative study between two government schools that received a donation of primary readers through the Primary Readers Scheme of the British Council and two schools that did not.

To begin with a short review of the suitability of the readers selected by the teachers after an initial pilot scheme is made. Then 454 students were tested in this evaluation to check if there had been a significant improvement in the reading skills of the students in the school that received donations of supplementary readers.

It was found that there has been no significant increase in the students' reading abilities because government schools lack the capacity to utilise supplementary readers. Most of the librarians are not qualified, while the teachers, though qualified, lack training in how to use supplementary readers and also tend to be demotivated. Moreover, the administration and running of most of the schools libraries limit the books' accessibility. It is also very likely that the country's socio-economic situation in general and the children's backgrounds do not encourage the habit of reading for pleasure.

Consequently, modifications are necessary to maximise the benefits of extensive reading in the future, such as training teachers and librarians as well as encouraging supplementary reading amongst the students.

It concludes that though extensive reading schemes produce impressive results in experimental situations, care should be taken in actual implementation of such schemes in real life.

*This article explains how to construct and use a cloze test to match a class reader with a particular class of students, or to determine whether, for a particular student, a text is at independent reading level, instructional level, or frustration level.

**(The first two paragraphs of the chapter) In chapters 1 and 2, Greaney and Elley emphasize that an increased supply of books to promote reading is necessary to raise literacy levels in developing countries. In this chapter I will review the evidence now available on whether literature-based instruction and wide reading actually have a positive influence on children's growth as readers. I will consider several areas of research: (1) vocabulary acquisition while reading as compared to direct vocabulary instruction, (2) the relation between amount of reading and growth in reading competence, (3) the influence of book floods, (4) the effects of whole language, and (5) available evidence on wide reading and literature-based instruction in the non-English-speaking developing world.

This review will focus primarily on empirical studies that have included measures of word recognition, basic comprehension of simple passages, and, especially, knowledge of word meanings. Although these facets of reading do not directly reflect the major goals of many advocates of literature-based instruction and wide reading, it is well established that measures of word recognition, passage comprehension, and vocabulary are powerful predictors of most aspects of literate behavior. As compared to children who perform well on these measures, children who perform poorly also will perform less well on almost any other measure of literacy; and it is a distressing fact that they are likely to continue to do poorly. Therefore, it is important to determine whether literature-based instruction and wide reading lead to improvements in basic literacy.

Literature-based instruction and wide reading often are placed in opposition to direct instruction on specific aspects of literacy. It seems necessary to say, therefore, that I do not suppose that a finding in favor of literature-based instruction and wide reading would count against direct instruction. Except in extreme cases, in which direct instruction in specific skills is the predominate or even exclusive form of instruction, such a conclusion would be neither logical nor empirically supportable.

*This article asserts that the majority of foreign language teachers favor either intensive or extensive reading, and that either position alone is dangerous and injurious. In contemporary language courses of two or three years, extensive reading skill will not develop by itself, but must be cultivated. A procedure is described: The teacher displays attractive and very simple French books, magazines and newspapers in a corner of the classroom, and encourages pupils to try them by introducing certain items ("This is a good 'roman policier'") and giving higher grades for voluntary reading. "If John is to be led to read extensively, he must enjoy the reading" (p. 499). "The teacher must forget all noble aspirations for developing a 'taste' for good literature in her pupils. Her job is to set the scene, to surround them with reading material which will attract their attention and be sufficiently simple to arouse their curiosity, so that, as a result, they read, whether the material be detective story or comic strip, and having read, wish to continue to read" (p. 500, emphasis in original).

*This article focuses on the importance of visualisation when reading extended texts, and discusses the implications for materials writers, teachers and learners. It looks at an Extensive Reader and how content, style and genre which encourage visualisation can provide greater pleasure and therefore motivation for the language learner to read in the L2. It concludes with some suggestions for materials writers of Extensive Readers and the learner.

*Macmillan Ranger is an 8-level series of graded readers edited by Carol Christian, now out of print. This 32-page booklet has brief notes on the series philosophy, with ideas for using the books in class. It lists the structures and the vocabulary allowed at each level of the series (Range 1: 350 headwords; Range 8: 3200 headwords). "The Word List has been limited as far as possible to concrete terms, so that subtleties are expressed by implication or in the illustrations. The interdependence of illustration and text, especially at the lower levels, is a major feature of the series" (p. 4). (Abstract based on 1982 edition)

***A review of the literature of second language teaching suggests that a significant gap exists between linguistic theory and language teaching practice. However, psycholinguistics has influenced development of language teaching policies to the extent that many language teachers have advanced a more semantic, social, and communicative view of language. An extension of this approach suggests that reading for pleasure from appropriate second language (L2) texts provides subconscious and progressively more difficult L2 input much like that essential for native language (L1) acquisition. The process is enhanced, it is proposed, by the interest and pleasure engendered by the texts. This hypothesis is supported by psychological principles of learning. The L1=L2 hypothesis suggests that L2 learning, like L1 acquisition, follows a highly predictable pattern. It is concluded that if the conditions of L1 acquisition are approximated by extensive L2 reading (i.e., substantial unconscious, comprehensible input), the L2 learner can achieve a native -like communicative competence in a formal instructional setting.

*This talk makes a case that teachers need better textbooks and reading materials if the present goal of language teaching--direct reading--is to be achieved. The problem is poor gradation. At present, the overlap of vocabulary between textbooks, Readers and texts may be as low as 10 percent. Moreover, grading to elementary, intermediate and advanced levels (Committee of Twelve) is too broad. Reading material must be developed in a much narrower vocabulary range than is now the case, and carefully graded with several plateaus up to, for a two-year course, a maximum of 2000 high frequency items. "We need a number of texts all on the same level, all employing largely the same basic vocabulary. Instead of saying, 'this is an elementary text,' a publisher could state, 'such and such a text keeps within the first thousand word-range'" (p. 156). If a pupil reads five texts, 200 pages in all, that never rise above, say, the 1000 word-level, we can expect his rate of reading at that level to increase, and we can expect that he will be ready to cope successfully with the next higher level. Fiction rather than fact, and stories especially written rather than simplifications are to be preferred, although not exclusively. The difference between this and plans by West, Ogden and Palmer is that there should be "a concerted effort on the part of many authors and editors whose texts are handled by different publishers to have their output conform to the above-mentioned principles" (p. 158).

This paper is an overview of graded readers. It first outlines the characteristics of the graded reader, and its contribution to foreign language teaching. Second, suggestions are made as to the use of graded readers so that their potential may be maximized. Third, the grading systems themselves are analyzed, as are the levels of published titles in terms of their readability. Next, the article presents a detailed bibliography of most available titles--from beginner to intermediate levels--of interest to secondary level and adult learners. And finally, practical advice is given for setting up a library of graded readers.

****A writer of language learner literature talks about her craft, including the contrasting experiences of writing for three different series of graded readers.

****This chapter offers ideas for teaching a reading course at a Japanese university. Suggestions include setting up a class library so that students can do self-selected extensive reading for homework, with follow-up in class.

*This article describes the materials and services provided by the Edinburgh Project on Extensive Reading (EPER). EPER is recommended to administrators and teachers who wish to set up extensive reading programs

*This article argues that all students must engage in extensive reading if they are to become skillful and fluent. "Automaticity of 'bottom-up' (word recognition) processes upon which comprehension depends is a consequence of practice." The authors list characteristics of successful extensive reading programs, including "Reading is its own reward. There are few or no follow-up exercises to be completed after reading." They also argue that simplified materials are an appropriate choice for students whose level of L2 proficiency makes it very difficult to read texts written for native speakers.

***Four approaches to the teaching of second language (L2) reading are described (grammar-translation, comprehension questions/exercises, skills and strategies, and extensive reading) and their status in the reading classroom is examined, and important issues in L2 reading are then discussed, including word recognition, affective and sociocultural factors influencing reading, vocabulary development, general language learning, and reading outside the classroom.

Two Southeast Asia-based educators and a Japan-based educator discuss their experiences with and views on extensive reading. Among topics covered are their own reading development, influences from theory and research, what they have learned from their own students and fellow teachers, and practical issues, such as finding materials for extensive reading and encouraging student-student interaction as a way to promote extensive reading. Available: http://www.literacyacrosscultures.org

This paper looks at how graded reader libraries can be used for first-year English reading classes as one important form of content-based learning. A basic rationale for graded reading is given, and a pilot extensive reading placement test is presented and reviewed. Various options are then set out for organizing a one-term term course of graded reading, before student feedback and wider questions of reading development are considered.

**[This] is [a class textbook] designed for high-intermediate to advanced learners of English as a second language. It is not, however, a traditional reading text. Rather, it is a design for a course in which students choose their own reading material--from newspapers, magazines, books, and even academic journals and textbooks--and read on their own. By using the approach presented in this text, students become empowered to read with more ease and confidence materials written for native speakers of English.

This article examines the foreign language learning needs of a specific group of undergraduates and postgraduates, principally learners of Russia, with particular reference to their need to develop reading skills in the foreign language. It examines what actual reading this group do and how this relates to their previous language learning experience. Traditional educational publications designed to foster reading skillsÑreaders, are examined, taking Russian as an example, and their effectiveness evaluated. In the light of the evaluation alternative strategies are exploredÑwith a view to integrating reading into the total FL learning process.

An extensive reading program was established for elementary level language learners at the British Council Language Center in Sanaa, Yemen. Research evidence for the use of such programs in EFL/ESL contexts is presented, emphasizing the benefits of this type of input for students' English language learning and skill development. Practical advice is then offered to teachers worldwide on ways to encourage learners to engage in a focused and motivating reading program with the potential to lead students along a path to independence and resourcefulness in their reading and language learning.

Claims that extensive reading could lead to significant improvements in learner's reading speeds date back thirty years, and the role of graded readers in programs to promote such reading has an even longer history. Studies that measure reading speeds have been relatively few and far between however, and those that do exist rarely evaluate reading speed in relation to the effect of different classroom methodologies in the teaching of reading. Early work on reading speed tended to focus on the development of techniques to help learners to read faster, and failed to recognize the importance of varying the speed according to the reader's purpose in approaching a text. Such techniques as have been employed on speed reading courses also tend to cause readers to suffer lower levels of reading comprehension. The study reported in this article was conducted in the Yemen Arab Republic on young adult students working in various government ministries. It measured both reading speeds and comprehension in two groups of learners exposed to "intensive" and "extensive" reading programs respectively. The "extensive" group was exposed to a regime of graded readers while the "intensive" group studied short texts followed by comprehension questions. Results indicate that subjects exposed to "extensive" reading achieved both significantly faster reading speeds and significantly higher scores on measures of reading comprehension. Available: http://www.readingmatrix.com/articles/bell/

*This article discusses some of the features of an extensive reading project. Among the components of the project were class sets of graded readers, worksheets based on the books, an enlarged picture photocopied from each book, flash cards for individual, pair, and class work. Some of the post-reading activities included:

1. reconstructing the story, with the key words used in earlier prediction activities
2. reconstructing the story using pictures
3. arranging random sentences in the order in which events occurred in the books
4. thinking up different titles for the books
5. inventing monologues and dialogues between characters and acting out scenes
6. encouraging short discussions of the book’s main points or ideas
7. identifying words mentioned or not mentioned in the book
8. “wh” questions

**The three standard questions of content analysis (What? How? With what effect?) form the basis of this investigation into the reading actually done by an ESL student at a U.S. university. The texts he encountered were analyzed for their content, their use of sources of authority, and the values that underpinned them. Text type and difficulty analysis were also performed. Lastly, a piece of the student's writing was examined to ascertain to what extent, and through what processes, learning from the readings had taken place. The findings show readings more varied in content and text type than is generally imagined for such courses, together with extensive use of sources of authority. A strong Western-intellectual-progressive value system was revealed. The learning achieved by the student is best described in terms of tuning the incoming ideas to fit existing structures, rather than the wholesale adoption of new concepts. These findings support the idea that extensive reading is central to any EAP reading course.

*This article describes and analyses the extensive reading component of a French course in a Junior College. Informal, voluntary, outside reading was added to the formal, assigned reading for classroom analysis. Students read hundreds of pages each quarter. In the first quarter, extensive reading has no assigned place in the time schedule and is not subject to conferences or tests or grading of any type. In the second quarter, there is one extensive reading conference a week, and students complete a reading slip for each book read (including title and author; what is liked and disliked about the material; a summary limited to 100 words; a significant quotation in French.)

Students are shown how to read "for the fun of it," and the effect of reading on student's class work is explained. Directions for extensive reading include:

3. Look up only the words absolutely necessary for an understanding of the gist of the story.
4. Select only material that interests you; what seems uninteresting is probably too difficult.
5. Proceed from easy texts to difficult ones, being certain that the line representing the increase of difficulty is very long, ascending gradually. (p. 415)

Reading lists are posted, and classroom talks in French stimulate a general interest in reading. "At the end of the quarter, the student is reading ordinary French prose with fair understanding and is immensely pleased with himself!" (p. 414). "With the generation of interest and self-confidence, there comes an acceleration of the whole learning process" (p. 416). "There is produced an initial impulse toward the acquisition of a 'feeling' for the language, that no amount of formal instruction could produce in so short a time and at such an early stage" (p. 417).

Extensive reading is

a means to an end and not an end in itself.... [It] means little, unless the ability to read any French whatsoever is increased thereby. The acquired ability is measured by achievement tests; it cannot be measured by pages read. The question is not what Mary White has read, but what Mary White can read, does read and wants to read! And she must want to read; she must be induced to want to read. Ability without desire is worse than desire without ability. (p. 419)

Results of extensive reading include a trebling of reading rate, a strong correlation between amount of reading and comprehension, and between reading and general achievement. Overall, there is a rising percentage of honor grades, and a decreasing percentage of failures. In sum, "LIRE [to read] is a synonym for POUVOIR [to be able]" (p. 426).

*This is a general survey article on extensive reading. It concludes with the statement: "I remain fully convinced that poor resources, financial or logistic problems are the main obstacles to implementing an extensive reading project. Reading materials are almost non existent or are not readily available to students, if they do exist, they are most of the time culturally irrelevant."

*This article begins by offering ten suggestions for inspiring pupils to read, e.g., that teachers like reading and read regularly and that pupils be involved in selecting and promoting books. Next, are suggested activities for pre-reading to accompany simplified readers, e.g., students generate words associated with the subject or theme of the book. The longest part of the article provides suggested activities for while pupils are reading the simplified books, e.g., a press conference held by four main characters. Finally, suggestions are made for post-reading activities, e.g., spot-the-mistake, in which a version of the story with ten errors is created.

In this interview, Waring and Helgesen discuss the past, present, and future of Extensive Reading (ER) in Japan. Topics covered include the meaning of Extensive Reading, the introduction and development of ER programs in educational institutions, challenges in and advice for setting up a program, benefits of Extensive Reading for learners, ER learning styles, and multiple intelligences. Waring and Helgesen also provide a glimpse of ER related organizations and their visions for the future of ER in Japan.

The present study on second language (L2) reading and individual difference variables (IDVs) examines learners' self-assessed ability level and enjoyment and the effects of these factors on two different measures of comprehension. The investigation controls for topic familiarity differences by gender and the study utilizes the authentic short story Aniversario by Luis Romero (Virgillo, Friedman, & Valdivieso, 1998). During regular class period [sic], 88 participants from advanced grammar courses completed the following: (a) a questionnaire about general L2 reading abilities and enjoyment, (b) a reading passage, (c) a written recall task, (d) multiple-choice questions, and (e) a questionnaire concerning topic familiarity. Propositions in the text were analyzed for pausal units and recalls were scored for such units (Bernhardt, 1991). Results revealed that students believed they were satisfactory readers of Spanish and they generally enjoyed reading in Spanish. As predicted, levels of self-assessed abilities positively correlated with levels of enjoyment. The study yielded significant effects for both self-assessed ability and enjoyment on written recall (an open-ended assessment task), but no such effects were found on the multiple-choice questions (a task including retrieval cues).

The study revealed that at the advanced levels of language instruction learners' self-assessment of their L2 reading ability was quite accurate, in terms of written recall. The findings suggest that the study of the variables self-assessment and enjoyment, in association with other L2 reading factors such as metacognition, anxiety, and motivation, may contribute to a better understanding of L2 reading comprehension.

[*The study suggests that enjoyment has an impact on the L2 reading process. This, together with the nature of an extensive reading approach, in turn suggests that instructors might use extensive reading to enhance abilities and affective responses to reading.]

*This book, aimed at the teaching of ESL at the secondary school level, has parts devoted to extensive reading (pp. 65-80 and 92-95). Topics treated therein include setting up and managing a collection of books for extensive reading, encouraging students to read, monitoring and assessing extensive reading, and the use of class readers.

*This methods book argues for the important role that extensive reading can play in foreign language programs from the elementary stages onwards.

It is by pursuing the activity of extensive reading that the volume of practice necessary to achieve rapid and efficient reading can be achieved. It is also one of the means by which a foreigner may be exposed to a substantial sample of the language he may wish to learn without actually going to live in the country to which that language is native (pp. 92-93).

These ideas were to achieve axiomatic status when stated as aphorisms by Christine Nuttall (1982). Broughton et al. explain how to use class readers and how to set up class libraries. For the latter, they come down in favor of easy graded readers in which fewer than one word in every hundred is unfamiliar.

**This book is designed to "help students who are fairly proficient in English, but not completely at home in the cultures of English-speaking countries, to find books that they can read with a maximum of pleasure and a minimum of frustration".

*This book is a sequel to Brown (1988). Types of books included in the annotated bibliography include picture books, word books, legends, fables, folktales, fairy tales, and non-fiction. Books are cross referenced by location and ethnic background, and by topic.

*Brumfit uses this review (reprinted from BAAL Newsletter, Number 11, March 1981) of Roland Hindmarsh's Cambridge English Lexicon (Cambridge University Press, 1980) to look at how word lists (such as West's General Service List) are used in the grading of teaching materials and readers. He examines the misuse of such lists--this article is in the "Criticisms of Current Practice" section of his book--and offers a 5-step checklist for writing for language learners, as a way to prevent a lexicon being used as "a straight-jacket on interesting writing." (See also p. 101 for Brumfit's criticism of the belief that "A 'scientific' grading of reading materials is not only possible, but useful.")

This article describes the rationale and structure of a research project into the effectiveness of reading in foreign language acquisition. The article focuses on two issues: the initial stages of the project (which has been very much influenced by a similar one carried out by Elley and Mangubhai, 1983); and some aspects of the backgrounds of the pupils involved. In the first stages of the project, pupils in fifteen Hamburg schools have been provided with class libraries, and tests have been administered in both 'reading' groups and 'non-reading' groups. Both groups will be tested again, in two years' time. The background information about the pupils suggests that reading is, in fact, more popular amongst them than might be supposed, but that the provision and organization of reading materials in school fall far short of pupils' needs and interests.

*In this article, Bruton argues that the term extensive reading should really apply to amount of reading. Amount can be amount of new text read, amount of any text read (including repeated reading), breadth of reading (variety of text types), or time spent reading. He criticizes Day & Bamford (e.g., 1998) for calling extensive reading an approach, as this means extensive reading has a central rather than a properly peripheral role. Further, Day & Bamford's extensive reading "approach" is not novel, is flawed because vocabulary and other gains are not well supported by research, and is contradictory in many respects (e.g., emphasizing pleasure reading but recognizing assessment; emphasizing choice but recognizing class readers). As an alternative, the author suggests that the most significant dimensions for supervised foreign language reading are (a) whether or not everyone is reading the same text, and (b) whether or not the reading is supported by tasks.

Three propositions which bear upon second language learning are defined: (1) Some students need or desire only to be able to read and it is legitimate to design courses for such students which omit training in oral skills unless these help with reading. (2) Passive linguistic knowledge can develop far ahead of active ability, and this fact can be exploited when teaching reading by not demanding the simultaneous ability to write. (3) A number of examples suggest that grammar, lexicon, and phonology can be learned in greater independence of one another than is often assumed. It follows from these three propositions that it might be worth experimenting with courses which first teach the recognition of grammatical forms, then the recognition of lexicon, but which minimize both phonology and active production of sentences in the new language. Techniques by which this could be accomplished would have the added advantage of avoiding the childish level of materials with which even adult students must usually contend when beginning a foreign language.

Students who wish to read French and who are willing to omit instruction in the spoken language have learned successfully by using texts that are mixtures of French and English. The texts begin with English words in French word order, and in subsequent passages a few French words are substituted for the English words. Later the proportion of French gradually rises. The method has the advantage that adult students can practice from the beginning with adult materials. They need never be subjected to the French equivalent of "Dick and Jane". The method also allows a relatively systematic introduction of grammatical material, another advantage for the adult student, and it allows a good many aspects of the language to be absorbed relatively unconsciously through extensive exposure to written materials. Its major disadvantage is the unaesthetic appearance of the mixed texts. The method violates a number of widely held assumptions about second language instruction but reasons exist for doubting all these assumptions.

*This chapter describes a method for teaching reading to beginning level L2 learners of French. Learners begin with reading L1 translations of L2 texts written with L2 word order. Gradually, students are introduced to similar texts with an increasing quantity of L2 vocabulary. Examples are provided. Advantages and disadvantages of the method are discussed. The author explains the rationale for the method by attempting to debunk four assumptions about L2 acquisition: (1) the primacy of oral over written language; (2) the integral unity of a language; (3) inviolable boundaries separate different languages from one another; (4) language production goes hand in hand with comprehension.

*** Shows the need for extensive reading in FL teaching. Suggests a test which shows whether a student has actually read the material or has simply gained a superficial knowledge of it. Discusses advantages and disadvantages of multiple-choice. Suggests test exchange for interested teachers. Includes test on Steinbeck's "The Pearl."

This article reviews the literature critical of readability formulas from the perspective of their use in second language reading contexts. Relevant empirical research (Davison & Kantor 1982; Johnson 1981; Blau 1982; Floyd and Carrell 1987) which casts doubt on the efficacy of syntactic simplification/adaptation is also reviewed. The paper argues against using readability formulas not only as guides to text production or adaptation/simplification, but also as measures of the difficulty of naturally occurring texts. The paper argues that valid measures of a text's comprehensibility require consideration of textual phenomena at the level of discourse, of syntactic and lexical choices other than those which affect length, of logical/rhetorical ordering of ideas and progression of topics and comments, as well as--most importantly--background knowledge presumed of the reader.

This article argues for the need for both intensive and extensive reading in an EAP reading curriculum, and further argues that a principled curricular approach to combining both is through Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT). Given the need for academic preparation programs that focus on college and university requirements so that students are taught literacy skills which are transferable to academic contexts, this paper argues that both intensive and extensive reading are necessary to prepare students for the task and texts they encounter in college. Intensive reading with a focus on skills/strategies instruction has been shown to yield positive effects on second language reading. At the same time, students need the practice of extensive reading in order to orchestrate, coordinate and apply intensively acquired skills/'strategies over the larger texts and multiple reading sources that are required in all academic course work. TBLT, which focuses on specific tasks, such as evaluated products in academic contexts (e.g. test-taking, report writing), allow students to acquire relevant skills and strategies in the context of tasks they will eventually encounter in academic courses. Furthermore, TBLT provides a principled approach to the determination of relevant content.

The present study has these objectives: (1) to determine the effects of extensive reading on reading comprehension, (2) on writing complexity, (3) to assess subjects' views of extensive reading, (4) and to determine if demography affected pre and posttest reading and writing. During the 1992-93 academic year at West Virginia University, eight classes of Spanish 4 students (four classes per semester) were involved in the study. Experimental group students were tested to see if reading extensively for main meaning would affect reading and writing skills. Experimental and control groups contained subjects of various ages, with varying degrees of experience in Spanish (N = 177). Two different graduate assistants taught each semester; each assistant taught one experimental and control group. Of all the classes involved, six met three times a week for 50 minutes, and two of the control groups met two times a week for an hour and 15 minutes. For the nine week treatment period experimental students read and summarized a variety of interesting material (see Appendix A) during the first 15 minutes of each class. Control groups spent the first 15 minutes of class practicing productive skills involving speaking or writing. Reading comprehension was measured using the 1984 Advanced Placement Spanish Language exam, which has a twenty-six item multiple-choice format. After evaluation of posttest means by way of a repeated measures analysis of covariance, it was found that one teacher's experimental group showed significant progress (Alpha =.05), and that there was a significant difference between total experimental and total control groups (Alpha =.10). Writing complexity was evaluated by comparing pre and posttest mean T-Unit lengths. A repeated measures analysis of covariance revealed no significant differences in writing scores. A seventeen-item Likert questionnaire, evaluated by means of a Chi-square test, showed that students thought reading helped reading and grammar skills. A one-way analysis of variance showed that age, sex, education, and language background did not affect subjects' scores. There were no significant differences. More research is need to determine if a prolonged treatment period would yield better results in favor of extensive reading.

*This piece is a response to Ng (1996), which appeared in the same issue of this journal. The author connects Ng's discussion of the changes inherent in Brunei's RELA project with those involved in Singapore's REAP project (see Mok, 1994), on which RELA was somewhat based, and stresses the need to investigate socio-cultural factors for their effect on second language acquisition. She also emphasizes learning from and building upon current literacy practices in a given context, rather than seeking to eliminate them and begin from scratch.

*This chapter takes a socio-cultural perspective in examining the history of the change, begun in the 1980s, to a more Whole Language approach to English language instruction in lower primary schools in Singapore. Extensive reading was an important part of this approach. Returning to these classrooms in 1996, the author found that some of the positive changes of the 1980s were now less visible. For instance, library corners did not always have the variety of books that once existed. The author cautions that the increasing introduction of technology, well on its way in Singapore schools, should build on what is worthy from the past, rather than wiping it out and starting over.

*This article describes the efforts by the Singaporean Government at encouraging extensive reading for pleasure among the school children. It first describes what is known about the Singaporean reader. Then it discusses some of the Ministry of Education's initiatives to nurture the reading habit in students by describing some of the extensive reading programmes that have been introduced into schools.

*This article begins by discussing why L2 many acquirers do little reading in their L2: lack of confidence that reading will help; incorrect views of how to go about L2 reading; and difficulty in obtaining suitable books . Next, four female Korean immigrants to the U.S. participated in a study in which the researchers found that providing learners with the right texts (the Sweet Valley Kids series) boosted the quantity of their reading and increased their L2 proficiency.

*This article reports a case study building on previous work on the English language development of Koreans who came to the U.S. as adults (Cho & Krashen, 1994; Krashen & Cho, 1995). The participant in the study had lived in the U.S. for five years but had little interaction in English and, though an avid reader in Korean had never read a book in English. She was introduced to the Sweet Valley Kids series and told her reading would be voluntary, i.e., she could read as much as she liked, and if she did not like a book she was not obliged to finish it. Within one year, the participant did an impressive amount of reading - more than one million words - of that series and of more difficult material. At the same time, her L2 competence increased, based on the level of the books she read and on her estimation of her own proficiency level.

**A single positive experience in self-selected reading of children's books resulted in a profound change in attitudes toward recreational reading among Korean teachers of English as a foreign language. Before the experience, few teachers reported that they did recreational reading in English. After the experience, nearly all teachers reported that they were interested in using sustained silent reading in their classes, and were interested in reading more in English on their own.

A single positive experience may not always be enough to stimulate a reading habit (H. Kim and Krashen, 1997). Clearly. follow-up studies of subjects' actual reading and teaching are necessary. Nevertheless... Providing such experiences is not difficult, and the payoffs are potentially enormous, especially in foreign language situations where other sources of English input are scarce.

This study examines the characteristics and quality of simplification in graded readers as compared to those of 'normal' authentic English. Two passages from graded readers are compared with the original passages. The comparison uses a computer programme, RANGE (Nation and Heatley, 2003) to analyse the distribution of high and low frequency words in the passages. This is supported by a comparison of the texts in terms of Swaffar's (1985) characteristics of authentic message. The present study is in part a reanalysis and extension of Honeyfield's (1977) seminal study of simplification, but it reaches different conclusions. By not making the simplified versus original text comparison in absolute terms, but in terms of the respective readers, it finds that patterns of use of structure, discourse markers, redundancy, collocations, and high and low frequency vocabulary, are similar in both original and simplification. This suggests that the writing in well-written graded readers can be, for its audience, experienced as authentic and typical of 'normal' English.

*The author proposes that setting up a class library is a good way to bring books to students' attention. Among the suggestions given for setting up such a library are: survey students about their reading preferences; provide short introductions to the books and a worksheet to guide students in selecting suitable books; establish a procedure for recording which books students are reading and which ones they like, but avoid post-reading tasks that make reading a chore; and have a student library monitor to help maintain the collection.

***An Eastern Michigan University course in Spanish for special purposes with an emphasis on technology was intended to serve students of business, international trade, and technology, but the actual enrollment came largely from the department of foreign languages and bilingual studies. However, significant diversity in scientific preparation and aptitude and in language proficiency was still found in the course population, both undergraduate and graduate. The courses have since been designed for a broad target group, with emphasis placed on translation from Spanish to English and limited English-to-Spanish translation practice. The course content includes fundamental technological and scientific terminology in a variety of fields (mathematics, physics and subfields, chemistry, biology, and automotive and computer technology). The methodology used involves extensive readings, vocabulary review, translation, oral reports, and examinations. Instructional materials at varying linguistic levels and from a variety of fields are used. Student evaluations of the course have indicated satisfaction with the amount of learning in varied fields and with their newly acquired ability to translate technical texts. Student dissatisfaction relates to learning vocabulary in fields unrelated to career goals, text difficulty, and the instructor's lack of technical knowledge in some fields. Course outlines are appended.

**This chapter argues that proficient second language users acquire most of their vocabulary knowledge through extensive reading. For beginners, however, this presents a problem: How can they learn words through extensive reading if they don't have enough words to read extensively? Coady proposes that this dilemma can be overcome in two stages. First, learners should be given explicit instruction and practice in the 3,000 most common words in the language, to the point of automaticity. Second, they should then be allowed to engage in reading tasks they find enjoyable. Of critical importance is the careful selection of reading materials: Drawing on Krashen's Input Hypothesis, Coady urges curriculum designers to adopt an approach in which there is comprehensible input, adequate and supportive feedback, and, above all, material that the learner finds interesting.

Almost 10 years ago, Cobb & Stevens (1996) argued that the flood of text about to go online should be a boon for second language learners, and we proposed a number of ways that computers would be able to not only deliver this expanded supply of text but also enhance the amount of learning the text could provide by processing it in various ways both prior to and during delivery. In 2005, it seems safe to say that the amount, quality, diversity, and availability of such text has exceeded expectations. And yet it is not clear that the computer for its part is serving as more than delivery vehicle. This is a pity, because just as the text was more than expected, so are the opportunities for computers to do much more than simply download, distribute and print. Computer programs, accessing large shared text repositories, have a tremendous potential to both resolve old questions for teachers/course designers, and provide new and unique opportunities for large numbers of learners at low cost. I will provide concrete instances of questions resolved and opportunities provided in one exemplary domain, the theory and practice of extensive reading. Some parts of this paper take the form of a response to Krashen, a noted proponent of "buying books, not computers" if it comes to a choice. I hope to convince the reader that books and computers are now complements rather than choices.

The length of the period of study by the majority of pupils is a major consideration in fixing the objectives of modern language courses. The ability to read is generally recognized as the first goal. Investigations in teaching children to read the mother tongue provide material of value to modern language teachers and suggest a technique for the development of skill in reading a foreign language silently.

[*Reading ability is the only means by which the average pupil who studies a modern language for two years can achieve a degree of independence in that language. Pupils must therefore be quickly weaned from the hallmarks of the Committee of Twelve's Reading Method (1901): translation and the detailed reading of a small number of pages, which are then analyzed in class. It is not that these methods—or the Direct Method's speech-first principle—are wrong. It is just that, for all but the top one-third of the pupils in a class, two years is not enough time for them to bear fruit.

The teaching of fluent reading must be based on an understanding of the reading process, and of the principles of teaching reading in the first language, the first three of which are:

1. Children learn to read by reading and they learn better if the reading practice is as nearly as possible like the reading they may be expected to do after they have learned to read fluently.
2. The best results are obtained from material adapted to the age, the interests, the abilities of pupils.
3. Extensive reading is an important factor in increasing the speed of reading. (p. 112)

The pedagogical principle is that "teaching directly for the results one wishes to achieve increases the probability of achieving the desired results" (p. 113). Michael West's research and methodology show the way to develop fluent reading in a foreign language. Pupils begin by rapidly developing a recognition vocabulary of 150-250 words, which allows them to start reading supplementary texts. Hundreds of pages are read, in which new vocabulary is systematically introduced at the rate of one new item per 30 to 40 running words. After two years pupils can understand narrative texts with a vocabulary range of 4000 to 5000 words.

The first value to be gained by studying foreign languages is the power to use the language for the purpose for which languages exist, namely, as a means of communication. By establishing one-way communication through reading, teachers can get "for their pupils a larger net return in terms of language power for their investment of time and effort" (p. 118).]

***This study investigates the application of Krashen's Input Hypothesis, studying the relationship between exposure to the target language and language acquisition within the context of the English-as-a-foreign -language secondary classroom in Spain. The project studied the effect of additional reading instruction with emphasis on reading for pleasure. Series of graded readers were made available to students in the experimental group who were asked to turn in short reports on which they received teacher feedback. An average of 15 hours of after school reading was completed by students in the experimental group. Student achievement was evaluated via the short form of the English Language Skills Assessment (ELSA), a multiple-choice cloze test, a dictation test, the Spew test (vocabulary), and a self-assessment measure. The difference between control and experimental groups was not significant. The following possible explanations are provided: reading does not correlate with greater achievement in a second language; the treatment provides either inadequate or insufficient input to support Krashen's hypothesis; the length of the study was insufficient to show significant results; the measurement tools used were inadequate to capture differences.

*Collins English Library (later published by Nelson and by Longman) is a 6-level series of graded readers now out of print. This 48-page booklet has detailed and thoughtful notes on structural and vocabulary controls. "All grading schemes corrupt, and absolute grading schemes tend to corrupt absolutely. But just as a measure of power helps society to work, so a measure of grading helps language learning to work" (p. 9). The structure scheme was devised by Caroline Tutton et. al, and the word lists by Tom McArthur. There are lists of structures and words allowed at each level of the series (Level 1: 300 headwords; Level 6, 2500 headwords), plus a word formation guide that lists the prefixes and suffixes that may be used at each level.

*This study reports on a project to identify the effects of sustained silent reading period on the achievement of elementary-school students. The experiment, with 220 elementary school students in grades 2-6, was carried out daily for 15 weeks with the amount of time reading varying from grade to grade, ranging from 10 to 30 minutes per day. Intact classes at each level were randomly assigned to the experimental or control group.

The results showed that the experimental groups had progressed one-tenth of a book further, which was significant at the .0005 level. There was no significant difference between the groups in the students' attitude towards reading. However, "teachers whose classes took part in a sustained silent reading program were able to record significantly more specific reading interests of their students on the free-response questionnaire than teachers who did not take part in a sustained reading program (P=.0001)…. Similarly, teachers in the experimental group recorded more specific verbal responses that students made concerning materials they had read than teachers in the control group did (P=.0001)…. Participation in a sustained silent reading program during the time that was previously used for instruction in spelling and English did not appear to lower students' achievement in spelling and English when scores of the subtests of the Iowa Tests of Basics skills were used as the measurement criteria."

*The article consists of a narrative describing how academically-oriented ESL students at a U.S. university were persuaded to use pleasure reading, rather than academic texts, to increase their language competence. Those students who switched to pleasure reading seemed to make rapid improvement, whereas those who refused to switch to pleasure reading reportedly experienced little improvement.

*This paper describes a one semester reading class of adult, lower intermediate level, ESL students in the U.S. The class emphasized student-selected pleasure reading, supplemented with teacher-supplied magazine articles. Students began the course wishing to use traditional methods to improve their reading, such as looking up unknown words and asking about grammar. However, with the author's guidance, such practices decreased dramatically or vanished. Students were not tested on their reading nor were they asked to write book reports. Instead, students wrote and responded to questions about the texts they had read, or, optionally wrote journal entries. As the course progressed, more and more students wrote journal entries and the length of these entries increased. The author concludes, "Pleasure reading gave the results that we, as reading and language teachers, want: language development in terms of reading, writing, and comprehension, and confidence. The goal was accomplished in an environment that was fun, relaxing, and interesting for all involved."

Forty-three international university students, currently living in the United States, filled out a questionnaire probing years of English study, length of residence (LOR) in the US, free reading habits in the first and second language, and TV watching. Despite the fact that subjects reported little reading in English, this variable was a significant predictor of TOEFL test performance. In addition, English study in the home country and length of residence in the US were also related to TOEFL scores.

Although extensive reading is now recognised as an important element of language instruction, it appears that EFL students specialising in business studies do little reading in English beyond course requirements. This study illustrates the findings of a survey of reading frequency and attitudes related to extensive reading in English. A questionnaire administered to 182 Italian EFL students at the University of Florence showed that even if frequency of reading in English is quite low, attitude towards it is clearly favourable. In addition, multiple regression analysis was used to determine potentially influential factors. Reading in Italian and experience abroad were significantly correlated with both reading frequency and attitude. The correlation between past access to English books and reading attitude approached the significance level. A negative correlation was found instead between the number of years of past English study and reading attitude. These findings are useful for defining appropriate instructional actions and identifying areas for further research, with the aim of more effectively promoting extensive reading in English.

The brief ELT background and description of the reading programme's design and aims are first given. The paper then identifies the main problem areas in implementation and describes the broad approaches used to address them. Specific problems and the programme's response to them, relating to both Class Readers and Class Libraries are examined. Finally some conclusions are reached in the light of our experiences, which may have implications for the design and implementation of similar programmes.

**In Chapter 14, Colin Davidson, Dianne Ogle, Denise Ross, Jakki Tuhaka, and Ng Seok Moi describe a wide range of strategies they use for helping students in a New Zealand primary school to generate materials for themselves, their teachers, and their fellow students to read. Such student-generated materials help achieve the teachers' goal of encouraging their students to "write like readers and read like writers", because once you have written a book or other text of your own for a real audience, your whole view of the reading-writing process changes.

This paper compares a newly published set of readers, The Great South LandDavidson and Court 2001) for beginner ESL/EFL students with other materials which are described by their publishers as suitable for beginners, and in particular, with those analysed by Nation and Deweerdt in the December 2001 edition of Prospect.

*Simplification is often used to create extensive reading materials for L2 students. The author begins this chapter by stating that "Simplicity is difficult". He goes on to describe some of the issues involved in simplification of language and its relation to authenticity. In conclusion he states, "In teaching our concern is with simplification, not with authenticity. Everything the learner understands is authentic for him. It is the teacher who simplifies, the learner who authenticates."

During the last fifteen years, extensive reading programmes (ERPs) have been growing in popularity worldwide as a significant support to the teaching of English, whether in L1, ESL, or EFL. The Edinburgh Project in Extensive Reading (EPER) has done much to promote the aims and methods of extensive reading, and has successfully developed programmes in countries with such varied learning contexts as Malaysia, Tanzania, Hong Kong, and the Maldives. And yet, it seems that ERPs have not been adopted as readily as they might have been. This article considers the benefits of extensive reading, examines some of the reasons for its failure to 'take off', describes two programmes with which the writer has been intimately involved, and offers teachers some leading questions to help them develop their own programmes.

*This article reports a questionnaire study of 175 U.S. undergraduates' attitudes toward studying L2 literature. These students were enrolled in sixth-semester introductory foreign language literature courses. About two-thirds of respondents reported a positive attitude toward literature study. Variables found to be significantly related to attitude toward literature study were amount of leisure reading done in the L2, role of literature in the home, and preferred learning style. The authors recommend that reading instruction allow students to give their own interpretations of what they read and that Sustained Silent Reading in which students select what they read be done once or twice a week.

This article contains practical suggestions for running an extensive reading programme. These suggestions include: how teachers can work together to grade the books so as to make it easier for students to select appropriate books; how the use of class readers can build skills that enhance students' out-of-class reading; and writing and speaking activities to use with class readers. The author concludes by emphasizing two points: the need for careful planning, and the value of time spent on extensive reading.

*This short discussion of extensive reading (a Longman advertising feature) uses exercise as a metaphor for reading instruction. Extensive reading in many ways resembles jogging. As it is under the control of the individual, the teacher's role "is to inspire, suggest, sustain, guide, and enthuse." In contrast, intensive reading is like weight training with a personal trainer, requiring great effort and close supervision. The article also summarizes the history of grading texts (Michael West's vocabulary control; structural grading), and mentions comprehensible input, and the authenticity debate.

**In extensive reading, students select their own books and read a great deal at their own pace. They are encouraged to read easy and interesting books and to stop reading a book if it is too hard, too easy, or boring. Generally, students do not answer comprehension questions on the books they have read. This article shows how this can be done by suggesting two writing activities that are designed to help students improve their writing and, at the same time, allow them to demonstrate their understanding of the books they have read.

*This book is a collection of activities for teaching second language reading, including activities on reading for main ideas, scanning, assessment and evaluation, and reading rate. Part 1 consists of 13 activities for extensive reading, including ones by authors of other works in this bibliography, such as Bamford and Mason.

*This article addresses the problem of how to encourage students to read extensively in an L2. The article begins with an explanation of what extensive reading is, the materials to be used, and the benefits that can derived from incorporating extensive reading in L2 instruction. The authors also discuss such matters as selecting reading materials, considering the impact of culture on reading, orienting students to read extensively, integrating extensive reading into the curriculum, following up on students’ reading, and role modeling by teachers.

*The book, comprising 15 chapters, is divided into three main parts. The first part is the more theoretical, beginning with an explanation of what extensive reading (ER) and various related terms, such as free voluntary reading, mean. The next chapters in this part situate ER in light of theories of the reading process, discuss the importance of affect and how ER can improve learners' attitudes toward reading, review research on ER, and consider the place of ER in the second language curriculum. The book's second part discusses a crucial issue regarding materials for use in ER programmes. The authors argue for the use of what they call language learner literature, works written or rewritten especially for language learners, e.g., simplified versions of well-known works. Day and Bamford go on to illustrate what is involved in creating good language learner literature. Further, the book's appendix provides a 49-page bibliography of recommended works of this type. The last and longest part of the book describes the nuts and bolts of running ER programmes, including setting up the programme, finding and organising the materials, orienting the students to the programme, creating an on-going community of readers, evaluating the programme, and, last but not least, the role of the teacher. They conclude by emphasising that although successful ER programmes differ in many regards, they all have one element in common: teachers who put their heart, soul, and mind into making the programme a success.

Reviews of this volume

• Review by Willy A. Renandya, George M. Jacobs & Vivienne Wai-Sze Yu
  A slightly abridged version of this review appeared in RELC Journal, 29(2), 1998, pp. 187-191.
• Review by David Dycas
  in Literacy Across Cultures, February, 1998, 1/2
• Review by Kyle Perkins
  Modern Language Journal Vol 83(1), 1999
• Review by Ted Plaister
  The CATESOL Journal 1997/98, p. 159

During the process of first language development, children learn new vocabulary incidentally from listening and reading situations. While it has been claimed that the same is true for second language learners, there is a paucity of empirical evidence. This paper reports the results of an investigation whose purpose was to determine if Japanese EFL students could learn vocabulary incidentally while reading silently for entertainment in the classroom. The findings demonstrated that such incidental vocabulary learning did occur for both high school and university students.

This study used self-report data to examine what participants felt was most helped them gain a high level of proficiency in English. Participants were 48 non-native English speakers from a variety of countries who were full-time faculty members at U.S. universities. They completed a questionnaire that asked them about their formal and informal experiences in learning English and asked them to rate the utility of the various types of experience and to make recommendations as to what might most help current ESL learners.

While results are not unambiguous, the researcher interprets the findings as supportive of an emphasis on language use and on participating in experiences that promote unconscious acquisition, rather than a focus on language usage and on working toward conscious learning of English. For example, one table in the article shows respondents’ ranking of the usefulness of seven types of exposure to English. The two types of exposure ranked least useful are formal ESL classes prior to and during university, while the two highest ranked are using English as a teacher or professor and as a student in regular university classes. In another table, free reading was ranked as the most helpful out-of-class activity.

**In Chapter 13, Beverly Derewianka from Australia describes a wide range of techniques and resources for using the vast reaches of the Internet to find and generate materials for extensive reading. Among the many techniques and places on the Internet which Derewianka advises students and teachers to explore are: Keypals, the Internet equivalent of penpals; Chatrooms, where the fingers do the talking and the eyes do the listening; Learning Networks, which link students and teachers working together on a particular task or project; and Discussion Lists and Newsgroups, global forums for people with like interests to share ideas.

* This article describes a technique for increasing literacy skills of L2 children and their families. Teachers put together book bags, each of which contained a story appropriate to the children's reading level, a toy that matched the story, and a blank journal with a question related to story written on the opening page. Children took the bags home to read the book with their family, play with the toy, and write in the journal. The bags circulated among the class, with each new borrower adding an entry to the journal.

* This article describes how students first read one or two myths and legends before working in groups to write stories, legends, and myths either from their own culture or which they had invented. These texts then were shared with fellow students.

*This article proposes that L2 students can benefit from reading books written for young adult native speakers. Among the suggested benefits of reading such books are their modern themes, fast pace, relatively short page length, uncomplicated plots, and contemporary language. Sources of recommended titles are provided.

**In Chapter 16, Beatrice Dupuy and Jeff McQuillan explain how US students of French as a foreign language create extensive reading materials by writing and illustrating texts. A key advantage of these materials is that because they are created by students' own classmates, the texts are likely to meet two criteria for extensive reading materials: comprehensibility and interest. Dupuy and McQuillan provide guidelines for the writing, illustrating, and publishing of the Handcrafted Books, as well as an example book.

****This article focuses on the use of a different approach to reading in the intermediate foreign language classroom. It is an approach which exposes students to a great variety of texts which they self-select and read during their free time. After briefly reviewing the literature on free reading, and outlining the rationale for its use, the author reports the reactions of two intermediate foreign language classes to the free reading approach, as well as their opinions regarding the impact of this approach on developing the language they study. A majority of students (87%) reported that the free reading program had helped them develop their overall language competence and indicated that it had been most beneficial in expanding their vocabulary and increasing their reading comprehension. Students (94%) also reported that the free reading program had helped them become confident readers in French, and 82% of them indicated that they were more likely to read for pleasure in French after participating in this program.

Looking for a way to bring students to read voluntarily in their second language and enjoy it? This article discusses a reading approach through which students are exposed to many books which they self-select and discuss in their literature circles, and reports the reactions of 49 French students towards this approach.

By examining the preferences of 49 intermediate-level students of French as a foreign language concerning two classroom activities (grammar instruction and practice, and extensive reading) this study replicates and expands a previous study (McQuillan,1994) by surveying students studying a different language, and presenting the reasons behind their choice. Similar to McQuillan (1994), students in this study overwhelmingly found extensive reading to be not only more pleasurable but also more beneficial for language acquisition than grammar instruction and practice. Students explained that while reading was fun, interesting, and beneficial for language acquisition, grammar instruction and practice was dull and boring, and its effects small and short-lived.

In this paper, the author reports on an alternative reading approach for the intermediate foreign language class. It is an approach through which students are exposed to a great variety of books that they self select and discuss in their literature circles. After discussing the general principles of literature circles, the author will proceed to discuss how this approach can be implemented in the classroom.

Third semester college students of French in one intact class saw the first five scenes of Trois homes et un couffin and read the next five scenes in class. They were then surprised with a vocabulary test that contained highly colloquial words that were in the texts. Subjects performed significantly better than control subjects who were enrolled in another 3rd-semester French class as well as controls enrolled in a more advanced class, confirming that incidental vocabulary acquisition is possible in a foreign language situation. A conservative estimate of their rate of vocabulary acquisition was about .075 words per minute, which included the film and the reading. Rate of incidental vocabulary acquisition may have been underestimated, however, because the text was difficult, only 30 words were tested, and only eight of the 30 words appeared in the film.

*This articles describes how 3rd-semester students of French as a Second Language at a U.S. university wrote and illustrated their own books for extensive reading. These stories could be original or retellings. Students were advised not to use dictionaries in order that the texts they created would not be too difficult for their peers. These books were organized into a library.

*The authors begin by giving reasons why ESL students are reluctant to read for pleasure in English: students believe reading is not an effective way of learning; they believe L2 reading should focus on form, not meaning; and students do not know how to choose appropriate reading material. The article describes an extensive reading program that tried to overcome student reluctance to read for pleasure. First, students were informed of research that suggests extensive reading can greatly enhance SLA. Next, the authors helped students understand the difference between intensive and extensive reading. The authors also assisted students in choosing books by such means as surveys of student interests, booktalks, book displays, and book lists. Students participated in a number of activities: SSR (sustained silent reading) in class, literature circles, reading logs, book reviews, and critic's corner. The authors recommend that in keeping with the link between extensive reading and learner initiative, students negotiate how they will be graded for their extensive reading course.

*The EPER database, begun in the early 1980s and updated periodically, currently has entries for about 3500 English-language graded readers, both in and out of print. Each book is assigned to one of EPER's 8 readability levels, from beginning to advanced. The database thus consolidates the various series from various publishers into one overall system of levels. Database entries also include such information as recommended reader age (adult, secondary, primary), genre, regional setting, sex of the main protagonist, and a quality rating on a 5-point scale. At different times, it has been possible to order (directly from EPER) Booklists drawn from the database. The Booklists, copyrighted by EPER according the year made, have included Complete Lists (all books both in and out of print); Current/Standard Lists (all books in print, now about 1600 titles); Recommended Titles (those in print that score 4 or 5 on the quality scale, currently about 600 titles), and customized lists to customer specifications (e.g. books suitable for primary-aged readers). Further details of and information from the database can be found in Hill & Thomas, 1988, 1989, 1993, and Hill, 1997. A version of the Recommended Titles Booklist appears as an appendix to Day and Bamford, 1998.

*This book consists of 15 chapters divided into four parts. Part 1 begins with a discussion of what extensive reading is and its benefits to students. Other topics in Part 1 include finding suitable materials for extensive reading and descriptions of programmes in a variety of countries. Part 2 is the book's longest section. It goes into detail on programme management, including class readers and library readers, storage and security of books, official endorsement, training of staff, monitoring, and evaluation. Part 3 concerns the classroom teacher's role in extensive reading, and Part 4 describes what EPER can offer educators wishing to implement extensive reading.

Five critical differences between first and second language learning were identified and discussed. It was hypothesized that the effect of these differences in formal education could be virtually eliminated by means of a reading program based on the use of an abundance of high-interest illustrated story books. A sample of 380 Class 4 and 5 pupils from eight rural Fijian schools with very few books was selected, and each class was provided with 250 high-interest story books in English. The 16 participating teachers were given directions in two different methods of encouraging the pupils to read the books. Pre- and posttests were given to all pupils and to matched control groups of 234 pupils who followed the normal structured English language program, which puts little emphasis on reading. Posttest results after eight months showed that pupils exposed to many stories progressed in reading and listening comprehension at twice the normal rate, and confirmed the hypothesis that high-interest story reading has an important role to play in second language learning. After 20 months, the gains had increased further and spread to related language skills.

*This chapter begins with a description of how reading is taught in Fiji and of the Tate Oral English Program based on audio-lingual principles and used widely in the South Pacific. Next, data are presented indicating that the cloze procedure may be valid for assessing L1 and L2 reading. The author then explains why he supports two changes to the teaching of reading in Fiji: more books in schools and an instructional approach that encourages students to read much more. Elley presents data in which the variable that correlated most strongly with reading scores - after removing variance accounted for by home background - was the size of students' school library. Many primary schools were found to lack well-stocked libraries, or even not to have libraries, in part due to the absence of indigenous children's literature in written form. Second, he argues that the audio-lingual approach's delay in the introduction of reading generally and in the introduction of specific structures in reading until they have been taught orally is unfounded, especially in light of work, mostly in the 1970s, by students of reading such as Clay, Goodman, and Smith. Instead of books chosen for their controlled use of selected grammatical structures, he suggests a reading programme based on high interest stories in order to encourage reading by primary school students. The editors' postscript to the chapter includes a discussion of the relative place of oral and written forms of language in L2 education.

This article outlines a set of recent little-known empirical studies of the effects of "book-floods" on students' acquisition of a second language in elementary schools. In contrast to students learning by means of structured, audiolingual programs, those children who are exposed to an extensive range of high-interest illustrated story books, and encouraged to read and share them, are consistently found to learn the target language more quickly. When immersed in meaningful text, without tight controls over syntax and vocabulary, children appear to learn the language incidentally, and to develop positive attitudes toward books. In some cases, the benefits are found to spread to other subjects and languages. Implications are drawn for language policy in developing countries and some support is established for such concepts as "comprehensible input" and "whole language" approaches to language acquisition in schools.

*This chapter reports findings from a study organized by the IEA (International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement). Data were collected in 1990 and 1991, involving 210,000 students and 10,000 teachers from 32 education systems from all over the world. The chapter focuses on those findings of particular relevance to developing countries, where the language of school is not the native language of many of the students. Among the author's conclusions "is that instructional programs that stress teacher-directed drills and skills are less beneficial in raising literacy levels than programs that try to capture students' interest and encourage them to read independently."

In many countries of the world, English is learned formally by pupils as a second or foreign language. Much of the instruction in schools is aimed at teaching one English structure at a time, in the belief that the learners will be able to put these discretely learnt structures together in real communicative situations. That learning for communication is slow and for the amount of time devoted to it relatively unproductive and often bereft of any enjoyment is not surprising. In the schools of the South Pacific, the situation is not different. In this report, the authors explore an alternative, more enjoyable approach to promoting the acquisition of English at the primary school level. The approach capitalizes on children's love for stories and the belief that effective learning takes place at the point of interest. Children in rural schools of Fiji were exposed to a variety of high-interest illustrated story books and encouraged to read and discuss them regularly. The report describes how the children's language progress was carefully monitored to investigate the effects of the new approach. The results were positive and sufficiently encouraging to give new hope to pupils and teachers of English in many contexts, and to provide sound empirical support for the contribution of reading to general growth.

*The first 20 pages of this book provide an introduction explaining what extensive reading is and providing ideas for teaching English as a second language via extensive reading. The remaining approximately 125 pages present guides for teaching 18 different books. The guides include explanatory notes and a range of activities focusing both on content and on language.

*** Includes a brief description of the English-language proficiency level expected of ninth-grade Israeli students and introduces a tabular guide to various English readers, along with their basic vocabulary ranges.

*This article begins by stating that, owing to the view of language as speech, reading and writing are given a secondary role, even though they may be more important for many advanced L2 students. Furthermore, the differences between spoken and written forms of language mean that development of proficiency in the spoken form of a language will not be sufficient in promoting proficiency with the written form. The article goes on to review work by Goodman and others on the reading process, before suggesting a model reading program. This involves both intensive and extensive reading, "moving back and forth between close in-class analysis and the synthesis that reading in quantity provides". Three points are emphasized in the model program: materials that are neither too difficult nor too easy, although too easy is preferable to too difficult; content of the reading should match students' needs; and reading material must be available in large quantity. Reading labs, stocked with graded readers, provide one means of providing this quantity.

*Reviewing the research presented in the book's previous chapters, the author concludes that because reading is such a complex, interactive, and multifaceted process, sustainable progress can only be via a large quantity of reading of texts of increasingly greater difficulty.

Unless students can somehow be induced to develop a serious interest in some kind of reading that leads to a long-term reading habit, all talk of teaching reading becomes meaningless. There is much that can be done to help students along, and to wean them from counter-productive strategies, but providing appropriate material to read, that is, material which the students themselves find interesting or useful at a level which is largely comprehensible to them, should always be the teacher's first priority.

*In this article, Eskey proposes a three-dimensional model of reading, beginning with a psycholinguistic definition ("Reading is acquiring information from a written or printed text and relating it to what you already know to construct a meaning for the text as a whole"), and then adding sociolinguistic (joining the literacy club) and individual (each person is cognitively and affectively distinct from others) elements to the model. Eskey contends that it is necessary for an educator to understand the reader in each of these three aspects. He then addresses the question: How do people learn to read and to read better, especially in a second or foreign language? To become skillful readers, apprentice readers must read a lot; Engaging in extensive reading behavior is a prerequisite for developing reading skills. Thus, a major part of the reading teacher's job is to introduce students to appropriate (the right level; interesting; relevant) texts, and induce them to read such texts in quantity. The teacher's second important job is to teach productive reading strategies. In these ways the teacher motivates and facilitates reading.

**This paper explores the potential of hypermedia for foreign language learning at intermediate level. It focuses on the results and experiences of a research project which led to the trialling of a HyperCard program entitled Nicolas incorporating text, graphics and sound, for use mainly with 14-16 year-old students of French. The aim of the research was to investigate the extent to which extensive reading skills might be supported and developed by the use of such applications. Can hypermedia provide a useful bridge between the communicative diet of the early stages of foreign language learning and the interpretive skills required at advanced level? The discussion tackles the issue of the apparent contradiction between the serial nature of the reading process and the non-sequential navigational structure of hypertexts, and looks in particular at the role of glossaries, and interactive tasks which are interspersed throughout the program.

*This article explains why intrinsic motivation is crucial for reading, what factors increase and decrease intrinsic motivation to read, and how to design a reading program that promotes intrinsic motivation. Suggestions include encouraging students to stop reading a book they are not enjoying, using enjoyable and non-threatening means of checking on students' reading, and allowing students to do extensive reading in a comfortable place, one not associated with serious studying.

*This practical paper discusses two main problems in creating classroom libraries for free voluntary reading programs: limited access to books and lack of conducive environments to read. Suggestions to overcome the problems include checking out the children’s books from the public library, downloading and printing on-line books, offering Scholastic order forms to students, contacting book companies that sell Children’s Books at low cost, mounting standard hardware store rain gutters to the wall or begging book racks from the library, asking for donations of bean bags, large pillows or comfortable chairs, and encouraging students to take the titles that are interesting to them.

Students enjoy reading graded readers, and reading circles serve to relocate extensive reading materials from the periphery of the language classroom to its centre. Reading circles combine the skills of reading, writing, speaking, and listening. They provide two things often lacking in many communication courses: material that is both comprehensible and interesting to talk about, and a framework which makes having a real discussion in English an achievable goal for students. This article defines reading circles, discusses the benefits of using them in the classroom, and introduces the reading circles roles. Finally, it also explains how to get started using reading circles in the classroom so that students can have interesting, meaningful discussions, in English

The role of extensive reading in building vocabulary continues to receive considerable attention in first and second language research and pedagogy. This study analyses the lexical differences between narrative and expository reading materials used in upper-elementary education (10- and 11-year-old children), and explores how these differences could affect children's potential vocabulary acquisition through reading. Results of a computerized analysis of nearly 1.5 million word tokens reveals marked differences between 28 narrative and 28 expository children's books in terms of overall token distribution and individual type repetitions at all levels of vocabulary analysed in the study (i.e. general high frequency words, academic high frequency words, and specialized words). Further exploration of the lexical data indicates high numbers of register-specific words at all levels of vocabulary, particularly at the more specialized levels where the potential for protracted vocabulary growth is the greatest. A subsequent discussion addresses qualitative differences in the characteristics of these exclusive narrative and expository types. These lexical findings are used to assess claims of Wide Reading and Free Reading relative to children's acquisition of vocabulary through extensive reading, especially the default claims of 'incidental' word acquisition through repetitive encounters with unknown words while reading large volumes of material for pleasure.

Fourteen collections of children’s reading materials were used to investigate the claim that collections of authentic texts with a common theme, or written by one author, afford readers with more repeated exposures to new words than unrelated materials. The collections, distinguished by relative thematic tightness, authorship (1 vs. 4 authors), and register (narrative vs. expository), were analyzed to determine how often, and under what conditions, specialized vocabulary recycles within the materials. Findings indicated that thematic relationships impacted specialized vocabulary recycling within expository collections (primarily content words), whereas authorship impacted recycling within narrative collections (primarily names of characters, places, etc.). Theme-based expository collections also contained much higher percentages of theme-related words than their theme-based narrative counterparts. The findings were used to give nuance to the vocabulary-recycling claims of narrow reading and to more general theories and practices involving wide and extensive reading.

*This paper opens by emphasizing the need for students, who have a wide variety of interests, to find books that interest them if their reading is to progress. Twenty-eight writers produced 64 English language books for Malaysian students in the third and fourth years of primary school. Students were then asked to rate these books. The 20 top-rated books were published and distributed to schools in various parts of the country for further rating by pupils. Results of this second rating exercise showed no evidence of differences in the rating of students related to whether they lived in urban or rural areas, were of different ages, or according to the book's difficulty level. Further, females and males rated the books about the same, except for one book about choosing dresses that was more popular with females. Very brief summaries are provided of the twenty books that students especially liked.

*This article presents ideas for encouraging a love of reading among ESL students at elementary and middle school level. The author begins by emphasizing the crucial nature of affective variables in reading, not only in determining attitude toward reading but also for increasing comprehension. In addition to attitude, these affective variables include motivation, beliefs, perceived task control, and perceived competence. Suggestions for enhancing affect include: open tasks in which students have opportunities for choice, challenge, control in organizing and planning, collaboration, connecting to the world beyond the classroom, understanding of why they are doing the task, and self-evaluation; ways of making easy books acceptable and difficult books accessible; allowing students to choose what they read and helping them to learn how to choose wisely; and a low-risk environment in which teachers act as facilitators and role models rather than evaluators, classmates are supportive, and time and space is provided for students to read and to share with one another about their reading.

The teaching of English as a foreign language in primary schools is gaining popularity throughout the world. Many countries are also using English in the upper grades as the vehicular language for all or part of the general curriculum. It is therefore important to identify the types of materials that best prepare pupils for academic work in L2. The traditional structurally-based texts and the newer, integrated, communicative courses might not be sufficient for the demands of the academic classes. On the other hand, a syllabus that is based, or that draws heavily on authentic children's stories, provides a motivating medium for language learning while fostering the development of the thinking skills that are needed for L2 academic literacy. Literature can also act as a powerful change agent by developing pupils' intercultural awareness w