Critical Reading 4

In this post I still talk about extensive reading since I am interested in it. The article I read entitled Extensive Reading with Adult Learners of English as a Second Language. The paper is about reports on study of the impact of ER on the language proficiency. The introduction of the article tells about the things that we need to implement ER program toward students based on experts research. There are some characteristic to measure the success implementation of ER. Those are : 1) the amount of the input material, 2) student’s interest, 3) The variation of the material genre, 4) Student’s level of comprehension, 5)Student participation in the post-reading activities, 6) Teacher involve in the ER activities as a role model, 7)Student’s reading progress, 8) Teacher’s help and guidance.

Based on that theory, Renandya is interested to study about the relationship between learning gain and a set of ER variable. The variables are the amount of ER material, the level of interest of the material, the level of comprehension (easy/difficult material) and whether ER is a useful and enjoyable activity. The participants of the study were 49 senior Vietnamese government official who were in Singapore for a two-month intensive English course entitled English for International Communication. The component including 5 basic skill of English. Renandya explain the mechanism of his research. It’s good mechanism, because he goes with 3 instruments, those are : designed test (pre and post), book record (reading log) and questionnaire (given after the program). He divided student into two groups into high proficiency and less-proficiency in English after given a pre-test. Then he gives the ER treatment by using some rules like restricting the number of words or pages. The two months treatment result in positive relation between learning gain and the ER variable. ER program can successfully conducted if it is well prepared and in a good mechanism.

According to some articles explaining about ER, it can be concluded that ER bring good impact in the student’s EFL/ESL learning progress. If it is implemented in the class, I think student will be rethinking that English is hard. What should be noticed here is the proper mechanism in implementing it.

Citation  :

Renandya, W. A., Rajan, B. S., & Jacobs, G. M. (1999). Extensive reading with adult learners of English as a second language. RELC journal, 30(1), 39-60.

"You know you've read a good book when you turn the last page and feel a little as if you have lost a friend" - Paul Sweeney