What is extensive reading?

Students read at their

own level and as many
books as they can,
accoriding to their
personal preferences.

Students read for

pleasure without the
Students are given
Extensive reading involves pressure of being
time and
students reading various texts for tested or marked.
encouragement to
Reading is silent and
read as much as they pleasure in order to develop individual, while the
want, at their own general reading fluency. role of a teacher is to
pace.
guide/orient the
students.

A wide variety of
reading materials
should be provided by
the library, teacher or
school. Materials
should be easy and
enjoyable.

Mihajlo Ravic
 What are the benefits of extensive reading?
It is important to underline that extensive reading is a crucial element in
language teaching. As suggested by research, it should take 20% of course
time. However, extensive reading has an effect after longer periods; therefore,
the students should be exposed to large amounts of reading materials for at
least one year, or even two years.
Extensive reading has the following benefits to EFL/ESL learners:
 It deepens the knowledge of words that learners have already met.
This occurs because words are repeated and they appear in different
contexts.
 It improves reading rate and fluency
 It has an effect on reading habits and attitudes.
In order to read with ease learners need to know more than 95% - 98% of the
words in a text. Moreover, when learners read easy texts they are able to
process them, read them quickly, and ultimately enjoy them. In the long run,
reading easy texts increases reading speed.

Task-based Elements of Extensive Reading

Post-reading activities should include one of the following:

an
information a focus on
or opinion meaning
gap

a non- relation to
lingustic the real
outcome world

Mihajlo Ravic
Overcoming obstacles to extensive reading
 EFL curriculums are often exam-based, therefore leaving no
time for extensive reading.
 The school should act as a reading community that promotes
reading in class.
 Teachers should work together on sharing ideas and resources
for implementing the extensive reading program.
 When selecting reading materials, personal preference of the
students should be taken into consideration.
 The school should strive to provide a wide range of book titles,
reading materials in both L1 and L2.
 In cases of limited resources, The Book Box scheme could be
used (i.e. a books are kept in a box that goes from class to
class).
 The teachers could organize Shared-reading classes, i.e. asking
students in higher grades to spend time with those in lower
grades, and read aloud to them.

Reading Circles
Reading circles are groups of EFL learners who gather to discuss a piece of
literature. Consider the following ideas when organizing reading circles.

The group decides wheter

Involve your students
into deciding on the
book's title, the amont of
pages, the plot, etc.
or not they read aloud
(reading aloud actually
helps with decoding and
pronunication; however,
this is not mandatory as
some students might not be
comfortable with reading
aloud).

Even though reading circles are

teacher-led in the beginning,
you should strive to engage
In class activities should mirror
learners into taking the role of
real world/life; they should be
the teacher, i.e. group's leader.
engaging and achiveable, but
For example, each learner could
not too easy or too difficult.
be a chair person for a week.
This makes the reading circle
student -centered.

Mihajlo Ravic