4 Ways to Encourage Extensive Reading in Lessons

Here are 5 ways to motivate students to partake in ER.

One aim of Extensive Reading is reading for pleasure so first of all, it is important that students have access to a wide range of reading material.

1. Organise a class library. Providing reading material for students is key. This could be a page on a class learning platform that provides links to online reading materials that are free.

Magazines - https://www.ok.co.uk/ https://www.nationalgeographic.com/ https://www.newscientist.com/

Or online newspaper articles

Comic books - https://www.marvel.com/comics/list/623/get_started_with_free_issues?&options%5Boffset%5D=0&totalcount=77

The Guttenberg Project also is a website which has thousands of free literature - https://www.gutenberg.org/

It is also important that access to books, newspapers and magazines that students can borrow and also allows for discussion in class about what they have read, what they would like to read etc.

2. Silent reading in class
15- 20 minutes of lesson time can be put aside for silent reading. The more one reads the better one becomes at reading (Day and Bamford, 1998).The benefits of ER show that it increases vocabulary and also sustains the growth in vocabulary, this is due to coming across phrases and words several times and over a variety of contexts in reading material (Snow and Kim, 2007).

3. Reading Record
When the teacher is actively recording what students are reading and taking interest in what students have chosen to read then this can motivate students. It also provides the teacher with the opportunity to recommend other texts the student may like. It's vital that students are aware of the benefits of ER whilst being involved in an ER programme so that they understand why they are doing it and also increasing motivation. ER's benefits are gains in reading and writing ability as well as increased speaking and listening profiency (Nation, 1997)(Day and Bamford, 1998) (Krashen, 2004).

4. The teacher as a role model
Day and Bamford state as one of the principles of ER that the teacher should be seen to be a reader by the students, and that this will encourage students to read. Reading aloud to students can be a way of introducing different genres or to particular texts, or the teacher talking about texts they have found enjoyable are ways of helping motivate students to read.

References

Day, R. R., & Bamford, J. (1998). Extensive reading in the second language classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Day, R. R., & Bamford, J. (2002). Top ten principles for teaching extensive reading. Reading in a Foreign Language, 14, 136–141.

Hafiz, F. M., & Tudor, L. (1989). Extensive reading and the development of language skills. ELT Journal, 43, 4–13.

Krashen, S. (2004 )  The Power of Reading: insights from the research.   Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Mason, B., & Krashen, S. (1997). Extensive reading in English as a foreign language. System, 25(1), 91– 102. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0346-251X(96)00063-2

Nation, Paul  (1997)  ‘The language teaching benefits of extensive reading.’  The Language Teacher.  21 (5)

Nishino, T. (2007). Beginning to read extensively: A case study with Mako and Fumi. Reading in a Foreign Language, 19, 76–105.

Ro, E. (2013). A case study of extensive reading with an unmotivated L2 reader.Reading in a Foreign Language, 25, 213–233.

Takase, A. (2007). Japanese high school students’ motivation for extensive L2 reading. Reading in a Foreign Language, 19, 1–18.

Snow, C. E., & Kim, Y.-S. (2007). Large problem spaces: The challenge of vocabulary for English language learners. In R. K. Wagner, A. E. Muse, & K. R. Tannenbaum (Eds.), Vocabulary acquisition: Implications for reading comprehension (pp. 123–139). Guilford Press.