There are three purposes of this paper, the first of which is to elucidate the theory and principles underlying extensive reading. Long-held principles will be discussed in light of practical classroom and contextual considerations. Secondly, a critical summary of current research on extensive reading that has been conducted in English as a Second…

Studies on graded readers used in extensive reading have tended to focus on vocabulary. This study set out to investigate the linguistic profile of graded readers, taking into account both grammar and lexis. A corpus of 90 readers were tagged according to the variables in Biber's Multidimensional (MD) analysis, using the Multidimensional Analysis…

Positive education is a relatively new, student centred approach which takes an optimistic view of learning, seeks to build on students' individual and collective strengths and encourages students to take responsibility for collaboratively interacting with peers for the benefit of themselves and others. This article begins by explaining some of…

This article reports on a principle-based evaluation of eight dedicated extensive reading coursebooks published in mainland China and used in many universities across the country. The aim is to determine the extent to which these coursebooks reflect a core set of nine second language acquisition and extensive reading principles. Our analysis shows…

This article begins by explaining the student centered learning paradigm. Next, the article explains various features of a student centered approach to education and how extensive reading (ER), as it is most often practiced, fits with those features. The bulk of the article suggests how ER might be implemented to make it even more learner centered.

Inspired by the success and informed by the principles of the Extensive Reading (ER) approach, Extensive Listening (EL) and Viewing have started to gain the attention of both L2 researchers and practitioners. The purpose of this paper is to examine the theoretical and research base of EL and the extent to which it is similar to or different from…

This chapter first looks at Extensive Reading and Extensive Listening separately, highlighting the language learning benefits of the two approaches to language learning. It then discusses ways of implementing the two together in input-poor L2 contexts where the quantity and quality of the target language input tends to be severely limited. In…

Extensive listening (EL) is an approach to teaching listening which can help students develop their listening fluency in a more enjoyable way. However, unlike extensive reading which has now enjoyed widespread recognition, EL has received relatively little attention, partly because of the limited availability of suitable listening materials. Given…

This study investigated teachers' perceptions of the practice of extensive reading (ER) in the Asian context. One hundred and nineteen L2 teachers in Asia responded to an online questionnaire that probed into their reasons for implementing ER, the difficulties they encountered, and their perception about the effectiveness of different ways of…

For many years, research effort has been devoted to understanding the nature of listening strategies and how listening strategies used by good listeners can be taught to so-called ineffective listeners. As a result of this line of research, strategy training activities have now become a standard feature of most modern listening coursebooks.…

My goal in this article is to discuss the empirical support for extensive reading and explore its pedagogical applications in L2/FL learning. I argue that the benefits derived from diverse studies on extensive reading in many different contexts are so compelling that it will be inconceivable for teachers not to make it an important feature of…

Presents the second part of a two-part annotated bibliography of work on extensive reading in a second language. The bibliography offers a classification that may be of value to the teacher or researcher in reading in a foreign language, and that may assist in course development. (Author/VWL)

Compiles references and abstracts for works related to extensive reading in a second or foreign language. Offers a classification that may be of value to the teacher or researcher in reading as a foreign language, and they may be useful in course development. (Author/VWL)

The bibliography contains 159 annotated citations for works of various kinds relating to the use of extensive reading in second, foreign, and heritage language instruction. An introductory section describes the origins of the citations and construction and use of the bibliography. Citations contain basic bibliographic information and annotations…

This paper reports on a study of the impact of extensive reading (ER) on the language proficiency of a group of Vietnamese government officials studying English. Two questions were of interest. First, we wanted to examine if ER could be successfully implemented with adult second language learners beyond traditional student age. Secondly, we were…