1. Extensive Reading: The Key to Language Fluency
Lesley Speer - Jose Lara
UECA PD Fest 2018

2. MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY ENGLISH LANGUAGE CENTRE
Reading
Intensive vs Extensive
Intensive
Teacher directed
Accuracy / Comprehension
Words/Grammar
Not much
Often challenging
Extensive
Student directed
Fluency / Enjoyment
Meaning
A lot
Should be comfortable
Control
Purpose
Focus
Amount
Level
MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY ENGLISH LANGUAGE CENTRE 2

3. MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY ENGLISH LANGUAGE CENTRE
Extensive Reading
Ten Principles
Reading material is easy.
A variety of reading material on a wide range of topics must be available.
Learners choose what they want to read.
Learners read as much as possible.
Purpose is related to pleasure, information and general understanding
Reading is its own reward.
Reading speed is usually faster rather than slower.
Reading is individual and silent.
Teachers orient and guide students.
The teacher is a role model of a reader.
(Day & Bamford, 2002)
MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY ENGLISH LANGUAGE CENTRE 3

4. MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY ENGLISH LANGUAGE CENTRE
Extensive Reading
Why do we need it?
“Extensive reading is essential for
reading fluency development”
(Macalister, 2018)
“Learners need 8000 word families
in order to read fluently.”
(Waring, 2018)
MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY ENGLISH LANGUAGE CENTRE

5. MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY ENGLISH LANGUAGE CENTRE
Extensive Reading
Four Strands Approach
Four Skills
Reading
Listening
Speaking
Main goal: make our students do more reading (for pleasure).
Writing
MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY ENGLISH LANGUAGE CENTRE

6. Meaning focused output Language focused learning
Extensive Reading
Four Strands Approach
Four Skills
Four Strands
Meaning focused input
Reading
Meaning focused output
Listening
Speaking
Main goal: make our students do more reading (for pleasure).
Language focused learning
Fluency development
Writing
(Macalister, 2018)
MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY ENGLISH LANGUAGE CENTRE

7. MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY ENGLISH LANGUAGE CENTRE
Extensive Reading
Reading without meaning
The Snolls
The grifty snolls cloppered raucingly along the unchoffed trake. They were klary, so they higgled on sperately. "Ah, chiwar kervay," they squopped rehoply. "Mi psar Quaj!". "Quaj!" snilled one, and flitted even jucklier.
Answer the questions below
Where did the snolls clopper?
What was the trake like?
Why did they higgle on?
How did they squop?
Along the trake.
Unchoffed.
They were klary.
Rehoply.
(Waring, 2018)
MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY ENGLISH LANGUAGE CENTRE

8. MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY ENGLISH LANGUAGE CENTRE
Extensive Reading
Vocabulary acquisition
Intermediate students will need 2000 word families
Advanced learners will need word families
To read materials written for English speakers (L1),
word families are needed
(Waring, 2018)
MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY ENGLISH LANGUAGE CENTRE

9. MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY ENGLISH LANGUAGE CENTRE
Extensive Reading
Vocabulary acquisition
V n adj adv
beautify beauty beautiful beautifully
work worker workable
effective effectively
affect effect
effect
employ employer employable - employee employment unemployment
unemploy
eat eater/eatery
edible/inedible
MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY ENGLISH LANGUAGE CENTRE

10. Oh, my God! Oh, gosh! My goodness!
Extensive Reading
Vocabulary acquisition
There are around 1500 common idioms
There are around 1200 common phrasal verbs
get across get along get around get at get away get on get out of get over
get down get down to
There are hundreds of formulaic phrases/expression
Oh, my God! Oh, gosh! My goodness!
Goodness me!
(Waring, 2018)
MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY ENGLISH LANGUAGE CENTRE

11. sufficient vocabulary
Extensive Reading
Extensive reading
constitutes
meaning focused input
and it is the best way
to expose students to
sufficient vocabulary
to develop
language fluency .
MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY ENGLISH LANGUAGE CENTRE

12. MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY ENGLISH LANGUAGE CENTRE
Extensive Reading
Book Club Cafe
Week 1
Week 1-5
Week 1-5
Set-up
Reading
Book Club Café
(20-30min class time)
Introduce:
Book Club Café
Websites for reading
Reading logs
Importance of reading
Students
Students
Share information
(groups of 3-4)
Read outside class time
Choose their own texts
Enjoy a relaxed and fun atmosphere
Record information to share
See immediate benefits of reading
Now that we have the ingredients for extensive reading, let’s proceed to look at how it all is done.
In week one, the first step is to introduce the Book Club Café to students. The main point here is to inform students of the importance and the benefits of reading in the development of their English language skills. Give the students a practical reason, a reason that is not linked to an assessed task, a reason that is voluntary rather than imposed.
Once this is done, students are introduced to the online reading tool. At our centre, we have used a couple of websites, but most recently we have been using ER-Central, a website that contains a bank of more than 1000 texts graded into 20 different levels of proficiency. Because of this, students have the liberty to choose from a wide variety of texts and difficulty. One of the advantages to using this website is that texts are varied in topics, and fairly short, which gives the students a quick and tangible sense of achievement.
In this same introductory session, we teach students how to properly find the meanings of the new words that they find. As teachers, you may well know that, when encountered with a new word, students tend to only consider the first entry they find in their dictionaries, not being aware that this may not be the most appropriate meaning given the context of the sentence where they’ve found that particular word. We make reference to word forms (noun, verbs, adjectives), the number of different meanings that a single word may have, and words found in phrases and collocations.
The last step in
MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY ENGLISH LANGUAGE CENTRE

13. MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY ENGLISH LANGUAGE CENTRE
Extensive Reading
Considerations
Resources: Graded readers, websites, (ER central, Texthelper, Newsinlevels, WeSpeke, etc.), apps
Budget/cost
Time
Follow up (essential)
Motivation
Sustainability
Routine for students (place + time)
MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY ENGLISH LANGUAGE CENTRE

14. Extensive Reading Foundation
(in Australia)
Thank you