Some aspects of teachinhg extensive reading to first-year students studying English as their major

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Some aspects of teachinhg extensive reading to first-year students studying English as their major

Some aspects of teaching extensive reading to first-year students studying English as their major at faculties of foreign languages in universities are considered. A broad range of techniques and exercises which help teachers develop students' reading skills on the basis of long texts with the aim of getting the gist as well as reading for pleasure are suggested at the three stages of extensive reading. Among the skills learners have to acquire are predicting the content of the text from its title, sub-titles, key words and word combinations, gaining a general understanding of what is read, determining the author's communicative purpose as well as the main function of the text . The article also deals with the problem of the choice of learner-authentic and authentic materials for extensive reading which can be used by first-year students studying in mixed-ability classes. The main focus of the research is on the role of EFL teachers who help students choose reading material starting with adapted texts which correspond to all the criteria of learner-authentic texts, gradually replacing them with authentic materials, articles from newspapers and magazines as well as works by English and American writers.

Extensive reading and intensive reading have been the hot topics for many years in the field of second / foreign language acquisition. We read for a variety of purposes and, according to these purposes, in a variety of ways. The terms extensive reading and intensive reading are used to describe different styles of reading. Extensive reading involves rapid reading of large amounts of material or longer contents, such as a whole book, for getting the gist or focusing generally on the meaning of what is being read. Ten basic ingredients or principles of extensive reading which EFL teachers should use “as a way to examine their beliefs about reading in general and extensive reading in particular” [8,p.136-137 ] were developed by R. R. Day and J. Bamford. They believe that in extensive reading programmes the reading material is easy. Learners have access to a variety of reading material on a wide range of topics and choose what they want to read. They read as much as possible and their reading speed is usually faster rather than slower. Reading, which is its own reward, is individual and silent. Its purpose is usually related to pleasure, information and general understanding. Teachers are role models of readers who orient and guide their students [8,p.137-141]. In contrast, in intensive reading setting students try to understand the text as fully as necessary and are focused on the language rather than the text. Of course, extensive reading and intensive reading are not just two contrasting ways of reading but an infinite variety of interrelated and overlapping strategies. They are complementary and both are necessary [10, p.38]. Both approaches used for developing reading skills have important roles to play in helping learners gain fluency, first in the critical area of vocabulary and word recognition, and then in developing better reading comprehension skills. Together with scanning and skimming, important techniques of fast reading, they cannot be ignored if EFL students are to become competent readers.

In recent years educators involved in foreign language teaching have become increasingly aware of the importance of extensive reading. Various aspects of foreign language reading, including the problem of teaching extensive reading skills as well as different reading strategies, have been discussed by a number of researchers whose works are often referred to by EFL teachers in the process of their continual professional development. Among them are J. Bamford [3], F.M. Hafiz and I. Tudor [9], C. Davis [5], B. Susser and Th. Robb [12], T. Bell [4], R.R. Day [6,7] and others. In their works they attempted to determine the nature of successful extensive reading programmes, emphasized the role of extensive reading in ESL / EFL learning and gave practical advice on running extensive reading programmes. Without diminishing the importance of intensive reading in teaching EFL students reading strategies and developing their general literacy skills necessary to generate productive expressions in their target language, they provided persuasive evidence of the effectiveness of extensive reading in fostering learners' language development.

Compared to intensive reading, extensive reading has more important purpose in broadening students' knowledge. Its aim is to build readers' confidence and enjoyment. Reading long texts for general understanding with the intention of enjoying them, learners get freedom to choose their own topic which can be interesting for them to discuss. They are also encouraged to find supported articles related to the topic so that they can extend their knowledge of the subject. Another difference between extensive and intensive reading is that the former can stimulate students' activity in the EFL classroom. In extensive reading class learners can be asked to write a summary after reading an article or passage, which is not an easy thing to do. It allows students to gain full control of the main factual content of an article or a book and of the grammar and vocabulary used to express it. In addition, learners are encouraged to do short presentations on what they have read. By doing them, they acquire knowledge of the right preparation, self-independence and autonomy, which they cannot gain in intensive reading classes where students feel less autonomous over their own learning as it is the teacher who chooses suitable texts, tasks and activities to develop skills and gives direction before, during and after reading. Last but not least, extensive reading prevents learners from overusing dictionaries, while in intensive reading classes students always consult them every time they find unfamiliar words, which makes them focus only on the language and ignore the message conveyed. This habit may cause inefficient reading and destroy the pleasure that reading is supposed to provide.

Benefits that can be gained by undertaking an extensive reading programme are obvious. One of the key factors to the success of such a programme is motivation. If reading materials are interesting to the students, then they are more likely to want to read them. With adequate exposure to the language, interesting reading materials and a relaxed, tension-free learning environment, extensive reading can lead to language acquisition, in particular it increases learners' vocabulary. Compared to traditional approaches to teaching vocabulary to EFL students, in which the number of new words taught in each class is carefully controlled, the acquisition of new words from extensive reading is much more effective. Besides, learners may acquire “incidental” grammatical competence when new grammatical structures are assimilated through silent reading of interesting texts without being directly taught. Moreover, extensive reading can consolidate previously learned language. Graded readers, which are learner-authentic simplified texts, have a controlled grammatical and lexical load, and provide regular repetition of new language forms. As a result, EFL students automatically receive the necessary reinforcement of language required to ensure the retention of new input. Another advantage of extensive reading is that it can lead to improvement in students' writing and speaking skills as it increases learners' exposure to the language. Finally, increasing reading comprehension, building the background knowledge and improving their overall language from reading large amounts of high interest material, students become more prepared for further academic courses.

The purpose of this article is to treat some aspects of teaching extensive reading to first-year students majoring in English at faculties of foreign languages. Without pretending to consider all the aspects of the problem, in particular blended extensive and intensive reading strategies, the author of this article makes it her aim to treat in a more detailed way supervised extensive reading, which is one of the three important directions that the practice of extensive reading may take while teaching first-year students in mixed-ability classes. Another important focus of this article is on the choice of learner-authentic and authentic reading materials which are an essential aspect of extensive reading instruction.

There is no denying that intensive reading plays a more essential role for EFL students who are more often unaware of effective reading and vocabulary learning strategies than native speakers. The crucial role of reading as a powerful means of teaching different speech habits and skills is performed by intensive reading. The English Language Development Curriculum for Universities, Institutes and Faculties of Foreign Languages stresses the importance of developing the four major skills, in particular reading, which is integrated with the others in the first two years and becomes relatively independent in years three, four and five [2,p.4].

According to the Curriculum, the treatment of reading skills involves reading for global understanding, followed by a deeper and more detailed comprehension of the text [2,p.11]. Combining the benefits of both more focused and intentional intensive reading with advantages of extensive reading can help EFL teachers to arrive at a more balanced and effective language programme.

In Ukraine English instruction at the university level, in particular at faculties of foreign languages, is usually the “intensive reading procedure”, which implies close study of short texts, including their syntactic, semantic and lexical analyses as well as translation into the mother tongue in order to study meaning. Extensive reading is mainly a complement to an intensive reading programme, an extra-curricular activity where students read out of class. The main focus of an extensive reading programme is individual reading of material which students choose themselves with follow-up activities such as writing a book report, a summary or doing a short presentation on what they have read. The role of a teacher is restricted to guiding students in choosing appropriate levels of material and assessing their reading reports, which may be submitted in writing, or their oral presentations. When EFL teachers focus on teaching reading strategies and extensive reading, they can also assess their learners' effort which they put into enlarging their vocabulary while reading long texts for general understanding.

Teaching communication skills, reading in particular, to first-year students studying English as their major, university teachers may encounter some difficulties. The first problem is mixed-ability classes. They are composed of a wide variety of students, all with their own needs reflecting the amount of education they have had in their native language, the types of previous instruction in English, their ages and emotional needs. Students of heterogeneous classes are at different levels - some with quite competent English, intermediate students, for example learners from specialized and private schools where the medium of instruction is English, some who have not yet achieved intermediate competence which involves greater fluency and general comprehension of some general authentic English, and some with a low level on entry who are not equipped with an adequate vocabulary to master their academic courses which are taught in English. In mixed-ability classes students may not be able to read at their own level because everyone in the class is reading the same material. It can discourage weaker students and lead to the loss of interest in the reading in general. Apart from that, without mastering efficient reading techniques such as scanning to find a book or a chapter and skimming to know the general meaning of a passage, learners can easily get lost in the amount of literature they have to read on a daily basis. Last but not least, without having adequate exposure to the language, interesting reading material that addresses students' needs and a relaxed learning environment, first-year students are not motivated to read.

To solve these problems, university teachers working with first-year students studying English as their major should establish an extensive reading programme which can be successful provided it has most of the extensive reading principles which were developed by R.R Day and J. Bamford [8].

Success in teaching extensive reading to EFL students can partly be achieved by choosing appropriate reading material. In an extensive reading programme learners are supposed to do it on their own. However, first-year students may have real problems in selecting material which corresponds to their level of proficiency. In this connection teachers should guide learners by giving recommendations on reading material based on students' needs. It is advisable that learners start with graded readers printed by major publishers such as Cambridge University Press, Heinemann, Oxford and Penguin. They are books, fiction and nonfiction, in which the content is controlled to match the language ability of learners. A series of graded readers may have 6-8 difficulty levels from "Starter" to "Advanced" with a sufficient number of books at each level. They help students to step up their learning by building on previously learnt knowledge and skills. Graded readers are presented by simplified or learner-authentic texts which do not distort the natural use of language. The most significant advantage of these texts is that they correspond not only to standards and aims of natural communication, but also to methodological demands, to students' intellectual and language level. Together with authentic texts, which can also be exploited in extensive reading by means of tasks not demanding detailed understanding, simplified texts may be motivating having something new to EFL students, helping learners in enriching their knowledge of the target language and at the same time being easy enough for their comprehension to get pleasure from reading in the target language. Graded readers are a good choice for students whose second language proficiency makes it difficult for them to read texts written for native speakers.

Learner-authentic materials can gradually be replaced by authentic ones such as newspapers and magazines that are related to the second language culture. An extensive reading programme can also be conducted on the basis of authentic texts of literary works by English and American writers. Literature is part of the target culture, it encourages students' critical and creative thinking, raises their awareness of different human situations. It involves emotions as well as intellect, which adds to learners' motivation and may contribute to their personal development. The use of authentic texts of literary works is more characteristic of supervised extensive reading and blended extensive and intensive reading, two of the three directions “that the practice of extensive reading might take” [6, p.297].

Supervised or instructed extensive reading is a good start for first-year students who are not equipped with extensive reading strategies, in particular predicting the content of the text from the title or the beginning of the text; guessing the meaning of unknown words and expressions from context, word-building elements or their analogy with familiar words in the mother tongue; ignoring some unfamiliar words which do not prevent from comprehension of the gist of the text; identifying the main parts of the text and others. Though extensive reading is mainly independent silent reading of long texts with a view to increasing reading rate of individual students, it is advisable that first-year students start with reading the same text in class so that they can discuss the topic together and learn extensive reading specific skills. Stories and articles selected by the teacher for this propose should be of real interest to the students and suitable for their age level. Authors ought to be chosen with less complex structure and less extensive vocabulary range. The selection of texts is very important in teaching extensive reading. However, the text is only one element in it. It is also necessary for EFL teachers to design suitable activities and exercises for teaching first-year students extensive reading at the pre-reading, while-reading and post-reading stages.

At the pre-reading stage the teacher activates learners' background knowledge, introduces key vocabulary items and previews the text with students. Pre-reading activities include warm-up exercises which are done to elicit something associated with the topic and encourage learners to exchange their ideas about it. Two main strategies of warm-up activities are elicitation and brainstorming. The former is a technique by which the teacher gets students to give information rather than giving it to them. It is normally based on the title or visuals. The latter involves learners' expressing hypotheses about the content of the text based on previous knowledge by writing notes down. Typical exercises that can be done at the pre-reading stage are:

1. Exercises directed at identifying the subject-matter of the text with the help of its key words and word combinations.

Using such a technique of fast reading as scanning, learners are supposed to find in the text the key words and word combinations that can help them identify its subject- matter. Apart from that, students can be acquainted with some new words and word combinations from the text supplemented with their translation into the learners' mother tongue. Without reading the text, they have to guess what the text is about.

2. Exercises aimed at learners' comprehension of sentences containing unfamiliar words which do not prevent them from getting the gist.

Trying to understand the main idea of some sentences, paragraphs or parts of the text, learners are supposed to ignore unfamiliar words which can be adverbial modifiers of time, manner and place.

3. Exercises designed to determine the structural components of a text and making hypotheses about its content.

Doing these exercises, students learn how to divide the text into the introduction, main body and conclusion. They can also read the title of the text, its sub-titles, topic sentences, the first and the last paragraphs in order to determine its subject-matter. Learners can use pictures, photographs and illustrations in a book or article to predict what the text is about [1, p.117-123].

The aim of the while-reading stage and its reading activities is to encourage learners' critical thinking and increase their comprehension of the text. During this stage students should have the opportunity to confirm their predictions, gather and organize information. The while-reading stage can be represented by such exercises:

1. Exercises directed at singling out the main points of the text and understanding separate facts.

Students can read carefully some paragraphs and choose the most suitable heading from the list for each of them. After reading the whole text, they can identify the main problems raised in the text, answer some general questions and say which of the statements are true or false.

2. Exercises aimed at establishing semantic or logical connection between separate facts of the text.

Learners can read jumbled sentences or paragraphs and then put them in the correct order. They can also put questions to the text the answers to which could be used for retelling the text [1, p.123-127].

The function of the post-reading stage and its activities is to help learners connect what they have read with their own ideas and experience. At this stage teachers should engage students in discussion in which they evaluate the information they have obtained from the text. They can check learners' comprehension of the gist of the text. Some exercises which are recommended at this stage are designed to identify the communicative purpose of the author and the main function of the text. To help students cope with the task, teachers should offer several variants of their answer to choose from, for example to give information, to estimate some facts, to affect readers or persuade them. Other exercises can be directed at developing learners ' skills to express evaluative judgements about the text. Students can discuss with their groupmates what information they gained from the text. They can find out if there are any points in the article they disagree with and whether there is any information they did not know before reading the article [1, p.128-129].

Effective extensive reading can lead to improvement in first-year students' writing and speaking skills. At the post-reading stage learners move fluently from reading to speaking or writing as a follow-up to reading activities. They may interview each other about their reading or do short presentations on what they have read, write summaries of their reading or a book report. It is very essential that EFL teachers review their students' summaries at the beginning of the course because many first-year students have not had training in summary writing. Although in an extensive reading programme students' main task is reading, “writing summaries is valuable not only to provide a means for teachers to check comprehension, but because the writing of summaries improves comprehension” [11, p.277].

To sum up, extensive reading plays a very important role in language learning. It can enhance learners' general competence and increase their exposure to the language. It can promote their vocabulary growth and consolidate previously learned language. It helps move students away from word-by-word processing of a text, encouraging them instead to go for the general meaning of what they read, ignoring any details they do not fully understand. Getting first-year students who study English as their major to read extensively is the easiest and most effective way of improving their reading skills. Last but not least, being a student-centred activity, extensive reading will hopefully enable learners to take pleasure in reading for its own sake. Teaching extensive reading to first-year students majoring in English, university teachers should also acquaint them with various reading strategies in order to comprehend texts from various resources, therefore a promising area of future research might be the problem of teaching blended extensive and intensive reading in the EFL classroom.

References

foreign student language

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