THE POWER OF EXTENSIVE READING (ER) IN CREATING BETTER WRITERS

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YOUR TURN
o d s t o ry?
ri t e ch i l d ho
s yo ur f a v o
What ’

st o ry /i es?
l ab ou t t h at
was sp e ci a
What

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 ER IR

Reading large quantities Reading a text in detail

of material or long texts with the intent to
for global or general understand all
understanding with the structures, lexis and text
intention of gaining organization and at the
pleasure from the text. same time developing
reading skills.3
WHAT IS EXTENSIVE READING
 Extensive reading is defined by many scholars and
researchers as reading large amounts of texts fluently
and for meaning, and students mainly do it outside of
the classroom for their own pleasure and enjoyment,
at their own pace and level, and, most importantly,
they choose the reading material that interests them.

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 THE COMMON PROBLEM
Reading with understanding and writing have been challenging tasks for many
EFL students, especially for low achievers in heterogeneous classrooms.

Limited reading/
No comprehension Major Problems in
writing
Students rarely
read outside

Problem

Different
proficiency Frustration and
levels low motivation 5
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WRITING PROBLEMS
Weak grammar usage and structure

Vagueness of content

Poor ideas/ chopped content

Poor vocabulary knowledge

Spelling Errors & poor orthographic
knowledge(a method of representing the
sounds of a language by written or printed
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symbols. 
 Stephen Krashen

g u a g e
i g n l a n e ,
f o r e le a s u r
When r e a d f o r p
p r o v e
a r n e r s e t o i m
Le c o n ti n u g e
c a n an g u a
they s e c o n d l
t
t h e i r w i t ho u
in l a s s e s ,
h o u t c
wit w i t h o u t
c h e r s , t h o u t
te a e n w i
y & ev w i t h .
stud o n v e rse
l e t o c
peop

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THE LANGUAGE SKILLS

Receptive • Listening Skill

Skills: • Reading Skill

Productive • Speaking Skill

Skills: • Writing Skill
 Transfer of language items.
 Frank Smith (1981) :“One learns to write by reading the
writings done by others”. 9
Read them MORE fairy tales!

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Principles of ER

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 PRINCIPLES OF ER
These ten principles of ER founded by Day and Bamford (2002) are considered the
milestone in any ER program:
1. “The reading material is easy”.

2. “A variety of reading materials on a wide range of topics must

be available”.

3. “Learners select what they want to read.”

4. “Learners read as much as possible.”

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5. “The purpose of reading is usually related to pleasure,

information and general understanding.”
PRINCIPLES OF ER CONT’D

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 IMPACT OF ER ON WRITING QUALITY
1. Increase
in the amount of writing (richer content due to
background knowledge).

2. Improvements in the organizational skills.

3. Progressin the usage of some idiomatic expressions and

collocations.

4. Richer content and ideas,

5. Improvements in spelling,
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6. Lessgrammatical mistakes and variety of sentence
structures.
 MOTIVATION
 High and long-lasting motivation will impel
and thrust students to learn a foreign language
well.

e le a rn ers ’ p e rc e p ti o ns
ER has influenced th to h a v e fu n an d
ec h an c e
through giving them th th e ir o w n p a c e ,
p leas u rab le ac tivit y at
pra cti ce a p o rta n t,
s t, a n d m o s tly im
level, preference, intere
at their own choice.
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CHECK YOUR KNOWLEDGE
IS IT EXTENSIVE OR INTENSIVE?

IR 1. Reading in detail with specific learning aims and tasks

2. Purpose: a lifelong reading habit, enjoyment and general

ER reading skills.
3. Rapid reading of large quantities of material or longer
ER reading for general understanding.
4. Purpose: detailed meaning, developing reading skills
IR vocabulary and grammar knowledge.

5. With respect to place and time, it’s OUT of the course.

ER
6. With respect to place and time, it’s IN of the course.
IR 16
So, can the POWER of READING create BETTER
WRITERS?
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