An Integrated Approach of Extensive and Intensive Reading

Abstract

The English education system in Korea heavily focuses on teaching exam strategies, resulting in a strong washback effect in the classrooms. The focus of instruction tends to mirror the focus of tests to meet students’ expectations (Rost, 2002, p. 173). Apart from reading short passages and answering questions within a limited time, most students have little exposure to the target language. There are, however, learners who acknowledge that learning English is more than just getting a good score on exams and express their desires to develop their overall language abilities. In this case, Extensive Reading (ER) might be the most suitable approach since it is known as one of the most effective ways of offering meaningful input. As Nation (2008) states, “Reading is a source of learning and a source of enjoyment” (p. 49). Reading can help learners acquire new vocabulary and induce the rules of grammar. At the same time, learners can discover the joy of reading and gain knowledge of the world. Therefore, this textbook is designed to help students build reading fluency, improve their overall language skills, and gain insights from the stories. For this textbook, ‘The Lightening Thief’ and ‘Holes’ (two popular novels for teens and young adults), are chosen as the class reader- a book that every student in the class reads simultaneously (Day & Bamford, 1998, p. 133). The target students are middle school students aged 15-16 whose language proficiency level is high-intermediate according to ACTFL proficiency guidelines. They are able to produce sentence-level languages and feel more confident when talking about familiar topics. Similar to speaking, the students can comprehend simple speech that contains familiar information and high-frequency vocabulary. The students have difficulty understanding complex texts due to vocabulary, complicated structures or unaccustomed writing conventions. Most of the time, however, the students are able to understand longer texts and get clues from the context since reading is their strength. On the other hand, writing is the skill that the students need the most scaffolding since they do not have enough experiences of writing in English. Although they are able to write short sentences in a casual way, they lack knowledge of formal writing conventions. In addition, the native language of the students is Korean and most of them have had experiences of traveling or living in English speaking countries for a short period of time. The students are willing to spend more time learning English since they have may end up studying abroad in the future. Thus, the students want to maximize their learning opportunities to improve their English language skills within the Korean EFL context.