interesting pieces of information from their group mates and putting them on the
noticeboard
every two weeks. The group leaders were also responsible for keeping
record of how many pieces of information a student in a group gave her / him every two
weeks.
To encourage participation, this activity was announced as a competition in which there
would be a prize for the best group.
•
Oral reports
The students took turns or volunteered to make oral reports on different topics given by
the teacher or they could talk about a book review. The topics were as follows:
- Famous or interesting people in the world
- Holidays
- Natural disasters
- Medicines and health
- Health care and Epidemics
- Animals
- Ways to improve English
- Sports
- Music
- International Organizations
Oral reports were made every week. While one student talked, the others listened and
made questions as well.
The researcher recorded their reports every week to see if they made any difference
during the two months doing extensive reading.
•
Reading Diaries
To check if all of the students took part in the extensive reading, the teacher asked the
students to keep reading diaries. In the diaries the students were requested to answer
the following questions:
-
What is the title of the book you read?
-
Is it easy or difficult for you to understand?
-
What do you learn from the book?
-
What do you think about the book?
-
Would you recommend the book to other students ? why? Why not?
-
How do you feel after you have read the book?
-
Would you have any suggestions on the book?
•
Post quiz-test
A post quiz-test which also consisted of 50 questions was used after students spent two
months doing extensive reading. The post quiz-test was designed slightly different from
the pre quiz-test.
•
Multiple choice tests on Vocabulary
Multiple choice tests on vocabulary / idioms / phrasal verbs were given to the students to
check if their vocabulary increased after they did extensive reading.( The vocabulary /
idioms / phrasal verbs were taken from the reading materials that they had read.)
•
Questionnaire
A questionnaire was administered to the students at the end of the research. The
questionnaire was devised to find out (1) the students’ motivation to extensive reading (2)
their attitude towards reading (3) their evaluation on extensive reading tasks (4) and
their comments on extensive reading activity .
The questionnaire included both open-ended questions and questions with fixed
alternatives .For the questions with fix alternatives the students were asked to indicate
whether they “ strongly agreed ” , “ agreed ” , “ were neutral ”, “disagreed” or “ strongly
disagreed ” with each of the statements . For the open-ended questions the students could
freely express their thoughts about the extensive reading activity and tasks.
FINDINGS
a ) The Pre-quiz test
The chart showed that the students ‘general knowledge was not satisfactory. Their
understanding about the world was limited.
b) Notice board
- Every two weeks during the two months the four groups of the English class presented
their notice boards to the researcher. All of the four groups presented the notice boards as
planned, so there were a total of 16 notice boards , each of which contained reports or
pieces of information on different topics .
-The number of reports and pieces of information on the notice boards of the four
groups :
Group 1
7
10
12
15
Week 1- 2
Week 3- 4
Week 5- 6
Week 7- 8
Group 2
7
11
12
14
Group 3
6
8
10
15
Group 4
8
12
14
16
That there were more reports and pieces of information on the four groups’ notice boards
in week 7 – 8 than in week 1 – 2 indicated that the students’ general knowledge was
improved and they did extensive reading regularly and effectively.
c) Oral reports
The number of students who took turns or volunteered to make oral reports
Week
1
The
number
of The number of times
students who made that
students
made
oral reports
reports ( * )
11 ( 39 % )
12
2
14 ( 50 % )
17
3
16 ( 57 % )
18
4
20 ( 71 % )
20
5
22 ( 78 % )
23
6
22 ( 85 % )
25
7
24 ( 85 % )
24
8
28 ( 100 % )
28
( * ) Some students volunteered to make reports twice in a week.
The findings indicated that there was an increase in engagement in class. An analysis
of the content of the students’talks which were recorded on the tape
showed that their knowledge was improved because their reports in week 7-8 were
longer and more informative than those in week 1-2 .
d ) Reading Diaries
The findings indicated that most of the students of the English class participated in
the extensive reading activity.
e ) The post –quiz test
The result of the post quiz test in comparison with the pre- quiz test
The students did better on the post- quiz test than on the pre-quiz test. This indicated that
their general knowledge was improved due to the extensive reading activity.
f. ) Questionnaire
Questionnaire
What did you think about extensive reading activity
?
A./
Statements
1.You thought that your general
knowledge was improved .
2.You feel more interested in
reading than before .
3.There were a lot of topics in
reading materials that interested
you .
4. You kept a reading diary .
5. The information you obtained
from the other groups’ notice
boards and your classmates’oral
reports was useful to you .
6. The difficulty level of the
reading materials was about right
7. You thought that the extensive
reading activity that you did two
months before put pressure on you
.
1
SA
50%
2
A
3
N
35%
14%
60%
17%
14%
17%
35%
35%
4
D
71%
5
SD
7%
10%
28%
53%
17%
17%
17%
53 %
14 %
7%
10%
10%
14%
17 %
64
%
B. / Some comments given by the students when doing the questionnaire:
-
Extensive reading combined with post extensive reading tasks were activities for
confidence building , encouraged them to become independent readers , and made it
possible for the weak students to learn from their peers.
-
They could take responsibility for their own learning.
-
They could work at their own pace without classroom pressure.
-
They could read for pleasure without the pressure of testing or marking.
-
Extensive reading activity made it possible for the weak students to participate in the
activity that they had never had during reading class before.
