This paper figures out the problems the Chinese students often meet with when they try to obtain the English language ability. In order to assist my students crack down on such problems, I take up the approach of givi...This paper figures out the problems the Chinese students often meet with when they try to obtain the English language ability. In order to assist my students crack down on such problems, I take up the approach of giving them opportunities to play the active roles in English reading activity and requiring them to write reading response journals and to have frequent discussions in the reading class. The approach aims at improving the students' ability and getting them to be trained and improved effectively in the language skills concerned. The approach has come out with remarkable achievements. My understanding is that the process of learning a foreign language is a process indeed of accumulation, including both the language and culture knowledge. The accumulation can be gained by means of reading a lot, thus improving the students' language competence, enlarging their cultural and language field of vision on the western world. We teachers play the function of bridge leading the students to succeed in mastering and applying English as a practical tool in their life and work to come. This paper introduces what I have been trying to assist my students in solving their problems through my teaching practice during the past years.展开更多
Extensive reading has long been applied in the English as a foreign language classroom in China,but the fundamental theories and practical instruction are not satisfactory. The study aims to synthesize and examine ext...Extensive reading has long been applied in the English as a foreign language classroom in China,but the fundamental theories and practical instruction are not satisfactory. The study aims to synthesize and examine extensive reading studies over the past fifty years(1962-2019) from a holistic perspective. By performing a qualitative meta-analysis, a total of 81 articles published in widely accepted journals were carefully coded and analyzed. Three latent problems emerged,including that 1) most extensive reading researchers misunderstand the inherent characteristic of extensive reading(i. e., pleasure reading) and less frequently follow the principles of extensive reading instruction;2) there are methodological weaknesses in empirical research designs, and;3)research scope is limited regarding participants and methodology. Suggestions for extensive reading research and instruction are included.展开更多
This paper starts with the theoretical reflection on the relationship between IVA (Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition) and extensive reading based on reading process and vocabulary acquisition process, claiming that ...This paper starts with the theoretical reflection on the relationship between IVA (Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition) and extensive reading based on reading process and vocabulary acquisition process, claiming that inferring word meaning is not equated with vocabulary acquisition. Then, some implications are drawn from the theoretical reflection, that is, three factors--text, learner and situation--have great impact on the process of acquiring vocabulary through extensive reading. After that, it follows the review of current research on specific aspects at textual, leamer and situational level.展开更多
In the field of L2 (second language) reading, scholars generally agree that ER (extensive reading) improves L2 learners' reading speed and comprehension and enriches their L2 vocabulary (Grabe & Stoller, 1997)...In the field of L2 (second language) reading, scholars generally agree that ER (extensive reading) improves L2 learners' reading speed and comprehension and enriches their L2 vocabulary (Grabe & Stoller, 1997). This teacher-inquiry type of paper presents a practical suggestion for supplementing ER activity with the element of CL (cooperative learning). ER, theoretically speaking, focuses on the solitary task of silent reading. The CL technique used in this study was a book-talk activity. Forty-five freshmen from a course of children and young adult literatures were required to read at least 20 English books throughout a semester. CL was added to facilitate students' ER in young adult literature. After a semester, short-answer questions were asked regarding students' comments on ER as well as CL. Students overall agreed that when ER is supplemented with CL, reading in an L2 seems to be less intimidating.展开更多
This paper conducts the analysis on development of the basic English extensive reading system and the applications on the reading teaching of sports news. Extensive reading of text or material is dead and cannot provi...This paper conducts the analysis on development of the basic English extensive reading system and the applications on the reading teaching of sports news. Extensive reading of text or material is dead and cannot provide a teaching model. How to talk about what to proceed from reality, according to the principle of gradual and orderly, according to the level of the students and the ability to accept. English newspapers as fresh language, popular novel, close to the life of a corpus source that is the college English teaching has always attached importance to the reference materials. According to the rhetorical characteristics of English newspapers, we set the course, it is best to learn some rhetorical knowledge after the students to open the course, English majors can learn after the rhetoric can also be extended as the rhetoric class and homework. This paper proposes the new idea of dealing with mentioned issues that will promote the development of reading teaching of sports news.展开更多
This is a review of the article "Extensive Reading in English: habits and attitudes of a group of Italian university EFL students". This review is concerned with such aspects as the title of the article, the proble...This is a review of the article "Extensive Reading in English: habits and attitudes of a group of Italian university EFL students". This review is concerned with such aspects as the title of the article, the problem dealt with in the article, research methods, subjects, use of tables, conclusions based on data analysis and the significance of the study.展开更多
One of the common problems for L2 learners in ESL reading is that the text is either too difficult to understand or too simple to challenge,particularly the extracurricular reading material.The Little Prince and Pride...One of the common problems for L2 learners in ESL reading is that the text is either too difficult to understand or too simple to challenge,particularly the extracurricular reading material.The Little Prince and Pride and Prejudice are typically listed in the key reading materials for L2 learners.Contrary to the popularity,a large number of L2 learners find it is hard to complete due to the low text coverage with existing vocabulary.The corpus has become an important language research tool to store language materials according to the specific goals and the way through certain technical means.This paper is going to explore the text coverage of The Little Prince and Pride and Prejudice by range analysis,and comparing with English Curriculum Standards to figure out suitable reading targets of these two materials.展开更多
What can be conveniently and effectively used as readingmaterials in our extensive reading classroom(ERC)?Now thatthey are living in an information era,students need to absorb allsorts of knowledge and information wit...What can be conveniently and effectively used as readingmaterials in our extensive reading classroom(ERC)?Now thatthey are living in an information era,students need to absorb allsorts of knowledge and information within the shortest possibletime.Compared with other reading materials,newspapers andmagazines published in China have their own unique advantagesto be recommended as a main reading source.This paperillustrates this idea in four parts:introduction,merits ofemploying English newspapers and magazines in the ERC,waysof making use of English newspapers and magazines at hand toorganize communicative activities,conclusion.展开更多
IntroductionMost teachers and students in China are quite familiar with the term‘extensive reading’,but how itshould be taught still remains a problem.This paper covers the aims of extensive reading and the methodsa...IntroductionMost teachers and students in China are quite familiar with the term‘extensive reading’,but how itshould be taught still remains a problem.This paper covers the aims of extensive reading and the methodsand materials used in the course.Then some practical suggestions will be given to make the course moreinteresting and efficient.According to Dzao(1990).extensive reading is‘the course where other reading skills-speed,predictionand making inference-can be developed,’and‘where there is practice in geting the gist,in summarisingmain ideas,in understanding the author’s purpose and theme...’.So the aims of this course are todevelop general reading skills,the ability,to read quickly and to grasp the main ideas of the text.Toachieve these,students must enlarge their vocabulary,so this is also regarded as one of the aims.展开更多
Ⅰ. Introduction. Today, in most English teaching classes, owing to the popularity of the student-centered teaching approach, the traditional teacher-centered teaching approach has gradually lost its dominating place....Ⅰ. Introduction. Today, in most English teaching classes, owing to the popularity of the student-centered teaching approach, the traditional teacher-centered teaching approach has gradually lost its dominating place. As far as extensive reading classes are concerned, this is no exception. The more communicative student-centered approach has been popularly adopted. As a result, the teachers’ roles in the reading classes are changing accordingly. A qualified teacher should be prepared to take different roles at different stages of teaching. Jeremy Harmer has pointed out that a teacher can be expected to act, for example, as a controller, an assessor, an organizer, a prompter, a participant and as a resource (Harmer, 1983). In展开更多
Introduction Extensive Reading, as the name indicates, is a guide for students into the vast sea of knowledge. Reading demonstrates to students that there is no end in learning knowledge. However, reading and language...Introduction Extensive Reading, as the name indicates, is a guide for students into the vast sea of knowledge. Reading demonstrates to students that there is no end in learning knowledge. However, reading and language learning based on textbooks is far from enough because the knowledge from them is too narrow, the vocabulary is too limited and the contents are not current enough in these times of information exchange. Throughout my teaching experiments, I have found that newspaper clippings can become a very good way to bring more benefits to students’ learning than I expected. It can broaden the students’ horizons,展开更多
With the evolutionary change in information and communication technologies (ICT), the definition of literacy has undergone substantial change to include the skills and strategies required to successfully adapt to th...With the evolutionary change in information and communication technologies (ICT), the definition of literacy has undergone substantial change to include the skills and strategies required to successfully adapt to the rapidly changing ICT contexts. This new definition presents an urgent need to acknowledge the gap between the types of reading experiences students come across at school and those they regularly practice outside the school. One way to bridge such gap is to expand the reading instruction to incorporate electronic reading device, like Kindle, to engage students in electronic reading. Many e-books feature multimodal functionalities, including audio, video, hyperlinks, and interactive tools. Research on this form of reading is still in its infancy in spite of some positive prospects for fostering literacy development and reading comprehension. Therefore, adopting a mixed method approach with 36 college freshmen in central Taiwan, the current study intended to fill in the void by investigating any difference in readers' reading comprehension and reading motivation, between the Kindle group and the print-based group. The results indicate that embedding aspects of technology into a traditional reading instruction boosted the participants' motivation to read. Nevertheless, the novelty-driven enthusiasm for electronic reading might not sustain students' reading motivation long enough to cultivate long-lasting reading habits. The results indicate that there was no significant difference in reading comprehension between two groups. Implications for utilizing electronic readers in EFL classes are also provided.展开更多
Research has shown that L2 (second/foreign language) learners with higher anxiety tend to have weaker L2 reading and writing performance. This paper presents an innovative approach of teaching: the combination of e...Research has shown that L2 (second/foreign language) learners with higher anxiety tend to have weaker L2 reading and writing performance. This paper presents an innovative approach of teaching: the combination of extensive reading and writing blogs, which aims at reducing students' anxiety and promoting students' performance in L2 reading and writing. It also discusses the theoretical framework that supports the use of extensive reading and the reasons for using blogs as writing tools. Relative research on extensive reading and the use of blogs is synthesized. A design for one course that showcases the innovation is also presented. Finally, some suggestions are provided for teachers to help teachers successfully implement the innovative practices.展开更多
This study examined the overall effectiveness of reading proficiency especially the extensive reading in ESL.In order to investi-gate the process of acquisition more efficiently,author used reading-to-write approach t...This study examined the overall effectiveness of reading proficiency especially the extensive reading in ESL.In order to investi-gate the process of acquisition more efficiently,author used reading-to-write approach to investigate the connection between readingand foreign language learning.The research also shows that learners need to be provided with plenty of interesting and comprehensiblebooks and they are supposed to use strategies that they will acquire anyway as they read.展开更多
As we enter the 21st century, acquisition of vocabulary has assumed a more important role, and as some would argue, it has assumed the central role in learning a second language. On one hand, students have a strong de...As we enter the 21st century, acquisition of vocabulary has assumed a more important role, and as some would argue, it has assumed the central role in learning a second language. On one hand, students have a strong desire to improve their English level in order to make them more adaptable when they step into this competitive society after graduation. On the other hand, most students are facing a great difficulty in learning a large number of vocabularies though they do spend a lot of time and energy on it. Also, recent researches show that students don't like the classroom that is still teacher-centered and lecture-based. They want to be more involved in class and more responsible for their own studies. Hence, it is important to equip students with necessary strategies for dealing with vocabulary learning activities. In this paper, three strategies are recommended: extensive listening & reading and contextual guesswork, communicative activities and group-work and the use of dictionary.展开更多
文摘This paper figures out the problems the Chinese students often meet with when they try to obtain the English language ability. In order to assist my students crack down on such problems, I take up the approach of giving them opportunities to play the active roles in English reading activity and requiring them to write reading response journals and to have frequent discussions in the reading class. The approach aims at improving the students' ability and getting them to be trained and improved effectively in the language skills concerned. The approach has come out with remarkable achievements. My understanding is that the process of learning a foreign language is a process indeed of accumulation, including both the language and culture knowledge. The accumulation can be gained by means of reading a lot, thus improving the students' language competence, enlarging their cultural and language field of vision on the western world. We teachers play the function of bridge leading the students to succeed in mastering and applying English as a practical tool in their life and work to come. This paper introduces what I have been trying to assist my students in solving their problems through my teaching practice during the past years.
文摘Extensive reading has long been applied in the English as a foreign language classroom in China,but the fundamental theories and practical instruction are not satisfactory. The study aims to synthesize and examine extensive reading studies over the past fifty years(1962-2019) from a holistic perspective. By performing a qualitative meta-analysis, a total of 81 articles published in widely accepted journals were carefully coded and analyzed. Three latent problems emerged,including that 1) most extensive reading researchers misunderstand the inherent characteristic of extensive reading(i. e., pleasure reading) and less frequently follow the principles of extensive reading instruction;2) there are methodological weaknesses in empirical research designs, and;3)research scope is limited regarding participants and methodology. Suggestions for extensive reading research and instruction are included.
文摘This paper starts with the theoretical reflection on the relationship between IVA (Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition) and extensive reading based on reading process and vocabulary acquisition process, claiming that inferring word meaning is not equated with vocabulary acquisition. Then, some implications are drawn from the theoretical reflection, that is, three factors--text, learner and situation--have great impact on the process of acquiring vocabulary through extensive reading. After that, it follows the review of current research on specific aspects at textual, leamer and situational level.
文摘In the field of L2 (second language) reading, scholars generally agree that ER (extensive reading) improves L2 learners' reading speed and comprehension and enriches their L2 vocabulary (Grabe & Stoller, 1997). This teacher-inquiry type of paper presents a practical suggestion for supplementing ER activity with the element of CL (cooperative learning). ER, theoretically speaking, focuses on the solitary task of silent reading. The CL technique used in this study was a book-talk activity. Forty-five freshmen from a course of children and young adult literatures were required to read at least 20 English books throughout a semester. CL was added to facilitate students' ER in young adult literature. After a semester, short-answer questions were asked regarding students' comments on ER as well as CL. Students overall agreed that when ER is supplemented with CL, reading in an L2 seems to be less intimidating.
文摘This paper conducts the analysis on development of the basic English extensive reading system and the applications on the reading teaching of sports news. Extensive reading of text or material is dead and cannot provide a teaching model. How to talk about what to proceed from reality, according to the principle of gradual and orderly, according to the level of the students and the ability to accept. English newspapers as fresh language, popular novel, close to the life of a corpus source that is the college English teaching has always attached importance to the reference materials. According to the rhetorical characteristics of English newspapers, we set the course, it is best to learn some rhetorical knowledge after the students to open the course, English majors can learn after the rhetoric can also be extended as the rhetoric class and homework. This paper proposes the new idea of dealing with mentioned issues that will promote the development of reading teaching of sports news.
文摘This is a review of the article "Extensive Reading in English: habits and attitudes of a group of Italian university EFL students". This review is concerned with such aspects as the title of the article, the problem dealt with in the article, research methods, subjects, use of tables, conclusions based on data analysis and the significance of the study.
文摘One of the common problems for L2 learners in ESL reading is that the text is either too difficult to understand or too simple to challenge,particularly the extracurricular reading material.The Little Prince and Pride and Prejudice are typically listed in the key reading materials for L2 learners.Contrary to the popularity,a large number of L2 learners find it is hard to complete due to the low text coverage with existing vocabulary.The corpus has become an important language research tool to store language materials according to the specific goals and the way through certain technical means.This paper is going to explore the text coverage of The Little Prince and Pride and Prejudice by range analysis,and comparing with English Curriculum Standards to figure out suitable reading targets of these two materials.
文摘What can be conveniently and effectively used as readingmaterials in our extensive reading classroom(ERC)?Now thatthey are living in an information era,students need to absorb allsorts of knowledge and information within the shortest possibletime.Compared with other reading materials,newspapers andmagazines published in China have their own unique advantagesto be recommended as a main reading source.This paperillustrates this idea in four parts:introduction,merits ofemploying English newspapers and magazines in the ERC,waysof making use of English newspapers and magazines at hand toorganize communicative activities,conclusion.
文摘IntroductionMost teachers and students in China are quite familiar with the term‘extensive reading’,but how itshould be taught still remains a problem.This paper covers the aims of extensive reading and the methodsand materials used in the course.Then some practical suggestions will be given to make the course moreinteresting and efficient.According to Dzao(1990).extensive reading is‘the course where other reading skills-speed,predictionand making inference-can be developed,’and‘where there is practice in geting the gist,in summarisingmain ideas,in understanding the author’s purpose and theme...’.So the aims of this course are todevelop general reading skills,the ability,to read quickly and to grasp the main ideas of the text.Toachieve these,students must enlarge their vocabulary,so this is also regarded as one of the aims.
文摘Ⅰ. Introduction. Today, in most English teaching classes, owing to the popularity of the student-centered teaching approach, the traditional teacher-centered teaching approach has gradually lost its dominating place. As far as extensive reading classes are concerned, this is no exception. The more communicative student-centered approach has been popularly adopted. As a result, the teachers’ roles in the reading classes are changing accordingly. A qualified teacher should be prepared to take different roles at different stages of teaching. Jeremy Harmer has pointed out that a teacher can be expected to act, for example, as a controller, an assessor, an organizer, a prompter, a participant and as a resource (Harmer, 1983). In
文摘Introduction Extensive Reading, as the name indicates, is a guide for students into the vast sea of knowledge. Reading demonstrates to students that there is no end in learning knowledge. However, reading and language learning based on textbooks is far from enough because the knowledge from them is too narrow, the vocabulary is too limited and the contents are not current enough in these times of information exchange. Throughout my teaching experiments, I have found that newspaper clippings can become a very good way to bring more benefits to students’ learning than I expected. It can broaden the students’ horizons,
文摘With the evolutionary change in information and communication technologies (ICT), the definition of literacy has undergone substantial change to include the skills and strategies required to successfully adapt to the rapidly changing ICT contexts. This new definition presents an urgent need to acknowledge the gap between the types of reading experiences students come across at school and those they regularly practice outside the school. One way to bridge such gap is to expand the reading instruction to incorporate electronic reading device, like Kindle, to engage students in electronic reading. Many e-books feature multimodal functionalities, including audio, video, hyperlinks, and interactive tools. Research on this form of reading is still in its infancy in spite of some positive prospects for fostering literacy development and reading comprehension. Therefore, adopting a mixed method approach with 36 college freshmen in central Taiwan, the current study intended to fill in the void by investigating any difference in readers' reading comprehension and reading motivation, between the Kindle group and the print-based group. The results indicate that embedding aspects of technology into a traditional reading instruction boosted the participants' motivation to read. Nevertheless, the novelty-driven enthusiasm for electronic reading might not sustain students' reading motivation long enough to cultivate long-lasting reading habits. The results indicate that there was no significant difference in reading comprehension between two groups. Implications for utilizing electronic readers in EFL classes are also provided.
文摘Research has shown that L2 (second/foreign language) learners with higher anxiety tend to have weaker L2 reading and writing performance. This paper presents an innovative approach of teaching: the combination of extensive reading and writing blogs, which aims at reducing students' anxiety and promoting students' performance in L2 reading and writing. It also discusses the theoretical framework that supports the use of extensive reading and the reasons for using blogs as writing tools. Relative research on extensive reading and the use of blogs is synthesized. A design for one course that showcases the innovation is also presented. Finally, some suggestions are provided for teachers to help teachers successfully implement the innovative practices.
文摘This study examined the overall effectiveness of reading proficiency especially the extensive reading in ESL.In order to investi-gate the process of acquisition more efficiently,author used reading-to-write approach to investigate the connection between readingand foreign language learning.The research also shows that learners need to be provided with plenty of interesting and comprehensiblebooks and they are supposed to use strategies that they will acquire anyway as they read.
文摘As we enter the 21st century, acquisition of vocabulary has assumed a more important role, and as some would argue, it has assumed the central role in learning a second language. On one hand, students have a strong desire to improve their English level in order to make them more adaptable when they step into this competitive society after graduation. On the other hand, most students are facing a great difficulty in learning a large number of vocabularies though they do spend a lot of time and energy on it. Also, recent researches show that students don't like the classroom that is still teacher-centered and lecture-based. They want to be more involved in class and more responsible for their own studies. Hence, it is important to equip students with necessary strategies for dealing with vocabulary learning activities. In this paper, three strategies are recommended: extensive listening & reading and contextual guesswork, communicative activities and group-work and the use of dictionary.