Students' Perceptions on the Extensive Reading Project Carried Out At Anadolu University

Abstract

Anadolu University, School of Foreign Languages (hereafter AU-SFL) is going through a curricular change, one of which is the extensive reading project introduced in the 2003-2004 academic year. A skills-based program in which language skills (reading, writing, speaking/listening) and contextualized grammar are included is pursued at AU-SFL. Based on the curricular workshops conducted with reading skills teachers during the summer training institute, extensive reading has become a part of reading skills instruction in addition to intensive reading instruction carried out in classes. For extensive reading, students are encouraged to read in the target language out of the class about the issues they have an interest in and provided with a guideline to help them read and write critically. Students are asked to write reports in their L1 or in the target language on what they read depending on their own preference. In the literature of reading, the benefits of extensive reading are listed as follows: development of sight vocabulary, development of general vocabulary knowledge, acquisition of linguistic, topical, and world knowledge, development of positive attitudes toward reading in English, and motivation to read in English. (Elley, 1991; Cho & Krashen, 1994; Rodrigo, 1995 as cited in Da y & Bamford, 1998). With this study, our purpose is to see whether our students think the extensive reading project in our school contributes to their reading ability as mentioned in the literature. For the data collection, a survey was conducted, the results of which would also guide us to make changes in the project if necessary and to give better insight for other language programs considering the initiation of an extensive reading project.