The ER materials

Having already explained what kind of material and at what level of difficulty students should read, discussing the types of material displayed in the library comes next. In this context, a confusion about ER materials appears between the cult of authenticity and the myth of simplification, as Day and Bamford (1998) phrase it. The level of language written in language books, newspapers and magazines is usually higher than L2 students’ proficiency level because of their limited linguistic abilities and background knowledge. Also, Schmitt (2008) maintains that unless learners are at an advanced level in their language development, the vocabulary loads of un-simplified reading texts (e.g., newspapers, novels) will probably be too high for the input to be comprehensible. Therefore, this issue could be solved by writing specific texts for those students, taking their lack of linguistic ability and background knowledge into consideration (Uden & Schmitt, 2014). However, this contradicts the widely held belief in the necessity of using authentic material in the classroom and for language education.

ER materials (language learner literature, graded readers, newspapers, short stories, audio books, etc.) are written to provide students with what they need in terms of entertainment and information. These books or texts, written at different language levels and on a wide variety of topics for different age groups, provide students with a rich environment for reading and help them to become hooked on books and reading. For these reasons- entertainment, learning to read, information, and becoming interested in reading- a variety of different reading materials should be made available to FL learners.

Nowadays, there are different ER materials, whether authentic or simplified, and publishers are more aware of the importance of ER as a relatively new way of teaching reading in the FL, especially in EFL. This awareness has pushed

publishers and authors alike to write and publish more ER materials. Day and Bamford (1998) listed some of the most important ER materials. I will briefly mention them, and then fully explain about graded readers, because they were the only material used in this research study.

Language learner literature is the most useful and attractive material for ER (Fukaya, 2010). It has been defined as follows, “Language learner literature is ... varied, attractive material at different levels of difficulty. It includes books of all kinds, as well as magazines and newspapers produced especially for second

76 language learners” (Day & Bamford, 1998, p.97). The main reason for the

popularity of language learner literature among other ER materials is that learners at any English proficiency level can find materials that best match their level. Graded readers are the most well-known materials as language learner literature since all the books are levelled for FL/L2 learners. This category contains some classic works of literature adapted from the originals for FL/L2 students, so they could read them with pleasure not with pain. These adaptations serve a purpose, and that is to give language learners the opportunity to read world masterpieces for pleasure, as their language level does not help them to read the original (Fukaya, 2010). The main question, when judging these adaptations, should be: does this book communicate to and give pleasure to language learners while they reading it? If yes, it means the book has served its purpose.

Children’s books are also valuable ER materials that can add variety to any ER library. Children’s books are created and designed to teach children to read in their L1. These books range from picture books with no words at all to simple

storybooks with many illustrations (Claridge, 2012). Children’s books have some qualities that are appealing to language learners: easy language, attractive layout and pictures, big print, short to be finished in about 15 minutes and also with different levels. Adults do not feel offended to be offered children’s books to read. On the contrary, some enjoy reading these books as they help them revive their childhood memories. Others appreciate children’s books as works of art and windows on different cultures (Claridge, 2012).

Newspapers and magazines also offer a valuable source of ER materials. Widely available newspapers can serve as interesting reading materials for learners outside the classroom, especially for intermediate and advanced students (Day et al., 2011). The brevity and shortness of newspaper articles help students to get a sense of accomplishment after finishing them quickly, and are also beneficial for weak FL readers who tire from reading quickly. Another advantage of using newspapers as ER material is that the content written in the FL/L2 newspaper is up to date, which may already be familiar to learners if they have read about the same news in their L1 (Day & Bamford, 1998). The variety of topics in a newspaper provides an excellent reading practice for different purposes, as different sections in a newspaper also encourage reading in different ways (e.g., skimming an article or scanning a caption in a newspaper).

77 Magazines and children’s magazines are also counted as ER materials. These materials are usually attractive and colourful, where their visual illustrations help the reader to understand the content (Day & Bamford, 1998). Also, children’s magazines have some enjoyable sections, including activities and language games, which can assist FL learners in their learning process.

Also, short stories and their narration, as audio books, are great assets to extensive readers and listeners. The aim of these short stories, as ER material, is to engage learners in pleasure reading. This engagement results in language gains such as vocabulary growth and pronunciation development. Through the stimulating and interacting input of short stories, learners’ attention and interest are attracted and engaged, their motivation is boosted, their interaction with the text is maximised and consequently their language skills are developed (Cirocki & Calvo, 2015).

3.4.2.1.1. Graded readers

Having briefly discussed some ER material in the previous section, this section explains in more detail about graded readers since they are the main source of reading material for students in this research. Many definitions and descriptions have been given to graded readers. Graded readers have been defined as narrative texts written for a community of FL/L2 readers (Day et al., 2011). Another definition for graded readers is that they are fiction and nonfiction books written especially for language learners to develop their reading speed and fluency and to provide them with opportunities to experience reading for pleasure (The Extensive Reading Foundation's Guide to Extensive Reading, 2011).

A more recent description of graded readers has been delivered by Uden, Diane Schmitt and Norbert Schmitt (2014, p.2), as follows:

Graded readers are complete books that have been prepared within a strictly controlled vocabulary and grammar, and are typically divided into several levels. The lowest levels contain only a few hundred headwords, most go up to around 3,000 headwords, and the very highest levels from Cambridge and Oxford go up to around 4,000–5,000 headwords.

By controlling the number of words and grammar structures suitably for each level, graded readers grant comfort and confidence for readers reading FL/L2 (Yi Lien, 2010).

78 of ER materials. The primary purpose of graded readers is to provide FL/L2

learners with enjoyment and pleasure while reading. This, in turn, will promote and increase learners’ language proficiency through ER (Furutaka, 2015). The use of graded readers is widely accepted as a means of increasing vocabulary knowledge and improving reading proficiency. A growing number of studies have asserted the importance and necessity of using graded readers in ER, and maintained that

simplified texts are as useful as authentic materials in language education (Yie- Lien, 2010; Sandom, 2013). Different and varied gains could be obtained from incorporating graded readers in an ER classroom. Furutaka (2015) notes that graded readers make FL/L2 literature accessible, increase comprehensible input, promote learner autonomy, accommodate all levels of language proficiency and foster good reading habits.

According to Hill (2009), there are two types of graded readers: re-writes and simple originals. Re-writes are adaptations of existing original texts (e.g., novels or short stories) written for native readers which have been modified to suit the level of a different community of readers (FL/L2 readers). Originals, on the other hand, are texts specially written for FL/L2 learners and they are also levelled. Most current series of graded readers include both types (e.g., Cambridge English Readers, Heinemann Graded Readers, Oxford Bookworms Library, and Penguin Graded Readers) (Sandom, 2013).

There are some criteria that are used to grade graded readers. Hill (2009) lists three main criteria: linguistic features, physical appearance, and content. Linguistic features include lexis, syntax and style. The language in each level is controlled so that there are a specific number of headwords for each level, and there is also a certain syntax and structure that needs to be delivered according to the level. Physical appearance is concerned with font size, page size, line length, layout, artwork, margins and other features that are essential to attract readers. The last criterion deals with the subject matter and its exposition. The amount of

“information carried in the story must be proportionate to the length, subject to the principle of information control” (Hill, 2009, p.120).

In spite of the usefulness and importance of graded readers in language

learning, they are still not very popular among ELT settings and professionals. This could be ascribed to their cost, the claim that they lack authenticity, the decline of reading as a leisure-time occupation and the emphasis of teaching spoken rather

79 than written language (Hill, 2008).

Whatever materials are used for any ER programme, they need to be organised. The size of the library, making a budget, purchasing the reading materials,

cataloguing them, setting up a check-in and checkout system are all actions and decisions to be made when establishing a library of ER materials, and are discussed below.