Setting up an ER programme

The first step for integrating ER in the curriculum is achieved when teachers or administrators decide that ER would greatly assist language learners. Like any programme, ER programmes should be carefully planned in order to get the desired results. Part of this planning includes specifying goals for any ER programme, so the people involved work to achieve these goals. Short-term, random and

unsystematic planning leads to failure. Long-term planning with a vision increases the chances for any ER programme to grow each year to survive any potential threats (Hill, 1997b). Some of these threats could be: lost or disorganised materials, shortage of funding and resources or insufficient resources to keep a library running and teachers without experience of how ER programmes are set up and run

(Waring, 2010).

Setting goals for an ER programme establishes a framework for the programme and helps to tell whether the programme is a success or a failure. These goals could be, for example, to develop the students’ language skills, foster positive motivation and attitudes towards reading, decide how much reading should be done and have a reading library. In addition, the goals differ according to different settings and teaching contexts (Day, 2013).

Having set the goals of the ER programme, the question posed here is how these goals could be achieved. Waring (2010) provides an answer through

70 for ER to fit into the current curriculum. The ER programme should be guided with a clear purpose that should fit within the aims and objectives of the curriculum (whether in a school, university or language centre). The ER programme needs to be part of a larger language reading and learning programme, but not a sole and exclusive method for reading and learning instruction because ER is only one type of reading instruction. It has been mentioned earlier in this chapter (see 3.1) that too much IR leads to not building a fluent reader, and too much ER can lead to a

learner not observing certain language aspects. Balance is the key to a successful reading programme (Waring, 2010). The next step is to ensure that everyone is involved in the planning stage and also in taking decisions as a group. This

reinforces the feeling of commitment to make the programme a success. Involving people (e.g., teachers, learners and even parents) means making the goals and aims of the ER programme understood by them. Starting the library and getting funding for reading materials comes next.

Having decided to proceed with the ER programme, some curricular questions need to be addressed before starting the programme. These questions are mainly answered in Day and Bamford’s (1998; 2004) books, Day et al. (2011) and in Day (2013).

a- What kind of material should students read?

This question could be addressed from two perspectives, the level of difficulty and type of materials. Appropriate reading materials are the essence of any ER programme. Students read a large quantity of easy, interesting, engaging,

comprehensible and available materials if they want to read extensively (Jacobs, 2014). Appropriate reading materials mean any text in the target language that is easily understood with little or no assistance. These materials may include materials written for first language readers, SL/FL readers, comic books, or online materials. The Internet also gives a wide access to reading materials (Day, 2013).

Any text in the target language that is at or below the students’ current reading competence can be used as ER materials. Reading easy books, at the i minus 1 level (Krashen, 1985), without translation might be a new experience to students, but this will build confidence and develop their sight as well as their general vocabulary (Day & Bamford, 1998). It is important that students start with easy books,

71 development in language learning by laddering up. Consequently, their comfort zone will start to expand and the difficult materials will then become easy for them. It is the students’ decision to determine which level of difficulty and whether this level is the appropriate level to read. Teachers could help them by letting them know in more depth about the approach and the appropriate level, but not by deciding for them.

Moving to the type of materials, one of the most common materials that are written for FL readers are graded readers. Graded readers (see 3.4.2.1.1) are “simply books, fiction and non-fiction written for language learners; the content is controlled to match the language ability of learners” (Day, 2013, pp.11-12). Authentic and non-authentic materials, language learner literature, online sources, and many other sources could be used as ER materials (see 3.4.2.1). Regardless of the source, a wide variety of interesting books and materials with different levels should be made available to students. In addition, a wide selection of different genres should also be available because students’ tastes in reading are different (Day et al., 2011). Last but not least, ER materials should be subdivided into difficulty levels, so that learners with different proficiency and reading ability levels can find materials appropriate to their level easily. It is worth mentioning that ER materials will be explained in detail later in this chapter (see 3.4.2).

b- How much reading should students do?

ER means reading a large amount of material in the FL/L2; students should be encouraged to read as much as is reasonably possible. Moreover, there is no specific amount of reading that qualifies for the term extensive (Robb & Kano, 2013). Students and learners differ in their circumstances and reading abilities; thus, how much they read is relative to their abilities and circumstances and even to their goals of reading. Two main considerations are posed by Day and Bamford (1998): how much time can students be expected to devote to reading per day or per week? And how long can students read pleasurably before starting to feel tired, bored or losing interest?

Setting reading targets (the amount of reading expected of students), whether expected or required, and tracking progress towards them are essential in ER, because students are more likely to do it when they are required, expected and are given credit for the reading (Day, 2013). These reading targets and expectations

72 ensure that students keep moving towards achieving their goal of becoming fluent readers or even other goals. Reading targets can be expressed in different ways: in terms of the material (number of books or pages read), time (how much time spent for reading per day or week for example) or a combination of both (Day, 2013). ER targets should be flexible, without too much pressure on the students’ schedules, and can be modified to fit the reading abilities and schedules of the students.

Many EFL teachers and researchers have made different suggestions about the quantity of reading that should be read (e.g. 10 pages an hour). A book a week, if the books are short and simple, is Hill’s (2008) rule of thumb. Needless to say, books for beginners are not the same as for intermediate or advanced students, and beginner-level students are different from intermediate-level students in their reading abilities. A graded reader at the lowest level (beginner, containing about 16 pages of a text) might be read by a beginning-level student in about 4 hours. An intermediate-level book (50-60 pages) can perhaps be read in about 5 hours, and an advanced-level book (80+ pages) can take about 6 hours. These numbers, for example, reveal how much to expect students to read, taking into account the time available to them as well as their schedule and circumstances (Nation, 2013). Students, in this study, were encouraged to read as much as possible; however, a reading minimum target (i.e. reading 15 graded readers during 12 weeks) was set for them (see 4.6).

However, reading should not be viewed as a matter of weighted pages per week or month, the appreciation of individual books being read is what should be focused on (Day et al., 2011). Teachers are usually the driving force for students to read, through the help they offer to their students. Setting personal targets is often a strong motivational factor. Teachers should advise their students to set a time for reading within their schedule (e.g., lunch break, on train while commuting to and from school, etc.). The teacher’s role here is to facilitate for students the process of setting a reasonable target number of books to read within a time limit and to encourage them to meet their targets (Day, 2013). Last but not least, teachers could search for a feasible mechanism to monitor the students’ progress (e.g. ER logs).

c- Where should reading take place?

Reading should be at the student’s own pace, when and where the student chooses (Day & Bamford, 1998). This is one of the basic principles of ER, in

73 addition to reading a significant amount of easy and interesting material. However, if teachers do not show the importance of reading to their students by setting aside valuable class time to it, students will not be highly motivated to read outside the classroom (Harris & Sipay, 1990). When time is set aside for students to read in class, it demonstrates to students the value that is placed on reading and that reading is a worthwhile activity.

Since ER involves reading a lot, students will have to do most of the reading outside of class. The question that remains here is: how to involve students in reading? Huffman (2014) points out that reading involves choice on many levels, and an important aspect of choice is choosing the setting and conditions when the text is read. As Klapper (1992) notes, learners will be more likely to read and like reading books of their own choice at their own difficulty levels and speed, rather than be forced to conform to uniform programmes. Therefore, out-of-class reading plays a major role in building lifelong readers. It is then up to students to explore the best setting for when and where they like to read. Some students might like to read in their beds, in the school library, in the train, or in a coffee shop. Others might find their desks are the best place to concentrate and enjoy reading. The time and place picked for reading is a matter of individual choice and differs from one person to another. Reading in one’s own time and terms “is the only way to begin to do this” (Day & Bamford, 1998, p.91).

d- Should dictionaries be used while reading extensively?

Building reading fluency is one of the main benefits that ER could offer to students. Part of fluent reading urges readers to ignore unknown words or phrases (unless they hinder the comprehension process completely), or predict their

meanings. Stopping at every single unknown word and looking it up hinders fluent reading; the use of dictionaries by EFL students could double the time it takes to read a book (Waring, 2014). It is the student who decides the dictionary use, according to their needs. However, ER is a different method of dealing with a language text from the methods that most EFL students have learned. This creates fear being able to understand a text without using a dictionary, since they are not trained to do so. Therefore, students, with their teachers’ help, must break the habit of using a dictionary all the time when encountering unfamiliar words (Day, 2013). Further, students must train themselves and get into the habit of fluent reading,

74 reading daily and out of the habit of looking up every unknown word.

Students must be aware of the techniques of fluent reading and learn them. They should know that using the dictionary constantly while reading is unnatural, and that it interrupts the joy of reading and reduces concentration. Students should know that if they have the will to become fluent readers, they must train themselves to get used to ambiguity and try to guess the unknown words instead of jumping to the dictionary to look them up (Day et al, 2011).

According to Day (2013) and Waring (2014), students who are familiar with the nature of ER can be given more freedom whether to use a dictionary. Giving students the freedom to use a dictionary allows students to get used to making decisions about when to use a dictionary, and to decide which words are essential and which ones can be ignored. Finally, the main point of ER is that students should read easy and interesting books to learn the language. If they are looking up in the dictionary often while reading a book, they might consider reading easier books.

These are essential curricular decisions that teachers and other people involved in ER programmes should take when considering setting up an ER program. There are also many other decisions and questions that are worth mentioning. However, for the purpose of this study I chose only the questions mentioned above. For more information about the most frequently asked questions about ER, visit Rob

Waring’s website as he discusses in detail about setting up ER programmes.