What do you think?
Rate this book
Free Voluntary Reading
An eye-opening look at the latest research findings about the success of free voluntary reading in developing high levels of literacy.
Free voluntary reading looks better and more powerful than ever. Stephen D. Krashen, PhD, is an advocate for free voluntary reading in schools and has published many journal articles on the subject. Free Voluntary Power 2010 collects the last ten years of his extensive work and reconsiders all aspects of this important debate in light of the latest findings.
The book provides an accessible examination of topics, such as free voluntary reading's value in language and literary acquisition domestically and worldwide, recent developments in support of free voluntary reading, whether rewards-based programs benefit the development of lifelong reading, the value of phonics in reading instruction, and trends in literacy in the United States.
Free voluntary reading looks better and more powerful than ever. Stephen D. Krashen, PhD, is an advocate for free voluntary reading in schools and has published many journal articles on the subject. Free Voluntary Power 2010 collects the last ten years of his extensive work and reconsiders all aspects of this important debate in light of the latest findings.
The book provides an accessible examination of topics, such as free voluntary reading's value in language and literary acquisition domestically and worldwide, recent developments in support of free voluntary reading, whether rewards-based programs benefit the development of lifelong reading, the value of phonics in reading instruction, and trends in literacy in the United States.
104 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1992
4 people are currently reading
305 people want to read
About the author
Stephen D. Krashen
37 books147 followersStephen Krashen is professor emeritus at the University of Southern California, who moved from the linguistics department to the faculty of the School of Education in 1994. He is a linguist, educational researcher, and activist.
Dr. Krashen has published more than 350 papers and books, contributing to the fields of second-language acquisition, bilingual education, and reading. He is credited with introducing various influential concepts and terms in the study of second-language acquisition, including the acquisition-learning hypothesis, the input hypothesis, the monitor hypothesis, the affective filter, and the natural order hypothesis. Most recently, Krashen promotes the use of free voluntary reading during second-language acquisition, which he says "is the most powerful tool we have in language education, first and second."
Dr. Krashen also holds a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, and was the winner of the 1978 Venice Beach Open Incline Press. He spent two years in Ethiopia teaching English and science with the Peace Corps.
Dr. Krashen has published more than 350 papers and books, contributing to the fields of second-language acquisition, bilingual education, and reading. He is credited with introducing various influential concepts and terms in the study of second-language acquisition, including the acquisition-learning hypothesis, the input hypothesis, the monitor hypothesis, the affective filter, and the natural order hypothesis. Most recently, Krashen promotes the use of free voluntary reading during second-language acquisition, which he says "is the most powerful tool we have in language education, first and second."
Dr. Krashen also holds a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, and was the winner of the 1978 Venice Beach Open Incline Press. He spent two years in Ethiopia teaching English and science with the Peace Corps.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
April 19, 2023
Stephen Krashen started telling the world in 1985 what he reiterated in a 2013 article : "Here are two amazing facts about language acquisition: First, it is effortless; it involves no energy, no work. All that is necessary is to understand messages. Second, language acquisition is involuntary. Given comprehensible input, you must acquire — you have no choice.
With enticing claims such as these, he sparked a bit of a revolution in applied linguistics and especially in the art of reading with his acquisition/learning hypothesis, where he makes a distinction between incidental “acquisition” of language, and purposeful learning of/about a language. I'm really abbreviating Krashen's theories here, since this is not a technical forum, but to make a long story short, according to Krashen, someone learning a new language can almost effortlessly and subconsciously acquire language, in a similar way that a baby does – which in his view happens purely by exposure to language. Krashen claims that this can happen while the learner is “having a conversation, reading a book, or watching a movie”, although he doesn’t elaborate on how reading a book equates with the way that infants learn to talk. The point is that this kind of input is unintentional, subconscious and focuses on meaning as opposed to form.
The distinction between acquiring and learning language, says Krashen, is that “learning is a conscious process: When we are learning, we know we are learning and we are trying to learn. Language learning is what we did in school; in everyday language, when we talk about “rules” and “grammar,” we are talking about “learning.”” So acquisition is unconscious, natural, unintentional and meaning-focused, whereas learning is conscious, purposeful, structured and form-focused, and with the latter the rules of language are the focus of learning, whereas the former is more focused on meaning.
Teachers the world over enthusiastically started following the tenets that Krashen explains in the volume under consideration here. This worked well in some instances, but soon dissenting voices started to challenge the veracity of Krashen’s claims, (which is not discussed in this book – Krashen stuck to his guns) and it turns out that, sadly, if you're not a baby, some grammar drilling and even a bit of forced vocabulary learning in addition to incidental input does end up in more efficient learning. Unfortunately, Krashen had based his claims on trends rather than on actual empirical research, and real-life results soon started to show that 1. "incidental" learning is in most cases not enough - not in a classroom situation in any case, because 2. you need huge volumes of incidental input in order to actually learn a language properly unless you add a bit of purposeful learning to the mix.
Babies learning their first language do get huge volumes of input, because that is all they hear and their first language is essential for them to communicate their needs, so they have volume of input, motivation, and constant re-iteration at their disposal in order to learn their first language, and even so, it takes them around 10 years or even more to completely master it.
But never fear, it does indeed seem to be true that immersion is a huge aid to language acquisition, and reading for pleasure, (even more so if it is illustrated) can really help enormously, so don't despair yet, language learners, and start reading in that language that you would love to acquire! ;)
With enticing claims such as these, he sparked a bit of a revolution in applied linguistics and especially in the art of reading with his acquisition/learning hypothesis, where he makes a distinction between incidental “acquisition” of language, and purposeful learning of/about a language. I'm really abbreviating Krashen's theories here, since this is not a technical forum, but to make a long story short, according to Krashen, someone learning a new language can almost effortlessly and subconsciously acquire language, in a similar way that a baby does – which in his view happens purely by exposure to language. Krashen claims that this can happen while the learner is “having a conversation, reading a book, or watching a movie”, although he doesn’t elaborate on how reading a book equates with the way that infants learn to talk. The point is that this kind of input is unintentional, subconscious and focuses on meaning as opposed to form.
The distinction between acquiring and learning language, says Krashen, is that “learning is a conscious process: When we are learning, we know we are learning and we are trying to learn. Language learning is what we did in school; in everyday language, when we talk about “rules” and “grammar,” we are talking about “learning.”” So acquisition is unconscious, natural, unintentional and meaning-focused, whereas learning is conscious, purposeful, structured and form-focused, and with the latter the rules of language are the focus of learning, whereas the former is more focused on meaning.
Teachers the world over enthusiastically started following the tenets that Krashen explains in the volume under consideration here. This worked well in some instances, but soon dissenting voices started to challenge the veracity of Krashen’s claims, (which is not discussed in this book – Krashen stuck to his guns) and it turns out that, sadly, if you're not a baby, some grammar drilling and even a bit of forced vocabulary learning in addition to incidental input does end up in more efficient learning. Unfortunately, Krashen had based his claims on trends rather than on actual empirical research, and real-life results soon started to show that 1. "incidental" learning is in most cases not enough - not in a classroom situation in any case, because 2. you need huge volumes of incidental input in order to actually learn a language properly unless you add a bit of purposeful learning to the mix.
Babies learning their first language do get huge volumes of input, because that is all they hear and their first language is essential for them to communicate their needs, so they have volume of input, motivation, and constant re-iteration at their disposal in order to learn their first language, and even so, it takes them around 10 years or even more to completely master it.
But never fear, it does indeed seem to be true that immersion is a huge aid to language acquisition, and reading for pleasure, (even more so if it is illustrated) can really help enormously, so don't despair yet, language learners, and start reading in that language that you would love to acquire! ;)
September 18, 2011
Stephen Krashen has never been inside my classroom, but his work has informed everything that happens there.His earlier book POWER OF READING gave me much of the ammunition I use when critics tell me my class is just a blow-off, that a class called READING FOR PLEASURE certainly is nothing but a glorified study hall.
This compact book is a collection of essays, carefully documenting many of Dr. Krashen's passions: free voluntary reading, access to libraries, the effects of poverty on students' ability to learn to read, language acquisition, problems with Accelerated Reading programs, and problems with phonics instruction as the sole way to teach beginners to read.
Quotes galore that will find their way into my research and presentations. Ammunition to critics, and research that will soothe students, their parents, and my own administration.
Free, voluntary reading works. It not only helps students develop the inclination to become life-long readers, it improves grades in English classes, it improves performance on standardized tests. We must, as Dr. Krashen encourages us, we MUST trust kids' choices of reading material, and their willingness to participate in reading when they have some control.
The only place I wander away from his strong message is that I DO have students write to me after they read...but I want them to write as if they're talking to a friend. REAL readers are very social and love to talk about their books. I feel like I have to teach most of my students how to talk about books. I know why this is a component of my class, and I feel ok with it...And, to be honest, I LOVE to read what my students are reading and what they think about books. I'd hate to lose that connection.
"Evidence id overwhelming that reading for pleasure -- that is, self-selected recreational reading -- is the major source of our ability to read, to write with an acceptable writing style, to develop vocabulary and spelling abilities, and to handle complex grammatical constructions." In other words: READ!!
This compact book is a collection of essays, carefully documenting many of Dr. Krashen's passions: free voluntary reading, access to libraries, the effects of poverty on students' ability to learn to read, language acquisition, problems with Accelerated Reading programs, and problems with phonics instruction as the sole way to teach beginners to read.
Quotes galore that will find their way into my research and presentations. Ammunition to critics, and research that will soothe students, their parents, and my own administration.
Free, voluntary reading works. It not only helps students develop the inclination to become life-long readers, it improves grades in English classes, it improves performance on standardized tests. We must, as Dr. Krashen encourages us, we MUST trust kids' choices of reading material, and their willingness to participate in reading when they have some control.
The only place I wander away from his strong message is that I DO have students write to me after they read...but I want them to write as if they're talking to a friend. REAL readers are very social and love to talk about their books. I feel like I have to teach most of my students how to talk about books. I know why this is a component of my class, and I feel ok with it...And, to be honest, I LOVE to read what my students are reading and what they think about books. I'd hate to lose that connection.
"Evidence id overwhelming that reading for pleasure -- that is, self-selected recreational reading -- is the major source of our ability to read, to write with an acceptable writing style, to develop vocabulary and spelling abilities, and to handle complex grammatical constructions." In other words: READ!!
August 6, 2013
I wish reading this book was more like reading The Book Whisperer, but alas this is a different kind of book and just as important. From the beginning this book read like a personal manifesto of beliefs about reading development. For example, "those who read more read better," "those who read more have better vocabularies," "read-alouds encourage children to read more," "home run books are not necessarily 'quality' books," so on. While I wholeheartedly agree, I forget that not everyone is aware and knowledgeable about this information. Where this book got interesting for me was in chapter 7 "Free Voluntary Web Surfing." In particular, I found the section about "narrow reading" interesting as I have never heard of series reading, specific genre reading, etc. called this, but it makes perfect sense. Narrow reading should be encouraged because research shows students who read "narrowly" make excellent progress. Finally, I found the section about Free Voluntary Web Surfing fascinating and new. I had never thought of FVS as reading, but again it makes perfect sense. The FVS section really made me think about my own teaching and helping students become better readers. Thank you, Dr. Krashen, for researching reading and shining a light on best practices.
October 15, 2014
A collection of research and study findings on reading and importance of reading voluntarily, which is also termed as reading for fun, pleasure reading, and recreational reading. The book can be a very good source for those who interested in literacy. If I have to say something making you read the book, is that if you want to what reading does to your cognitive, social, and psychological development, read this book.
October 15, 2017
If you think you should dictate what is 'best' for students to read,
if you think some books are 'trash' and shouldn't be read,
you may want to read a bit of this, along with Donalyn Miller's "The Book Whisperer" and "Reading Unbound" by Jeffrey D. Wilhelm and Micheal W. Smith.
Krashen provides evidence of the power of student choice in reading through a short collection of previously published articles. He adds to the strong pillar of voices speaking for our youngsters in the move to allow more student choice in selection of what to read.
If you are not convinced by any of these, I just don't know what to say.
if you think some books are 'trash' and shouldn't be read,
you may want to read a bit of this, along with Donalyn Miller's "The Book Whisperer" and "Reading Unbound" by Jeffrey D. Wilhelm and Micheal W. Smith.
Krashen provides evidence of the power of student choice in reading through a short collection of previously published articles. He adds to the strong pillar of voices speaking for our youngsters in the move to allow more student choice in selection of what to read.
If you are not convinced by any of these, I just don't know what to say.
May 5, 2022
An incredibly interesting take on language learning and multiple benefits of reading. This author was mentioned in the InnerFrench podcast, and I was very intrigued to learn more about his methods of learning a language.
As an avid reader myself and a learner of English as a second language, I was thrilled to learn that reading compelling books for pleasure is basically all you need to improve your writing and spelling skills as well as expand your vocabulary. The key is input, and what’s critical is that the input needs to be comprehensible and effortless. At least 95% of the vocabulary in a book should be familiar in order to achieve that sense of “flow”, when a student is not aware that he or she is doing an activity in a non-native language. Also, reading should be done with little or zero accountability, that is, there should be no comprehension checking, writing book reports or anything like that. The author supports this claim with evidence that shows that the less testing or correction is done, the better results are. According to the author, language learning occurs most efficiently when a student is put in a low-anxiety environment, with no thoughts about homework or tests, and any book (whether it is “quality” books or popular comics) is fine and beneficial as long as a student is engaged in a book.
All of these ideas were surprising to me, because the book suggests the opposite of how languages are taught today, with thousands of activities and focus on speaking. Stephen Krashen points out that the most significant results can be achieved when the reader’s attention is focused on the content rather than the process of language learning.
The author also explains other benefits of reading for pleasure and insists on the importance of investing in school libraries, especially in low-income neighborhoods.
As an avid reader myself and a learner of English as a second language, I was thrilled to learn that reading compelling books for pleasure is basically all you need to improve your writing and spelling skills as well as expand your vocabulary. The key is input, and what’s critical is that the input needs to be comprehensible and effortless. At least 95% of the vocabulary in a book should be familiar in order to achieve that sense of “flow”, when a student is not aware that he or she is doing an activity in a non-native language. Also, reading should be done with little or zero accountability, that is, there should be no comprehension checking, writing book reports or anything like that. The author supports this claim with evidence that shows that the less testing or correction is done, the better results are. According to the author, language learning occurs most efficiently when a student is put in a low-anxiety environment, with no thoughts about homework or tests, and any book (whether it is “quality” books or popular comics) is fine and beneficial as long as a student is engaged in a book.
All of these ideas were surprising to me, because the book suggests the opposite of how languages are taught today, with thousands of activities and focus on speaking. Stephen Krashen points out that the most significant results can be achieved when the reader’s attention is focused on the content rather than the process of language learning.
The author also explains other benefits of reading for pleasure and insists on the importance of investing in school libraries, especially in low-income neighborhoods.
March 8, 2023
This book definitely put me in the “flow”. Why is this book not mandatory reading and every single teacher credentialing class? Why didn’t I start my career with this book? What a missed opportunity!
Teachers of literature, teachers of English, teachers of essay, writing, teachers of foreign languages, and basically all teachers, need to spend professional development time, simply sitting down and reading this book.
Teachers of literature, teachers of English, teachers of essay, writing, teachers of foreign languages, and basically all teachers, need to spend professional development time, simply sitting down and reading this book.
February 24, 2018
Confirms what I have maintained for years. Free Voluntary Reading works. Wish I didn't have a former math teacher as a principal.
October 13, 2018
Outstanding author
July 28, 2020
Invaluable research about the role of input and SSR in language acquisition
February 4, 2024
Definitely dated but loved the nuggets on how to keep the joy and "flow state" during reading in kids who are distracted by so many other ways to spend their free time. Glad I read this short book.
August 21, 2012
The reason I "really liked" this book is that it provides a solid research base for the value of -- you guessed it -- free voluntary reading for students. This book is an excellent resource for educational professionals striving to promote the success of all students. However, as a read on its own, it is dry and best used on an as-needed basis. The message, nonetheless, is not a dry one: the more students read self-selected materials, the better they fare in school, work, and on assessments.
August 14, 2011
Terrific book from Stephen Krashen about how Free Voluntary Reading affects English language acquisition for both first and second languages. Most of the research has been done in English but there is evidence that it is true in other languages too. A short book with a lot of good information!
August 11, 2012
An concise collection of research regarding independent reading. Krashen addresses AR, phonics instruction, and language acquisition among other topics.
September 25, 2012
This is a compilation of Krashen's recently published articles about free voluntary reading.
May 2, 2015
A not very helpful or interesting book on sustained silent reading in class - more of a list of references and very brief points about reading. I definitely wouldn't recommend this book.
August 30, 2011
A must read for those who practice SSR in the classroom.
February 28, 2012
good - bit academic.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews