Extensive Reading: Into the Classroom

by Richard Day, Jennifer Bassett, Bill Bowler

Extensive Reading - revised edition is the ideal companion for teachers who would like to add the substantial benefits of extensive reading to their language programmes. It explains the research that shows how reading for pleasure helps learners to improve their English, and guides teachers through the different approaches they can use, focusing on:
The importance of extensive free reading
How extensive reading materials are developed and how to choose the right graded readers for the class
Introducing and exploiting class readers
Developing class libraries
Setting up and running reading circles
In addition, five extensive reading case studies describe projects in a range of learning environments.
Extra resources are available on the website: www.oup.com/elt/teacher/itc

120 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 28, 2016

Reviews

[E.A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although closely tied to OUP's own series of graded readers, this short and accessible overview of both theory and practice gives a good idea of what's relevant when setting up an extensive reading programme using graded readers. The series editors' chapters were interesting as they show how modern series of graded readers do seem to have overcome a lot of the negative aspects of earlier ones. Still, I have not yet figured out their place in Dutch EFL teaching, where the gap between L1 and L2 is very different than in most of the case studies dealt with in this volume. Some of the chapters include suggested activities that might push us back to rather unmotivating responses to obligatory reading, but the case studies balance these by pointing out precisely such risks.