1. Introduction
Extensive reading is an approach to language
learning, including foreign language learning, by the
means of a large amount of reading. The learners
view and review of unknow words in specific
context will allow the learner to infer the word's
meaning, and thus to learn unkown words. While
the mecanism is commonly accepted as true, it's
importance in language learning is disputed.

2. Intensive & Extensive Reading
Intensive reading
It is related to
further progress
in language
learning under
the teacher's
guidance. It
provides a basis
for explaining
difficulties of
structure and for
extending knowledge of vocabulary and idioms. It will
provide material for developing greater control of the
language and speech and writing. Students will study
short stories and extracts from novels, chosen for the
standard of difficultly of the language and for the
interest they hold for this particular group of students.
Intensive reading is generally at a slower speed and
requires a higher degree of understanding to develop
and refine word study skills, enlarge passive
vocabulary, reinforce skills related to sentence
structure, increase active vocabulary, distinguish
among thesis, fact, supportive and non-supportive
details, provide sociocultural insights.

3. Extensive reading
It develops at the
student's own
pace according to
individual ability.
It will be selected
at a lower level of
difficulty than that
for intensive
reading. Where
frequency word
counts are available for the language being learned,
extensive reading will conform to a lower frequency
word count than intensive reading. Material will be
selected whose choice of structure is habitually less
complex and whose vocabulary range is less extensive.
The purpose of extensive reading is to train the
students to read directly and fluently in the target
language for enjoyment without the aid of the teacher.
Where graded texts are available, structures in texts
for extensive reading will be already familiar, and new
items of vocabulary will be introduced slowly in such a
way that their meaning can be deduced from context
or quickly ascertained. The student will be encouraged
to make intelligent guesses at the meaning of
unfamiliar items. Material consists of authentic short
stories and plays, or informative or controversial
articles from newspapers and magazines. A few
adaptations of vocabulary and structure will be made.
The style of writing should entail a certain amount of
repetition without monotony. Novelties of vocabulary

4. should not coincide with difficulties of structure. It
means reading in quantity and in order to gain a
general understanding of what is read. It is intended to
develop good reading habits, to build up knowledge of
vocabulary and structure and to encourage a liking for
reading, Increase total comprehension, enable students
to achieve independence in basic skill development,
acquaint the student with relevant socio-cultural
material, and encourage recreational reading.

5. The Characteristics of an Extensive Reading Approach
1. Students read as much as possible, perhaps in and definitely
out of the classroom.
2. A variety of materials on a wide range of topics is available
so as to encourage reading for different reasons and in
different ways.
3. Students select what they want to read and have the freedom
to stop reading material that fails to interest them.
4. The purposes of reading are usually related to pleasure,
information and general understanding. The purposes are
determined by the nature of the material and the interests of
the student.
5. Reading is its own reward. There are few or no follow-up
exercises after reading.
6. Reading materials are well within the linguistic competence
of the students in terms of vocabulary and grammar.
Dictionaries are rarely used while reading because the
constant stopping to look up words makes fluent reading
difficult.
7. Reading is individual and silent, at the student's own pace,
and, outside class, done when and where the student chooses.
8. Reading speed is usually faster rather than slower as
students read books and other material they find easily
understandable.
9. Teachers orient students to the goals of the program, explain
the methodology, keep track of what each student reads, and
guide students in getting the most out of the program.
10. The teacher is a role model of a reader for the students -- an
active member of the classroom reading community,
demonstrating what it means to be a reader and the rewards of
being a reader

6. In the real world, reading is a means to an end and not
an end in itself. It is always a purposeful activity, and
our job as teachers is to help students, identify these
different purposes and to master the strategies best
suited to achieving them.
Teaching Extensive Reading skills :
Teachers are often discouraged by the inefficient
reading methods of otherwise fluent students. Many
foreign- language students in secondary and tertiary
institutions can't keep up with their assignments and
blame their slow reading speed. Despite our best
efforts , we find students struggling word -for-word
through a text, plowing on from beginning to end and
stumbling at every unfamiliar item. Unfortunately, such
slow and wasteful procedures are commonly due to a
lack of reading confidence created by the very manner
of their learning in EFL classes.
Identifying Purposes :
Students have to be disabused of the notion that
reading in English is somehow a linguistic exercise
quite different form reading in their own language.
Outside the classroom the motivation to read is always
supplied by a specific purpose the reader has in
extracting the information that a text contains. We
must simply seek to provide the materials and
exercises that reflect the authentic purposes of this
reading. The increase in a student's linguistic
understanding is thus gained only as a by- product.
The purpose of reading a particular text is the most
important determinant of reading strategy. We do not
always require the same level of comprehension,
detail our students that it is efficient and profitable to
vary their technique and speed according to their
purpose in reading. Attention.
Table 1 shows the relationship between these factors in
some sample reading situation. Table 2 is more
specific. It gives an outline of how particular purposes

7. can be designated to various reading assignments for
tiary institutions. It connects immediate goals to more
general purposes and suggests the most appropriate
strategies.
Awareness of reading flexibility :
The next step is to show
student that different
tasks require different
degree of understanding
and attention. While
extremely useful in many
study situation, the skills
developed through
intensive analysis of short
texts are not always
appropriate, and students
may be surprised to learn
that they don't have to read everything or give equal
weight to each word.
This can be demonstrated by getting student to
reconstruct closed texts or read passages with all
"grammar" words removed. It is rate that a text will
contain less than 20% of articles, connectives,
prepositions, modals, and so on, which are usually
automatically skimmed in the L1, and by efficient
native English speakers.
More importantly however, student need to realize
that texts contain information of varying importance
to the purpose in reading. To make students aware of
the relationship between purpose and strategy, give
them a series of different reading tasks bases on some
of the main purposes derived from the sample situation
in tables 1 and 2. for example, the following kinds of
exercises might be used.

8. 1. Read a technical /scholarly text carefully to prepare
for detailed exam questions in its content.
2. Read a similar text to find the answer to a particular
question without looking back in the text.
3. Find one book containing the relevant material for a
particular topic area from a 10-item reading list.

10. 4. Read several movie reviews to decide which one to
see this weekend. Students should notice the actors
names, general plot information, and the reviewer's
overall opinion.
These exercise can be timed and assessed for
accuracy. If student's scores for speed and
comprehension in them are similar, then they are
approaching all these tasks in the same way. They
have developed the habit of reading every text from
beginning to end and need to be taught the
advantages of explicitly identifying their purpose
before starting to read.
Developing reading efficiency :
Reading efficiently means
approaching every reading
task with a clear purpose
and with the flexibility to
adjust reading strategy to
the purpose at hand. The
burden is therefore on the
teacher to provide reading
tasks that exploit different
techniques. Table 3 summarizes the relationship
between high- level purposes and reading strategies.
Because there seems to be some confusion about the
main extensive reading skills-often because they are
merged together and their features obscured-I will
briefly review them below and suggest some classroom
approaches.
Surveying :
Surveying is a strategy for quickly and efficiently
previewing text content and organization using
referencing and non- text material. Although specific
strategies depend on the type of text, surveying

11. basically involves making a quick check of the
relevant extra- text categories.
1. Reference Data - e.g., title, author, copyright
date, blurb, table of contents, chapter or article
summaries, subheading etc.
2. Graphical Data – diagrams, illustrations, tables,
maps.
3. Typographical data all features that help information
stand out, including typefaces, spacing, enumeration,
underlining, indentation, etc.
Skimming :
Efficient readers unreflectively skim
most of what they read to some
extent. Skimming is a more text
oriented form of surveying and
refers to the method of glancing
through a text to extract the gist or
main points. Generally speaking,
about 75% of the text is
disregarded. This is a valuable technique for
reviewing material or determining whether it is
relevant for more detailed investigation.
Scanning :
Scanning is a rapid search for specific information
rather than general impression. Scanning demands
that the reader ignore all but the key item being
searched for. It is a useful skill for data gathering,
review, using reference books, or judging whether a
text contains material deserving further study.
Phrase reading :
While not strictly an extensive- reading strategy,
phrase reading utilizes what are essentially advanced
scanning skills and is a valuable reading strategy.
The two keys to proficient scanning and phrase
reading are concentration and eye- span ability.

12. Text – organization awareness :
In addition, recent interest in describing the rhetorical
structure of different text types or genres is directly
relevant to improving extensive reading strategies
finding in cognitive psychology have established that
effective comprehension depends on the reader's
ability to relate what is being read to a familiar pattern
or scheme (Widows on 1983). By enabling the reader
to correctly identify and organize information into a
conventional frame, knowledge of genres provides a
king of structural map that assists the rapid appraisal
of a text and thereby increase skimming, scanning,
and phrase- reading ability.
Conclusions :
Efficiently reading is an
essential prerequisite for
success in today's world,
where there is never the
time to read everything
leisurely and thoroughly.
Creating an awareness of
reading flexibility and
developing the strategies
for this are therefore
among the most useful contribution we can make to
our students futures.
This is not suggest that we neglect intensive reading
skills. There are obviously many occasions when a
close and accurate interpretation of a text is essential.
But we cannot leave learners with the idea that
reading a text always means understanding every
word.