Extensive Reading: Speed and Comprehension.

Abstract

________________________ Claims that extensive reading could lead to significant improvements in learner's reading speeds date back thirty years, and the role of graded readers in programs to promote such reading has an even longer history. Studies that measure reading speeds have been relatively few and far between however, and those that do exist rarely evaluate reading speed in relation to the effect of different classroom methodologies in the teaching of reading. Early work on reading speed tended to focus on the development of techniques to help learners to read faster, and failed to recognize the importance of varying the speed according to the reader's purpose in approaching a text. Such techniques as have been employed on speed reading courses also tend to cause readers to suffer lower levels of reading comprehension. The study reported in this article was conducted in the Yemen Arab Republic on young adult students working in various government ministries. It measured both reading speeds and comprehension in two groups of learners exposed to "intensive " and "extensive " reading programs respectively. The "extensive " group was exposed to a regime of graded readers while the "intensive" group studied short texts followed by comprehension questions. Results indicate that subjects exposed to "extensive " reading achieved both significantly faster reading speeds and significantly higher scores on measures of reading comprehension.

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