Extensive Reading Has Positive Effect on Secondary School Chinese EFL Learner’s Vocabulary Growth and Reading Rates

Author: Yaqi Shen (Penn State University)
Speaker: Yaqi Shen
Topic: Language pedagogies
The (SCOPUS / ISI) SOAS GLOCAL CALA 2019 General Session

Abstract

The study aims to explore the relationship between extensive reading and the vocabulary growth, and reading fluency development of secondary Chinese EFL. Participants are 40 Chinese EFL students who are studying at secondary school at ninth grade, and they are divided into two equal groups randomly. The design of the study is quasi-experimental, and all of the data will be collected through post-class questionnaires, assignments and observation from classes. In this study we control the participants’ proficiency level as intermediate level, which other studies don’t do it. The findings show that extensive reading has a positive effect on vocabulary growth and fluency development. The longer time EFLs spend on extensive reading, the more reading rates they will gain, however, we cannot simply put extensive reading as the only factor because students’ language proficiency may also play an important role. For vocabulary growth, there are no significant differences between extensive reading groups and intensive reading groups.

Keywords: Chinese EFL, Extensive Reading, Vocabulary Growth, Reading Rates Development