BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ANNOTATIONS

Bibliographical Annotations

Bibliographical Annotations

Aebersold, J. A., & Field, M. L. (1997). From reader to reading teacher: Issues and strategies for second language classrooms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

While most of this book is not about extensive reading, the following parts are relevant. The beginning of chapter 1 asks teachers to think about the role of reading in their life, past and present, and on the influence of family, community, school, culture, and individual characteristics in defining the role of reading for them. Pages 43-44 discuss an approach to reading instruction based on extensive reading. Included is an account by a teacher who taught a reading course based on extensive reading. One of her reasons was that she wanted to give students more responsibility.

Alessi, S., & Dwyer, A. (2008). Vocabulary assistance before and during reading. Reading in a Foreign Language, 20(2), 246-263.

Intermediate learners of Spanish read a Spanish newspaper article with vocabulary assistance either before reading, while reading, both, or without any such assistance. Reading performance was significantly better for students receiving vocabulary assistance during reading, but not for those receiving it before reading.

Allan, R. (2009). Can a graded reader corpus provide 'authentic' input? ELT Journal, 63(1), 23-32

In addition to their intended purpose, graded reader texts can be made into a corpus appropriate for use with lower-level learners. Here I consider using such a corpus for data-driven learning (DDL), to make this approach more accessible to intermediate level students. Despite some differences, it is argued that the scale and type of lexical chunks are sufficient to provide input that reflects authentic language, suggesting that graded readers may offer an acceptable balance of accessibility and authenticity.

Bamford, J., & Day, R. R. (1997). Extensive reading: What is it? Why bother? The Language Teacher, 21(5), 6-8.

This article argues that all students must engage in extensive reading if they are to become skillful and fluent. "Automaticity of 'bottom-up' (word recognition) processes upon which comprehension depends is a consequence of practice." The authors list characteristics of successful extensive reading programs, including "Reading is its own reward. There are few or no follow-up exercises to be completed after reading." They also argue that simplified materials are an appropriate choice for students whose level of L2 proficiency makes it very difficult to read texts written for native speakers.

Bamford, J., & Day, R. R. (1998). Teaching reading. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 18, 124-41.

Four approaches to the teaching of second language (L2) reading are described (grammar-translation, comprehension questions/exercises, skills and strategies, and extensive reading) and their status in the reading classroom is examined, and important issues in L2 reading are then discussed, including word recognition, affective and sociocultural factors influencing reading, vocabulary development, general language learning, and reading outside the classroom.

Cheah, Y. M. (1997). Shaping the classrooms of tomorrow: Lessons from the past. In G. M. Jacobs (Ed.), Language classrooms of tomorrow: Issues and responses (pp. 16-35). Singapore: SEAMEO Regional Language Centre.

This chapter takes a socio-cultural perspective in examining the history of the change, begun in the ...