The Effects of Control for Ability Level on EFL Reading of Graded

AbstractThe study was aimed to examine how EFL learners of English reacted to graded readers in terms of reading strategy use, comprehension, speed, and attitude as well as motivation when control for ability level was determined. Eighty Thai high school students placed into their own reading level of graded readers by the scores gained from the graded reading-vocabulary size test (Wan-a-rom, 2010) participated in a six-week-extensive reading project. Through observations, semi-structured interviews, book journals, and post-reading questionnaires, it was found that both male and female participants increased the use of strategies. When moving through other graded readers at the same level the numbers of strategies utilized by males and females were different at the 0.05 level of significance and the time spent on reading decreased on average. Evidently, comprehension, attitude and motivation were cultivated. Interesting information about students’ interaction with graded readers was found and discussed for pedagogical practice.Keywords: Extensive reading program, Graded readers, Control for ability level, Graded-reading vocabulary size test, EFL1. IntroductionExtensive reading (ER) has for many years been recognized as a very successful approach to second / foreign language education. It is defined as reading in relatively large amount of texts compared with what is called intensive reading, which usually involves a slower reading a small amount of materials and often with translation exercises. An extensive reading program is administered “to develop good reading habits, to build up knowledge of vocabulary and structure, and to encourage a linking for reading” (Richards and Schmidt, 2002: 193-194). The benefits of extensive reading have been widely documented in studies that range in scope from large-scale implementation across whole school districts (Elley, 1991; Lightbown, 1992) to case studies of single participants (Cho and Krashen, 1994; Parry, 1991).Writing ability is claimed to improve as a result of extensive reading (Elley and Mangubhai, 1983; Hafiz and Tudor, 1990; Janopolous, 1986; Mason and Krashen, 1997; Robb and Susser, 1989; Tsang, 1996) as is spelling (Polak and Krashen, 1988). Reading extensively has also been reported to increase the motivation to read and the development of a positive attitude towards reading in the second language (Cho and Krashen, 1994; Camiciottoli, 2001; Constantino, 1994; Hayashi, 1999; Holden, 2003; Leung, 2002; Mori, 2004; Yamashita, 2004). Reading speed (Bell, 2001; Robb and Susser, 1989) and oral proficiency (Cho and Krashen, 1994) are said to have improved after reading large amounts of text. There are a number of vocabulary studies that contribute evidence for considerable gains in vocabulary from extensive reading (Day, Omura and Hiramatsu, 1991; Dupuy and Krashen, 1993; Grabe and Stoller, 1997; Hayashi, 1999; Mason and Krashen, 1997; Pitts, White and Krashen, 1989; Robb and Susser, 1989; Waring and Takaki, 2003).Although all of this research has provided evidence to promote the need for extensive reading in foreign language learning contexts, the results of some extensive reading studies are questionable. Among the experimental procedures in treatments which can cause flaws in the design of extensive reading studies, the ability level of participants has been one of the factors weakening the results. In some studies, levels were controlled or matched with similarly performing pairs in other groups (Elley and Mangubhai, 1983; Renandya, Rajan and Jacobs 1999; Robb and Susser, 1989). In other studies ability levels were not controlled (Dupuy and Krashen, 1994; Lai, 1993). Horst (2005) stated that one of the problems reducing reliable measurement of vocabulary gains, when a measure of vocabulary size was administered to participants, was that participants were not guided to choose extensive reading materials at the level of difficulty that offered more word learning challenges.