Extensive Reading to Enhance Reading Comprehension: An Action Research Study

Abstract

The main objective of the present action research was to determine how an extensive reading program influences students’ L2 reading comprehension skills and to analyze students’ perceptions and opinions after being part of the program. A group of 74 students from a private university in Ecuador were divided into a control group and an experimental group which took part into a two-month extensive reading program. Data obtained from a pre-test and a post-test, rubrics, interviews, and learning logs were used to answer the research questions. At the end of the pedagogical treatment, there was not a statistically significant difference on the post-test results between the two groups. However, students from the experimental group improved their reading comprehension skills significantly when comparing their pre-test and post-test scores, unlike the control group. Additionally, participants showed an overall positive perception on the extensive reading program; they also mentioned aspects that must be considered by any EFL school, high school, university or teacher that is interested in developing extensive reading programs.