AWEJ Volume.5 Number.3, 2014 Pp.154-169
Expectances and Outcomes of an Extensive Reading Programme Carried out among University Students
Nkechi M. Christopher
English Language Institute, King Abdulaziz University
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
&
Department of Communication and Language Arts
University of Ibadan, Nigeria
Abstract
Intensive reading courses that teach reading strategies and skills may not adequately equip students or produce behavioural changes required for academic studies. An extensive reading programme (ER) was therefore introduced as an adjunct, to support the goals of a reading for academic purposes course. This paper reports on the language learning and literacy skills expectances and outcomes that second year undergraduate students self-assessed as having accomplished as they participated in the ER. Before-and-after (ER) study design was employed, and self-perception questionnaires were administered to generate data that were subjected to descriptive analysis. High percentages of outcome expectations suggest that the students felt that their needs could be met by the ER, believing that it would influence relevant factors in their language learning and literacy skills improvement. Although the ER did not completely meet student expectation levels, it produced very impressive outcomes that recommend ER as a reliable support for reading and language improvement among learners of English as a second language in similar contexts as Nigeria.
Keywords: Extensive reading, academic reading, literacy skills, ESL, expectancy-value theory