‘I think reading is fun, right up to the point where I have to write something about it’. Action Research on the influence of Extensive Reading on pupils’ relationship towards reading English literature

Abstract

This study examines lower secondary school pupils’ relationship towards reading English literature and how the implementation of Extensive Reading can influence said relationship. The thesis question is: How may a period of facilitated Extensive Reading influence lower secondary school pupils’ relationship towards reading English literature?

Using Action Research, the thesis question was investigated through an eight-week reading project where 41 lower secondary school pupils spent 15 minutes of every English lesson reading self-chosen English literature. Prior to the project, the pupils answered a questionnaire about their relationship towards reading English literature. Throughout the reading project, all reading sessions were observed, and a log was written. Post project, the pupils answered the same questionnaire again, to see if there had been any changes in their relationship towards reading English literature. The post-questionnaire also consisted of five additional questions regarding the reading project. Finally, 10 pupils were selected for interviews.

Our results indicate that the pupils seem to lack experience with reading English literature prior to our reading project, both at school and at home. They found it boring and difficult and prefer other leisure activities instead. They associated reading literature in class with post-reading assignments, which appeared to be demotivating. Despite the pupils’ initial negative attitudes towards reading English literature, our results suggest that their attitudes towards the reading project seemed to be mainly positive. Several of the pupils expressed that they thought it was boring to read at the beginning of the project, but that by the end of the project, they did not want to stop reading. Moreover, several pupils expressed that they would like the reading sessions to continue further than the project period, and some even stated that they wanted reading sessions to always be a part of English class. Based on our findings, we argue that continuous exposure to facilitated Extensive Reading might influence pupils’ relationship towards reading English literature.

KEYWORDS Action Research, Extensive Reading, Intensive Reading, hyper attention, deep attention, reading motivation, reading habits, reading attitudes, pupil experiences