In this chapter, the results of the online extensive reading program were
described below. The findings were organized to explore the following two issues: (1) students’ reactions to online extensive reading program and (2) students’ reactions to graded readers. The thirteen questions on the open-ended questionnaire could help the researcher understand students’ perceptions towards online extensive reading and the adoption of graded readers in this online extensive reading program; thus, their deeper insights could be tapped through interviews. Students’ reading journey was first described.
Students’ Reading Journey
During these 12 weeks, students seemed very happy and diligent. When the researcher examined students’ reading records on the website, it was found that they kept reading as much as possible. They not only read a variety of books on the
website but also read more than the researcher required them to read, 12 books in total.
Moreover, students’ written reading reports reflected their thoughts and reflections about the books they read. Both the online records and written reports showed that these 25 students really enjoyed reading extensively.
Table 1 showed all students’ online reading records and their written reading reports during the whole online extensive reading program. Table 1 was divided into four parts, three weeks in a period. In this table, we could see the students’ online reading records on the website and their written reading reports. Moreover, we could also understand whether students’ reading level improved during the whole program.
The student read 241 books in total on the website and an average of 9.64 per student for the first period. The written reading reports were 111 books in total and 4.44 on
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average per student. During the first period, the students got accustomed to the user interface from Reading A to Z and used computers as a tool to learn English. Besides, according to the researcher’s observation, some of the students needed to adapt themselves to the level which the researcher set up for them. Some of the students read several books to examine whether this level was suitable for them. Some of them needed to read several books and then go through the lower or the upper level to find an appropriate level. For the first two weeks, most of the students were still exploring this brand-new learning experience. Therefore, the online reading records and written reading reports did not have rich content as the other three periods.
From the second period, the online reading records and written reading reports became richer than the first period because of encouragement and motivation given by the researcher. The researcher built up the reward system and encouraged the students to read as much as possible. Some of the students were motivated by the points and grades offered in the software. Some of the students were motivated by the food or the stationery products provided by the researcher. The students read about 296 books online in total, an average of 11.84 per student. They submitted a total of 128 written reading reports and an average of 5.12 per student. During this period, the students were indulged in doing extensive reading. They were interested in reading English books and became more active and familiar with the computer interface and this reading approach. As a result, they were not afraid to read English sentences or articles.
The results from the third period were almost similar to the second period. The online reading records and written reading reports changed a little. In this period, the students still showed their passion to read English books. The reward system given by the researcher was still on the run. The students read roughly 254 books online in total and 10.16 on average per student. For the written reading reports, they produced 124
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in total, with an average of 4.96 per student. During the third period, the numbers of online reading records and written reading reports reduced a little. From the
researcher’s observation, the students were all fascinated by the bonus, the stars, provided by the website. Most of the students would use these stars to have their own characters, a robot, decorated. Furthermore, they would compare their robots with others’ and this might reduce their reading time and the number of the books they read.
However, some of them got motivated by this character, a robot. In order to buy more clothes or accessories, the students were willing to read more books or to answer more questions on quizzes after finishing a book to earn much more stars. This effect was not expected by the researcher in the beginning. Apart from the point, food, and the stationery rewards, this small game also brought great results and inspired the students a lot.
For the last period, the outcome showed that students’ online reading records improved from the third period. Besides, their written reading reports were similar to the third period in terms of the number of books they read. The students read a total of 271 books and an average of 10.84 per student online (See Table 1). They handed in 125 written reports in total, with 5 on average per student. During this session, the students were still making progress in reading and were not affected by the two long breaks (i.e. winter vacation and Peace Memorial Day vacation). Moreover, the students knew that this period was the last period and they spent more time reading English books to accumulate their reading reports to compete with their classmates in order to earn more stars and more rewards.
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Table 1
Number of Students’ Online Reading Records and Written Reading Reports
Students Nov 26th – Dec 14 th Dec 17 th – Jan 4 th Jan 7 th – Jan 25 th Feb 11 th – Mar 8 th
Note. The students are all represented with codes and numbers. In the table, F means female and M means male. Moreover, the numbers stand for students’ identity.
*O=Online; W=Written
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Regarding students’ online reading records and written reading reports, Table 1 showed that students performed differently. Some of the students’ reading level improved prominently. Some of the students still stayed at the basic level and had little progress limitedly; while others had some special stories and events while doing extensive reading. The following sections described five students from their reading level, limited progress, and special events: F 02, F 04, M 16, M 20, and M 25. The researcher chose these five students for interview to gain more insight about their experiences of this online extensive reading of graded readers.
Personal Connection: F 02
F 02 is a diligent and cute girl and her English proficiency is intermediate in the class. While doing extensive reading, she was quiet, read her own books, and
completed the reading reports. She seldom asked the researcher’s or her classmates for help. If she met the problem, she just surfed the Net and then googled to look for the answers. Nonetheless, F 02 cried while reading the book. Her behavior scared all of us and nobody knew the reason. After that class, I asked the girl why she cried.
She said that the interaction between her father and her was not quite good when she was a child. The book called A Day For Dad made her think of her father, especially she was from a single parent family and she didn’t live with her father. After she finished this book, she felt so sorry for her dad and wanted to apologize to him because of her rude manners before. Through the interview, the researcher found that some books had magic power to activate students’ memories of childhood.
Positive Reactions Towards ER: F 04
F 04 is a clever student whose English is much better than that of the other students. She was highly interested in learning English and was quite familiar with
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using the computer as a tool to learn. This girl learned English at home and had opportunities to communicate with some foreign teachers from different countries on the website. During this online extensive reading program, she improved obviously and kept reading. At the beginning of the program, the researcher set up level E for her. However, the researcher underestimated her reading proficiency.
During the second week, she asked the researcher if she could move onto the upper level to read more challenging books. Then, she concentrated on her own book and just read about 1 to 2 books per week. Besides, nonfiction books caught her
attraction very much. To her, nonfiction books could bring her new knowledge. She even read Barack Obama’s biography. During the interview, I found that she really enjoyed reading extensively and expressed how she preferred this reading program because she could choose any English books she liked. She said that this was a brand-new experience she never had before.
Attitude Towards Reading Changed: M 16
M 16 is considered to be one of the lower achievers. At the elementary school phrase, he was diagnosed that he had some problems while recognizing or reading Chinese sentences or words. Therefore, he had no confidence in learning any
subjects, specifically English. At the beginning of the program, he was afraid to read English words or sentences. He was not used to reading English words by himself without the teachers’ or peers’ help. Therefore, his reading speed was far lower than his classmates. While examining his situation, the researcher sat by him and guided him how to guess the word meanings from the pictures or look up the word
meanings from the Net and the Yahoo dictionary. Gradually, he could find his favorite books and read them at his own pace. After the online extensive reading program, the researcher had an interview with him to see whether his attitudes
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towards English changed or not. In the end, he was still afraid to read English and might not totally understand the whole meanings from the content. Nevertheless, he said that he would try to abandon his prejudice towards English and accept this new reading pattern which could help him learn English.
A Motivated Reader: M 20
M 20’s situation was quite similar with M 16. He was diagnosed to have some problems with reading any words. However, his proficiency level improved
gradually. Before this online extensive reading program, M 20 did not like to go to school and was not interested in learning anything. To the researcher’s surprise, he showed his interests in reading English books and liked to go to school. He wanted to participate in this program and wanted to communicate with his classmates because of the reward system from the website or given by the researcher. While reading, he was a quiet reader and just read his own favorite books and wrote the reading reports as much as possible. After he finished his reading reports, he would show them to the researcher to check if he did everything correctly. Moreover, he also told the researcher that if he had free time, he would read books on the weekend or after school. From his reading journey, I noticed that he loved to read extensively and liked to choose books by himself. The researcher was glad that this online extensive reading program could have an influence on him.
Learner Autonomy: M 25
M 25 is a boy who transferred from a western city in Taiwan. When he joined the researcher’s classroom, the online extensive reading program already began.
Therefore, the researcher just introduced the whole website about its usage and purpose to him. M 25 is a smart boy and he quickly got accustomed to Reading A to
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Z. Because he was a new student to the researcher, the researcher did not understand his reading proficiency. Then, the researcher gave the level D to him. However, M 25 performed well and improved his level quickly and then found his appropriate level to choose books from that level. While reading, he described that it was quite novel for him to learn English and acquire new knowledge as well. He never had such experience before. From his interview, he said that extensive reading program was totally different from traditional teaching methods focusing on grammar and vocabulary memorization. He thought that students could have a decision on what books they wanted to read. According to his reading reports, he liked to read fiction books and would search for the same series of the books, a monster called Bonk which appeared in his reading records a lot. From M 25’s opinion, the researcher realized that extensive reading could suit different proficiency level of students and cater to their various needs.
The researcher could see the students’ happiness and positive feelings on this online extensive reading program. To the researcher’s astonishment, most of the students really participated in the extensive reading program delightfully. Although some of the students, such as F 05, F 09, M 10, M 16, M18, M 20, and M 22, were still at the basic level, their reading experiences might change their English attitudes.
Some of the students, like F 04, F 07, and M 25, had a great progress from the online extensive reading program. These students really had active participation in the online extensive reading program. From the students’ reading reports, some of them entirely showed their talents on drawing, such as F 03, F 05, F 06, F 08, M 18, M 19, F 24, and M 25. It surprised the researcher to see that these students were very
cheerful while drawing pictures after finishing a book. Besides, some of the students, like M 13, M 14, and M 25, depicted that reading extensively gave them knowledge
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which they could not have learned from the textbooks. Obviously, this online extensive reading program had various advantages to the students. Most of the students really enjoyed the whole reading experience. To some extent, each student learned something from this online extensive reading program. The researcher thought it was a great beginning for these 25 students to build up a brand-new English reading experience, which might change their attitudes towards English.
Results of the Open-Ended Questionnaire Students’ Reading Habits
In order to have a better understanding of students’ reading habits in their daily lives, Questions 1 and 2 were designed to know whether students had habits of reading books outside of class and whether they read any English books before this twelve-week online extensive reading program was conducted. These two questions were general questions to help the researcher know students’ background knowledge about reading and so she could adjust the teaching materials or methods to suit
everyone’s needs. In Question 1, the results revealed that 23 out of 25 students (92%) had reading habits in Chinese books; however, 2 out of 25 students (8%) did not have such habit in their daily lives.
Besides, 23 students who had habits of reading books also wrote down what kind of books they read most: literature (26%), history (17%), historical figures’
biography (17%), science (13%), comics (100%), and fictions (73%). Table 2 showed that these 23 students preferred reading comics (100%) and fictions (73%) the most. These outcomes were also connected to their choices of English books. To examine the student’s reading reports, most of the students still liked to read books with some illustrations to help them understand the content. Therefore, these students chose English books according to their preference of topics.
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Table 2
Preferred Topic of Chinese Books
Description Number of students Percentage
Literature 6 26%
History 4 17%
Historical Figures’ Biography 4 17%
Science 3 13%
Comics 23 100%
Fictions 17 73%
Note: total number of students=23
In Question 2, the students showed whether they had reading experiences in reading English books before this twelve-week online extensive reading program.
The results showed that 17 out of 25 students (68%) had the experiences of reading English books before, and 8 out of them (32%) never read any English books.
Then, Question 2 asked these 17 students who read English books about what types of English books they read before. Among these 17 students, their answers could be seen in Table 3 and categorized into the following themes: picture books (59%), story books (47%), comics (47%), English magazines (6%), and fictions (6%). From their answers, these 17 students would choose English books with pictures. At their age, picture books, story books, and comics were easier to read and they might be more patient to finish reading the book.
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Table 3
Preferred Topic of English Books
Description Number of students Percentage
Picture books 10 59%
Story books 8 47%
Comics 8 47%
English magazines 1 6%
Fictions 1 6%
Note: total number of students=17
Students’ Reactions to Online ER Program and Graded Readers The above two questions could help the researcher understand these 25
students’ reading background and their preference of topics. The following findings would be divided into two themes, each of which represents the results to answer the two research questions of this study.
Students’ Reactions to Online ER Program
To answer the first research question, “How do EFL junior high school students in Taitung respond to online extensive reading program?”, Questions 3, 4, 5, 6, 11, 12, and 13 could reveal these 25 students’ reactions to the online extensive reading program. In Question 3, the students were asked whether they liked this online extensive reading program and why. 22 out of 25 students (88%) expressed that they liked this online ER program; however, 3 of them (12%) indicated that they did not like it.
More than three-quarters of the students liked this online ER program. The reasons why they liked it could be listed as follows: they could learn more
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vocabulary and knowledge; the books have interesting and diverse content; they could have more chances to read English books, and they could learn English with technological tools. From students’ answers, we could see that they thought online ER program was a spectacular activity for them which they never experienced before. Among their expressions, a few students’ answers were specific.
This online program could let me choose what I wanted to read the most. This method was not like the traditional methods which everyone merely
learned the same contents, vocabulary, grammar and sentences. The books from the online ER program were so challenging and diverse (Student F 07).
These books would not make me feel stressful to catch up with others’ levels. I just sat in front of the desk and then chose a book that I liked. Besides,
there were a lot of illustrations on the page which could help me understand the content easily. As a result, I liked this online ER program (Student M 12).
In these twelve weeks, I learned that technology could not only help us search for information but also help us learn English quickly. In my opinion, I liked this online ER program due to its innovative experiences and
convenience. This could enable us to have more interests in learning English.
(Student M 14)
The above three students were chosen for giving concrete reasons and the researcher also had a brief talk with them according to their performances during these twelve weeks. They pointed out the most important features of ER: diverse choices of books and accessibility of ER program. The researcher adopted online ER
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resources, which motivated students to read an English book at anytime and anywhere.
Nevertheless, three students expressed that they disliked this online ER
program. They thought that reading English by themselves would be too difficult for them. This reduced their confidence and increased their anxiety. They indicated that reading English was very hard for them and they even could not recognize most of
program. They thought that reading English by themselves would be too difficult for them. This reduced their confidence and increased their anxiety. They indicated that reading English was very hard for them and they even could not recognize most of