Student Engagement in an Extensive Reading Activity: the Effect of Book Selection Methods on Student’s Interest, Enjoyment, and Success

Extensive Reading (ER) has several recommended guidelines (e.g., Day & Bamford, 1997), including students choosing books by themselves, according to their level and interest. This study sought to understand how selection as individuals versus small groups could affect student engagement in ER activities, looking at the emotional engagement components of interest and enjoyment, and reported success at three stages of book selection, reading, and small group discussion. To explore whether there was an effect due to the way the books were selected, paired-sample t-tests were used on student self-report surveys, revealing significant differences when books were selected individually at the discussion stage for interest and enjoyment and at the reading stage for success. While these results are inconclusive due to the small sample size, the study can serve as a model for future studies with a larger sample.