Guidelines or commandments?: Reconsidering core principles in extensive reading

There is little doubt that the term 'extensive reading' can be a source of confusion.Indeed, Bruton (2002) drew relatively early attention to the fact that 'extensive' can have multiple meanings when applied to reading.It has been used to include breadth of reading and time spent reading, as well as both amount of new reading and amount of text read; amount of text read allows for repeated reading of the same text.It is, therefore, perhaps unsurprising that teachers can hold differing views as to the nature of extensive reading (Macalister, 2010, p. 69) and that it manifests itself in different ways in the classroom, if it is present at all.Given the confusion that can exist let me say at the outset that, for me, the folk-definition of extensive reading as lots of easy, enjoyable reading is the best way of thinking about the practice, but underlying that simple definition lies my understanding of the ten principles proposed by Day and Bamford (2002).However, as these 10 principles may themselves contribute to the confusion I begin this article attempting to clarify them. Clarity around the Top 10 principlesAn exercise I often ask students to do is to look at the 10 principles (Day & Bamford, 2002) and group them into the categories that suggest themselves.