Implementing extensive reading in an EAP programme

For more than twenty years the benefits of extensive reading have been proclaimed to the ELT community, but the inclusion of extensive reading in ELT programmes is far from universal. Extensive reading appears to be particularly absent in higher educational and English for Academic Purposes settings. This paper reports on the implementation of an extensive reading component in a pre-university study EAP programme. Learners responded positively to the loss of teacher-centred class time and a non-EAP focus for part of each lesson. While the implementation of extensive reading will vary from setting to setting, this action research project shows that extensive reading can have a place in an EAP programme.