Extensive Reading With Adult Learners of English as a Second Language

This paper reports on a study of the impact of extensive reading (ER) on the language proficiency of a group of Vietnamese government officials studying English. Two questions were of interest. First, we wanted to examine if ER could be successfully implemented with older adult second language learners. Secondly, we were interested in the relationship between learning gain and a set of ER variables, such as amount of ER material read, the extent to which this material was perceived as interesting, easy/difficult, and comprehensible, and whether or not extensive reading was perceived to be a useful and enjoyable activity. The results indicated that older adult ESL learners could indeed benefit from a carefully planned and systematically implemented extensive reading program. Further, a regression analysis showed that amount of ER was the only significant predictor of participants' gain scores.