Towards an Effective Extensive Reading Programme for Malaysian Schools

Becoming proficient in a second or foreign language requires a great deal of appropriate target language input. However, for many learners of English in Malaysian secondary schools, exposure to the language is unfortunately confined to just the school environment, and this makes teaching English bec...

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Published in:New English Teacher
Main Author: Taib N.; Nair R.; Gopalan Y.; Sedhu D.S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Theodore Maria School of Arts, Assumption University 2022
Online Access:https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85146819868&partnerID=40&md5=cdce0c60d57acf4a6c11c149e9b66fa5
id 2-s2.0-85146819868
spelling 2-s2.0-85146819868
Taib N.; Nair R.; Gopalan Y.; Sedhu D.S.
Towards an Effective Extensive Reading Programme for Malaysian Schools
2022
New English Teacher
16
1

https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85146819868&partnerID=40&md5=cdce0c60d57acf4a6c11c149e9b66fa5
Becoming proficient in a second or foreign language requires a great deal of appropriate target language input. However, for many learners of English in Malaysian secondary schools, exposure to the language is unfortunately confined to just the school environment, and this makes teaching English become an even greater challenge for teachers. Given the limited time during lessons for language input, the solution appears to lie beyond the confines of the English language lesson. One way of providing greater language input is through extensive reading programmes which provide language learners with much needed language input. This paper focuses on the viability of a stand-alone extensive reading programme for supporting learners of English. The discussion is anchored to conversations with Malaysian English language teachers who share their thoughts and experiences related to the long-running NILAM and NILAM 2.0 reading programmes. Findings are presented under three main themes which emerged from interviews with English language teachers, namely the themes of understanding and appreciation, teacher resistance and external support. The teachers appeared to view the NILAM reading programmes as an additional task that they were forced to manage with little external support. Although the creation of awards was well-intended, it took away from the aim of encouraging students to read for the sake of enjoyment. Despite apparent pessimism about the NILAM programmes, teachers were unanimous in their belief that a good extensive reading programme can indeed support learners with building their vocabulary range and enhancing their general proficiency in English. © 2022, Theodore Maria School of Arts, Assumption University. All rights reserved.
Theodore Maria School of Arts, Assumption University
19057725
English
Article

author Taib N.; Nair R.; Gopalan Y.; Sedhu D.S.
spellingShingle Taib N.; Nair R.; Gopalan Y.; Sedhu D.S.
Towards an Effective Extensive Reading Programme for Malaysian Schools
author_facet Taib N.; Nair R.; Gopalan Y.; Sedhu D.S.
author_sort Taib N.; Nair R.; Gopalan Y.; Sedhu D.S.
title Towards an Effective Extensive Reading Programme for Malaysian Schools
title_short Towards an Effective Extensive Reading Programme for Malaysian Schools
title_full Towards an Effective Extensive Reading Programme for Malaysian Schools
title_fullStr Towards an Effective Extensive Reading Programme for Malaysian Schools
title_full_unstemmed Towards an Effective Extensive Reading Programme for Malaysian Schools
title_sort Towards an Effective Extensive Reading Programme for Malaysian Schools
publishDate 2022
container_title New English Teacher
container_volume 16
container_issue 1
doi_str_mv
url https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85146819868&partnerID=40&md5=cdce0c60d57acf4a6c11c149e9b66fa5
description Becoming proficient in a second or foreign language requires a great deal of appropriate target language input. However, for many learners of English in Malaysian secondary schools, exposure to the language is unfortunately confined to just the school environment, and this makes teaching English become an even greater challenge for teachers. Given the limited time during lessons for language input, the solution appears to lie beyond the confines of the English language lesson. One way of providing greater language input is through extensive reading programmes which provide language learners with much needed language input. This paper focuses on the viability of a stand-alone extensive reading programme for supporting learners of English. The discussion is anchored to conversations with Malaysian English language teachers who share their thoughts and experiences related to the long-running NILAM and NILAM 2.0 reading programmes. Findings are presented under three main themes which emerged from interviews with English language teachers, namely the themes of understanding and appreciation, teacher resistance and external support. The teachers appeared to view the NILAM reading programmes as an additional task that they were forced to manage with little external support. Although the creation of awards was well-intended, it took away from the aim of encouraging students to read for the sake of enjoyment. Despite apparent pessimism about the NILAM programmes, teachers were unanimous in their belief that a good extensive reading programme can indeed support learners with building their vocabulary range and enhancing their general proficiency in English. © 2022, Theodore Maria School of Arts, Assumption University. All rights reserved.
publisher Theodore Maria School of Arts, Assumption University
issn 19057725
language English
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