The time has come to establish a new system for teaching the necessary

•Read quickly and... 
• Enjoyably with.... 
•Adequate comprehension so they.... 
• Don't need a dictionary.
3
If the learners are reading slowly because unknown language slows them down, 
it means they have stopped reading for communication (ie., understanding the 
3
Hill, D. (1997). Setting up an extensive reading programme: Practical tips. The Language Teacher, 21, 17-
20.

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7 
content), but instead have to focus on the language items (words and grammar, for 
example). In other words, they are "study reading" - not READing. Just as one cannot 
drive quickly over speed bumps in the road, learners cannot build reading speed or 
fluency if the text is too difficult. Reading to study language items when learners read 
intensively is a useful activity. However, there is a time for study, and time for 
practice just like there is time for driving school and a time for enjoying a drive along 
the coast on a sunny day. Extensive Reading is the practice time where learners read a 
lot of easy-to-read texts. 
One of the well-known benefits of reading a lot is the effect it has on vocabulary 
development. The more words a learner meets and the more frequently they are met, 
the greater the likelihood long-term acquisition will take place. The question is though, 
how well can learners learn from reading extensively? Estimates of the uptake 
(learning rate) of vocabulary from reading extensively vary considerably. For 
example, Dupuy and Krashen (1993) state that 25% of their target words were learned, 
and in other studies the figures range from 20% (Horst, Cobb & Meara, 1998), to 6.1% 
(Pitts, White & Krashen, 1989), and to 5.8% (Day, Omura & Hiramatsu, 1991). More 
recent estimates put the uptake rate and 25% and 4% (Waring & Takaki, 2003) 
depending on the type of test used to measure gains. However, it is clear that learners 
need to meet words numerous times for them to be retained for the long term. Waring 
and Takaki (2003), for example, suggest that an average word be met more than 25 
times for it to be known well enough to understand it and not slow down 
comprehension when reading. Other research also showed that some words met over a 
hundred times are still not known. An important point here is that most of the above 
uptake rates are based on measurements taken immediately after reading or learning. 
However, when the subjects are given delay tests some weeks or months later, their 
retention drops precipitously, suggesting the vocabulary knowledge learned while 
reading was fragile. These data together suggest that learners must read (and listen to) 

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massive amounts of text to not only retain what they know, but to develop it too. This 
would apply to grammar, phrases, and collocations as much as it does to individual 
words (Waring, 2009).
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What is extensive reading? Reading has a wide range of benefits for us. It can 
improve our stress levels, cardiovascular health, boost our mood, increase our 
memory, and even give us longer life! It‘s no wonder that reading in excessive 
quantities can significantly kickstart language learning. Reading a lot might sound 
tiring, pouring over countless textbooks day in day out. But you‘ll be pleased to know 
that we found a method that is textbook-free! Because of the easy-read aspects, many 
students find this technique to be less educational and more recreational. In fact, this 
method relies solely on the enjoyment of the student. 
For years, language teachers have been using a technique called ―extensive 
reading‖. This method is the direct opposite of intensive reading. Intensive reading 
requires the student to spend a short portion of their reading time understanding small, 
complex reading passages. Extensive reading requires a long process full of topics the 
student wants to read. This is important, as it appeals to the curiosity of students. In 
the simplest form, extensive reading is: 
Easy reading material 
Something you can read quickly over a long period of time 
Something you find extremely interesting 
How does this benefit the student? Extensive reading is a method of immersion 
without loading on the pressure. When students are relaxed and enjoy learning, they 
find themselves wanting to read more. In this blog, we will explore the best methods 
4
Waring, R. (2009). The inescapable case for extensive reading. In Andrzej Cirocki (Ed.), Extensive reading
in English language teaching (pp. 93-112)

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9 
to gain a language from extensive reading. We will also include the benefits you can 
gain from each task. Keep reading to harness this engaging method. 
The author of the categories of reading in ELT, Brown (1989), states that extensive 
reading is done ―to achieve a general understanding of a text‖. Extensive reading can 
be referred to as ―reading for fun‖. To read extensively means to read simple, 
enjoyable books to boost reading speed and fluency. A learner can do it at his/her own 
ability level, with a comfortable speed, choosing longer texts to the taste. The main 
aim of extensive reading is to build one‘s confidence and pleasure. 
Extensive reading, in contrast, is generally associated with reading large amounts 
with the aim of getting an overall understanding of the material. Readers are more 
concerned with the meaning of the text than the meaning of individual words or 
sentences. Palmer, incidentally, saw the pedagogic value of both types of reading. For 
a graphic depiction of the differences between intensive and extensive reading, see the 
chart in "Introducing Extensive Reading" by Roberta Welch (My Share this issue). 
Extensive reading as an approach to teaching reading may be thought of in terms 
of purpose or outcome: Beatrice Mikulecky, for example, calls it pleasure reading 
(1990). It can also be viewed as a teaching procedure, as when Stephen Krashen 
(1993) terms it free voluntary reading, or when teachers give students time for in-
class Sustained Silent Reading (SSR) -- a period of 20 minutes, for example, when 
students and teacher quietly and independently read self-selected material.
5
From West in 1926 (2nd edition, 1955, p. 14) to Beatrice Dupuy, Lucy Tse and 
Tom Cook in 1996 (p. 10), it has been widely observed that a consequence of 
traditional, intensive approaches to foreign language reading instruction is that 
students do not actually read very much. This is a problem. In general terms, reading 
is no different from other learned human abilities such as driving, cooking, playing 
5
Davis C. (1995) Extensive reading: an expen- sive extravagance? /ELT Journal, 49 (4), pp. 329-336 

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golf, or riding a bicycle: the more you do it, the more fluent and skillful you become. 
Automaticity of "bottom-up" (word recognition) processes upon which 
comprehension depends is a consequence of practice. (For more on this, see Why do 
graded reading? in Rob Waring's "Graded and Extensive Reading -- Questions and 
Answers" in this issue.) No matter how sophisticated the teaching profession's 
understanding of and ability to teach the reading process, until students read in 
quantity, they will not become fluent readers. 
There is a further problem stemming from lack of reading that has attracted less 
direct comment to date, but it is perhaps a more fundamental flaw in traditional 
reading instruction. Teachers are (rightly) concerned with developing in their students 
the ability to read, but how much attention do teachers pay to developing a habit -- 
indeed, love -- of reading in their students? And yet not to do so risks reducing 
reading lessons to an empty ritual, akin to, as David Eskey once memorably put it 
(1995), the teaching of swimming strokes to people who hate the water. Only by 
discovering the rewards of reading through actually engaging in it will students 
become people who both can and do read. 
As Eskey's metaphor implies, skills-based and other traditional foreign language 
reading instructional approaches appear to have their priorities the wrong way round. 
The primary consideration in all reading instruction should be for students to 
experience reading as pleasurable and useful. Only then will they be drawn to do the 
reading they must do to become fluent readers. And only then will they develop an 
eagerness to learn new skills to help them become better readers. 
Extensive reading is a prime means of developing a taste for foreign language 
reading. All it requires is a library of suitable reading material. For specifics of how to 
create such a library, see David Hill's "Setting up an Extensive Reading Programme," 

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and "Graded Readers: Choosing the Best" in this issue.
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As to the form that extensive 
reading takes, this will vary according to student needs and institutional constraints. 
Extensive reading could be: 
- The main focus of a reading course with a combination of, for example, work with a 
class reader (i.e., students reading a class set of books), SSR, follow-up activities such 
as students' oral book reports, and homework reading; 
- an add-on to an ongoing reading course with, for example, the first half-hour of class 
devoted to SSR, and students reading self-selected books for homework; 
- an extra-curricular activity with a teacher guiding and encouraging interested 
students who read books in their spare time and meet regularly to discuss them.
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