This paper reports on interviews conducted with 36 teachers involved in university preparation courses at language teaching centres in New Zealand. The interviews were designed to investigate teacher attitudes to extensive reading in higher educational contexts, and current practice in such contexts. While teachers expressed positive beliefs about the language learning benefits of extensive reading, these beliefs did not generally result in the inclusion of extensive reading in the classroom programme. This may reflect the realities of the wider educational context. If extensive reading is to be more widespread in higher educational contexts, it needs to be promoted through teacher education, new research, changes in course design, raising awareness among administrators and managers, and improved resource provision.
Bell T. ( 2001)‘Extensive reading: speed and comprehension’ , The Reading Matrix1.1.
2.
Borg S. ( 2003) ‘Teacher cognition in language teaching: are view of research on what language teachers think, know, believe, and do’ . Language Teaching36: 81-109.
3.
Borg S. ( 2006) Teacher Cognition and Language Teaching: Research and Practice. London: Continuum.
4.
Bruton A (2002) ‘Extensive reading is reading extensively, surely?’ The Language Teacher 26: 11. Cho K-S and Krashen S (1994) ‘Acquisition of vocabulary from the Sweet Valley Kids series: adult ESL acquisition’. Journal of Reading 37(8): 662-67.
5.
Collie Graden E. ( 1996) ‘How language teachers’ beliefs about reading are mediated by their beliefs about students’. Foreign Language Annals29: 387-95.
6.
Day RR and Bamford J. ( 1998) Extensive Reading in the Second Language Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
7.
Day RR and Bamford J. ( 2002) ‘Top ten principles for teaching extensive reading’ . Reading in a Foreign Language14(2): 136-41.
8.
Elley WB ( 1991) ‘Acquiring literacy in a second language: the effect of book-based programs’. Language Learning41(3): 375-411.
9.
Elley WB and Mangubhai F. ( 1983) ‘The impact of reading on second language learning’ . Reading Research Quarterly19: 53-67.
10.
El-Okda M. ( 2005) ‘EFL Student Teachers’ Cognition about Reading Instruction’, The Reading Matrix5. Available at http://www.readingmatrix.com/articles/okda/article.pdf
11.
Freeman D. ( 2002) ‘The hidden side of the work: teacher knowledge and learning to teach’. Language Teaching35: 1-13.
12.
Grabe W. ( 2001) ‘Reading-Writing Relations: Theoretical Perspectives and Instructional Practices’. In: Belcher D and Hirvela A (eds), Linking Literacies: Perspectives in L2 Reading Writing Connections. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 15-47.
13.
Green C. ( 2005) ‘Integrating extensive reading in the task-based curriculum’, ELT Journal59(4): 306-11.
14.
Hafiz F. and Tudor I. ( 1989) ‘Extensive reading and the development of reading skills’. ELT Journal43(1): 4-11.
15.
Harmer J. ( 2004) The Practice of English Language Teaching. London: Longman.
16.
Hermann F. ( 2003) ‘Differential effects of reading and memorization of paired associates on vocabulary acquisition in adult learners of English as a second language’. TESL-EJ7(1).
17.
Horst M. ( 2005) Learning L2 vocabulary through extensive reading: a measurement study’. The Canadian Modern Language Review61(3): 355-82.
18.
Janopoulos M. ( 1986) ‘The relationship of pleasure reading and second language writing proficiency’. TESOL Quarterly20(4): 763-68.
19.
Johnson KE ( 1992) ‘The relationship between teachers’ beliefs and practices during literacy instruction for non-native speakers of English’ . Journal of Reading Behavior24: 83-108.
20.
Jones Lloyd ( 2006) Mister Pip. Auckland: Penguin.
21.
Labov W. ( 1972) ‘The Transformation of Experience in Narrative Syntax’ . In: Language in the Inner City: Studies in the Black English Vernacular. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 354-96.
22.
Macalister J. ( 2008a) ‘Implementing extensive reading in an EAP programme’ . ELT Journal62(3): 248-56.
23.
Macalister J. ( 2008b) ‘Integrating extensive reading into an English for academic purposes program’. The Reading Matrix8(1): 23-34. Available at http://www.readingmatrix.com/articles/macalister/article.pdf
24.
Mason B. and Krashen S. ( 1997) ‘Extensive reading in English as a foreign language’ . System25(1): 91-102.
25.
Meijer PC, Verloop N. and Beijaard D. ( 1999) ‘Exploring language teachers’ practical knowledge about teaching reading comprehension’. Teaching and Teacher Education15: 59-84.
26.
Meijer PC, Verloop N. and Beijaard D. ( 2001) ‘Similarities and differences in teachers’ practical knowledge about teaching reading comprehension’. Journal of Educational Research94: 171 -84.
27.
Mohd Asraf R. and Ahmad IS ( 2003) ‘Promoting English language development and the reading habit among students in rural schools through the guided extensive reading program’. Reading in a Foreign Language15(2): 83-102.
28.
Pitts M., White H. and Krashen S. ( 1989) ‘Acquiring second language vocabulary through reading: a replication of the Clockwork Orange Study using second language acquirers’ . Reading in a Foreign Language5(2): 271-75.
29.
Prowse P. ( 2002) ‘Top ten principles for teaching extensive reading - a response’. Reading in a Foreign Language14(2): 142-45.
30.
Renandya Willy A. ( 2007) ‘The Power of Extensive Reading’. RELC Journal38(2): 133-49.
31.
Richards JC, Li B. and Tang A. ( 1998) ‘Exploring Pedagogical Reading Skills’. In: Richards JC (ed.) Beyond Training . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 86-102.
32.
Robb T. ( 2002) ‘Extensive reading in an Asian context - an alternative view’. Reading in a Foreign Language14(2).
33.
Robb T. and Susser B. ( 1989) ‘Extensive reading vs. skills building in an EFL context’. Reading in a Foreign Language5(2): 239-51.
34.
Tercanlioglu L. ( 2001) ‘Pre-service teachers as readers and future teachers of EFL reading’. TESL-EJ5(3). Available at http://writing.berkeley.edu/tesl-ej/ej19/a2.html
35.
Tinker Sachs G. ( 2003) ‘Changing the interaction pattern in the ERS lesson’ . Guidelines25(1): 23-28.
36.
Tsang W.-K (1996) ‘Comparing the effects of reading and writing on writing performance’. Applied Linguistics17(2): 627-42.
37.
Urquhart S. and Weir C. ( 1998) Reading in a Second Language: Process, Product and Practice . London and New York, NY: Longman.
38.
Woods D. ( 1996) Teacher Cognition in Language Teaching: Beliefs, Decision-making and Classroom Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
39.
Yu V. ( 1993) ‘Extensive reading programs - how can they best benefit the teaching and learning of English?’ TESL Reporter26(1): 1-9.
