What is extensive reading

Extensive reading VS Intensive reading

There is no doubt that reading skills are important for language learners as it is the most efficient ways to expand learners’ vocabulary and improve their grammar knowledge. Reading is practical and enjoyable. Two complementary strategies can significantly strengthen reading skills and general language fluency: extensive reading and intensive reading.

Extensive Reading

What is Extensive Reading?

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.

What are the advantages of extensive reading?

The learners may become more motivated to read and develop such a habit, they may feel more autonomous in their learning, expand their vocabulary, acquire grammar structures they face in texts and increase their competence in that away.

What are the possible challenges?

Extensive Reading may be time-consuming. Sometimes students may feel discouraged by more difficult texts and meeting unknown words. Learners also may pay too much attention to the number of pages they read instead of on the understanding they achieved.

What can be read?

As the core demands for extensive reading are authenticity and simplicity of the materials used, we are to choose from Graded Readers series (here you can find out more on Graded Readers), texts on the same topic, cultural magazines, books with quite short chapters, stories which include repetition, comic books (here you can find plenty of them). Materials for reading should bring pleasure and minimize frustration for language learners.

What is the role of a teacher in it?

The teacher recommends on reading materials and appropriate levels of those, guides the learners in setting goals for amounts read, leads pre-reading activities to awake interest in the text and to stimulate curiosity, encourages to read without the use of a dictionary.

What activities may occur?

Intensive Reading

What is Intensive Reading?

Intensive reading is short (it is best to limit intensive reading sessions with all activities to 30-35 minutes maximum) and very focused activity with the goal is to understand everything. It requires great concentration and attention to minor details. It’s a type of reading where testing and increasing knowledge are primary. Such reading often includes taking notes. Brown (1989) explains that intensive reading «calls attention to grammatical forms, discourse markers, and other surface structure details for the purpose of understanding literal meaning, implications, rhetorical relationships, and the like.»

What are the advantages of intensive reading?

It provides a base to study definite grammar structures, vocabulary, idioms. Learners can develop greater control of language. It improves reading skills. It gives a teacher an opportunity to evaluate the students and modify his/her teaching methods.

What are the possible challenges?

The text may be not interesting or not to the level of a student as everyone in the class is reading the same material. It is not always fun and can demotivate reading in general. The pace is not graded.

What can be read?

Everything we have in the coursebooks, reports, news articles, blog posts, short stories (not more than 500 words in length), Wikipedia articles.

What is the role of a teacher in it?

The teacher chooses suitable texts, tasks and activities, gives directions, encourages students without giving answers.

What activities may occur?

Difference Between Extensive and Intensive Reading

Last updated on January 11, 2020 by Surbhi S

Extensive means covering a substantial area and so, extensive reading refers to that type of reading in which students read and refer to large quantities of material, chosen by themselves. As against, intensive refers to in-depth or concentrated. Therefore, intensive reading means that type of reading in which the material has to be read carefully and thoroughly, to get specific details.

Reading is the means to study something, wherein the reader looks at the words, symbol and characters of the material so as to comprehend its meaning. Extensive reading and Intensive Reading are the two common approaches to language learning.

Basically, an ideal reading program combines both the approaches, wherein intensive reading can be used to acquaint new language and extensive reading can be helpful in spreading awareness of that language. Let’s move further to know the difference between extensive and intensive reading.

Content: Extensive Vs Intensive Reading

Comparison Chart

Definition of Extensive Reading

Extensive Reading can be defined as a casual reading performed for pleasure or gaining general understanding on a topic when the students are engrossed in a book, magazine or newspaper. In this approach students read long texts and refer to various supporting study material, only to enjoy the reading and gaining a better understanding of the concept.

That is why, for extensive reading, the readers look for easy, interesting and amusing books, so as to improve their reading fluency and speed as well. The text is comparatively simple, containing a few unfamiliar words.

The individual can select the book or material of his choice, on the topic that matches their interest. Further, there is no follow-up discussion to be held in the class for what the students have learnt during their reading.

Extensive Reading is just to encourage the habit of reading in students for pleasure and make them a voracious reader. Hence, it does not really matter as to whether the reader understands each word written in the text or not, to get the basic concept of the passage.

In addition to this, the extensive reading method gives an opportunity to the students to read lots of material, which they select for themselves according to their reading speed and capability.

Definition of Intensive Reading

Intensive Reading can be understood as the reading method which requires intimate study of a text with the objective of getting its literary or linguistic meaning. The readers are supposed to read the text with concentration and due care, in detail, as it has certain learning aims and tasks.

Basically, it is the in-depth reading of a comparatively shorter piece of reading material, to gain complete knowledge from it. It aims at identifying the answers to the questions of reading comprehension. Moreover, it can be used for the purpose of skimming and scanning, and the concatenation of the sentences.

It involves an analysis of the text by the deconstruction of the sentences and looking over each word, phrase and collocation which is not understandable with an aim of extracting the essence and meaning of the text as much as possible and learn the grammar and syntax rules.

Further, the goals of intensive reading include understanding the gist and subject matter of the text, improving grammar and vocabulary, and understanding the thought of the author behind the text. The main focus of the learner is on the language used, rather than the text.

Key Differences Between Extensive and Intensive Reading

The main points of difference between extensive and intensive reading are explained below:

Conclusion

In a nutshell, extensive reading is mainly used when an overall or superficial knowledge is required on a subject, as no focus is made on the detailed study. On the other hand, intensive reading is used where due attention is required, to learn specific details about the topic or subject under study.

What is extensive reading

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What is Extensive Reading?

Extensive Reading (ER) is an approach to second language reading. When learners read extensively, they read very easy, enjoyable books to build their reading speed and fluency. Another way to say this is students learn to read by actually reading rather than examining texts by studying the vocabulary, grammar and phrases. It is instructive to compare Intensive Reading (IR) with Extensive Reading.

Intensive Reading

For many teachers, there is only one way to teach reading which involves the teacher walking the whole class through a reading passage. The passage is usually short and the instruction is focused on carefully checking comprehension, studying the grammar and/or vocabulary, or developing a reading skill. Here is an example.

The above reading for elementary learners is short and introduces vocabulary and grammar. The reading is followed by comprehension questions and other activities. Using a passage like this is useful when teaching students new language. This type of reading is called Intensive Reading because the learners study the reading and check their comprehension. Typically these types of text are used by the whole class with the teacher guiding them.

The limits of Intensive reading

The benefits of Extensive Reading

Extensive Reading gives students chances to read longer pieces of reading, which they choose, which they can read at their own speed and at their own ability level. This can be done with Graded readers.

Intensive Reading and Extensive Reading are complementary and teachers should use both. A balanced reading program uses Intensive Reading to introduce new language, and complements this with Extensive Reading which consolidates and raises awareness of this language leading to reading fluency.

Why do Extensive Reading?

There are many reasons why Extensive Reading is good for language development.

Extensive Reading builds vocabulary. When learners read a lot, they meet thousands of words and lexical (word) patterns that are not taught in textbooks. Extensive Reading allows the learner to develop an awareness of collocations (common word partnerships) and thousands of lexical phrases.

Extensive Reading helps learners understand grammar. In textbooks learners meet hundreds of grammar patterns. However, textbooks do not provide enough meetings with grammar for real acquisition to occur. Extensive Reading provides opportunities to see grammar in context so learners can deepen their understanding of how grammar is really used.

Extensive Reading helps learners to build reading speed and reading fluency. In particular, developing reading speed is important because it helps learners to understand language faster and better.

One objective of Extensive Reading is reading for pleasure. This builds confidence and motivation which makes the learner a more effective user of language.

Intensive and Extensive: 2 Ways of Reading That Power Language Learning

Reading is basic. It’s practical. It opens up worlds and broadens horizons.

It’s also just enjoyable!

The great news is that not only is it possible to train yourself to read well in your target language, you can actually use reading as a method to teach yourself vocabulary, sentence structure and more.

With two different but complementary strategies—extensive and intensive reading—we can strengthen our reading skills and overall fluency.

Contents

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

Intensive and Extensive Ways of Reading

Intensive and extensive reading, named after a detailed study by Harold Palmer, are two distinct methods of reading. Both are useful for learning a second language.

What Intensive Reading Is

Intensive reading is just what the name implies!

It’s reading where testing, evaluating and increasing knowledge is the primary focus. Understanding the literal meaning of what’s being read is vital. Reading intensively often includes note-taking and attention to details.

In intensive reading, there’s an emphasis on deconstructing sentences to understand grammar and syntax rules as well as to extricate the details of the topic. It can also involve reading comprehension testing, such as finding answers to specific questions.

Some possible examples of intensive reading material are reports, contracts, news articles, blog posts and short pieces of text such as short stories.

What Extensive Reading Is

Extensive reading is a completely different sort of approach.

Know how it feels when you’re doing something simply for the joy of doing it? Like riding a bicycle or dancing, when you know it won’t matter if you don’t get the gears shifted perfectly or your dance steps don’t hit every downbeat?

Extensive reading is like that. It’s reading for fun. And it’s doing it as often as possible.

Fluency and total comprehension aren’t necessary for extensive reading. It’s great to read at or, even better, below a comfortable level of understanding. Most of the time, an unfamiliar word can be deciphered by the surrounding text and if not, that’s fine, too. It’s not vital to understand every single word in order to get the general idea of a particular passage.

It’s generally accepted that 90-95% of the words should be familiar in order to read comfortably in a foreign language. And most of us can get along pretty well even without having all that vocabulary in our toolboxes. Guessing, especially when reading extensively, does work.

The idea behind extensive reading is that increased exposure leads to stronger language skills. Think of the vocabulary you’re being exposed to when you read a lot. And seeing the structure, idioms and cadence of a language leads to familiarity, which leads to reading competence.

Think about dancing again. The more you dance, the better you get. Reading extensively is just like that—but without the tight shoes!

Possible examples of extensive reading material are magazines, graded readers, novels and, yes, even comic books!

How to Build a Learning Program Using Both Types of Reading with SMART Goals

One of the best ways to incorporate both intensive and extensive reading in your learning is by setting SMART goals.

SMART goals are goals that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely.

Let’s be clear on what this acronym means so we can see how it applies to intensive and extensive reading programs.

“I won’t read in any language other than my target language.” This is an example of a goal you might set in order to make the amount of reading you want to do realistic and attainable. An attainable goal must positively influence the overall outcome and also be attainable in itself, and whether or not it is will depend on your level of commitment. Setting attainable goals is helpful because they’re part of the actual “how to” process of your overall goal.

Now that we’ve got the whole SMART goal setting thing sorted out, let’s apply it to both types of reading.

Devise a schedule that will allow you to apply both methods of reading to your language study. Maybe alternate days for intensive and extensive reading. Or devote an hour in the morning to one type and another hour (or whatever time you have available for reading) to the other.

SMART Goals for Intensive Reading

Setting SMART goals for intensive reading isn’t difficult. An example of an intensive reading program using the SMART method might be:

Specific: “I want to read five blog posts each week.”

Measurable: “I’ll read one blog post a day.”

Attainable: “I’ll only read blog posts in the language I’m studying.”

Relevant: “I’m trying to learn how sentences are structured and pick up every detail of what’s written.”

Timely: “Every morning from 8-9, I’ll read intensively.”

Remember, this plan is just an example. Use it as a jumping-off point for your own intensive reading program. If you’re more of a news article person, substitute those for blogs. Honestly, there isn’t one material that’s best for everyone; it’s really a matter of personal preference. People tend to read more when they’re interested in what they’re reading. Me? I’ll take a fashion magazine over a dry textbook any day! Choose options that appeal to you, and insert them in the appropriate spots.

Also, the number of items on the reading list and times are suggestions. Tailor the plan to fit your schedule.

When you read intensively, ask yourself questions about the material and look for answers. Compile a vocabulary list and look up every word you don’t recognize. Read to dissect the structure of the piece and evaluate grammar rules so you can readily apply them to your own writing.

You don’t even need to stick to text-only resources. Reading materials are all around us if you know where to look. For example, the FluentU learning program might be based on authentic videos, but the interactive subtitles, full transcripts and multimedia flashcards are all ways that you can practice your intensive reading. FluentU also lets you make those word lists we mentioned above, and tests you on your vocab learning through quizzes.

In other words, reading is all around us! Find a way to read intensively that you’ll still enjoy.

SMART Goals for Extensive Reading

It’s far easier to set SMART goals for extensive reading because so many of the stressful challenges (vocabulary lists, searching for answers, etc.) are no longer factors. This is the type of reading for enjoyment, remember? But SMART goals can still ramp up this part of your language program.

A SMART goal strategy for extensive reading could read as follows:

Specific: “I want to read one book a week.”

Measurable: “I’ll read 30 pages each day.”

Attainable: “I won’t read any books that aren’t written in my target language.”

Relevant: “I’m doing this so I’ll be able to read well in this foreign language.”

Timely: “I’ll read every day from 4-6 before I eat dinner.”

Extensive reading simply requires you to read. Choose a favorite book and read for the joy of it. Recognize what you know, but don’t stress over missed words or phrases. Quantity counts in this exercise. Of course, the bigger your vocabulary, the easier it’s going to be to read, but it’s not essential to be fluent to use this type of reading to help achieve your reading goal.

Both intensive and extensive reading programs provide material for keeping reading journals. Keep track of what you read, how easily you’re understanding the material, and how your vocabulary is increasing. Before too long, the journals will reflect your SMART goal programs by showing an improvement in reading skills!

How to Find Interesting Reading Material That Works for You

Intensive Reading Material

Intensive reading materials are everywhere. Blog posts, news articles and any pieces of short text are ideal for intensive reading practice. Additionally, children’s books work well in the beginning of intensive reading programs.

Wondering how to track down some super-relevant intensive reading material in your target language? Easier than you might think.

Say you’re learning to speak (and read!) Portuguese. I Googled “magazines written in Portuguese” and within 10 seconds I had so many to choose from. Here are just a couple:

Both make me consider putting learning Portuguese on my to-do list, if only for the fun of reading their mags!

I tried the same line in my browser but substituted Italian for the target language. Italian is a language I read and speak so the huge assortment of magazines that came up was absolutely wonderful.

Both of these kept me reading and browsing much longer than I intended to be at my computer, but I’m not complaining!

Timely and interesting reading material? And loads of it? What’s not to love?

It’s a snap to do this for any language.

Remember, resources for both types of reading can come from internet downloads, a local library or any bookstore and, apart from the bookstore, a lot of it is free.

Extensive Reading Material

When it’s time for extensive reading practice, it’s more a matter of narrowing down choices than searching for them! Actually, there are so many options that it might seem a bit overwhelming, so we’ve narrowed things down a bit.

Here are some suggestions for beginning an extensive reading program:

“P.S. from Paris,” translated from the French, is getting a ton of book chatter, both in the industry and among readers. “Any Dream Will Do: A Novel” is filled with feel-good moments that are ideal for making reading time feel like pure enjoyment rather than part of a learning program. If you’re a non-fiction fan, there’s buzz about “Apollo 8: The Thrilling Story of the First Mission to the Moon.”

More Material, and Choosing What’s Right for You

Keep in mind that what you choose for both intensive and extensive reading practice should be geared to your reading level. There are a few ways to gauge whether a book, magazine or any other type of reading material is right for you.

Extensive readers shouldn’t discount books they’ve already read in their native language. In fact, this is a very good option for choosing books, especially if you’re just getting started with reading practice.

If you’re reading a book in another language that you’re already familiar with, it won’t be a stretch to figure out meanings or decipher new-to-you vocabulary. Hey, you already know the gist of the story, and a filling-in-the-blanks adventure has a great place in extensive reading practice.

Ditto for any material that has side-by-side translations. They work for both types of reading but are especially helpful when reading intensively and focusing on determining critical answers or nailing down tricky grammar issues. Seeing the words in print, in their entirety, eliminates ambiguity.

There’s no shortage of graded readers and they work for both types of reading. Wondering what graded readers are? They’re books that have been graded according to vocabulary.

If you have any doubts about your reading ability or what level to begin with, why not check out graded reader offerings? They’re available in nearly every language and as you gain your reading chops you can advance to the next level!

Don’t forget the Amazon previews, or “look inside” feature available with so many titles. If you’re not sure about a selection, peek inside. See how many words on the first page, or first few pages, you understand. Gauge your readiness with this feature and whether you’re really interested in a particular book, as well.

Skim through as many first pages as it takes to find material you can comfortably comprehend. But remember, extensive reading doesn’t demand that you know all the words, so give yourself room to grow and learn!

Remember: Reading Takes Time

We learn skills through practice. Reading isn’t any different; reading well takes lots of practice, so if it’s not going really well in the beginning, don’t get discouraged. And don’t give up!

Whatever language you’re studying, choose materials relevant to both types of reading. Keep at it, and expand both types of reading programs as competence—and confidence!—grows.

Create a reading habit. It’s a healthy one that will get you closer to fluency.

As with any habit, the more you do it, the better you’ll get at it.

Read, read, read—and then read some more!

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

What’s the Difference Between Extensive vs Intensive Reading?

By Jonty Yamisha • 8 minute read

If you want to reach fluency in a foreign language, then you shouldn’t overlook the importance of reading. It’s a great way to ramp up your progress and get you speaking like a local faster. But not all reading styles yield the same results. To get the most out of your reading efforts, you need to know when to use intensive vs extensive reading strategies.

What Is Intensive Reading?

Intensive reading tends to feel more like a lesson than casually reading. When you read intensively (vs extensively), you’re fully engaged in the material. You’re reading over each word, each sentence, focusing on the vocabulary, and acquiring grammar along the way.

If you think back to any language learning course you may have had, you’ll remember spending entire classes on one or two pages, reading, re-reading, and discussing every aspect of the page along the way. It can feel exhausting at times.

Language learning books work well for this type of activity. That’s why you’ll often find them in the classroom. Classrooms tend to overemphasis intensive (instead of extensive) reading, which is why many people fail to learn a second language. More so, if they don’t enjoy reading.

How to Read Intensively

You need to treat intensive reading like a language lesson for it to be effective. Sitting up straight at a desk, leaning over a book, and focus on what you’re reading. You’re looking for unfamiliar words and paying attention to the formation of sentences.

It can be intense, and like any intense activity, you want to limit yourself to about 20 – 30 mins. It’s enough to help you learn, but at the same time, not so much that it’ll burn you out. And trust me, you’ll feel it. Walking away from intensive reading should feel like you just finished a brain work out.

The Benefits of Intensive Reading

Because intensive reading is challenging, you should know what you’ll get out of it. With intensive reading, you will…

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When Should I Read Intensively?

You’ll also want to do more intensive reading early on in your language learning journey vs extensive. As a new language learner, there’s a huge learning curve in the beginning. And you’ll see a lot of results with each intensive reading session you complete. You’ll learn new words, discover how sentences work and pick up on grammatical nuances along the way.

However, as your abilities increase, you’ll see less of a return on your efforts. There’s only so much grammar you can (or want) to take in at the beginning. Think about it, most people have a general understanding of syntax, morphology, and grammar, but few have a detailed understanding of most structures. At some point, you’ll need to move onto extensive reading.

What Is Extensive Reading?

If intensive reading is work, it’s best to think of extensive reading as fun. Extensive reading is reading everything you can, as much as you can, for the sake of reading it. The key here is exposure.

The more you read, the more words, sentence variety, and style you’ll pick up on as you go. You won’t need to study it, you’ll just absorb it (we’ll talk more about this somewhat controversial view in a minute).

How to Read Extensively

Because reading extensively should be enjoyable, you should read things you find interesting. If you like politics, you should read newspapers, magazines, and blogs about certain topics. If you like fiction, you should read novels. If you like comics…etc.

Whatever you read, you should want to read because you’ll spend around 1 – 3 hours doing it every day. You should be comfortable too, so feel free to lean back, put your feet up, and relax while you’re doing it. Remember: you’re doing this for fun.

The Benefits of Extensive Reading

Extensive reading offers a lot of benefits (provided you enjoy reading). Here are a few of them:

When Should I Read Extensively?

Whenever you like. The beauty of extensive reading is that you don’t really need to set time aside for it. You can do it throughout your day or all at once. Before you go to bed. On the bus. It doesn’t matter as long as you make time for it.

However, it’s important to remember that you need a strong command of vocabulary, syntax, and grammar to read extensively. This is because you’ll be mostly reading without looking up words. Stopping to crack open a dictionary every few sentences will definitely take the fun out of the experience.

To get the most out of extensive reading and to have the best experience, you need to know about 90 – 95 percent of the language in the texts you use. This doesn’t mean you need to be near fluent to read extensively. Whatever your language learning level is, you should choose texts within your range to get the most out of the experience.

The Controversy About Extensive Reading

There has been some discussion from linguists about whether or not extensive reading is as beneficial as some argue that it is. The debate centers around whether or not you can actually get enough exposure to vocabulary through extensive reading.

Extensive vs Intensive Reading: Which One Is Better?

Both extensive and intensive reading have their advantages and disadvantages. If you hate reading, you’ll probably shy away from extensive reading. You’ll also miss some details by glancing over the language as you read. And intensive reading can be hard to do outside of a classroom setting. It can also be difficult to set time aside to make it happen.

I use both. I use graded readers, written for a specific level. They’re not too easy and not too hard. And most importantly, they’re enjoyable. I’ll download them to my kindle because it’s fast, quick, and easy. All I need to do is click and hold a word, then Bing Translate pops up. From there I can easily figure out what the word means. Sometimes I do this for a word, other times sentences and phrases. It really just depends.

I start out with intensive reading the first time around so I can understand the text. I want to figure out any uncertainties. Once I’m done with that, I reread the text but much faster, allowing me actually enjoy the text more the second time around. Typically, I’ll do this with each chapter as I read the book.

Some people go further, writing out the words and defining them so they can return to them later. But u ltimately, it comes down to you. You should choose the strategy that works best for you because you’ll have a greater chance of staying motivated. And maintaining motivation is vital for achieving success with your efforts to learn a new language.

Avoid Using Only Intensive vs Extensive Reading

One mistake a lot of people make when learning a language is that they only focus on one domain, like reading. But there are 4 parts to learning any language: reading, writing, listening and speaking. And the greatest test of fluency is your ability to speak the language.

Don’t stick with only reading. Focusing solely on reading can leave you feeling frustrated when it comes time to use your new language. This is why some language learners spend 3, 5, or even 10 years studying a language struggle to speak. They neglect other domains of language learning.

You need a foreign language learning program that works. OptiLingo differs from other programs because it prioritizes SPEAKING instead of memorizing grammar and vocabulary. And it’s built off the way people naturally learn languages. The result is an easy to use system that helps you gain fluency fast. See for yourself. Discover how OptiLingo works today!