A review of a study on ER by A Mikami
A Review
Mikami, A. (2017), Students' Attitudes
Toward Extensive Reading in the Japanese EFL Context. TESOL Journal, 8,
471-488. doi:10.1002/tesj.283
A great deal of research has proved the
benefits of extensive reading (ER) in developing students’ L2 proficiency. The primacy of ER in helping students to develop their L2 proficiency has been reported
widely. But its integration in the school curriculum has rarely been initiated
due to several practical reasons.
A study conducted by Mikami (2017) casts
a light on the views and attitudes of EFL students toward implementation of ER
in EFL classroom settings. The article is appeared in one of the top tier
outlets in the field of TESOL (Wiley-Blackwell), which currently belongs to Q1
journals with H Index = 5 (www.scimagojr.com).
The study is inspired by a lack of
concern on the practical implementation of ER in today’s EFL pedagogical
settings. It is an irony when something good both conceptually and
empirically does not get translated into practical implementations. Explained in
the study are several reasons why ER does not gain its popularity
including the limitation of classroom time in the school-curricula and the
inadequacy of ER resources. Since most of the voices are expressed by teachers, the study tries to delve into the students’ attitudes toward ER and their
motivation in doing ER in the classroom contexts.
Using a questionnaire survey, the study involved 141 university students in Japan. They were purposively
selected through the maximum variation sampling (nonprobability sampling). What
is interested in the study is that the author only employs six simple questions
(no more than a half of the paper page); three questions each for quantitative
and qualitative data. Using descriptive statistics and Miles and Huberman’s
(1994) framework of qualitative content analysis, the data were analysed to
unpack the three questions posed.
Findings of the study inform
that the majority of the participants have no experiences of practicing ER previously.
The amount of time spent reading English books outside their textbooks is
relatively limited. But there are more students wanting to read more English books. Among
114 students, the percentages of students who express their negative feelings toward ER are
relatively similar to those expressing positive feelings, 45.93% and 40.74%
respectively.
Mikami’s (2017) study has successfully
brought an interesting issue in the area of EFL pedagogies, garnering an insight
into an ER practice from the perspective of the students. Collecting the data
simply using six questions might be inadequate by some expecting richer
data. However, if the readers are careful, some weaknesses of the research
have been addressed by the author at the near end of the article.
Despite a need for improvement, the arrangement of ideas is clear and the presentation of data is easy to follow. It is not surprising that such simple-looking study appears at one of the well-respected journals in the area of TESOL. But more importantly, it is necessary to take into account the pedagogical implications of this study. To gain larger benefits from ER, supporting the incorporation of its practice in the EFL curricula is of vital importance.
@kukuh dwi pamuji
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