Day Richard,
Bamford Julian (2002). Top Ten Principles for Teaching Extensive Reading. Reading
in a Foreign Language, Volume 14, No. 2, October 2002, 1539-0578
In the feature
article “Top Ten Principles for Teaching Extensive Reading,” the authors
Richard Day and Julian Bamford explain their opinion on teaching an extensive
reading by applying their top ten principles. The purpose of this article is to
give some professional development advices to the language teacher, especially
in the expertise of extensive reading and the ways how can the teachers develop
their teaching skill in that specific area. In addition, the authors also
describe insightfully regarding Ray William's (1986) article concerning the
principles for teaching foreign language reading, most importantly on William's
first two and fifth principles which leave a great impression on many people:
“(1) In the absence of interesting texts, very little is possible. (2) The
primary activity of a reading lesson should be learners reading texts. (5)
Teachers must learn to be quiet: all too often, teachers interfere with and so
impede their learners' reading development by being too dominant and by talking
too much. (p. 44).” Nevertheless, the authors claim that William's top ten
principles are only aim for the teaching of reading and theirs' are
specifically for the teaching of the extensive reading which the authors argue
carefully that it could increase the students' interest in reading in general.
The authors posited “Top Ten Principles” as follows: (1) the reading
materials is easy; (2) a variety of reading material on a wide range of topics
must be available; (3) learners choose what they want to read; (4) learners
read as much as possible; (5) the purpose of reading usually related to
pleasure, information and general understanding; (6) reading is its own reward;
(7) reading speed is usually faster rather than slower; (8) reading is
individual and silent; (9) teachers orient and guide their students; (10) the
teacher is a role model of a reader. The authors conclusion is that both of
the top ten principles offered by themselves and William are in fact
complementing each other in many ways and the authors wish that it could help
the language teachers in finding the best ways to teach their students in
mastering the art of extensive reading in foreign language.
