Extensive Reading In English: Habits And Attitudes Of University EFL Freshmen

Extensive reading, also called free reading, which means large amounts ofvoluntary reading, is one type of reading. In the present research,“extensivereading” refers to the voluntary and free reading activities of Chineseuniversity EFL students in their spare time. Like other forms of reading, it hasgreat influence on students’ English skills such as speaking, listening, writing,and this has been tested and justified by many a research in the past.Despite the importance of extensive reading, students seem to read little,or at least it is fair to say that the amount they read during their spare timeis far from what they are expected to do, this phenomenon has been found andstudied by many teachers and researchers.To find out the factors that influence students extensive reading activities,a questionnaire that includes14questions is adapted from previous researchto collect the raw data about the habits and attitudes of Chinese universityEFL freshmen in extensive reading, the data are then analyzed using EXCEL.It is hoped that through the analysis and discussion of the data collectedfrom the questionnaires, we may get to know:(1) What are the general extensivereading habits and attitudes of such a group of students?(2) Why do the studentsread little during their spare time?(3) For those who consider extensivereading as important, what are their reasons?(4) What kinds of reading materialsdo the students prefer? It is further hoped that we may get insight into how to better guide thestudents to develop interest in reading and form a good reading habit in orderto eventually improve their overall English proficiency through large amountsof reading.