Instructing Extensive Reading (ER) To College Students In China

Extensive reading is one style or way of reading and has great influence on students' English ability such as reading, vocabulary, grammar, writing and listening, which have been confirmed by a number of studies. Even so, extensive reading instruction (ERI) is ignored in College English Teaching (CET), regarded as an assistant course to intensive teaching and has many problems such as methods of ERI are dull, uninteresting and similar to intensive reading teaching, and ER textbooks are difficult and lack interest, etc., which lead to unsatisfactory teaching effects.Most of the present studies on ERI belong to descriptive studies, which are from the perspective of teachers. There need be further studies by means of quantitative study from the perspective of students. And this paper mainly applies quantitative methodology, assisted by qualitative methodology, such as literature review, classroom observation, questionnaire, interview, and document analysis to make the exploratory study of current ERI such as college students' attitudes toward ER, their self-efficacy and motivationlevel of ER, their evaluation of ER ability and ER skills, their cognition of current ER textbooks, reading quantity, material selection, ERI methodology and of self-assisted ER study. Statistical analysis of the questionnaire data was performed by using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS).There are five chapters in this thesis. Chapter One introduces background information of foreign language teaching and learning in China, ER and current situations of ERI in Chinese colleges. Chapter Two reviews related literature on reading and ER. Chapter Three designs the research and instruments. Chapter Four, which is the major part, reveals the findings of two questionnaires. Chapter Five proposes several feasible suggestions for future ERI. And the last chapter is the conclusion.The following major findings emerged from the data analysis:1. College Students' Attitudes toward ER: College students' attitudes toward ER are positive; students of liberal arts are more positive than students of science in terms of emotion; and in behavior, female students have more positive behavior than male students. Students of different English levels have quite significant differences in attitudes toward ER; in terms of attitude in general and in terms of behavior, cognition and emotion, first-rate (the best) students have significant difference with second-rate (the less able) students and third-rate students, and that second-rate students have not significant difference with third-rate students in all aspects.College students' attitudes toward self-assisted ERI are relatively positive, but there are also some problems with it.2. On Reading Materials: 49.1 percent of the students think current ER textbooks are difficult; the biggest problem with ER textbooks is lack of interest; and 90 percent of the students prefer reading magazines, novels and newspapers instead of current ER textbooks.3. On ERI Methods: There is quite a significant difference between students of liberal arts and science in the aspect of whether satisfied with current ERI, and the latter is more dissatisfied with it.4. Other Aspects: College students' perceived self-efficacy and motivation level of ER are low; 46 percent of the students are not satisfied with their ER ability and reading...