Cultivation Of Intrinsic Reading Motivation Through Recreational Reading Program

Reading as one of the basic language skills plays a vital role in language learning. And intrinsic reading motivation is an essential element of reading. Therefore the cultivation of students' intrinsic reading motivation is an effective way of improving reading proficiency, and consequently it becomes extremely necessary. The recreational reading proposed by American linguist Stephen Krashen in 1982 has been proved by lots of researches that it could improve readers' reading proficiency and reading motivation.The present study aimed to explore the cultivation of intrinsic reading motivation through recreational reading program (RRP) based on an eighteen-week experimental study. The subjects involved in the study were 61 second year English majors from School of Foreign Studies in Huanggang Normal University (SFSHNU), falling into experimental group and control group. Questionnaires, sustained silent reading logs (SSR logs) and reading proficiency test served as the instruments in the study. The RRP consisted of in-class silent reading (group reading, pair reading and classroom discussion) and after-class reading (keeping SSR logs).Data obtained from the questionnaires and reading proficiency tests were processed with SPSS 11.5 whereas data from SSR logs and interview were transcribed and analyzed.Results of the present study illustrate that the RRP has positive effect on the cultivation of students' intrinsic reading motivation in experimental group. Results also indicate that RRP can effectively improve students' reading proficiency. Based on the results, it is suggested that teachers should create effective classroom environment and out-of-class environment to improve students' intrinsic motivation in reading. They should also play more important roles in helping students become intrinsically motivated in reading according to the Chinese English teaching and learning context.