Developing Reading Fluency On Tertiary Level--An Insight Into The Feasibility And Validity Of Online Extensive Reading

The Internet, which is growing in popularity and availability constantly, has been regarded as a new outstanding technology with great potential for educational use. The possibilities for computers and internet enhancing language learning have been on the forefront of educational studies recently. But there are few studies pertaining to the integration of internet with college English extensive reading program. This research aims to explore the feasibility and validity of online extensive reading on tertiary level. The researcher conducted a contrastive study among a group of second-year students studying in Nanchang University. Through both qualitative and quantitative analysis, the first research question which concerns the feasibility of online extensive reading has been verified with an emphasis on instructors' appropriate guidance. However, the second research question involving the validity of online extensive reading hasn't been securely established. The researcher argues that paper-based and web-based extensive reading should be used together, which may provide teachers with a combined teaching strategy, students with development to reading fluency.This study could raise some issues for teachers and researchers of English to reflect on:(1) How to guide students effectively in web age so as to help them achieve reading fluency? (2) How to combine online extensive reading with traditional extensive reading appropriately in order to create an integrated teaching strategy?...