An Investigation Of A Group Of Chinese College Efl Students’ Attitudes Towards And Frequency Of Extensive Reading In English

A great deal of study has proved that English extensive reading playsa crucial role for EFL students to acquire English. By extensive reading,learners could not only foster their English knowledge subconsciouslyand enhance their English communicative and expressive ability, but alsoexperience the life, culture and custom of English-speaking countries tobroaden the horizons. However, some relevant research shows thenegative situation of English extensive reading. Many students have notdeveloped good habits of reading English in their spare time. Attitudetoward and frequency of English extensive reading are two veryinfluential factors which can have great effects on students’ actual readingactivities in English. In recent years, there has been a growing interest inESL learners’ attitudes and frequency of English reading in the aspect ofEnglish learning and teaching.The aim of this study was to get an insight into the present situationof Chinese EFL college students’ extensive reading in English,particularly in terms of students’ attitudes and frequency as well as toexamine the factors that may affect attitudes and habits of the ChineseEFL students. Based on the input and affective filter hypothesis byKrashen, this study did a questionnaire survey and analysis of94Chinese non-English major EFL students from Northwest University of Politics&Law concerning their extensive reading attitudes and frequency in bothChinese and English. The data collected from the questionnaire wasadministrated by SPSS.15.0for windows. Descriptive statistics and themultiple regression analysis were used to analyze the data. By the dataanalysis, it was found that though the time was very short and limited forthe Chinese college students to spend on extensive reading in English andin learning their textbooks after class, most students had a very active andfavorable attitude toward English extensive reading and had realized thesignificance of reading English for pleasure. Meanwhile, this researchfound that compared with many previous studies (Li Ruifang, Zhang Yingand Cheng Musheng,2004; Wang Ling and He Ning,2001), thefrequency of students’ English reading had been raised a little and hadbasically reached the moderate level from the previous low level showedin many previous studies and revealed that easy access to suitableinteresting reading materials and the amount of L1reading havesignificant correlations with students’ reading frequency and attitude.