The Effect of Extensive Reading on Reading Comprehension

Abstract

Numerous studies have proven that extensive reading helps learners gain overall comprehensive skills. However, it is still unknown which particular reading sub-skills can be improved through extensive reading. In order to investigate the effects of extensive reading in detail, a longitudinal study was conducted on 19 Japanese learners of English. Two English proficiency tests were administered before and after nine-month learning activities of extensive reading. The participants performed better on the two researched items on the post-test: that is “understanding sentences with long objects” and “understanding sentences with relative pronouns or relative adverbs”. In cognitive linguistics, these two items are considered to reflect a prototypical construal of English language, which is difficult to explicitly teach in the classroom environment. Based on the results, this paper concludes that extensive reading helps Japanese learners of English acquire those construals.