Explain the difference between extensive and intensive reading. Give examples of activities for each of them

Intensive reading

Intensive study of reading texts can be a means of increasing learners' knowledge of language features and their control of reading strategies. It can also improve their comprehension skill. It fits into the language-focused learning strand of a course. The classic procedure for intensive reading is the grammar-translation approach where the teacher works with the learners, using the first language to explain the meaning of a text, sentence by sentence. Used on suitable texts and following useful prin­ciples, this can be a very useful procedure as long as it is only a part of the reading programme and is complemented by other language-focused learning and by extensive reading for language development and extensive reading for fluency development.

At its worst, intensive reading focuses on comprehension of a particular text with no thought being given to whether the features studied in this text will be useful when reading other texts. Such intensive reading usually involves translation and thus comprehension of the text. So, one goal of intensive reading may be comprehension of the text. The use of translation makes sure that learners understand, and when the learners do some of the translation themselves, it allows the teacher to check whether they understand.

Intensive reading may also have another goal and that is to determine what language features will get attention in the course. That is, the language features that are focused on in each text become the language syllabus for the course. This has several positive aspects. First, the language features are set in the communicative context of a text. The text can be used to show how the language features contribute to the communicative purpose of the text and this can be good preparation for subsequent writ­ing activities. Second, choosing features in this way is likely to avoid the interference between vocabulary items or grammatical features that can occur when topic-centred syllabus design is used.

There are also negative aspects to letting texts determine the language features of a course. First, the features given attention to may be an uncontrolled mixture of useful and not very useful items. That is, high frequency and low frequency vocabulary, frequent grammatical items and very infrequent or irregular grammatical items may get equal attention. Second, the topic of the text determines the salience of the items and the teaching gets directed towards this text rather than what will be useful in a range of texts.

If intensive reading is to be done well, the major principle determining the focus of the teaching should be that the focus is on items that will occur in a wide range of texts. The teacher should ask "How does today's teaching make tomorrow's text easier?". There are four ways of putting this important principle into practice.

1. Focus on items that occur with high frequency in the language as a whole. Such items will occur often in many different texts.

2. Focus on strategies that can be used with most texts

3. Quickly deal with or ignore infrequent items.

4. Make sure that the same items and strategies get attention in several different texts.

Comprehension of the Text

Typically comprehension questions are used as the major means of focus­ing on comprehension of the text. The learners read a text and then answer questions about the content of the text. There is a variety of question types that can be used.

Question Forms

1. Pronominal questions are questions beginning with who, what, when, how, why, etc.

What is a saccade? How long does a fixation take?

These questions often test writing ability as well as reading ability because the learners must write the answers. The questions can ask for one-word answers, or ask the learners to copy the answers directly from the passage. This makes them easier to mark. The learners can also answer questions using their first language. Instead of questions, commands may be used. Explain the three kinds of eye actions. Describe a fixation.

2. Yes/no questions and alternative questions only need short answers so the learners do not need to have a high level of writing skill. Does a fixation take a longer time than a jump? Do some words get more than one fixation? Does every word get a fixation?

3. True/false sentences are similar to yes/no questions. As with yes/no questions the learners have a 50 percent chance of guessing correctly. The learners look at each sentence and decide if it is true or false according to the passage. The learners answer by writing True or False, or by copying the sentences that are true and not copying the false sentences. This last way provides an opportunity for more learning to take place. A good reader makes about ten fixations per second. Most jumps are from one word to another. The learners may also be asked to rewrite the false sentences making changes so that they are now true.

4. Multiple-choice sentences are easy to mark. If four choices are given, the learners have only a 25 percent chance of guessing correctly. If the questions are not well made, often the learners' chances are higher. Good multiple-choice questions are not easy to make and often they are more difficult than they should be. This is because the wrong choices must seem possible and not stupid. If they are possible then they might be partly correct.

1. A fixation

(a) takes about two-tenths of a second

(b) is about one word long

(c) is the opposite of a regression

(d) is longer in Finnish than in English

6. Information transfer. The learners complete an information trans­fer diagram based on the information in the text (Palmer, 1982). Chapter 9 provides examples of information transfer diagrams.

7. Translation. The learners must translate the passage into another language. Although translation is often a special skill, it can also show areas of difficulty that the learners have in reading. It also shows clearly where the learners do not have any difficulty. It is a very search­ing test of understanding, but it includes other skills besides reading.