Enhancing EFL Learner’s Communicative Competence through Extensive Reading of Children’s Literature

Can reading truly contribute to speaking competence? A number of studies have been conducted on various teaching methods on improving reading skills, but there are few studies relating to reading and communicative competence. Therefore, this research investigates problems on teaching reading and speaking in Korean EFL situations and proposes the solution of implementing extensive reading of children’s books. Korean EFL learners are eager to learn English, and there has been much effort by the Korean government and educational institutions. Nevertheless, Korean EFL learners’ English competence has not improved as much as we expected. This is because learners are hardly exposed to real English environments. As the best alternative plan, the present paper suggests to use children’s literature to improve learners’ communicative competence. In Korea, reading can considerably improve speaking skills since reading materials are more available than native English speakers. However, there are some questions on implementing this extensive reading program to students. The present paper shows beginning research on theoreticaloriented basis and provides information about children’s literature. Further research is required to conduct an experiment based on a pedagogical purpose in real university settings in Korea.