Extensive Reading Program in a University Writing Class

This study explored the implementation of extensive reading program in a university writing class, looking at vocabulary use of 110 less proficient EFL students. In addition, there was careful investigation of students’ perception on the use of extensive reading program in an academic writing class as a part of liberal art course. To answer the research questions, both Range and Frequency and NLP (Natural Language Processing) tools were used in order to show the total frequency of vocabulary use and concordance features. The software made it possible to see the ample use of lexical items such as collocations, phrasal verbs, and other vocabulary usage. The result suggests that less proficient students tried to use a simple and low range of words in their written work with a great effort. A variety of prepositional usages were also noticed as an attempt to construct meaningful context in their writing. In addition to this, despite their low confidence in learning a second language, less proficient students showed positive attitudes towards writing reading logs in the extensive program. Some pedagogical issues were suggested in terms of implementing an extensive reading program to writing class for less proficient students in a university liberal art course.