THE EFFECTS OF AN EXTENSIVE READING IMPLEMENTATION ON THE OPINIONS, ATTITUDES AND MOTIVATION OF TURKISH LEARNERS OF ENGLISH FROM DIFFERENT PROFICIENCY LEVELS

Abstract

Extensive reading is becoming more popular as a hope-inspiring educational strategy for developing students' reading skills. Numerous studies demonstrated the positive effects of extensive reading on language development. However, to my knowledge, there is a lack of studies concerning students’ opinions, motivation, and attitudes regarding extensive reading. Considering this, this study aims to investigate the effects of an extensive reading implementation on the opinions, attitudes, and motivation of Turkish learners of English from different proficiency levels, to reveal if there is a difference depending on the proficiency levels of the language learners, and to investigate the qualities of the reading materials students tend to prefer. In this respect, the study explored the effects of a seven-week extensive reading treatment at a state university. The study consisted of 30 prep school students studying in prep school. The convenience sampling method was used to form the sampling of the research. The data were collected through two different instruments: a questionnaire and reflective journals. Due to validity and reliability concerns, the questionnaire was adapted from an attitude test designed by Hardy (2016). The SPSS software was used to analyze the quantitative data. Even though some changes in the participants' attitudes, motivation, and opinions were observed after the implementation, only some of the items showed statistically significant differences, including an increased participation rate in discussions, extrinsic motivation, and a decrease in the rate of checking grammar rules. Similarly, some differences between the B1-level and B2- level proficiency groups were observed although most of these differences were not statistically significant. However, the B-2 level group showed significantly more favorable attitudes in in-class participation, discussion rate, and higher intrinsic x motivation. Finally, all the qualitative data collected from reflective journals were analyzed according to the thematic analysis method. QDA Miner Lite software was used to define the codes and the themes. The participants believed that interesting materials are entertaining, diverse in topics, rich in new and useful information, and full of ideas that arouse curiosity. The results also showed that reading materials should include colors, visuals, and well-arranged font sizes and lengths. Finally, the participants mostly preferred paper-based to online reading materials for several reasons.