In short
- Extensive reading is reading large amounts of easy, self-chosen text for meaning and enjoyment.
- It works through volume, so level, choice, time and light accountability all exist to keep pupils reading.
- Audio read-along helps beginners keep going, and in one study of secondary pupils it improved reading rate more than silent reading did.
- Meta-analyses find small to medium gains in reading rate, comprehension and vocabulary, with most of the studies carried out on adults.
Extensive reading has decades of research behind it. Yet Jeon and Day (2016) note that it is still not widely practised. Intensive reading, the close study of a short, hard text, remains the main approach to teaching reading. This guide explains the alternative: what extensive reading is, how it works, and what the research supports. It is honest about where that research is thin, especially for younger pupils.
The guide follows one argument. Extensive reading works through volume, so everything a school does should protect volume. That means books at the right level, real choice, regular time, and accountability light enough that it does not get in the way. Audio support helps beginners keep going. Each section links to shorter articles that go deeper.
What is extensive reading?
Extensive reading is an approach to language teaching in which learners read large amounts of easy, enjoyable text in the new language. They choose what to read, read for meaning and not for study, and read fast enough to follow the story. The aim is to build reading fluency and a reading habit through quantity.
Day and Bamford (1998) describe it as the reading of large quantities of easy material. In a later article, Day and Bamford (2002) set out ten principles. They are the closest thing the field has to an agreed definition:
- The reading material is easy.
- A variety of reading material on a wide range of topics is available.
- Learners choose what they want to read.
- Learners read as much as possible.
- The purpose of reading is usually related to pleasure, information and general understanding.
- Reading is its own reward.
- Reading speed is usually faster rather than slower.
- Reading is individual and silent.
- Teachers orient and guide their students.
- The teacher is a role model of a reader.
Not every program that uses the name follows the principles. Jeon and Day (2016) found that many studies claiming to use extensive reading had in fact assigned long texts to the class. They left those studies out of their analysis, because the learners had not chosen their own reading.
Extensive reading is often set against intensive reading, the close study of a short, difficult text. The two are partners. Hu and Nation (2000) describe intensive reading as work on texts with unfamiliar language, helped by a teacher, a dictionary or a glossary. Extensive reading is what pupils do when that help is gone.
Why does volume matter so much? The idea is simple. A reader who meets common words and patterns again and again comes to recognise them without effort. That takes many pages. Day and Bamford (2002) suggest a book a week as the minimum. They call this realistic because books for beginners are very short.
The rest of this guide takes four parts in turn: the books, the audio, the method and the evidence. A final section fits them into a school week.
Levelled stories: the right book at the right level
Volume depends on ease. A pupil who stops at every third word will not read many pages. The first of Day and Bamford's principles is that the material is easy, and they mean easier than most teachers expect.
Hu and Nation (2000) give the best-known figure. They tested 66 adult learners on a short story with different shares of unknown words. When 80% of the words were known, no reader reached adequate comprehension. At 90% and 95%, most still did not. They concluded that reading fiction without help takes about 98% coverage: one unknown word in fifty.
For a pupil holding a book, Day and Bamford (2002) offer a simpler test. For beginners, more than one or two unknown words on a page may make the book too hard. Intermediate learners can allow up to five. How to Match Students to the Right Graded Readers covers placing pupils, spotting a mismatch and adjusting over time.
Text that easy has to be written for learners. Graded readers are books written or adapted with controlled vocabulary, grammar and plot, sold in series of rising levels. Day and Bamford (1998) call them language learner literature, a genre in its own right like children's literature. What Are Graded Readers? explains headword counts and why levels differ between publishers.
Should pupils not read real English? In time, yes. Day and Bamford (2002) conclude that all but advanced learners probably need texts written or adapted for language learners. Beglar, Hunt and Kite (2012) found that Japanese university students gained more reading speed from simplified texts than from unsimplified ones. Graded Readers vs Authentic Texts sets out when each belongs.
Three habits keep pupils at the right level:
- Start low. Place pupils a level below where you think they are. Moving up feels like success. Moving down feels like failure.
- Check the page, not the label. Level numbers differ between series, so ask the pupil to read a page and count unknown words.
- Let pupils abandon books. Day and Bamford (2002) encourage learners to stop reading anything that is too difficult or not interesting.
Classroom example (invented for illustration)
A class of 11-year-olds visits the book box for the first time. The teacher has sorted it into four colour bands.
Each pupil takes a book from the band the teacher suggests, reads one page and counts unknown words on their fingers.
Omar counts six on his page. He swaps for a book one band lower, counts one, and keeps it.
By the end of the lesson every pupil has a book they can read, and nobody has been told they are in a low group.
Guides on this
Audio read-along and fluency
Fluency is reading at a good pace with understanding. It lets a pupil attend to the story instead of to each word. Beginners often read so slowly that they lose the thread, and then they stop. Audio is one way to keep them going.
In a read-along, the pupil follows the text with their eyes while a voice reads it. The voice sets the pace and shows how each written word sounds. This is different from a teacher reading aloud to a class that only listens. Read-Aloud vs Read-Along: What's the Difference? separates the two from a third activity, pupils reading aloud themselves.
The most relevant evidence for schools comes from Chang and Millett (2015). Sixty-four Year 10 EFL pupils read 20 graded readers over 26 weeks, for 90 minutes a week. One group read silently. The other read while listening to the audio. Both groups improved in reading rate and comprehension. The audio group improved substantially more, and the gains were still there three months later.
That is one study of 64 pupils, so treat it as promising, not settled. It also concerned beginners: the books came from the first two levels of a graded series. It does not show that older or stronger readers need audio.
Audio does not do much for vocabulary on its own. Brown, Waring and Donkaewbua (2008) had 35 Japanese university students meet stories by reading, by reading while listening, and by listening only. New words were picked up in all three modes, but most were not learned. Three months later, learners recalled the meaning of about one word in 28 from either reading mode, and none from listening only.
The same study found that most learners were most comfortable when reading while listening. Some told the researchers why: the narrator divided the text into chunks for them. Comfort matters, because a comfortable pupil keeps reading. Reading While Listening: What It Does for English Learners covers this research in more detail.
Treat audio as a support that you plan to remove. The goal is silent, independent reading at the pupil's own pace. Building English Reading Fluency: Activities That Work describes repeated reading, read-along and timed practice that build towards it.
Guides on this
The extensive reading method
Extensive and intensive reading do different jobs, and a school needs both. Intensive reading teaches language and strategies through a short, hard text. Extensive reading builds fluency through long, easy ones. Extensive vs. Intensive Reading: What's the Difference? compares them. It also explains what goes wrong when easy reading is taught like a comprehension lesson.
If extensive reading works through volume, the method is whatever protects volume. Four things do most of the work.
| What | What it means in school | What it guards against |
|---|---|---|
| The right level | For beginners, books with no more than one or two unknown words on a page | Slow, painful reading that pupils give up |
| Choice | Pupils pick their own books and may stop one they dislike | Reading for the teacher and not for themselves |
| Time | A fixed slot in the timetable, plus reading at home | Reading that happens only when everything else is done |
| Light accountability | A short record or a one-minute chat, not a test on every book | No reading at all, or reading turned into testing |
Choice is not a luxury. Day and Bamford (2002) make it their third principle, and Jeon and Day (2016) treated self-selection as the mark of a real extensive reading program. Offering choice within a level band keeps both freedom and fit.
Time has to be given, not hoped for. Jeon and Day (2016) compared ways of organising programs. Extensive reading built into the curriculum showed the highest average effect (d = 0.91). Extensive reading run as an independent reading course showed the lowest (d = 0.24). The authors ask for caution in reading this comparison.
Accountability is the hardest balance. Day and Bamford (2002) write that reading is its own reward and is not usually followed by comprehension questions. They still accept follow-up activities that track what pupils read and make reading a shared experience. 15 Extensive Reading Activities for the EFL Classroom offers light options for before, during and after reading.
The teacher's role changes too. Day and Bamford (2002) ask teachers to orient pupils, guide their choices and be seen reading. Pupils used to hard texts may not believe that easy reading helps, so explain the reasons at the start. How to Start an Extensive Reading Program in Your School gives a four-week launch sequence.
Programs often stall after the first term. The usual causes are fading interest, books at the wrong level, and teachers who cannot see who is reading. Extensive Reading Challenges (and How to Solve Them) works through each one.
Pupils who avoid reading need a different start: lower levels, quick early wins and no public failure. Extensive Reading for Reluctant & Struggling Readers explains how to rebuild their confidence.
For a full handbook, Nation and Waring (2020) cover how to set up, run and assess an extensive reading program, with case studies.
Guides on this
What the research says
Extensive reading has been studied for more than forty years. An early landmark is Elley and Mangubhai (1983). Fijian school pupils read a large number of high-interest story books in English. They progressed in reading and listening comprehension at twice the rate of pupils who did not read such books.
Two meta-analyses pull the later studies together. A meta-analysis combines the results of many studies into one average effect, reported as d. The larger the value of d, the bigger the difference that the reading made.
| Study | What it covered | Average effect | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nakanishi (2015) | 34 studies with 3,942 participants | d = 0.46 against comparison groups; d = 0.71 from before to after | Concluded that extensive reading improves reading proficiency and should be part of the curriculum. |
| Jeon and Day (2016) | 49 studies from 1980 to 2014, with 5,919 participants | d = 0.57 against control groups; d = 0.79 from before to after | Described the effect as small to medium. Left out programs where reading was assigned, not chosen. |
Jeon and Day (2016) also compared outcomes. Reading rate showed the largest average effect (d = 0.83), ahead of comprehension (d = 0.54) and vocabulary (d = 0.47). The differences between the three were not statistically significant, and the reading rate figure rests on only ten samples.
A careful single study of reading rate is Beglar, Hunt and Kite (2012). They followed 97 first-year Japanese university students for a year. All three pleasure reading groups gained more speed than the intensive reading group, and the groups that read most gained most. Comprehension stayed high, so the speed did not come at its expense.
Vocabulary gains are real but slow. Learners in Brown, Waring and Donkaewbua (2008) retained very few new words from a single story after three months. Words that appeared more often in the story were more likely to be learned, and lasted longer. How Many Times Must a Learner Meet a Word? looks at the numbers.
Who was studied?
This matters for schools. Jeon and Day (2016) found the largest average effect for adults (d = 0.70), then children (d = 0.52), then adolescents (d = 0.35). Thirty of their samples were adults. Only six were children and fifteen were adolescents. Most studies came from Asia and the Pacific, and studies lasting more than a year were hard to find.
So the evidence that extensive reading improves reading is solid, and it is most complete for adults and university students. For pupils aged 8 to 16 it is encouraging but thinner. Jeon and Day measured reading comprehension, reading rate and vocabulary only. Their results do not tell you about writing or speaking.
Three articles go further. Does Extensive Reading Actually Work? The Evidence weighs where the findings are strong and where caution is due. What Are the Benefits of Extensive Reading? covers vocabulary, fluency and motivation. The Benefits of Reading for Pleasure: Does It Beat Drills? looks at enjoyment and why it keeps pupils reading.
Guides on this
Putting it together in a school week
Here is one way to fit extensive reading into a week with three English lessons. It is an example, not a prescription. The weekly total matters more than the days.
| Day | In class | At home |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Ten minutes of silent reading at the start of the lesson. The teacher reads too, then talks quietly with three pupils about their books. | Fifteen minutes of reading, with audio for pupils who need it. |
| Tuesday | No English lesson. | Fifteen minutes of reading. |
| Wednesday | Intensive reading lesson on a short text. In the last five minutes, pupils return finished books and choose new ones. | Fifteen minutes of reading. |
| Thursday | No English lesson. | Fifteen minutes of reading. |
| Friday | Ten minutes of silent reading. Two pupils each recommend a book to the class in one minute. Pupils update their reading record. | Weekend reading if they choose. |
This week gives each pupil about 80 minutes of reading. Whether that finishes a book depends on the book and the pupil. Day and Bamford (2002) suggest a book a week as a minimum, and books for beginners are short.
The week uses all four protections. The books are at the pupil's level and chosen by the pupil. The time is fixed in the timetable. The accountability is a record, a chat and a recommendation, with no test.
What to keep an eye on
- Pages turning. During silent reading, watch who is reading and who is staring. A pupil who never turns the page has the wrong book.
- Books finished. Count books or pages per pupil each fortnight. A sudden drop is your early warning.
- Level changes. Move pupils up when reading looks easy and they ask for more. Move them down without fuss when it does not.
- Enjoyment. Ask pupils which book they would recommend. A class with no answer needs different books.
Do not grade the reading itself. Record it, talk about it and celebrate it. For ways to reward reading without turning it into a contest of ability, see Reading Rewards, Badges and Streaks: Which Ones Motivate?.
How iRead supports extensive reading
In iRead, a pack is a CEFR-levelled set of stories, and each story is a graded reader. Many stories have an audio read-along synced to the text, which is optional per story. Every story, quiz and game is levelled to the CEFR, from A1 to C2. Students keep a Reading Passport, one record of their reading. School leaders see stories completed by class, grade and term.
Frequently asked questions
What is extensive reading?
Extensive reading is an approach in which learners read large amounts of easy, enjoyable text in the language they are learning. They choose their own books, read for meaning and do not stop to study each word. The aim is fluency and a reading habit.
What is the difference between extensive and intensive reading?
Intensive reading is the close study of a short, difficult text with the teacher's help. Extensive reading is the independent reading of long, easy texts for meaning. Intensive reading teaches new language. Extensive reading builds fluency with language pupils mostly know. Schools need both.
How much should pupils read in an extensive reading program?
Day and Bamford (2002) suggest a book a week as the minimum, which is realistic because books for beginners are short. Beglar, Hunt and Kite (2012) found that reading a book every two weeks or more gave most university students the best gains in reading rate.
Does extensive reading work for young learners?
Probably, but the evidence is thinner than for adults. Jeon and Day (2016) found a positive average effect for children, based on only six samples, and a smaller one for adolescents. Most extensive reading research has studied adults and university students.
Should pupils be tested on the books they read?
Not on every book. Day and Bamford (2002) describe reading as its own reward. A short reading record, a one-minute chat or a book recommendation shows you who is reading without turning each story into a test.
How easy should the books be?
Very easy. Hu and Nation (2000) concluded that readers need to know about 98% of the words to follow a story without help. For a beginner, that means no more than one or two unknown words on a page.
Sources
- Day, R. R., & Bamford, J. (1998). Extensive Reading in the Second Language Classroom. Cambridge University Press. www.cambridge.org/9780521568296
- Day, R. R., & Bamford, J. (2002). Top ten principles for teaching extensive reading. Reading in a Foreign Language, 14(2), 136-141. doi.org/10.64152/10125/66761
- Nation, I. S. P., & Waring, R. (2020). Teaching Extensive Reading in Another Language. Routledge. doi.org/10.4324/9780367809256
- Hu, M. H.-C., & Nation, P. (2000). Unknown vocabulary density and reading comprehension. Reading in a Foreign Language, 13(1), 403-430. doi.org/10.64152/10125/66973
- Nakanishi, T. (2015). A meta-analysis of extensive reading research. TESOL Quarterly, 49(1), 6-37. doi.org/10.1002/tesq.157
- Jeon, E.-Y., & Day, R. R. (2016). The effectiveness of ER on reading proficiency: A meta-analysis. Reading in a Foreign Language, 28(2), 246-265. doi.org/10.64152/10125/66901
- Elley, W. B., & Mangubhai, F. (1983). The impact of reading on second language learning. Reading Research Quarterly, 19(1), 53-67. doi.org/10.2307/747337
- Beglar, D., Hunt, A., & Kite, Y. (2012). The effect of pleasure reading on Japanese university EFL learners' reading rates. Language Learning, 62(3), 665-703. doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9922.2011.00651.x
- Chang, A. C.-S., & Millett, S. (2015). Improving reading rates and comprehension through audio-assisted extensive reading for beginner learners. System, 52, 91-102. doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2015.05.003
- Brown, R., Waring, R., & Donkaewbua, S. (2008). Incidental vocabulary acquisition from reading, reading-while-listening, and listening to stories. Reading in a Foreign Language, 20(2), 136-163. doi.org/10.64152/10125/66816