Abstract:
The ER approach is widely acclaimed owing to its acknowledged linguistic and affective
benefits. However, its implementation in EFL classrooms remains surprisingly limited. This
study investigates whether ER enhances students’ writing performance, considering five
aspects: content, organisation, grammatical accuracy, vocabulary, and mechanics. It also
attempts to establish if ER has a positive effect on students’ attitudes towards reading in
English. To achieve these aims, a mixed-methods design was adopted. Fifty-seven PhD
students studying various academic disciplines at Larbi Ben M’Hidi University— Oum El
Bouaghi, Algeria, were recruited through convenience sampling and were divided into an
experimental group (n=28) and a control group (n=29). Both groups sat a paragraph writing
test at the outset of the quasi-experiment. Then, the experimental subjects responded to a
pre-treatment attitudinal questionnaire and engaged in ER using simplified materials both in
and outside the classroom for five months. At the end of the treatment, they submitted
reflective texts describing their reading experiences before and after ER and completed the
post-treatment questionnaire. Subsequently, all the participants took the writing test again.
The quantitative data were analysed using SPSS v.28, while Nvivo v.12 was employed to
conduct a thematic analysis for the qualitative data. The Mann-Whitney U test proved that
the experimental group outperformed the control group not only in the overall writing
performance, but also in each of the five aspects. The thematic analysis indicated that
students had initial negative feelings about EFL reading, but these feelings became positive
after doing ER. Additionally, the Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test run on the findings of the
questionnaire confirmed that ER caused a positive change in students’ attitudes towards EFL
reading. These results suggest that ER positively influences the PhD students’ writing
performance and reading attitudes.
