The effect of extensive reading on EFL students’ writing performance and reading attitudes

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.