INTENSIVE READING AND EXTENSIVE READING
Reading
is an activity that can add someone’s knowledge about important news and also
some new vocabulary items. Realizing the importance of reading, some collages
make it as one of subject. There are two kinds of teaching reading; Extensive
and Intensive. Extensive and Intensive are different in some cases. This
article provides three differences between Extensive Reading and Intensive
Reading; therefore Extensive Reading has more important purpose compared to
Intensive Reading in broadening students’ knowledge.
The first
difference is that Extensive Reading covers large area, while Intensive Reading
covers narrower area. According to Graham Stanley, Extensive Reading involves
students reading long texts or large quantities for general understanding, with
the intention of enjoying the texts. It means that students are given freedom
to choose their own topic which they think are interested to be discussed. In
this case, the students also have to find supported articles related to the
topic in order to give them background knowledge, so that they know more about
the topic they have chosen. It is different from Intensive Reading that does
not allow the students to find a topic they like. The topic is given by the
teacher. The students also do not necessary to look for supported articles
because the topic which is chosen by the teacher is usually short and easy to
understand.
The
second difference is about students’ activity in class. In Extensive Reading
the students’ activity is more complex than in Intensive Reading. The students,
in Extensive Reading class, usually are asked to write a summary after reading
an article/ passage. As we know, writing summary is not an easy thing to do. It
allows learners to assert full control, both of the main factual or fictional
content of an article/ book, and of the grammar and vocabulary used to express
it (Bell, 1998). Besides, the students also will do a short presentation on
what they have read. By doing short presentation, the students will have
knowledge of the right preparation, self-independence and autonomy (Bell,
1998). While in Intensive Reading, instead of writing summary and having
presentation, the students are asked to answer some questions related to the
topic which is given by the teacher. Usually, all of the answers are available
on the text, so that the students only rewrite it.
The last, Extensive Reading will discourage the over- use of dictionary
(Bell, 1998); on the contrary dictionary is a must in Intensive Reading. It is
true that dictionary have an important place in reading activity, but as stated
by Bell (1998) that the students will focus only on the language if they always
consult the dictionary every time they find an unfamiliar word. They will not
pay attention to the message conveyed. Bell also said that this habit will
cause inefficient reading and destroy the pleasure that reading is intended to
provide. Graham Stanley from British Council, Barcelona said that by avoiding
dictionary, the students are expected to be encouraged to jot down the words
they come across in a vocabulary notebook and they can look them up after they
have finished reading. It will make the students guess the meaning based on the
context. By doing this, the students are able to always remember the meaning of
a word because they find it by themselves. Meanwhile in Intensive Reading,
students have to find difficult words while they are reading. The frequency of
using dictionary is often because in Intensive Reading, a text will be used to
answer some questions, so the students have to know the meaning of all words in
the text in order to make them easy to answer the questions.
In
conclusion, through doing complex activities, Extensive Reading can broaden students’
knowledge more than Intensive Reading. In Extensive Reading, students write
summary and do presentation which lead them to minimize the use of dictionary.
In opposition, the students’ activities in Intensive Reading are more limited.
The activities depend on the teacher’s guidance only. This kind of activities
wil l not encourage students to explore their abilities; they cannot broaden
knowledge by themselves as well as in Extensive Reading.
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