Extensive reading and writing development among first year students at the English Department, Universitas Indonesia

Abstract

In 2000 the opportunity arose to add an extensive reading component to an existing course for 1st year English majors at Universitas Indonesia. The students took up the opportunity to varying degrees, allowing engagement patterns to be studied and then related to writing development. In addition to setting up the extensive reading library, special materials were designed, including writing cards, a grammar test, a reading appraisal form, and various materials to record engagement in the programme. Twenty-five students enrolled in the course reflecting a wide range of language proficiency. Discriminant analysis was used to confirm membership to high, medium and low engagement patterns based on the amount of time spent reading, the records of books borrowed, and the estimates of books read in the previous twelve months. Writing performance was observed early and late in the programme, using measures of text elaboration, vocabulary sophistication, and accuracy of units of communication. Multiple analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) was used to assess statistical significance in the data. In using this procedure, the effect of initial language proficiency was removed from the writing data. We found that levels of engagement in the extensive reading programme were not related to any writing development captured by the text assessment procedures used in the study. There was a marginal improvement in the elaboration of texts but this was not associated with any particular pattern of engagement in the programme. In terms of reading appraisal, the high engagement group reflected the most positive response to the value of extensive reading. Four students were chosen to reflect different relationships between engagement and writing. The case studies indicated the unique paths that students were taking in their reading and writing. In terms of achievement, the programme encouraged some students to read at a level they had not achieved before. In all, the emergence of writing development from the experience of regular reading is likely to take time and require a degree of engagement not uncovered in the present study.