Progress 3 - Background of the study

Background of the study

In Malaysia, reading has been recognized positively by the local educators as beneficial especially in terms of developing pupils’ language acquisition. One of the earliest reading programmes was the English language Reading Programme (ELRP) which began in 1976. This programme was aimed to promote reading in English, improves students’ reading and encourages language development. (Parkash Kaur, 2000). Similarly, there is a variety of reading programmes such as Class Reader Programme (CRP) and ‘Nadi Ilmu Amalan Membaca (NILAM)’. They were introduced by the Ministry of Education (MoE) and it was believed that reading can enhance target language learning in a context, help to build the confidence of pupils’ language usage and also encourages extensive reading programme. In the year 2000, MoE has introduced new curriculum by integrating literature into the English language syllabus for primary school, which mainly focused on reading skills. Extensive reading gives a pleasure, tension free situation; it requires no dictionary and examination. It helps and motivates the pupils in their learning activity.

At the beginning, the programme has involved only a few selected residential schools in urban areas. These schools were provided with reading labs that were equipped with a large amount of graded reading materials. By the year 1983, about two hundred public schools were provided with reading labs. At the same time, campaigns on extensive reading and attempts to make Malaysia a literate society began voraciously (Parkash kaur, 2000). The year (1988) was made the reading year with the theme “Reading as a Bridge to Knowledge”. Many reading camps, books exhibition, campaign and talks were held in state libraries, schools and the universities.

Even many activities were also carried out throughout the year to instil the reading habit among Malaysians; yet, the issue of English acquisition has always been a concern among Malaysian teachers, academicians, and the officials from the Ministry of Education because student’s lack of vocabulary in English deprives them the opportunities to use the language well. The rural school students’ failure rate in national standardized English examination is twice that of their urban counterparts (Mohd. Asraf, 2004). Many rural school students have difficulty in understanding English and some pupils avoid communicating in English. This is a study on Extensive Reading improves student’s vocabulary acquisition by having plenty of appropriate reading materials for them.

The problem of having poor readers is that the student who have adequate word recognition skills, but who do not understand what they read is a global concern. Research conducted by Sloat, Beswick and Willams (2007) proved that poor vocabulary knowledge is still a major problem as students fail to learn reading during primary level. In Malaysia, the problem remains the same. Reading is a major component of the English curriculum of Sekolah Kebangsaan Sungai Binjai. More class time is allotted to it than to the other components such as listening, speaking and writing.

Despite the emphasis that has been given on reading, the problem continues to plague the teachers as more and more students got low scores in the school and national achievement tests in English. One of the variables responsible for this problem is that students have limited access to reading materials (Greaney, 1996). Most of them come from poor families whom cannot afford to buy reading materials. Beside this, students’ motivation to read is low because they feel only extrinsic needs for English such as passing exams, getting a degree and getting a job later. This type of motivation according to Gardner and Lambert (1992) is less effective because it is not rooted on the personality of the learner.

Another cause of low proficiency in reading is failure to incorporate extensive reading in the curriculum. While intensive reading develops skills and strategies in reading, it by itself, is inadequate (Ellis and McRae, 1991). Public exam, formative and summative tests pressure in Malaysia poses another obstacle to extensive reading implementation, especially when exam measure only discrete skills such as writing, neglecting consideration of students’ attitude towards reading. For extensive reading to be effective it must be incorporated in the curriculum and adequate class time should be allotted to it. To regard it as an “optional extra” is to deprive the students of the treasures of knowledge and wisdom which can only be gained through extensive reading of books, magazines and newspapers (Yu, 1993).

According to Yu (1993), if extensive reading is part of the curriculum and class periods are devoted to it, students will take it more seriously. They will no longer regard reading as a passive, boring extra-curricular activity. Furthermore, if it is part of the curriculum, teachers can help the students to acquire the ability to read and work independently by monitoring their progress, advising on books and by giving them encouragement and feedback. Therefore, they should be given time to read to overcome the reading problems. Allotting library hours to read is not enough. Yu stresses that without a reading program in the curriculum, many students reading tends to be haphazard and unrewarding, which result in them giving up reading eventually. On the other hand, a good reading program implemented under the guidance of the teachers in the class will help the students to gradually progress towards individualized and independent reading and learning.

Apart from that, the solutions for above problems are the ESL teacher must be well equipped about Extensive reading and its benefits. The government should play its role by providing training to ESL the teacher. For this, it enables the teacher to have a better understanding on how extensive reading works and able to perform his or her job well. Moreover, using of dictionary during English lessons should be less to help pupils’ to understand better the meaning of the insight vocabularies by the pupils. The teacher should play their role by making it is a reality and this can be done by selecting a text which linking to schemata knowledge. Another solution for this problem is that pupils should clear their mentality that English is for the sole purpose of passing exams, getting a degree, etc.

Pupils need to be reminded that English is a universal language and the purpose of using this language goes beyond reasons mentioned above. To overcome limited reading materials, parents and government should play their role. This can be done by providing affordable books to all categories of pupils. Based on the education system of Malaysia, we are very exam orientated. Therefore, extensive reading is difficult to accomplish due to this reason. In order to overcome this problem, we should be more flexible in our education system. So, the pupils will not simply read books to pass exams but to enjoy the language and gain knowledge from their reading. The government should not stress too much on exams and instead make learning enjoyable.