King Saud University

College of Education
Master Programme of TESOL

The Effect of Reading in a Foreign/Second language in

High School Saudi Graduate Students

Number of Words: 1,778 words

Students Name: Raghdah Al-Madany
Students number: 429921289

Table of Contents
1.1 The effect of reading in a Foreign / Second langauge in
high school Saudi graduate
students.3
1.2 Introduction.......................................................................................3
1.3 Background...............................................................................3,4,5
1.4 Research Objectives..........................................................................6
1.5 Research Questions............................................................................6
1.6 Methodology and Data Collection..................................................6,7
1.7 The duration of the research:.............................................................8
1.8 References:....................................................................................8, 9

1.1 Title:

The effect of reading in a Foreign / Second language in

high school Saudi graduate students

1.2 Introduction:
The aim of this dissertation is to investigate whether reading affects the ability of
improving communication and understanding of high school Saudi students in English as
a foreign language. The study consists of three parts: the literature review, the research
methodology, and the empirical effort. First, I will give an account of the literature review
which tackles the importance of reading in general before discussing its relationship to other
skills. The next step is to give a questionnaire to Saudi students in which the results will
determine to what extent students benefit from reading in a foreign /second language. Finally,
after carrying out the questionnaire, the results will be clear to how much does reading affects
the students understanding and level of proficiency in the language.

1.3 Background (qualitative and case study) my tools questionnaire

The reason I have chosen this topic is to emphasis the importance of reading in
second/foreign language. Good reading in second/foreign language offers several benefits
such as fine models for writing new topics that encourage dialogues. It also helps to study
language such as grammar and vocabulary. There have been many studies about reading
as being an important skill for second language learners in academic contexts that have
also been a contributing cause (Carrell, 1989a; Lynch & Hudson, 1991).
Instead of studying a language or translating it, a better way to learn
the skill of reading is to read a lot (Elley, 1991; Krashen, 1993; West,
Stanovich, & Mitchell, 1993).

Davis (1995: 329) offers a more useful definition of reading from

a classroom implementation perspective An extensive reading
programme is a supplementary class library scheme, attached to an
English course, in which pupils are given the time, encouragement,
and materials to read pleasurably, at their own level, as many books as
they can, without the pressures of testing or marks. Thus, pupils are
competing only against themselves, and it is up to the teacher to
provide the motivation and monitoring to ensure that the maximum
number of books is being read in the time available. The watchwords
are quantity and variety, rather than quality, so that books are
selected for their attractiveness and relevance to the pupils lives,
rather than for literary merit
Many theorists such as Krashen, James Asher, Harris Winitz,
Kenneth Goodman, Frank Smith, Warwick Elley and Richard Day
supported the idea of reading in order to learn any language. I quote
Christine Nuttall (1982: 168) The best way to improve ones
knowledge of a foreign language is to go and live among its speakers.
The next best way is to read extensively in it. Mason and Krashen
(1997) examined the effects of reading with EFL College students in
Japan. Students who did reading performed much better on reading
comprehension scores compared to their peers who were taught in the
traditional way (skills building or intensive reading method).
Also, extensive Reading aids a lot of language areas besides reading proficiency,
it develops language proficiency as well. Numerous research studies in both first
language L1 (Nagy, Herman, & Anderson, 1985) and second language L2 (Krashen,
1997; Mason & Krashen, 1997; Lituaas, Jacobs and Renandya, to appear) have stressed
the benefits of extensive reading for learners language development.

According to a study done by Mason and Krashen (1997) it was seen that the
group who did more reading, wrote better and gained higher reading speed. In this study
it is quite clear that reading helps in developing the reading comprehension, the reading
speed of language learners and their writing ability. It is not an easy task to practice
extensive reading, given that language teachers need to motivate the learners by bringing
interesting topics that encourages them to be the independent readers we want them to be
(Richards & Renandya, 2007). English language classes in Saudi Arabia sometimes focus on
grammar rules and the memorization of the writing topics as apposed to the practice of
reading or creative writing.

Language learners suffer from a common problem that we as experts in the

ESL/EFL world recognize as slow reading (Hamp-Lyons 1983; Cooper 1984). The
reason for this problem can be classroom methodology as mentioned in the previous
paragraph or the continuous focus on language development rather than reading (Bell,
2001). Previously, it was not an easy task to find suitable material for different language
learners. However for several years, many graded readers programs have been created in
order to see the effect of reading on language development specifically, writing which is
considered a difficult and challenging skill to language learners.

1.4 Research Objectives:

1. To assert the importance of the relationship of reading in a Foreign/ Second language
2. To see to what extent does reading effect other language skills
3. To design a specialized material in which reading improves the rest of the language
skills (listening, speaking and writing)
4. To re-stress and emphasize the importance of reading in Second/foreign languages to
all educators in the field of Education.
5. To educate and elucidate to the language learners especially, in Saudi Arabia the
importance of extensive reading in improving their language proficiency.
5

1.5 Research Questions

The Following are some of the research questions that might be included:
1)

What is reading in a Foreign/ Second language?

2) Does reading relate to the rest of the language skills? How?

1.6 Methodology and Data Collection

The approach to data collection and analysis is going to be qualitative in design
and a case study. The study will be conducted in Prince Sultan Cardiac Center
(PSCC). Data will be collected from 17 Saudi female students age (18+). The students
level ranges from mere beginners to Pre-intermediate. The students are high school
graduates, who are specializing to be heart technicians, as a requirement of this major;
they have to take an intensive English course for the first year and a half in order to be
able to communicate in everyday situation since the program as a whole is taught in the
English language only. There will be a sample accompanied within the research.
First I will begin with the literature review. Then I will start my
qualitative study using the questionnaire answered by the students
themselves. I will choose randomly five students in which they will
introduce themselves and do a reading test to show to what extent the
reading has affected them using the SPSS program.
The first step is to look into the literature review in which I will read some books
that tackled the idea of reading and its relationship to other skills; however, to be updated
on the topic, I will come across certain professional language teaching journals like
Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, The Modern Language Journal,
University of Pennsylvania Press, Science direct.com. I will search for papers on reading
and its benefits in language learning. My inclusion criteria will include all English papers
6

no older than 30 years. The study will be carried on female students only. My study will
include adults only ages 18-19 years only. I will recruit my sample by random selection
of students in my study. This will be done for the purpose of this research
precisely, which is to determine to what extent does reading affect the
ability of understanding and perfecting the language?

Responses from all the students will be complied and analyzed in

order to fulfill the study's research objectives. The tools (the
questionnaire and the interviews) used in this study will help in
determining the effect of reading on the languages skills of high school
Saudi students and to what extent would it help the students
themselves.

1.7 The duration of the research:

The research will take six weeks since there will be data collection and analysis of
the data collected.

1.8 References:

Bell, T. (2001) Extensive Reading : Speed & Comprehension. The Reading

Matrix
Vol. 1, No. 1, April 2001
Carrell, P. L. (1989a). SLA and classroom instruction: Reading. Annual
Review of Applied Linguistics 1988, 9, 233-242.
Cooper, M. (1984). Linguistic competence of practiced and unpracticed non-native
readers of
English. In Alderson & Urquhart (1984).
Davis, C.(1995) ER: An Expensive Extravagance?, ELT Journal 49(4):
329-36.
Elley, W. (1991). Acquiring literacy in a second language: The effect of
book-based programs. Language learning. 41 (3), 375-411
Hafiz, F.M. and Tudor, I. (1990). Graded readers as an input medium in L2 Learning.
System, 18, 31-42.
Hafiz, F.M. and Tudor, I. (1989). Extensive Reading and the Development of language
skills. ELT Journal 43, (1) 4-13
Hamp-Lyons, E. (1983). Developing a course to teach extensive reading skills to
university-bound ESL learners. System 11, (pp 303-312).
Krashen, S (1993). The power of reading. Englewood, CO: Libraries
Unlimited
Krashen, S. (1997). The comprehension hypothesis: recent evidence. English Teachers
Journal, 51,17-29.
Krashen, S. D. (1984). 'Writing: Research, Theory and Applications.' New York: Prentice
Hall.
Lituaas, P.M., Jacobs, G.M. and Renandya, W.R. (to appear). A study of extensive
reading with remedial reading students.

Lynch, B., Hudson, T. (1991). EST Reading. In M. Celce-Murcia (Ed.),

Teaching English as a second or foreign language (2nd ed., pp. 216232). New York: Newbury House.
Mason, B. & Krashen, S. (1997). Extensive reading in English as a foreign language.
System, 25(1), 91-102.
Nagy, W., Herman, P., & Anderson, R.C. (1985). Learning words from context. Reading
Research Quarterly, 20, 233-253.
Nuttall, C. (1982) Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language
(London: Heinemann Educational).
Richards, J.C & Renandya, W.A.( 2007) Methodology in Language
Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Robb, T.N., & Susser, B. (1989). Extensive Reading vs Skills Building in an EFL context.
Reading in a Foreign Language, 5(2), (pp 239-249).
Stotsky, S. (1983). 'Research on reading/writing relationships: A synthesis and suggested
directions.' Language Arts, 60, (pp 627-642).