Narrative Inquiry: Extensive Reading for EFL Students in Indonesia

This report presents a narrative inquiry into the implementation of extensive reading for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students in the English Department of universities in East Kalimantan, Indonesia. The study investigates the learning objectives, procedures, materials, and the roles of teachers and students in the extensive reading process. It explores the teachers' abilities, attitudes, and perspectives on extensive reading, as well as the students' views and the effectiveness of the approach. The research employs a qualitative methodology, utilizing observations, interviews, and document analysis to gather data from six universities across three cities. The findings aim to provide a comprehensive understanding of the challenges and benefits of extensive reading for EFL students, offering valuable insights for educators and researchers in the field of language acquisition and reading comprehension. The study also looks at the teachers' abilities and attitudes towards extensive reading and how the teachers teach the students.

Running head: EXTENSIVE READING TO FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDENTS 1
The Implementation of Extensive Reading toward Foreign Language Students
Institution
Name

EXTENSIVE READING TO FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDENTS 2
Background
Reading is an essential activity for the people’s day to day life in the society, specifically
the EFL students; this is because the knowledge is applicable almost in their daily academic-
related activities. Reading is one of the major skills in language; reading is a multi-facet and
difficult work, especially for EFL students. Therefore there is a need to spend time reading in
class to develop and apply reading skills to acquire new knowledge.
According to Leipzig (2010), reading entails fluency, understanding and recognition. All
aspects of the reading as a process affect comprehension (Burns et al., 1996). Therefore, to
understand the information contained in a book its either you know the content or the reading
activity.
Despite the advantages of reading as skills, many English teachers are struggling to
understand why students are not in a position to comprehend English books .in order to contain
the content in a book, and it depends on the reading target on the instructions of that language.
On the other hand, it is not easy to understand English texts; this is supported by Bambford &
Day (2010) who claim that studying English is not a joke, especially for the EFL students.
As proposed by Richard Day (2010) and complemented by Philip Prowser (2000) and Maley
(2008), extensive reading has its unique characteristics. They suggested that there ten principles
for extensive reading. These include;
“(1) students read a lot and read often; (2) there is a wide variety of text types and topics
to choose from; (3) the texts are not just interesting: they are engaging/compelling; (4)
students decide what to read; (5) reading purposes focus on: pleasure, information, and
general understanding; (6) reading its reward; (7) there are no tests, no exercises, no
questions, and no dictionaries; (8) materials are within the language competence of the

EXTENSIVE READING TO FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDENTS 3
students; (9) reading is individual and silent; (10)speed is faster, not deliberate and slow;
(11) the teacher explains the goals and procedures clearly, then monitors and guides the
students; and (12) the teacher is a role model, a reader, who participates along with
students.”
The reason for using this approach is because it covers many aspects of learning, and also
it improves proficiency and ability to read (Sadtono, 2007). English fluency and constant
exposure to English is a decisive factor. To add to this, the teachers have an essential role in
building students reading comprehension skill. Teachers are the only source of learning since
there is no other support from the surrounding. Hence both students and teachers should take this
opportunity to improve their reading skills. Therefore extensive reading is the most excellent tool
in improving the students reading ability. Apart from that, only extensive reading is not enough
for EFL to read and learn English; they also need to be exposed to reading competence. Nuttal
(1983; 1968), argues that EFL students can improve their knowledge by reading extensively.
Hence reading widely is necessary for enhancing EFL students learning skills.
Due to the above facts, the researcher conducted a narrative inquiry toward the implementation
of extensive reading at the English Department in East Kalimantan universities. In describing the
implementation of extensive reading, the researcher will focus on the teaching and learning
objectives, the strategies and procedures used, the teaching materials used, the teacher's and the
students' roles in the process of instructional activities.
Formulation of the Problem
According to the above background of study, it can be identified that there are some
problems in dealing with the components of extensive reading in university students. Those
components are learning objectives, procedures in teaching learning activities, teaching

EXTENSIVE READING TO FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDENTS 4
materials, the teachers' role, and the role of the students in the process of teaching and learning
extensive reading, toward FLS students in reading class at the English Department in university
students in East Kalimantan, Indonesia.
Further, the objective questions, is as follows:
1. How is the extensive reading implemented toward EFL students?
The following questions are directed to answer the central question:
a. What is the learning objective of extensive reading? Is the learning objective suitable
with interest, ability, benefit, and power of attraction of the students?
b. What are the procedures used? Can the methods direct the students to the learning
objective?
c. What materials are used?
d. What are the teachers' roles?
e. What are the students' roles?
f. How do the teachers evaluate extensive reading in class?
2. How is the teacher's ability in implementing extensive reading toward EFL students in reading
class?
The question above could be broken down into several questions:
a. How is the teachers' ability toward extensive reading?
b. How is the teachers' attitude toward extensive reading?
c. How do the teachers teach the students?
d. How are the teachers' perspectives about extensive reading?
e. How are the students' views about extensive reading?

EXTENSIVE READING TO FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDENTS 5
3. How active is the comprehensive reading implemented toward EFL students in reading
class?
The Objectives of the Study
This study is aimed at identifying and describing;
1. The extensive reading implementation toward EFL student in reading class which covers
learning goals, the methods, the materials, the roles of the teacher and the students both
in the event of implementing extensive reading.
2. Teachers' ability in implementing extensive reading toward EFL students that includes
the teachers' expertise in teaching reading, the teachers' attitude toward foreign language
students in reading class, the way the teachers teach the students, the students and
teachers attitude towards extensive reading.
3. The effectiveness of the implementation of extensive reading toward EFL students at
English Department in reading class.
The Benefits of the Study
Theoretically, this study is going to have a contribution or reference to the extensive
reading approach in EFL. Hopefully, this study will navigate a better understanding of how to
implement extensive reading.
Practically, the study will benefit English teachers, students, and other researchers. It can
be the act of reflecting on them to evaluate their teaching and learning. Furthermore, foreign
language students can be encouraged to read extensively, and reading can be a pleasurable
activity for them.
This study is valuable and helpful to other researchers in providing a thorough and detail
explanation with the implementation of extensive reading at the university level. Besides, to

EXTENSIVE READING TO FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDENTS 6
other researchers, it can emerge illuminations and can be used as a reference in expounding and
explaining extensive reading research.
Research Methodology
This research employs a qualitative method in the form of a narrative inquiry to get a
deep understanding of implementing extensive reading. Besides, it is conducted to describe the
implementation of extensive reading at the English Department of university students and also
the role of the teachers and the students during the process of thorough reading approach in
reading class.
Research is conducted based on the natural setting where the subjects of the study are.
There were no treatments given by the researcher towards the questions (Sutopo, 2002).
Qualitative research views human behaviour. However, it sometimes may accommodate a
descriptive statistical analysis (Nurkamto, 2006).
Qualitative research is a type of research that depends majorly on the collection of data
and describes the phenomenon in open-ended questions. The hypotheses are developed
depending on the understanding of the empirical data (Johnson and Christensen, 2000).
Moreover, qualitative procedures depend on image and texts data which have different steps in
analysis and strategies inquiry (Cresswell, 2003).
Also, an inquiry will be used to collect information under study (Clandinin & Connelly,
2000). It is a way of interpreting information by involving the researcher and participants in the
field through social interactions. (Clandinin and Connelly, 2000). The researcher will use audio
recording, transcription, observations, interviews, and concentrates fieldwork to collect
necessary data.

EXTENSIVE READING TO FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDENTS 7
This study reveals the natural setting to the reading class at the English Department in
nine universities in East Kalimantan, Indonesia. It is located in three different cities which allow
the researcher to take this study where learning and teaching activities will occur, and this shows
that the research is focused on the teaching and learning process of extensive reading. The deep
understanding of this study also described how far the implementation of the comprehensive text
on the effectiveness of English teaching and learning at English Department students.
Research Setting
This study is carried out in six universities that have an English Department in East
Kalimantan, Indonesia. They are located in three different cities: Samarinda, Tenggarong, and
Balikpapan.
Source of Data
Sutopo (2002) proposed that sources of data in qualitative research include place,
informant, events, records, things, pictures, photographs, and documents. Besides, the significant
sources of data in the qualitative study are words and actions. Other sources of data, such as
academic reports, statistic reports, document, and photographs, are merely considered as
additional sources (Lofland and Lofland, 1984). Meanwhile, Bogdan and Biklen (1998) stated
that the source of the data might cover three aspects, namely, a particular place in a specific
institution, a specific group of people, and activities. By considering the previous opinions, the
data in this study consists of three sources: events, informants, and documentation.

EXTENSIVE READING TO FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDENTS 8
Data Collection Techniques
The data is collected using the following techniques;
1. Observation
The observation is focused on the process of English teaching and learning
activities in the reading class which is observed directly by the researcher but the
researcher is not given any treatment at all.
2. Interview
The researcher could investigate deeply the interviewees’ last experience and
expectation about the implementation of extensive reading toward FLS in reading
class. Besides, the researcher could obtain information directly about the
interviewees’ perception about many things related to the implementation of
extensive reading and its influence towards how effective it is to extensive
reading.
3. Document Analysis
This analysis of the document in this study is focused on learning materials,
assessment, the record of the students' progress and students' learning product.

EXTENSIVE READING TO FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDENTS 9
Trustworthiness
The qualitative study assumes that a researcher brings a new idea in the study. In order
for the researcher to fulfil conformability, the researcher gives a thorough description of the
phenomena gained from the observation, interview credible people as informants and analyses
the related documents.
The technique of analyzing the Data
A qualitative study is an excellent method for studying social issues. Denzin and Lincoln,
2003 argues that” the approach is naturalistic, interpretative, and draws on multiple modes of
inquiry”. A qualitative study involves the combination of data collection with analysis. The
Constant Comparative Method (CCM) is a research design for multi data sources. It is
considered as a systematic qualitative analytical method. This study will borrow the CCM in
synthesizing and analysis of the data collected.
The process of analyzing qualitative data is called coding. Coding becomes the starting
point to provide a full description of the data in a narrative format. The characteristics of code
should not overlap with another. So, by using these processes, the theory can be generated based
on the research findings and discussion. They are being constructed based on the research
findings and reviews, which are derived from the effect of the implementation of extensive
reading toward the effectiveness of extensive reading of foreign language students.

EXTENSIVE READING TO FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDENTS 10
References
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Day, Richard, R. (2002). ‘Top Ten Principles for Teaching Extensive Reading’ Reading in
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