Extensive reading is to read large quantities of materials for global understanding or for pleasure, which can be a useful way of learning a foreign or a second language. Diary studies, on the other hand, are the studies conducted to investigate participants experiences in a detailed way since they allow researchers to shed light on the challenges participants faced during the whole process. Numerous recent studies examining the process of extensive reading in a foreign or a second language have revealed highly encouraging results. However, there are few studies which collected data through both participants diaries and researchers logs. The current single case study was conducted with the aim of investigating the effects of extensive reading on an adult's self-study of English over a 20-week period. To present a detailed picture of what the learner experienced during the process, data were collected through semi-structured interviews administered in the beginning and at the end of the study, and through learners diaries. The Constant Comparative Method (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) was utilized to analyze the qualitative data. The results showed that extensive reading in English had favourable effects in the participants gaining reading habits in English, improving reading speed and comprehension, and increased the participants motivation towards learning English. Furthermore, the findings indicated that extensive reading in English lowered the participants worries about reading in English. The problems the participant encountered during the study and the ways she coped with these problems were also investigated and discussed in detail.

A considerable amount of research has been undertaken over the last two decades to support claims about the benefits of extensive reading (Day & Bamford, 1998 summarise a number of studies). The majority of these studies target the learning of English, with only a limited amount of research carried out in the learning of other languages, including Japanese, a language which can pose orthographic challenges for learners from alphabetic first language backgrounds and for which suitable extensive reading resources are not as readily available as they are in English. This paper considers these issues and reports on a case study of a learner who read extensively in Japanese over a three-month period. The exposure to extensive reading helped the participant become a more strategic and more confident reader, and appeared to facilitate language learning with her experience of passive knowledge turning into active knowledge as a result of extensive reading.

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Abstract Effective reading is mandatory for the students to keep abreast themselves of the vast knowledge around them. Venkateswaran (1995) defines reading as a psycholinguistic process by which the reader reconstructs a message, which has been encoded by a writer. He views reading as an interaction among three essential factors: background knowledge, conceptual abilities and learning strategies. Slow reading is a widely recognized problem, in the realm of ESL/EFL, which hinders effective learning (Hamp-Lyon, 1983; Cooper, 1984). And keeping in view the same scenario, this study investigated 74 Saudi medical undergraduates studying at College of Medicine and Medical Sciences (CMMS), Taif University to determine the positive overbearing of an extensive pleasure reading project on reading speed, reading comprehension and their attitude towards reading in their leisure time. The reading speed and reading comprehension of the participants were calculated by using graded readers in the beginning and at the end of this project. The data were scientifically analyzed and the results reported that the gains in the reading speed and reading comprehension of the experimental group were significantly higher than the control group. Furthermore, the questionnaire data revealed that the pleasure reading had a positive change in their behavior and majority of the samples declared that they would continue reading in their leisure time in the future as well. Key Words: Pleasure reading, top-down, bottom-up, loud reading, and silent reading

Day and Bamford's ten principles for promoting second-language (L2) extensive reading (ER) have been commended for their highly applicable practicality. However, for various reasons, assuring successful ER instruction can remain a challenging task. This surprising contrast may in part be clarified by examining the relationship between Day and Bamford's recommendations and the factors highlighted in the Self-Determination Theory (SDT) of motivation. Day and Bamford's ten recommendations incorporate features that can be viewed as exemplifying one or more of the three SDT components – competence, autonomy, and relatedness – which, SDT argues, should all be present in an ideally motivational environment. However, a mixed-method study of 9 adult ESL instructors (Likert scale questionnaires, plus follow-up interviews) suggested that selective adherence to some but not all dimensions of Day and Bamford's guidance may allow SDT constituents to be unwittingly underrepresented. We therefore advise that Day and Bamford's principles for ER instruction should be explicitly associated with the SDT framework, in order to draw practitioners' attention as directly as possible to the full range of motivational resources available. Implications are proposed for pre-service teacher education, institutional planning, and in-service professional development.

This report analyses the results of 30 evidence-based studies of Extensive Reading (ER) and young second language learners’ motivation and/or attitudes, mostly conducted over the past decade, and draws links between the findings of these studies and the qualitative data from the Italy Read On! Extensive Reading project. The studies show that ER makes a positive difference to the L2 reading motivation and attitudes of young language learners (11-18 years old). Crucially, they also provide evidence about what factors make the most difference to young extensive readers’ motivation and/or attitudes.The factors that make the most difference to L2 reading motivation and attitudes in young extensive readers are: 1. L2 reading proficiency 2. Pre-ER attitudes towards L2 reading 3. L2 reading material 4. The interplay between L2 text readability and L2 reading proficiency 5. Autonomy 6. Time/external work constraints

A lack of reading quantity in EFL (English as a Foreign Language) classrooms has remained one of the most serious problems faced by teachers of English in Japan. Although the extensive reading (ER) approach is regarded as having significant potential in addressing this problem, it is not used in many EFL classrooms. This study investigates the effect of a quasi-extensive reading program on Japanese high school EFL learners' reading comprehension, reading speed, and their perceptions of the program.