DOI: 10.14457/tu.the.2020.174
title: The integration of intensive and extensive reading instruction: its effects on Thai primary school students’ English reading ability

description: This study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of integrated intensive and extensive reading instruction in improving Thai primary school students’ English reading ability regarding their English vocabulary knowledge and their English reading comprehension. It also seeked to find out students’ opinions towards this form of instruction. Eleven Grade 6 students (7 males, 4 females) studying in a private school in the southern part of Thailand during the second semester of the academic year 2019 (From November 2019 to February 2020) participated in this study. The students received the integrated intensive and extensive reading instruction for 10 weeks. During these 10 weeks, the students received intensive reading instruction which focused on the explicit teaching and learning of English vocabulary, phonology, and reading strategies through the use of short English written texts that were at or a little beyond the current reading ability level of the students. In addition, the students received extensive reading instruction which focused on engaging the students in reading extensive English written texts that were intelligible and interesting for the students and encouraged them to apply and make use of the English language knowledge and skills that had been introduced during the intensive reading instruction. A set of ten-week lesson plans consisting of instructional plans, intensive and extensive reading texts, related worksheets, and students’ reading logs were used as instructional research instruments to facilitate instruction.A pretest and posttest were employed to collect quantitative data. In the first week the students took an English reading ability pretest which assessed their English vocabulary knowledge and English reading comprehension. Following on from this, the students received the integrated intensive and extensive reading instruction for the total period of 10 weeks. After that, the students took an English reading ability posttest which was the same as the pretest. A paired-sample t-test was run to compare the mean scores of the pre- and post- English reading ability tests. The quantitative results of the students’ English reading ability, including the students’ English vocabulary knowledge and English reading comprehension in the English reading ability pretest and posttest, revealed a statistically significant difference at p &lt; .01 level. This indicated that the students’ English reading ability in terms of both their English vocabulary knowledge and English reading comprehension improved significantly after receiving the integrated intensive and extensive reading instruction for 10 weeks.Furthermore, semi-structured one-on-one interviews and a teacher’s journal were employed to collect qualitative data. After the posttest was administered, each of the 11 students were interviewed. The qualitative data obtained from the interviews revealed positive opinions towards the integrated intensive and extensive reading instruction from the students. The qualitative data obtained from the teacher’s journal revealed the students’ opinions and reactions towards the reading instruction, the effective ways for carrying out the reading instruction, and the teaching and learning problems that occurred as well as possible solutions to them.