Extensive reading is an approach to second language (L2) teaching that expects
learners to read massive amounts of authentic target language texts for fluency and
general comprehension, supposing that this massive and varied amount of authentic target
language input will catalyze the learners’ acquisition of the L2. This thesis reports on a
pilot study of an extensive reading program that the researcher attempted to implement
through The American Language Institute (ALI) at the University of Toledo. The
problem that led to this study was brought to the researcher’s attention during the course
of his interactions with the staff of the ALI. The problem was that a majority of students
taking the institutional version of the Test Of English Foreign Language (TOEFL) exam,
at the end of each session, performed poorly on the timed reading comprehension
portions of the exam. Many of the students were complaining about not having enough
time to complete the timed reading section. The ALI staff explained to the students that
college-level academic pursuits require one to be able to read massive amounts of text
efficiently and effectively, and the timed reading section is designed to measure each of
their abilities to do this. Based on the researcher’s review of the literature produced on
extensive reading pedagogies in second and foreign language learning contexts, the
researcher was eager to implement a pilot study of an extensive reading approach with the
aim of improving the English L2 reading comprehension measure from the TOEFL
scores of those ALI students who would participate in the study. The design of the pilot
study will be explained in the methodology section of Chapter 2.