A STUDY ON DIFFERENT LEVEL­STUDENTS' INTEREST AND SELF­CONFIDENCE IN ENGLISH EXTENSIVE READING

The goal of this study is to explore which English proficiency level of students will gain more interest and self­confidence through English extensive reading by using a method of evaluation, which is a reading quiz. The participants in this study were 53 first year university students, and two intact groups were assigned depending on their English proficiency levels: a low­level group (30) and an upper­level group (23). The students first responded to a pre­questionnaire concerning their interest and self­confidence in English reading. During the extensive reading program, they read some modified books, graded readers and then took a reading comprehension quiz to determine their reading comprehension. The program duration was for fifteen weeks. After finishing the extensive reading program, both groups answered a post­questionnaire of which the format was similar to that with the pre­questionnaire. This study revealed that both groups of students thought the English extensive reading program with a quiz was helpful, but as for self­confidence, only the low­level group showed more self­confidence than the upper­level group. On the other hand, both group students did not show significant difference in their interest in extensive reading between before and after treatment. The most remarkable findings in this study is that the reason why low­level learners showed more self­confidence after the program is the very simplified texts. Thanks to graded readers, the low­level group students, actually consisted of many different leveled students could choose their books at appropriate levels. Another finding is that both group students hardly have an opportunity to read English texts besides their course studies, so teachers need to give them many chances to read a variety of texts.