benefits related to their language development are aroused. Elley 2001, Day and Bamford 1998, and Krashen 1993 in Brown 2007 mention the benefits of
extensive reading. It increases learners‟ reading ability, linguistic competence,
vocabulary, spelling, and writing.
Bamford and Day 1997 offer ten characteristics of extensive reading as
an approach or language teaching learning procedure.
1 The reading materials are easy.
2 A variety of reading materials on a wide range of topics is available.
3 The topic and the content are chosen by the readers.
4 Learners read as much as possible.
5 The reading speed is usually rapid.
6 The purposes are usually related to pleasure, information and general
understanding.
g. The Advantages of Reading
Smith 2008 proposes some consequences dealing with reading. Students do not need to read better in order to read a lot. The more they read, the more they
learn about reading. Students who read more tend to have rich vocabulary, good comprehension and generally better on range of academic subjects. Reading
makes people smarter. Through reading, what the readers understand and what is significant to
them are stored in their long-term memory. When they find books that are
interesting and readable as they do about real life in which they are involved, they will also remember about the books. Readers can easily recall their experiences.
Authors teach writing through reading. Only through reading, people know how to write well. Spelling, punctuation, capitalization, paragraphing,
grammar, and style are taught through reading. Reading is the only possibility for many experiences of learning. People in
particular field can learn others by reading. Reading covers many topics in the world and certainly many topics that do not exist in the world.
Reading allows us to express our feelings. Reading provides positive side such as interest and excitement, stimulate and curiosity, and negative side such as
boredom, confusion, etc. That is why readers read or do not read.
h. Vocabulary Instructions
Alderson 2005 in Burns and Richards 2012 concludes from his research that one‟s vocabulary size affects one‟s performance on any language
test. It means that improving learners‟ vocabulary acquisition will lead to the learners‟ improvement in their language skills, especially reading.
Based on the results of the research that was conducted by O‟Keeffe,
McCarthy, and Carter 2007 into the Cambridge English Corpus, it was found that the first 2000 core words account for 83 percent of coverage. Those 2000 core
words are all the words that people are likely to encounter in everyday spoken or written language. It means that the mastery of core words has great effects on
vocabulary coverage. Further, Burns and Richards 2012 notes that there are two factors that make core words have such potency in terms of coverage.
a The ability of the same form to appear in any meaning
Students‟ vocabulary mastery can be increased by knowing more core words. For example the verb to get can mean procure in the sentence
I’ll get the drinks
, become in the sentence She got scared, understand in the sentence I get it, etc.
b The ability of the same form to combine with other forms to make new
meanings For example the word do that is frequently used and semantically quite
empty can be combined with particular words to make specific meanings: do a favor, do a tour, do a lap, do the dishes, do the school runs
, etc. Studies on vocabulary acquisition tell us the importance for learning words
through several contextual encounters and the point that the more the students see, read, write or say a word, the more likely they are to retain it
in their long-term memory Mezynski 1983; Stahl and Fairbanks 1986; Krashen 1989; Nation 1990, in Burns and Richards 2012. In line with
them, Burns and Richards 2012 state that reading provides the opportunity for the learners to build higher vocabulary size. There are two
ways to accelerate vocabulary learning and retention that are proposed by Burns and Richards 2012. They are increasing contextual encounters and
working on extended meaning.
