85 © 2022 by the authors; licensee Asian Online Journal Publishing Group Asian Journal of Education and Training Vol. 8, No. 3, 85-94, 2022 ISSN(E) 2519-5387 DOI: 10.20448/edu.v8i3.4079 © 2022 by the authors; licensee Asian Online Journal Publishing Group Creation of Learning Strategies for Development of English Reading Skill by the Extensive Reading in EFL Classroom Sajeerat Wutthisingchai English Department, Humanities and Social Sciences, Lampang Rajabhat University, Thailand. Email: swutthis@g.lpru.ac.th Tel: +66858489522 Abstract The research aimed to develop the reading process and comprehension through extensive reading of 30 English major freshmen students conducted at Lampang Rajabhat University, Thailand, in the academic year of 2018. Data was collected by using pre-and post-test. Several follow-up activities and guidelines, including formative and summative assessments, were also conducted. Moreover, the study also surveyed the coursework book at the end of the semester, which promotes learning strategies through comprehension questions of pre-and post-activities in class throughout the whole semester. All comprehension tests were valued in descriptive statistics, and the paired sample t-test was analyzed by SPSS Statistics in the study. Based on the statistical data, the overall results revealed that pre-and post-test had significant differences in scores at the level 0.01, which means that the post-test scores were significantly higher than the pre-test scores. Further results were evaluated through qualitative measures including further discussion and conclusion. Keywords: Learning strategies, Reading skill, Extensive reading, Intensive reading, Reading log, Reading process. Citation | Sajeerat Wutthisingchai (2022). Creation of Learning Strategies for Development of English Reading Skill by the Extensive Reading in EFL Classroom. Asian Journal of Education and Training, 8(3): 85-94. History: Received: 10 May 2022 Revised: 24 June 2022 Accepted: 12 July 2022 Published: 29 July 2022 Licensed: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License Publisher: Asian Online Journal Publishing Group Funding: This study received no specific financial support. Competing Interests: The author declares that there are no conflicts of interests regarding the publication of this paper. Transparency: The author confirms that the manuscript is an honest, accurate, and transparent account of the study; that no vital features of the study have been omitted; and that any discrepancies from the study as planned have been explained. Ethical: This study followed all ethical practices during writing. Contents 1. Introduction ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 86 2. Literature Review ............................................................................................................................................................................ 87 3. Methods ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 88 4. Results ................................................................................................................................................................................................ 90 5. Discussion .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 92 6. Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 93 References .............................................................................................................................................................................................. 93 mailto:swutthis@g.lpru.ac.th https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://www.doi.org/10.20448/edu.v8i3.4079 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7156-0548 Asian Journal of Education and Training, 2022, 8(3): 85-94 86 © 2022 by the authors; licensee Asian Online Journal Publishing Group Contribution of this paper to the literature This study contributes to existing literature by developing the reading process and skill by enhancing the different learning strategies through extensive reading using various methods such as reading log, guidelines, peer-reviews and presentation along with the discussion of pre- and post-activities in EFL classroom of intensive instruction. 1. Introduction Reading is a vital skill of acquiring a language. Many students have realized that they can gain their understanding through what they have read which motivates their critical thinking skills for creating their opinions and concluding ideas in a text. Reading can also develop one confidence in using a foreign language. However, reading for academic purposes is another issue because the reading content in this kind of text is not designed based on each student’s field of study and interest but on their academic needs. Though, this kind of text may not help promote them to read more, especially outside the classroom, because of unmatched areas of interest (Pongsatornpipat, 2021). Students should be motivated to self-study and take responsibility for their learning by the teacher’s effective approaches and motivation as the key to developing reading skills (Day & Bamford, 2002). Extensive Reading (ER) particularly becomes a significant role to get students to experience lots of reading. Ateek (2021) summarized ER as a crucial benefit for language learners to expose in sufficient amounts of accessible, comprehensible input with enjoyment and leads to many progression in language skills. Specifically, it is to have them choose what they will read and then spend their time reading it continuously and numerously (Day & Bamford, 1998, 2002). If students practice frequently reading with various skills: listening, speaking, writing, vocabulary, and reading attitudes in the second language (L2), they can develop reading ability and fluency. In other words, ER is a famous approach for practicing reading independently outside the classroom or called free reading, pleasure reading, a wide or independent reading (Beglar & Hunt, 2014; Day & Bamford, 2002; Krashen, 2004; Nation, 2009). Students can choose what they prefer to read at their level or slightly below and at their own pace, which means less stress and more pleasure in their reading activity (Bell, 1998; Davis, 1995; Day & Bamford, 1998; Nation, 1997). The rationale of the study arose from the problem of teaching reading to students who had little exposure to reading in English at Lampang Rajabhat University, Thailand. The majority of students had suburban background. The shreds of evidence could be based on the English scores on the Ordinary National Educational Test or known as the O-NET test, which is a national level exam in Thailand given to students Grade 6, Grade 9, and Grade 12 from every region of Thailand, to test the knowledge and thinking ability for their academic proficiency and the quality of education according to the Basic Education Core Curriculum in 2008 (National Institute of Educational Testing Service Public Organization, 2022). The mean scores in the 2017 academic year of Grade 6, Grade 9, and Grade12 students from the suburban districts of Thailand were 33.26, 28.44, and 24.34, respectively. The scores were lower by over 10% than the northern region scores of 36.94, 30.85, and 28.84, as reported by the National Institute of Educational Testing Service (NIETS) of Thailand, 2018. Therefore, from the test results, the students here can be considered to have little knowledge of English and the basic foundation course needed to be compulsory before studying in-depth. However, there was inadequate time for students to take many compulsory courses to prepare for an advanced skill like reading. According to Krashen (2004) a great deal of stress or anxiety in the teaching and learning environment can hinder language acquisition. On the other hand, high stimulus, self-confidence, good self- perception, low anxiety with a safe and comfortable feeling in the teaching and learning process can lead to the key to success in second language acquisition. As an evaluation of former tests and observation from previous years, some students who often attended the classroom surprisingly appeared to have less final scores than the students who were often absent because the ones who often came to the classroom had less English knowledge than those who were absent. As inferred above, if students do not have much knowledge of English foundation, it is too difficult to teach them to become advanced learners. In addition, the assessment needed to reflect students’ comprehension along with their use of strategies. Thus, the study was conducted through the Reading 2 Course, one of the English major compulsory subjects in the curriculum. Its purpose was to investigate the suitable teaching and learning approach to enhance the critical thinking process, leading to concrete procedures of the reading process through comprehension questions of pre-and post- activities. Although extensive reading characteristics of Day and Bamford (1998) don’t require or should have none of the comprehension quizzes after reading extensively, the curriculum needs the exact measures and assessment for this type of reading. Macalister (2015) claimed that the ten characteristics of ER were not mandatories but suggestions in terms of context, learner interest, and curriculum design application for extensive reading. At the university level, students here had little English background knowledge not only in terms of grammar and vocabulary but also cultural context which affects most of the enjoyment in reading an L2 text. Therefore, some approaches of intensive reading about comprehension questions were applied and mainly discussed through the whole class to encourage students to read and study by themselves outside the classroom. As stated by some research, an ER approach should blend into other classroom activities or tasks involving speaking or writing to be more productive (Macalister, 2015). Meanwhile, the meta-analysis of Joen and Day (2016) proposed that applying ER in a curriculum could support the highest outcome of the approach. After ER course, the follow-up tasks and activities should be given by the teachers to monitor students’ reading (Robb, 2015). The purpose is to see if students could gain their reading skills from those applied in class to when they study and read extensively by their effort in other environments. Consequently, ER and intensive reading (IR) methods were both used in the study yet it will focus on the way ER conducts and see if it proves to be successful in this kind of context. Three main reasons also influenced the objectives of the study. First, the unsatisfactory scores of students’ intensive reading exams depend on the limited choices. The main problems maybe lay in the teaching approach. Many teachers seem to focus on the grammar and vocabulary numbers rather than the thinking process. As a result, many students are taught to memorize more than to comprehend. Moreover, most reading examinations are intensive with multiple-choice answers, which restrict the extent of many possible answers or ideas. It also limits the thinking method that is beyond choices. It narrows an answer from only four or five choices which are unpractical in a real- life situation. Second, the lack of exposure and continuation to foreign language texts affect students’ fluency skills. Asian Journal of Education and Training, 2022, 8(3): 85-94 87 © 2022 by the authors; licensee Asian Online Journal Publishing Group The study of Ateek (2021) revealed that ER can help students develop their reading proficiency by choosing what they are interested in at their comfort level to read and read as much as possible with different genres. His study showed a significant impact on increasing vocabulary knowledge by repeated reading of single words. As Krashen (2004) argued that reading extensively is an essential source of reading proficiency, vocabulary, and the skill to decode complicated grammatical formations. Day and Bamford (1998) also stated that more amount of reading exposure helps increase vocabulary knowledge. Therefore, readers who choose to read various genres can see a wide range of vocabulary and can recognize them without memorizing. Thus, extensive reading is a way to expand their reading skill. Third, the lack of motivation causes reading termination and numerous exposure resulting in reading fluency and comprehension. Renandya and Jacobs (2016) pointed out that motivation is an important element for reading extensively and continuously, as students who have less motivation cannot keep up with their reading tasks. For these reasons and the effects of ER, the researcher would like to activate students’ knowledge while they are reading so that they can practice a great deal of reading through ER and train themselves a critical thinking skills at the same time. Therefore, students were assigned to read what they like and what is suitable for their language level and then to have them record their reading log so that to see if they could organize their train of thought from such creation of learning strategies to develop reading skills through a massive amount of ER. This study reveals the findings on both qualitative and quantitative data of the study according to 2 objectives; to develop reading process and comprehension of students through extensive reading and, to develop English vocabulary knowledge of students by using the extensive reading approach with various learning strategies. 2. Literature Review 2.1 Extensive Reading As stated by Waring (1997) ER is the simple way that foreign language learners can gain language at ease from their own choice and at their speed. This method helps them to expose to the language with a sufficient amount of time to understand the perception the language works and assists them to combine what they already know. Waring also claimed that it is unlikely for the teacher to teach this kind of language perception. It is the learners’ task to pick up this perception by themselves. This profound knowledge of a foreign language must be achieved through continuous and numerous exposure to the language through extensive reading. Constant exposure to a foreign language gives the transference of intertextuality of L2 knowledge perception. Day and Bamford (2005) also stated that extensive reading is reading a substantial quantity of texts to grasp a gist on the meaning of the content than individual words or sentences. The purpose of ER is reading for enjoyment as Nation (2009) explained that the ER approach has been used to build confidence and motivation, which develops students’ general comprehension about the content, improves their vocabulary and grammar knowledge, and increases a positive attitude towards reading. Unlike what Day and Bamford (2002); Day and Bamford (2005) pointed out, the major emphasis of ER is on the meaning of the content being read rather than on language skills. However, students mainly focus on language skills in intensive reading. They read with relatively shorter reading materials from the teacher’s instruction. The goal of intensive reading is to encourage students to create meaning in detail from the reading text and to develop reading skills, such as indicating main ideas and noticing text clues, and increasing their knowledge of vocabulary and grammar as known as formal schemas. ER is when students read easily and enjoyably to promote their reading frequently and fluently. When students ‘study to read’ or ‘read extensively’, they are practicing the skill of reading by reading for information; for example, reading a storybook with the purpose of enjoyment by unconsciously knowing they are studying something. Extensive reading aims to create fluency in reading, unnecessarily to attain new things. ER intends to support the students to gain better reading skill rather than reading to study the language itself. However, intensive reading used a rather difficult text to ‘study reading’. When students ‘study reading’, they are reading a text to study something about the language or reading skill such as a new vocabulary, a grammar rule, identifying a topic and main ideas or give examples of the tense which the students will study intensively. This is the standard reading many students do in textbooks. The passages are short and often have many difficult vocabulary students are unknown of following by before and after reading activities and comprehension questions as well. The objective of this kind of reading is to help construct the language or reading skill (The Extensive Reading Foundation, 2011). 2.2. The Importance and Characteristics of Extensive Reading (ER) The Extensive Reading Foundation (2011) Guide to ER stated the importance of why extensive reading is a better choice for language development. First, ER enables students to read in real context and see how it is employed beyond the language in textbooks. Secondly, ER increases vocabulary knowledge. When students read numerously, they see several words and lexical word patterns many times, which help them skillfully foretell what kind of language patterns they will see next. Thirdly, ER increases reading rate and fluency, which lets them deal with the language more naturally. ER also increases familiarity, inspiration, pleasure, and love, which helps students use language effectively and also reduces any anxieties occurred from language learning. Furthermore, ER enables students to read or listen to an enormous amount of English at their comfort and capability level to promote good reading skills. Finally, ER aids students to get a concept of how grammatical forms work in context as students will not see various contexts adequately in textbooks or other learning materials to promote a depth knowledge of how the language forms work. As a language teaching and learning approach, Day and Bamford (2002) proposed ten principles or characteristics of extensive reading as crucial factors in achieving extensive reading programs. Moreover, Bui and Macalister (2021) agreed with the Nation and Waring (2020) five factors that influence students to read connected with some of the Day and Bamford principles as compared in Figure 1. If the teacher considers these factors in the ER approach, it is more probable to create effective understanding and desire to read. Asian Journal of Education and Training, 2022, 8(3): 85-94 88 © 2022 by the authors; licensee Asian Online Journal Publishing Group Figure 1. The comparison of ER principles. 2.3. Learning Strategies to Develop Reading Skills Learning strategies are actions taken by the learner to make learning simple, quicker, more fun, more self- directed, more efficient, and more flexible to new conditions. Proper language learning strategies are all aimed at the significant goal of communicative competence in both general and specific ways. In the process of its development, it needs authentic communication among learners to use language meaningfully and contextually. Language learning strategies encourage the overall development of communicative competence, in other words, skill or ability to communicate (Oxford, 1990). Brown (2012) stated that it is undeniable that extensive reading has a powerful connection with learner autonomy. Holec (1981) viewed learner autonomy as the ability to monitor individual learning. Canh (2021) revealed a positive effect of these two terms, which allows students to monitor their learning and become active in English reading classes. In the study, she demonstrated learning autonomy as a cognitive approach to stress the thought, beliefs, and emotions of oneself driven into actions. When students engage in ER, they can move from cognitive to metacognitive states. Luke (2006) compared this metacognitive or self-directed conduct to skilled readers who know how to take action once they were aware of their comprehension breakdown. They then verify the cause or problem, whether they were unknown words, confusing statements, or ambiguous ideas, and use strategies to clarify and resolve the problems. Besides, they use strategies to predict and make connections to enhance involvement and develop, more profound meaning, similar to Grabe (2009) and Koda (2004) clarification of metacognitive awareness or metacognition. Many studies have characterized a common set of strategies that promote reading achievement: activating background knowledge, summarizing, making a prediction, monitoring and clarifying, asking questions, thinking, problem-solving and monitoring understanding, finding out answers, visualizing or imaging, and making connections (Harvey & Goudvis, 2000). To illustrate, strategical reading is higher-order thinking as information and ideas are required to transform like summarizing needs evaluating and synthesizing information; making predictions engages connecting facts and ideas and making inferences to create a kind of assumption; making connection involves making generalization; and clarifying initiates problem-finding and problem-solving (Trabasso & Bouchard, 2002). Other than these strategies, Luke (2006) also have discovered that skilled readers are identified as having metacognitive awareness. 3 Methods 3.1. Subject The population were 30 English Major first-year students in the academic year of 2018 at the university in Lampang, Thailand. Two reasons to select English Major first-year students for the subjects are; firstly, English Major first-year students are obligatory to take the reading courses, and the whole class can be accessible. Secondly, English Major first-year students have more motivation to learn English and will endeavor to enhance their knowledge as it is their major. Moreover, these students have gained their background knowledge of reading strategies from the Reading 1 Course, which taught them about different kinds of reading strategies from low-level to higher one: analyzing word parts, prefix, and suffix, guessing meaning with context clues, and using a dictionary. Then the reading strategies of sentence and paragraph reading were instructed: finding inference and interpretation, identifying the main idea, supporting details, and finding references. All students have learned these skills and are supposed to apply them in the Reading 2 Course through their own extensive reading. Asian Journal of Education and Training, 2022, 8(3): 85-94 89 © 2022 by the authors; licensee Asian Online Journal Publishing Group 3.2. Research Instruments 3.2.1. Testing Materials The study was conducted in 15-week with four-time tests. To compare student’s reading skills before and after the study, students were required to take the pre-and post-test to evaluate the research objectives as follows. 1) To develop the reading process and comprehension of students through extensive reading. 2) To develop the English vocabulary knowledge of students by using the extensive reading approach with various learning strategies. The pre-test and post-test is a short paragraph reading which requires students to give a short written answer to each question. The test is an excerpt from basic exercise 6 of Leu, Ttilaka, and Lee (2015) from Conquer Comprehension Workbook 6 on pages 22 to 24 in the reading comprehension workbook. A test composed of 10 questions with the total scores of 20. Each question tests different reading skills, and students may need to use more than one skill to be able to answer some questions. Most questions request the reason for answering. Thus, the students need to understand the passage and give their opinion based on the text. Some questions measure how students can find the specific details by inquiring students to provide the sentence from the story or to prove if the sentence is true or false with the evidence from the text. Some questions also ask students to find the synonyms of the vocabulary from the text. The reading quiz comprises of both four multiple-choice and short answers which constructed based on chapter 7: a natural balance in part two which relates to a forest on the mountains from the book of Chanchaochai (2007) in the King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand: Strength of the Land (Vol.2). The student was allowed to read chapter 7 of the book to do the whole quiz. The quiz tested how well students can guess the vocabulary from the contexts, prefixes, and suffixes on multiple-choice and comprehension quizzes on writing. The midterm test also includes both multiple-choice and short written answers. Each question measures various reading skills and provides suggested answers for the assessment validity. Unlike the quiz, the students were not allowed to read the content in the book to do the multiple-choice questions. However, for the brief written questions, students were allowed to look at both the reading content and the dictionary. To evaluate reading skills and strategies students were developing throughout the Reading 2 Course intensively and extensively, the types of questions were employed in the tests as follows. 1) The main idea question asks for the central idea of the text. 2) A detailed question asks for specific content directly stated in the text. 3) A purpose question asks to indicate an objective of the text. 4) A demonstration or example question asks for distinguished details of a particular idea in the text. 5) An inference question asks for implied content indirectly stated in the passage. 6) An analysis or a critical question asks for the content that is required many skills and strategies to answer the questions correctly, including critical thinking skills or metacognitive awareness, background knowledge, making a prediction, making a connection, and making an inference. 7) A summarizing question asks for the conclusion of a particular idea or concept, including the main idea and supporting details in the text. 8) An explanation question asks for the clarification of a particular idea or its concept in the text. 9) A cause–and–effect question sometimes states a cause and asks for its effect or refers to an effect and asks for its causes. 10) An opinion and logical reason question ask for the student’s opinion using their background knowledge and their logical reason or evidence in the text to support their answer. 11) A vocabulary question asks for a meaning of a word or phrase used in the text. The types of questions used in the tests correlate to the reading research fields and the characteristics of extensive reading, which is focused on a general understanding of the text as referred by many scholars as Nation (2009); Day and Bamford (2005) and The Extensive Reading Foundation (2011). The pre-test’s reliability measured by the Cronbach Alpha coefficient was 0.913. The post-test’s reliability measured by the Cronbach Alpha coefficient was 0.897. The quiz’s reliability measured by the Cronbach Alpha coefficient was 0.718, and the mid-term test’s reliability measured by the Cronbach Alpha coefficient was 0.868. 3.2.2. An Open-Ended Self-Reflection-Questionnaire The self-reflection questionnaire was given in students’ first language at the end of the course semester to determine student satisfaction, dissatisfaction, self-reflection, and comprehension of using the coursework book and the teacher’s instructional approach. There were 7 questions asking students to give their feedback in Thai (L1) on how well they can use and understand the coursework book, how well they can cope with it, and also how well they can adapt to the approach of the teacher’s instruction. The content of the book from the teacher’s selection; Cambridge primary English: learner’s book 3 by Budgell and Ruttle (2015) and learner’s book 4 by Sally and Ridgard (2015). They are made for the reading course of the primary students of native English speakers, so the content may not be all suitable for university students, but most of the content intends to develop basic thinking skills with short-answer- questions. Therefore, if used with EFL learners, it may not be for the beginning’s level but means for pre- intermediate. 3.2.3. Validity of the Instruments To ensure the validity of the test, the questionnaire, and the reading tasks, it was guided by literature and research study. Then, the test, the survey questions, and the reading tasks will be checked and revised by the native speakers who are the area teachers in the field of English. Moreover, to avoid errors due to misinterpreting, the questionnaire was developed in Thai and allowed students to answer in their first language. Moreover, students were familiar with the format of questions before doing the quiz, the midterm test, and the post-test from different reading tasks in and out of the classroom. Although the prerequisite skill wasn’t directly indicated on each item in the test, but the question obviously stated its objective. Thus, the students have known the necessary skill needed to find out the answer. Asian Journal of Education and Training, 2022, 8(3): 85-94 90 © 2022 by the authors; licensee Asian Online Journal Publishing Group 3.2.4. Analysis of Data and Statistical Procedures The data were computed and analyzed after all the results of the tests had been collected by using the statistical formulae in SPSS version 22 (2013) employed in Sum, Mean ( x ), and Standard Deviation (S.D.). Moreover, the test will be analyzed and compared between each reading skills used while answering the comprehension questions and whether students can use their skills correctly. In this study, the teacher also examined data analysis using the qualitative description of learning strategies; a reading log with vocabulary record including another reading exercise for the development of English reading skills by the extensive reading chosen by the teacher, and students’ choices of favor. The analysis would also investigate the student’s learning procedures and revealed some possibilities of student errors and progress. 3.2.5. Procedure All of the formative and summative assessments were created to test whether the ER approach and various creation of learning strategies in and out of the classroom setting can develop students' reading skills. Moreover, the tests were also divided into pre-test, post-test, a quiz, and a midterm test, including the survey of the teaching materials and methods to measure how students developed at each period because the pre-test was given at the beginning of the course and around the 6th week, the quiz was given. After the 8th week, the midterm was tested. Finally, the post-test and the survey were given in the 15th week after completing all of their reading tasks. In the first week, the assigned reading sheet from the teacher’s selected book was given to students to read outside the class from the 2nd to 7th week. From the 8th-12th week, students were set to read their preferred book of long texts for their extensive reading. They were assigned to record their log and vocabulary every other week to keep their progress. Simultaneously, they also needed to study reading comprehension in the classroom by reading various genres of short passages and writing short answers for follow-up comprehension questions in single, pair, and group work and discussion. Figure 2 compares the procedures of the two-reading conducted in and outside of class. Figure 2. The creation of learning strategies by implementing extensive reading for an intensive reading class (CLS-ERIR). 4. Results 4.1. The Comparison of Mean Scores Between the Pre-Test and the Post-Test The mean scores of the pre-test, the post-test was computed and analyzed by descriptive analysis and the comparison between each two using paired samples T-test. Ten short questions for the pre-and post-test were given to students to write short answers according to various reading skill requirements; giving information and reasons, agreement with a reason, giving a specific detail, and searching for a synonym. From Table 1, the mean scores of 30 students increased by 2.47. Therefore, it can be assumed that the learning strategies created through extensive reading can help increase reading skill development. Asian Journal of Education and Training, 2022, 8(3): 85-94 91 © 2022 by the authors; licensee Asian Online Journal Publishing Group Table 1. Paired samples statistics. Sample Test Mean N Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean Pair1 Pre-test Post-test 6.68 9.15 30 30 5.24 5.16 0.96 0.94 As shown in Table 2, it can be interpreted that the differences in the scores from the pre-test and post-test were statistically significant at the level of 0.01. This importantly indicated that the post-test scores are higher than the pre-test scores. The results can support the study's aims in which the approach of using various learning strategies through extensive reading can develop in terms of vocabulary, reading comprehension skills, and the reading process. Table 2. Paired samples test of pre-test and post-test scores in reading 2 Course. Test Sample Paired Differences Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean 95% Confidence Interval of Difference t df Sig.(2- tailed) Lower Upper Pair1 Pre-test- Post-test -2.46 2.98 0.54 -3.58 -1.35 -4.53 29 0.00 4.2. The Analysis of Required Reading Skills for Each Question Item and Comparison of Student’s Scores During All the Assessments According to different tests, the types of questions from the pre-and post-test, the quiz, and the midterm test were closely investigated. There were ten short-answer questions for the pre-and post-test to evaluate students’ various reading skill requirements; giving information and reasons, agreement with a reason, giving a specific detail, and searching for a synonym. It investigated how students use learning strategies and which learning strategies needed to be focused on intensely for the teacher to create suitable tasks or activities in aiding students to gain what they have unskilled for. Moreover, the post-test was to see if all the learning instruments could gradually help develop their use of strategies effectively. The pre-and post-test used the same questions and formats with the same amount of time provided, and the scores were excluded from the Reading2 course for its validity and reliability. The results showed that the highest top 3 scores were from the type of questions that asks students for specific details, information and reasons. It can be concluded that students may have already practiced these reading strategies intensively in Reading 1 Course but by reading extensively in Reading 2 Course, they come to spontaneously use them which meets the goals of this study. However, in question no. 4.3, no. 7.2 from the same types of questions and no. 9.4 was for finding a synonym have few students answer correctly either in pre-and post-test. To explain, those sub-questions were all connected to the main question. To illustrate, in no.4, students need to complete all three answers correctly for three points, but they mostly gave the incorrect answer for the last one. Similarly, no. 7 was also required two reasons for the answer. Most students gave only one answer correctly. Yet, no.9 was different because it was about finding a synonym. Students gained less scores from this type of question in the pre-test and slightly higher in the post-test. During the quiz and the midterm test, the results showed many learning strategies students could acquire involved finding details or synonyms, giving interpretation and opinion along with a logical reason were mostly the strategies students could gain. Moreover, most of the vocabulary questions in the midterm test were receiving higher scores than other types of questions. It means that students can use what they have learned from the Intensive Reading 1 Course about word analysis in using affixes, word structures and context clues to determine the closing meaning of unknown words. Moreover, they expand their vocabulary knowledge from what they have been assigned to work on vocabulary record during their extensive reading. Although most vocabulary questions were highly scored, a few vocabulary questions have rarely gained any scores as in questions no. 5, no.8, no.10 and no.11. The kind of question in no.5, no.10 and no.11 was underlined words and asked for the closest meaning. Only no.8 was a cloze test question. The choices have the same word class but different meanings to test their strategies in guessing words from the context and finding synonym. However, the choices of no.10 are different in both word class and meaning to test both knowledges of grammatical structure and strategies in guessing from the context. It could mean that students not only needed to focus more on the strategies but also the linguistic features to comprehend the text. 4.3. The Survey of Reading Coursework Book Seven open-ended questions were asked for students’ perception about coursework and exercise in the book including the instructional approach for Reading 2 Course as follows Table 3. Table 3. Students’ perceptions in the questionnaire. Title Students’ perceptions Question no. Students’ attitudes towards the coursework book Positive; great content with many different fields of vocabulary and grammatical structures. 1,5,7 The appropriate level of texts in the coursework book Positive; more than 60% of all the questions could be answered Some chapters were what they were interested in, or easy vocabulary and short content. 2,3,4,6 Students’ learning strategies to cope with difficulty Positive; asking their friends, seniors or teacher for clarification; seeking more opportunities in reviewing the question, or searching for more knowledge from the internet. 3,4 Students’ self-awareness towards reading strategies and improvement Positive; some exercises cannot be answered, and students were aware of what they missed to understand the text. Students also agreed to increase their reading skills for knowledge expansion, and many students suggested reading as much as possible, reviewing what has been read, and using their own metacognitive skills to monitor and develop each time they read. 4,5,6,7 Asian Journal of Education and Training, 2022, 8(3): 85-94 92 © 2022 by the authors; licensee Asian Online Journal Publishing Group 4.4. The Reading Reflection and Translation through Reading Log In this part of the research results, the creation of learning tasks through extensive reading were observed and investigated if they could fulfill 2 objectives of the study, which are as follows: 1) To develop reading process and comprehension of students through extensive reading. 2) To develop English vocabulary knowledge for students using the extensive reading approach with various learning strategies. Therefore, to see their development, some remarkable excerpts of students’ reading logs were given to analyze the process of their reading development from the second to the twelfth week of the semester through their extensive reading assignment, but they had to submit them to the teacher one week and then get their feedback on the other week until their completion. It was six weeks of submission in total. One of their reading books was chosen by the teacher and others were from their individual favorite choice. Based on evidence of students’ ER, the finding were summarized in Table 4 by using qualitative methods. The excerpts were from four students who were remarkably improved from the first week compared to the last week of submitting. Table 4. Excerpts of students’ reading log. Excerpt Students’ strategies Students’ error Error Repetition Students’ strategies gain Awareness and self- improvement 1st student - Off the point for three times until noticing her mistakes from the teacher’s feedback 3 times from week 2,4,6 Making a connection and beginning to develop self- monitoring and making connections unconsciously. Week 8,10,12 2nd student - No clarification of characters’ personalities 4 times from week 2,4,6,8 Giving specific details, making inferences and thinking critically Week 10,12 3rd student Good at critical thinking skills and no difficulty in understanding the text Problems with expressing an idea in the target language and making a connection 3 times from week 4,8,10 More engaging and practicing in the skills Week 12 4th student The skill of back and forth transference from L1 to L2 to and fro No connectives or incorrect use causing unconnected ideas 3 times from week 2,4,8 Sequencing and organizing thought Week 10, 12 Another task given to see if students understood the text, the grammar-translation methods were used in the study. After submitting the reading log, each student has been assigned to summarize and translate one of his friend’s reading logs randomly each week. Therefore, the student would have a rare chance to repeat the same person’s log at the previous time as he did. Looking into the student’s translation revealed some parts of the student’s inference and thinking process given in Table 5. These were some excerpt summarization of four different cases analysis. Table 5. Excerpts of students’ translation. Case Students’ original message Students’ translation Students’ error Language in focus 1st case ‘the castle of the Count’ ‘the castle of calculation as in counting’ Misunderstand the meaning of a proper word Guessing vocabulary from the context clues 2nd case ‘at the same time’ ‘later time’ Mistranslation of a connective The use of different connectives 5th case ‘she was always teased by friends’. ‘she always teased her friends’ Misplace an object as a subject The use of active and passive voice 7th case ‘reminds’ ‘true love’ ‘us’ ‘warn’ ‘accurate love’ ‘them’ Mistranslation of words and pronoun Word choices and pronouns 5. Discussion The results showed that students could develop reading process and comprehension through extensive reading with various learning strategies from the significantly higher post-test scores in the quantitative data. It can be inferred that these learning strategies could be developed on the way of reading extensively while several learning strategies were intentionally given in class for practicing simultaneously. As in the study, the researcher could not follow all of the ten principles of Day and Bamford (2002) but attempted to focus on the practical context within the local setting and curricular limitation as Macalister (2015) claimed. The frequent principle no.1-5 and 9 were applied in this practice. In addition, the IR approach of formative and summative assessments was also undertaken in the study to guide students and follow their progress instead of a single general ER assessment of reading log and vocabulary record. After both reading activities from IR and ER in and out of class, the researcher also gave feedback and correction to students each week. As proposed by Ng, Renandya, and Chong (2019) reading is necessary to be monitored and assessed because it could aspire students to show interest in their reading. Similarly, as stated by Macalister (2015) for the contextual practice, some research unveiled that an extensive reading approach could be Asian Journal of Education and Training, 2022, 8(3): 85-94 93 © 2022 by the authors; licensee Asian Online Journal Publishing Group more effective if it was integrated into other classroom activities or projects like speaking or writing output projects. As Bui and Macalister (2021) argued that blending the reading into classroom activities may affect less variety of genres because students are required to read the same material for classroom activities which was similar to this study. Furthermore, another finding also revealed that students can develop English vocabulary knowledge by using an extensive reading approach. Most vocabulary questions receive higher scores than other types of questions in the midterm test for a summative assessment. It means that students can use their strategies or background knowledge from what they have learned in class and can expand their vocabulary knowledge from many amounts they have exposed in their extensive reading. However, the linguistic competencies were also necessary and cannot be overlooked. The survey of coursework book showed positive attitudes and an appropriate level of comprehension for the students, which correspond with principle no. 1, and no.3. According to Day and Bamford (1998) ESL or EFL will successfully read and understand easily if they use reading texts that were suitable to their communicative competence in terms of linguistics as described by Oxford (1990) and also within their interest may increase student’s reading fluency and vocabulary, learning autonomy and motivation supported by many recent research studies such as Singkum and Chinwonno (2021); Ateek (2021); Canh (2021). From the survey, many students have distinguishing ways to cope with their comprehension breakdown by asking friends who have good reading skills or teachers; reviewing their reading questions, or searching for more knowledge from the internet. According to students’ perception, the content difficulty and interest could correlate to their background knowledge, leading to understanding in their reading. Moreover, they saw the importance of reading development for knowledge expansion. They agreed with the first principle of Day and Bamford (2002) that to read as much as possible, to review what has been read, and use their metacognitive skill to monitor and develop each time they read. Significantly, the follow-up activities of reading reflection through reading logs and vocabulary records, including peer’s translation and summarization, revealed the importance of the teacher’s guidance and classroom activities which could provide successful learning through ER approach to reinforce various strategies along with the development of self-regulated learning or learning autonomy. Canh (2021) recommended that EFL students should be exposed to ER activity for a practical approach to developing their ability in reading and learning autonomy. Therefore, ER should be blended into the instructional curriculum so that both teachers and students can manage the great benefits of the implementation. In addition, the teachers could also be a counselor advising students in ER approach to select appropriate reading texts and gradually build lifelong reading habits. Once students are familiar with learning strategies and autonomy, they can control their learning process and fully become autonomous learners. 6. Conclusion In conclusion, this research study showed whether the learning strategies created through extensive reading help develop reading skills. The finding revealed that the post-test scores of reading comprehension for the first-year English major students at the university in Lampang were significantly higher than the pre-test scores at the level of 0.01. Consequently, it means that the creation of learning strategies through extensive reading by the pre- and post-activities questions in the coursework exercise with the teacher’s instructional approach, reading log and vocabulary record assignment, summarizing and translating other’s reading log could not only help students become autonomous learners more quickly but also develop many reading skills through their learning strategies, especially, from different types of questions. By finding the answers, students need to use several skills to give the correct answer to the question. Moreover, reading logs and vocabulary records engage students in activities and keep on reading extensively with determination. Finally, summarizing and translating others’ reading logs enhance students’ fundamental knowledge of English, vocabulary recognition, and language transference skill. 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