Volume 12 - Issue 63
/ March 2023
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http:// www.amazoniainvestiga.info ISSN 2322- 6307
DOI: https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2023.63.03.11
How to Cite:
Shareef, L.A. (2023). Improving IELTS speaking skills of EFL learners through the extensive reading at a tertiary level. Amazonia
Investiga, 12(63), 123-133. https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2023.63.03.11
Improving IELTS speaking skills of EFL learners through the
extensive reading at a tertiary level
Received: February 2, 2023 Accepted: March 30, 2023
Written by:
Liva Adil Shareef1
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6485-5911
Abstract
Extensive reading has increased its popularity
globally as it offers flexibility to choose any book
and read in an increasing volume to derive pleasure.
Accordingly, the number of studies regarding it has
increased in the last two decades. It has been
observed that a gap is prevalent in the literature to
competence through a standardized test at a tertiary
level in Iraq context which has prompted the
researcher to conduct this study. In this regard, the
present study was carried out to investigate the
competence through the IELTS Academic
Speaking Test within a span of 10 weeks. 45
Foundation English course students who joined
lessons actively at TISHK International University
in Erbil, Iraq were chosen by convenience sampling
method in the 2022-2023 Academic Year. The data
were collected through speaking exams and
interviews in this mixed methods design study.
Collected data analysed by SPSS 23 or NVivo
revealed that extensive reading substantially
increased students' marks in the IELTS Speaking
test, restored their self-confidence, improved their
motivation and affected their overall attitudes
towards learning English in a pleasurable way. This
study's implications can provide a basis for
education stakeholders who are considering
introducing an extensive reading-enriched program
at educational institutions.
Keywords: Extensive reading, IELTS Speaking
Test, self-confidence, motivation.
:
ER
IELTS
SPSS 23 NVivo
IELTS Speaking
.
Introduction
The concept of literacy has received increasing
attention in the last two decades for its numerous
professional lives. Although there are different
1
Ma, Assistant Lecturer, English Language Teaching Department, Faculty of Education, Tishk International University, Erbil/Iraq.
definitions of literacy in many contexts, it can be
briefly defined as the ability to read, write and
make interpretations on the focused item without
having difficulty (Wildova, 2014). In other
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words, being literate has many reflections in
practice with various types of literacy. It can be
attested that reading literacy has a direct link with
all other literacy types because reading requires
the readers to figure out the themes in the text and
make logical interpretations like other types of
literacy (Tan et al., 2022). For example, digital
literacy refers to knowing how to take advantage
of the websites on the internet via mobile
technologies such as cell phone, laptop or tablets.
In addition, media literacy means distinguishing
the fake news from realistic ones by analyzing
the contents critically. Subsequently, visual
literacy can be basically defined as the ability to
convert written materials into a more appealing
visual format or describe the images accurately.
Additionally, data literacy equips the individuals
with the ability to analyze and synthesize large
chunks of information. After that, critical literacy
urges people to evaluate the events critically to
notice the weakness and inform the relevant
bodies for an improvement. Afterwards, financial
literacy drives the individuals to come to the right
decisions financially. Moreover, health literacy
directs the people to prioritize their health by
taking necessary measures in advance.
Additionally, mathematical and scientific
literacy support the individuals during their
education and later substantially. It can be stated
that reading literacy can pave the way for
continuous inspiration and success in life (Yildiz,
2020).
Reading can be depicted as figuring out the
written texts and making interpretations based on
the meaning. It is one of the fundamental macro-
skills along with listening, writing and speaking
(Tegmark et al., 2022). In addition, it facilitates
mastering grammar, pronunciation and
vocabulary if certain connections are assured
between reading and these micro-skills. Being
exposed to comprehensible input has been
regarded as a prerequisite to master a language,
so reading plays an integral role to access to a
rich content (Krashen, 1992). Reading materials,
which are ord
levels, motivate them to be more creative
because they learn how to predict, infer, draw
conclusions, form logical conclusions,
summarize, skim through and scan while
analyzing the texts. Two prominent reading
approaches, which are intensive and ER, have
received increasing popularity in the 21st
century. Intensive reading necessitates reading
materials under the strict guidance of the teacher.
Focusing on form, reading slowly, choosing
difficult texts, being compulsory to understand
the text completely and using dictionaries are
common points of intensive reading activities
(Andrés, 2020). On the other hand, ER has been
known for reading to get pleasure, have freedom
what to read, focus on figuring out the overall
meaning, read extensively from different genres
in a quick way (Nakanishi, 2015). In other words,
intensive reading urges the readers to develop
their accuracy in a teacher-centered setting,
whereas ER drives the readers to improve their
fluency in a student-centered atmosphere.
IELTS, which can be taken in a paper-based or
computerized format, has been recognized as a
leading standardized test by more than 11000
institutions globally since 1989 (Ebadi et al.,
2023). It has been run by British Council and
Cambridge University Press to measure test-
takers linguistic competence in 4 essential
sections which are reading, listening, speaking
and writing with a scale between 1 and 9. The test
takers who earn 1.0 are classified as non-user,
whereas test-takers who earn 9.0 are categorized
as expert user. IELTS exam has been particularly
designed to facilitate the process of working and
studying in English speaking countries (Baghaei
et al., 2020). Additionally, the exam has been
widely taken to be promoted or earn extra
benefits in private or state institutions on a global
scale. IELTS exam has been offered within two
formats which are IELTS Academic and IELTS
General Training. While the former has been
taken to be admitted to higher education
institutions to earn a bachelor,
doctorate degree, whereas the latter has been
preferred to adapt to social and workplace
environments within a short time. Read (2022)
reports that 75.44 % of test-takers chose to take
IELTS Academic, while 24.56 % of them chose
to take IELTS General Training in 2021.
Additionally, female test-takers accounted for
51.55 % and male test-
48.45. Subsequently, test-takers residing in
Greece, Malaysia and Spain were placed as the
most successful ones in IELTS Academic
consecutively while test-takers living in the
USA, South Africa and Jamaica earned the
highest scores in IELTS General Training
consecutively. Moreover, German, Greek and
Romanian people were more successful than
others in terms of ordering them by mother
tongue.
Speaking skills have an indispensable function in
which necessitates combining many elements in
harmony to convey the message clearly, is one of
the productive skills along with writing.
Additionally, it is the fastest skill to exchange
ideas in conversations. Informing, entertaining
and persuading people are main purposes of
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speaking, so the importance of speaking skills
has been prevalent regardless of being in
childhood or adulthood period. However,
speaking has been considered as the most
challenging skills to develop on grounds that
sufficient; their public speaking abilities are not
improved or their pronunciation is not
satisfactory enough (Oflaz, 2019). In this respect,
providing a welcoming atmosphere to exchange
ideas, reading books to have background
knowledge, watching movies, listening to
podcasts or songs, joining live chat programs,
playing interactive games, and recording videos
for social media platforms have been suggested
to overcome the barriers against speaking in
English (Yildiz, 2015; Soran & Kara, 2022). It is
expected that individuals, who have mastered
speaking English fluently, can adapt to real-life
situations, school settings, professional life more
easily.
The purpose of the study was threefold: to
IELTS, to investigate their motivation and self-
confidence levels and to seek their overall
attitudes towards learning English upon
completion of the study. Correspondingly, given
research questions were formulated:
•
performance in IELTS Academic Module?
•
self-confidence?
•
towards mastering English?
Literature Review
ER is equal to reading large amounts of materials
to get pleasure by focusing on the general
understanding in a flexible format. Day (2018)
who has contributed tremendously to increase the
implementation of ER practices on a global scale,
highlighted 10 principles of ER which can be
summarized as choosing easy to comprehend
texts in a variety of genres freely, reading by
increasing the number of books gradually,
deriving pleasure, being guided by a teacher to
read individually and silently. These principles
indicate that students read to get a general
understanding rather than focusing on specific
points and teacher serves as a guide rather than
the sole authority to exert pressure. A plethora of
research has been conducted which revealed
positive gains in terms of reading fluency (Ateek,
2021), speaking (Abdulrahman & Kara, 2023),
vocabulary (Celik, 2018), grammar (Alqadi &
Alqadi, 2013), listening (Fujimori, 2007),
writing (Park, 2016) and pronunciation (Cakir,
2012). To name a few, Huffman (2014) carried
out a study lasting a span of one semester on 66
Japanese students at a tertiary level which
unearthed that the participants whose instructions
were redesigned according to ER procedures
outperformed in terms of reading rate gains
without losing comprehension. In other words,
the students in the experimental group could
increase their word per minute (WPM) reading
from 110 to 133, whereas the students in control
group reduced from 103.76 to 103.14. Similarly,
Horst (2005) finalized a study lasting 6 weeks on
21 ESL learners in Canada which indicated that
ER expanded their vocabulary gains
substantially. Subsequently, Milliner (2019)
carried out a study lasting 15 weeks on 58
Japanese university students which revealed that
the gains in ER increases dramatically once the
learners listen the audio tracks and read the books
consecutively. He attests that various learning
channels are activated if they read and listen in
harmony. In addition, Khansir and Dehghani
(2015) finalized a study on 40 EFL learners in
Iran lasting 7 weeks which revealed that the
students who were exposed to ER enhanced their
grammatical competence significantly, whereas
the improvement was far from being noticeable
in control group students who followed a
traditional instruction. Moreover, a notable study
was conducted by Gu and Reynolds (2013) on 37
Korean students at a tertiary level lasting 6 weeks
speaking skills substantially. They concluded
that reading activities can be more engaging if
merged with relevant speaking exercises.
Furthermore, Park (2016) conducted a study to
measure the effects of ER on 56 Asian students
who were taking an Academic Writing course at
a US university within a span of 15 weeks which
ind
performance tremendously. A significant gain
revealed that ER yielded better results in terms of
university in Indonesia. Considering
aforementioned studies, it is safe to conclude that
ER is a promising approach to raise the standards
in many aspects at educational institutions.
Global and local initiatives to increase the
popularity of ER have increased substantially in
the last two decades. For instance, Extensive
Reading Foundation was founded by Dr. Richard
Day in 2004 to promote reading globally. This
foundation has organized 6 World Congress,
expanded reading associations to many
countries, offered Graded Readers List,
placement tests, free reading materials and
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MReader website to allow readers to take quizzes
related to 4000 books. A large-scale study was
also conducted by Puripunyavanich (2022) in
Thailand on 5000 university students and 60
lecturers which unearthed that ER activities
attitudes towards learning English. Additionally,
lecturers reiterated that an online reading
platform, Xreader, was efficient to monitor
new books. It can be argued that ER initiatives
have spread to many countries thanks to their
numerous advantages.
On the other hand, a limited number of studies
conducted could not reveal a positive
relationship between extensive reading and
grammar (Johansson, 2014) conducted a study in
Sweden on a PhD student who was exposed to
ER which indicated that ER did not yield
satisfactory results in terms of showing progress
in grammar. Likewise, Archer (2012) underlined
that poor reading habits, several distractions,
consecutive exams reduce the quality of
extensive reading activities, so learners cannot
take advantage of this reading cycle as much as
expected. Similarly, Huang (2015) postulates
that time-consuming assignments, stressful
projects, thinking about future job prospects,
other topics. It can be stated that some pre-
requisites should be considered to increase the
success rate of ER programs.
Methodology
Research Design and Instruments
Interview and speaking exams, which were
analyzed through NVivo and SPSS 23
respectively, were employed as data collection
instruments in this mixed methods design study.
The rationale to implement a mixed methods
design was to take advantage of strengths of each
method harmoniously. Additionally, it was
expected to cross-check results whether exam
in the interview. Leavy (2022) postulates that a
mixed methods design offers ample opportunity
for researchers to use verbalized and numerical
data equally.
Participants, Setting and Sampling Procedure
The population of the study was chosen TISHK
International University (TIU hereafter) serving
to 5000 students in 29 departments since 2008 in
Erbil Iraq. TIU was chosen on grounds that all
courses have been conducted in English, so this
setting was feasible to implement an ER program
successfully. Additionally, the university has
taken initiatives to offer a welcoming atmosphere
for students from different countries, so the scope
of the study was enriched with students from 10
countries accordingly. The participants, who
were taking Foundation English course at TIU in
2022-2023 Academic Year, were chosen through
convenience sampling method from the
population. Stratton (2021) states that
convenience sampling method has been preferred
in studies widely as it is handy to choose
participants conveniently without requiring so
much effort. Foundation English course is a non-
elective technical course which appeals to
students who need to improve their English
considerably to adapt to lessons in their
departments. Thus, these students were placed in
the Foundation English category upon taking
TIU Proficiency Exam run by Language
Preparatory School. In this regard, 45
participants out of 150 Foundation English
students were chosen to be exposed to an ER
program within 10 weeks. Their syllabus was
redesigned to accommodate the needs of ER
program.
Table 1.
Participants` distribution of gender and age
Variable(s)
Option
F
%
Gender
Female
28
62.22
Male
17
37.78
Age
17-20
43
95.56
21-25
2
4.44
Total
60
100
As shown in Table 1, 28 (62.22 %) female
students participated in the study, whereas 17
(37.78 %) male students joined the study.
Additionally, 43 (95.56 %) were between 17 and
20 years old and 2 (4.44 %) students were
between 21 and 25 years old. It was observed that
female students were higher than male ones, and
students aged 17 and 20 were higher than other
categories in this study.
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Data Collection Procedure
The students are exposed to ER activities
systematically within a span of 10 weeks in this
study. Certain steps were followed rigorously to
conduct the study successfully, so the highest
benefits can be reaped. Prior to conducting the
study, the participants joined a workshop to be
familiar with key points of the study, sign the
consent form to join voluntarily and ask any
questions to be clarified as well as taking the
exam on IELTS Speaking to be used as pre-test.
Subsequently, they were introduced with a large
collection of Oxford Dominoes Graded Readers
available in the library. Oxford Dominoes Series
Graded Readers have a good reputation in ER
activities which made them reasonable in this
study. Participants decided the name of the
publishers, levels and books under the
supervision of the lecturer. After choosing the
books, they read a book in a week, listened to the
audio version, watched some relevant videos or
movie versions of the books if available readily.
In the second week, the lecturer created a debate
specific themes in the book. In addition, the
lecturer highlighted some key words which can
be helpful while responding to speaking
questions in IELTS. Moreover, the lecturer
converted some topics of the book into IELTS
speaking format. For instance, the lecturer asked
them about their role models, favorite footballers
or telling some reasons to read books while
analyzing True Heroes of Sport book which was
about inspiring stories of famous figures with
different occupations ranging from athlete to
dancers. After speaking activities were
completed, they wrote a summary for each book,
so students were granted equal rights to foster
their English in a written and spoken format. As
can be seen clearly, speaking activities were at
the heart of the instruction in ER activities, but
other skills were integrated into activities to
support each other. Once a 10-week period was
over, the students took a speaking exam
including questions of IELTS Speaking Part 1
and Part 2 as post-test. The results of two exams
were fetched to be analyzed and interpreted
correspondingly. Subsequently, the interview
the effects of ER based instruction.
Graded Readers and Items of IELTS
Academic Speaking Test
Table 2.
Graded reader list chosen by the participants in cooperation
Title & Author
Type
Level The number of pages & words
Publisher
Title & Author
Around the World in 80
Days by Jules
Werne
Adventure
56, 1918
Starter
OUP
Journey to the Centre of
the Earth by Jules Werne
Science
Fiction
56, 2674
Starter
OUP
Sherlock Holmes The
Speckled Band by Arthur Conan Doyle
Detective
Fiction
56, 3372
Starter
OUP
Thompson
Drama
33, 1426
Starter
OUP
True Heroes of Sport by
Donatella Fitzgerald
Biography
5611
Starter
OUP
Around the World in 80 Days depicts Phileas
Passepartout, embarked on it as a bet, around the
world in 80 days. Phileas Fogg lives in London
in the 1870s, and he embarks on a journey to
travel round the world in 80 days after making a
bet with Stuart. They visit France, Italy, Egypt,
India, Hong Kong, China, Japan, Ireland.
During their journey, they save a princess from
dying in the fire, enter a temple with shoes which
is against the law, are mistaken as a thief, are
attacked by gangs, lose each other. Once they
return to London, Mr. Fogg wins the bet which is
related to travelling round the world in 80 days.
Finally, Fogg and Mrs. Aouda get married and
live happily. The lesson to be learned in this book
is that challenges encountered during the journey
can lead to victory in the end after combating
fake news and misinformation.
Journey to the Center of the Earth describes the
journey of German Professor Otto Lidenbrock
with his nephew Axel to an old volcano called
Snaefells in the 1860s. They start this journey
after buying an old Icelandic book which is about
a message to the center of the Earth. They go to
Denmark to sail to Iceland. They hire a guide
called Hans. They went up the mountain. They
see three black holes in the crater. They went
forward inside the tunnels with the help of the
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compass and a portable lamp. They see
magnificent crystals on the wall. They make a
hole in the wall to quench their thirst. They have
a journey under the sea with a hand-made raft,
see fighting monsters. Their raft blows up after
being hit by lightning. They see some monsters
and skeletons, use gunpowder to clear their ways.
Finally, the raft exits the tunnel with the help of
a large amount of water, but their raft is under
fire due to the lava from the volcano. Next, they
meet a lonely boy who tells that they are near
Etna in Italy. They see that they travel 5000
kilometers from Snaefells. Finally, they return
and the professor writes a book about this
unforgettable expedition. The lesson to be
learned is that life is full of surprises with
expeditions which can be fruitful or terrible.
Sherlock Holmes the Speckled Band revolves
around the murder of Julia and finding the
culprit. Helen Stoner arrives at the residence of
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson early one
morning in April 1883 to investigate the murder
of his beloved sister Julia. Helen and her twin
sister Julia are just two years old when their
father passes away and their mother marries Dr.
Grimes by Roylott. Mrs. Stoner passes away
shortly thereafter, leaving behind a fortune. Julia
dies in a suspicious incident. On the night of her
death, Julia notices the smell of their stepfather's
cigars seeping into her bedroom and a strange
continuous whistle. Helen blames the people
outside for the endless sound and smell. Julia
collapses into her sister's arms and utters her final
words: "It is the band!" The band Speckles!"
Helen is unable to know what to say, but she
assumes that her sister is killed by people
chatting outside, some of whom wear spotted
handkerchiefs. After a thorough probe, it is
confirmed that Dr. Roylott's poisonous snake
kills Julia and Dr. Roylott, respectively. Dr.
Roylott hopes that the snake will kill Helen and
Julia, so he will receive the fortune left by Mrs.
Stoner. The lesson to be learned from this
detective story is that realities concealed beneath
the surface are revealed sooner or later.
Lisa’s Song illustrates the life of a boy called Al
Brown who lives in the USA with his parents. He
is interested in playing guitar in a band. His life
changes dramatically after having a sister called
Lisa. His parents spend all their time with Lisa
which drives AI to feel alone at home.
properly. The family needs a lot of money to send
her to the USA for an operation which is not
available in the UK. Al`s grandpa comes up with
a wonderful idea to write a song for Lisa and
launch a charity campaign. The audience come to
operation. The band also broadcast the song on
the website. Finally, they can collect sufficient
in the USA. The lesson to be learned in this book
is that there may be ups and downs in life, but
launching some campaigns to show solidarity
helps society to be happier again.
True Heroes of Sport tells incredible success
stories of sportspeople from a lot of different
races and nationalities. In other words, it shows
to power of defying and overcoming challenges
starkly with each example. To illustrate, it can be
learned that Pele scores 1363 goals, stops a war
for a while; Mohammed Ali raises the awareness
for black people in the USA after earning an
unmatched respect in boxing; Babe Ruth
becomes one of the most successful baseball
players of all time despite being away from the
parents due to staying at a boarding school; Caty
Freeman wins gold medals as a sprinter despite
being raised in a poor family who can`t buy
running shoes for her; Nadia Comaneci becomes
the best gymnast in the world by breaking many
records when she is 15; Michael Phelps earns 8
gold medals as a swimmer in spite of being
diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity
unmotivated to learn and be successful at school
trophies in cycling tournaments after beating
cancer disease successfully; Niki Lauda wins
many cups in Formula 1 after being burned by a
terrible accident and restoring her health within a
short time. The lesson to be learned in this book
is that given sportspeople can be a genuine
inspiration for many people who have some
difficulties in their lives but drive their ambition
to earn a huge success in sport.
IELTS Speaking Questions Directed to
Participants
The questions were chosen from the readily
available materials on the internet.
Pre-test
• Could you introduce yourself briefly?
• What do you like doing at the weekends?
• Do you want to live in a nuclear or extended
family?
• What is the best invention?
• What are your predictions about the life in
the 2050s?
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Post-test
• Could you describe your neighborhood in
detail?
• What have you done recently?
• What are the key differences between the
life in the previous century and now?
• What is the best book you have ever read?
• What are the pros and cons of internet?
The degree of difficulty has been increased based
on the concept of IELTS speaking section.
Additionally, the questions were customized
Table 3.
Speaking grading rubric
Criteria
Percentage
Fluency and Coherence
25 %
Lexical Resource
25 %
Range and Accuracy Grammatical
25 %
Pronunciation
25 %
Total
100 %
Note. -
/media/pdfs/speaking-band-descriptors.ashx.) Copyright 2023 by British Council and Cambridge
University Press.
Students were expected to develop topics from
different points, use varied words to convey the
meaning, command principles of grammar and
pay attention to articulation, stress and
intonation. Their marks were finalized based on
these expectations meticulously checked by the
committee.
Findings
Quantitative data were gathered via IELTS
Speaking Tests, while qualitative data were
collected via an interview. The findings of each
instrument were explored below:
The Analysis of the IELTS Speaking Tests
Descriptive data were gathered and analyzed via
paired samples t test to run to test whether the
means of two paired measurements within
control or experimental group are statistically
raded over 100
instead of a range between 1and 9 to analyze the
results easily.
Fig. 1.
Paired samples t test analysis was given in Table 4.
Table 4.
Paired samples t test analysis
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Paired samples t test was run to figure out
significantly after treatment period lasting a span
of 10 weeks. Upon comparing pre-test results
with post-test ones, p-value was recorded as .000
which was less than 0.05 significance level.
Recorded p-value revealed that there was
significant progress in terms of speaking marks.
Additionally, mean, standard deviation, t and df
figures were -17.222, 19.527, -5.916 and 44.
Table 5.
Participants` common words to describe ER based instruction
Categories
Frequency
%
1
Enjoyable
41
91.1
2
Fun
42
93.3
3
Interactive
37
82.2
4
Developing Good Habits Towards Reading
39
86.6
5
Improved Vocabulary
36
80
6
Confidence -SelfEnhanced
44
97.7
7
Reading Fast
38
84.4
8
Increased Comprehension
37
82.2
9
Being More Creative
43
95.5
Table 5 figures revealed that participants used
some expressions more commonly than others.
To illustrate, enhanced self-confidence (44),
being more creative (43) and fun (42) were
expressed more than others, while improved
vocabulary (36), increased comprehension (37)
and interaction (37) were chosen less than others.
The Analysis of the Interview
transcribed and categorized with the help of
NVivo software program. Common themes were
highlighted below:
Selected Interviews in Experimental Group
It was a mind-blowing period for me to be a part
of this study. I had the freedom to choose any
books in cooperation. Additionally, we had many
opportunities to expand our learning. For
example, we read the books from our mobile
devices; we watched the video or movie versions
of the books and made a comparison; we
summarized the books in a written and spoken
format; we composed new sentences by the key
words and we raced against time while answering
questions in IELTS speaking section. I wish all
students around the world could grab this
opportunity. (P21)
Reading books traditionally and electronically
enriched our learning substantially because we
could see the meaning instantly once we install a
dictionary on our mobile devices. Additionally,
we exchanged our ideas after reading, so peer-
learning period was so fruitful. Moreover, our
instructor converted reading activities into
speaking formats, so we practiced a lot to sharpen
our skills for IELTS speaking section. I noticed
that my imagination, creativity and word power
expanded tremendously once I joined this study.
I recommend all educators to consider positive
influences of ER and implement it at educational
institutions. (P 27)
Although we read many books, True Heroes of
Sport was special for me because I not only
expanded my English knowledge but also learn
how to boost my motivation. During the book, I
was familiar with many success stories despite
the obstacles sports people encountered.
Additionally, I figured out how to contribute to
society with humanitarian activities after earning
much money and fame. Now I believe that there
is a chain reaction between being successful and
supporting needy people with logical initiatives.
(P 32)
Reading activities were quite fun in this study
because the level of the books was not
challenging. Additionally, the themes in each
book were interesting enough to follow till the
end. For example, we had an incredible journey
when we read Around the World in 80 Days and
Journey to the Centre of the Earth because these
books had some mysterious and intriguing
how charity events can transform society and
increase the level of happiness in society.
Moreover, Sherlock Holmes the Speckled Band
showed us how to examine the cues and
ultimately uncover the truth. In addition, True
Heroes of Sport inspired us to follow our dreams
although there were some barriers in life. In the
end, these reading activities produced better
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results in terms of speaking, so I improved my
performance in IELTS speaking section. (P34)
One of my major obstacles in speaking activities
was choosing the right word. I solved this
problem after this study by enriching my
vocabulary considerably. I used in English in
many situations during the study, so I fostered
my communication skills. In addition, my
instructor showed us some sample responses in
IELTS speaking section, so it was a piece of cake
for me to analyze the questions and respond
accordingly within the given time. (P37)
I learn well when I am exposed to some visual
materials. My instructor displayed e-books,
showed some related movies and illustrated some
words with images in presentations which
increased my learning and motivation
dramatically. In addition, sample responses
displayed by the instructor helped me to compose
my templates in my mind. Once different
materials were used harmoniously, I became
more engaged to go beyond my current level in
English. (P40)
The books chosen in this study were so
interesting and relevant. While we were reading
the books, we noticed that the stories were catchy
to tell in our social lives as well. For example, I
told the story of Around the World in 80 Days
within my friend circle who listened to it
attentively. Additionally, inspiring stories of
sportspeople captured their attention to research
further on the internet later. I can assure you that
reading under the guidance of the instructor was
a great idea to learn in cooperation. (P43)
Discussion
This study investigated the effects of ER on
exams and an interview which showed that ER
helped them to progress in multiple dimensions.
To name a few, exam results revealed that ER
S speaking
dramatically from 53.11 to 70.33 which was in
the correlation between ER and speaking was
positive. Likewise, Muravev (2023) states that
reading activities helps the students to learn
subconsciously in a context which can increase
IELTS, TOEFL and PTE. In addition, not only
students but also teachers appreciated the
learning period as it was supported by different
tools such as e-books, e-dictionaries, movies,
presentations which was consistent with Celik
findings. They postulated that combining
traditional methods with proven modern teaching
ones can pave way for an improvement in
learning. Subsequently, the students reiterated
that their self-confidence was restored because
they joined numerous activities in a written and
spoken format. Arnold (2009) states that ER
increases speaking performance of the readers
because it urges the readers to summarize, join a
debate, compose sentences etc. Furthermore,
students were more engaged as they increased
their knowledge in each book. They noticed that
they could use the themes they learned in the
book in daily lives. Boyd et al. (2009) and Ulker
and Yildiz (2021) attest that real life connections
engagement with well-designed reading
activities. Another notable finding of the study
was related to imagination and creativity which
were boosted by reading different genres in a
welcoming atmosphere. The books chosen
included science fiction, detective stories and
biographies, so students had a chance to trigger
their imagination and come up with novel ideas.
Sumara (2002) states that reading books changes
the atmosphere of educational institutions
because they learn how to imagine, predict and
be creative with numerous activities
.
Conclusion and Recommendations
IELTS speaking score at a tertiary level. The
findings, gathered by employing qualitative and
quantitative instruments, indicated that ER
period was promising in many aspects. The
achievement levels improved substantially.
more noticeable because they derived pleasure
while reading books in a welcoming atmosphere.
In addition, students transferred the knowledge
they gained from the book to their real lives
which boosted their motivation as well because
they thought that they had to listen more
attentively to express their ideas about the book
well later in their circle of friends. Subsequently,
their self-confidence was restored because they
were urged to be active participants in different
activities. All in all, their overall attitudes
towards learning English have changed
positively because they read in large numbers;
they learned many new words; they watched
some movies; they read e-books and they
exchanged their ideas in peer-learning activities.
This study reflected the effects of ER on IELTS
Speaking Test at a tertiary level. Further studies
can be conducted to investigate the effects of ER
on other essential skills. Additionally, only
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freshman students accounted for the participants
which can be expanded with other stages such as
sophomore, junior and senior ones.
Subsequently, only Graded Readers published by
Oxford Dominoes were employed which can be
enriched with other prominent publishing
companies such as Collins, Macmillan, Pearson,
Penguin or Cambridge.
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