This qualitative case study looked into seven Korean EFL teachers’ perceptions on extensive reading (ER) in response to their firsthand experiences of ER. The research context was the ER Book Review Project in one graduate TESOL course in Korea. Dat...
This qualitative case study looked into seven Korean EFL teachers’ perceptions on extensive reading (ER) in response to their firsthand experiences of ER. The research context was the ER Book Review Project in one graduate TESOL course in Korea. Data were mainly collected from in-depth interviews, which were audio-recorded, transcribed, coded, and analyzed to glean significant themes that captured participants’ perceptions on ER. Other documents, book reviews and weekly journal entries, were also compared and analyzed in order to increase the trustworthiness of the study. The results revealed mixed responses towards the ER paradigm. Yet, the participants generally acknowledged the value of ER with regard to affective benefits. One of the most strongly emerging themes was a change in the reading attitude for participants; they began to develop a whole new perspective on the texts written in English, seeing them as something to be personally treasured. The major barrier was the unfit status of ER deeply rooted in the mainstream intensive reading (IR) paradigm. Other barriers included the dilemma between EFL learners’ cognitive and linguistic gap and the ambiguities of the authentic ER books meant for native speakers of English.