An academic paper based on how teachers of English as a Foreign Language use collections of graded readers to foster learners' reading comprehension.

1. A Study on the Use of Graded Readers in EFL Teaching:
The Extensive Reading Approach
by Carlos Uixan Balagué

2. Contents
1. Topic Introduction: Definition and Theoretical background of the ER approach.
2. Research study: Main objectives of the investigation carried out.
3. Method: Procedures for the collecting of data.
4. Results and Discussion.
5. Conclusions.
6. References.

3. 1. Topic Introduction
● What is the Extensive Reading Approach?
○ Speed and fluency.
○ Accessibility and Motivation.
● Benefits:
○ Control of the target language. Key vocabulary and grammatical structures.
○ Personal Reading pace.
○ The text features: Control of the background information, illustrations, measures to the
reading comprehension.
Dawson, N. (Ed.). (1998). Penguin Readers Teacher’s Guide to Using Graded Readers. Longman.

4. Graded Readers
● Textbooks that belong to a collection with varying levels of difficulty aimed at
students learning to read, or learning a foreign language.
● Characteristics:
○ Levels.
○ Literary genres.
○ Pre-reading, while-reading and after reading activities.
○ Glossary of keywords.
○ Audio and digital formats.
Hill, D. R. (2013). Graded readers. ELT journal, 67(1), 85-125.

5. 2. Research study
What methodologies do the EFL teachers from Castelló use to foster ER approaches?
Teacher’s philosophy.
Frequency of GR use and number of books read during a school year.
Publishers.
Reading tasks.
Selecting criteria if they were in charge.
Bamford, J., & Day, R. R. (Eds.). (2004). Extensive reading activities for
teaching language. Cambridge University Press.

6. 3. Method
1. Google Forms questionnaire preparation.
a. Teacher’s age, centre, and learner’s grades.
b. Teacher’s beliefs and Didactic methodology.
c. GR titles.
d. Personal comments.
2. Communication with the educative centres.
3. Data gathering and analysis.

7. 4. Results and Discussion 9 teachers: 5 High School / 4 school.
Teachers regard Reading positively enough and consider it fundamental for their career.

8. 2 teachers do not use GR at all.
3 teachers use them averagely.
2 other teachers use them quite often.
Only 1 teacher uses GR the best they can.
Again, ICTs do not seem to have an impact
on the promotion of Reading skills.

9. However, assessment is carried out
accordingly and four teachers make use of
collaborative creative projects, oral
presentations, book trailers, and drawings.
Overall, three teachers say their students
do not read any GR in a year, and only
one teacher claims their students read
more than three GR.

10. Comments and Concerns.
● Time consuming.
● School policies.
● Students’ reading habits.
Lack of time and school policies are the main reasons why
GR are not more promoted. But learners need to read more.

11. 5. Conclusions
● Publishing Houses offer a wide variety of GR titles.
● Although the National Curriculum states the importance of Reading in all Primary
and Secondary levels of education, there does not appear to be a clear procedure
common to all centres.
● Each school policy chooses its own application, and teachers need to coordinate to
follow the same principles.
● Implications: Are Reading skills neglected? Has it always been like that? How do
International schools approach literacy instruction?

12. 6. References
Dawson, N. (Ed.). (1998). Penguin Readers Teacher’s Guide to Using Graded Readers. Longman.
Bamford, J., & Day, R. R. (Eds.). (2004). Extensive reading activities for teaching language. Cambridge University
Press.
Hill, D. R. (2013). Graded readers. ELT journal, 67(1), 85-125.