The document discusses an Extensive Reading course aimed at improving English proficiency, character development, and peace education. The course introduces students to concepts of international understanding and uses literature with themes of peace, human rights, and sustainable development to develop students' moral values and prepare them to be good global citizens. Characterization in stories is emphasized as a powerful way for students to learn virtues by experiencing characters' thoughts and emotions. The approach uses literature to improve English skills while shaping students' lives through moral lessons in books.

1. Extensive Reading for English Proficiency
Improvement, Character Development,
and Peace Education

2. Extensive Reading is important course to improve the
student’s proficiency, and a course to prepare them to become
teachers of English who care about their young learner’s English
language development through vast reading.
Books are not only for entertainment, book need to engage
students with lofty character to form positives mental images in
their minds.
The aim of Extensive Reading course was taught to the student for:
 Improving their English proficiency.
 Helping them become enthusiastic readers.
 Developing the student’s character.
 Helping them become better citizens of Indonesia and fellow
citizen of the world.

3. Themes are very important for children stories. Good themes
will cover both cognitive and affective components for functional
and virtuous purposes. Cognitively, a lot of new concepts can
easily learn through narrative story. Affectively, good themes will
prepare children to be thoughtful, responsible citizens and
members of their communities.
EIU themes is the right themes. It promotes
knowledge, skill, attitude and values which are conducive for
personal, interpersonal and intergroup relationships at national
and international level.
Human nature relationship in EIU is important, It helps build a
new humanity to save this planet with a new global civilization
which believes in the inner oneness and outer diversity. In fact, in
year 2011 violence, injustice, and misunderstanding are still
gripping us.

4. In this course, literature serves two purposes. First is a good source
of natural and authentic language. Second, it developed children lofty
character. Good literatures provide role model. The children need it, they
might pick out the behaviours that are admirable.
Good literatures teach our children’s conscience, teaches moral
values over and over again without boring our children. It is also
broadening, means that children can develop empathy for others and are
drawn out of their centeredness. Good literature is an influential tool for
children to develop their critical thinking on EIU.
According to O’Sullivan (2004) favourable books for children are
those with admirable but believable characters about their own age. The
deeper and richer the stories and the stronger the characters, the easier
for students to experience the inner working of the characters’
thoughts, feeling, motives and changes, and emulate their traits.

5. First, three meeting were dedicated, students were introduced to the concepts of
EIU, definition of values, virtues, moral, and ethics. The concepts are in the following:
 the issues of the origin, definition, strategies, and approaches to attain
international understanding;
 recent, local, and global issues on injustice, corruption, and discriminatory
attitude;
 building the democratic framework of society which cares about human
dignity, rights, and obligations;
 interfaith dialogue and spiritually of peace;
 concepts of multiculturalism and positive attitudes and respect toward
cultural diversity and intercultural understanding;
 the scope and key themes of education for sustainable development with
its framework of action at national, regional, and world level;
 social problems affecting local communities, national, and international
relationships which have potential to cause myriad form of violence;
 the understanding of disarmament, non violence and conflict
transformation;
 the importance of the students commitment on how to participate and to
live together in his or her own community , country and the world at large
with their complex local and universal development challenges.

6. After three meetings, students were introduced to books and movies
with EIU themes, such as:
 Peace
 Multiculturalism and pluralism
 Sustainable development
 Human rights and fundamental freedom
There are several books to exemplify; The Ant and the
Grasshopper, which taught ever-lasting and true friendship. The
biographies of Martin Luther King Jr, and Nelson Mandela student
learn the character traits and action of the true
heroes, hardworking, and loving family life. to read about little
Abraham Lincoln, who walked three miles to return six cents and the
shepherd boy who cried wolf help children learn about honesty and
what will happen when honesty is absent. The Diary of Anne will help
children learn about compassion and human rights.

7. 
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Characterization is one of the most powerful literary elements. It
has also been claimed that character in book can “assume almost the
same potential for influencing the reader as real people” (Leal, 1999). All
these are learned through the analysis of the following (Foster et
al., 2007):
The author description
What the character say,
What other character say about them,
What the characters do
The characters:
 Attributes
 Qualities
 Feeling
 Relationship
 Goals or motives
 Changes
From both positive and negative examples children will learn about
right and wrong behaviours.

8. Literature and EIU be used together in the
Extensive Reading course. In English
Department is intended to improve students’
English Proficiency and reading skill, but it can
do more to shape the lives of the next
generation. Books are effective tools to awaken
moral imagination and to teach children virtues.
EIU themes are useful to foster students’
character development and to prepare them to
become good citizens of their own country and
the world.

9. Strength
 The author gives a lot of topic in line with character development
and peace education which is use to teach moral value to the
students.
 The author gives one of the good teaching technique namely
Literature Based Approach which can reinforce students’ activities
and emulate their traits.
 The author introduced EIU as a theme of Extensive Reading which
involves relationship at national and international level.
Weakness
 The author didn’t mention the teaching learning process using
that approach, that makes the reader assumed it was only
reviewed of related literature.
 The author didn’t explain further the relation between English
Proficiency Improvement and Extensive Reading course.