Reading
is an activity that can add someone’s knowledge about important news and new
vocabulary items. There are two kinds of reading according to Ryan Thompson, a
senior educator from RMIT Vietnam in Extensive Reading Workshop. They are extensive
reading (ER) and intensive reading (IR). Although they are one of the
skills-based approaches, they differ on some points. The paragraphs below are
the detailed information about the differences between them.
Extensive
Reading (ER) is a rapid reading of large quantities of material or longer
reading for general understanding. The definition of it may be vary, but experts agree that ER involves reading for information
or pleasure. On the other hand, intensive reading (IR) is reading
in detail with specific aims and tasks. Therefore, IR is a vital skill needed
to navigate difficult text. Its purpose is to finish the tasks that the teacher
has asked.
From
the definition, the differences can be integrated. The first one is about the
form of the text which is either long or short. ER is in long text or even in
the form of book because it covers large quantities of material. However, IR is
the opposite. It is realized in short texts. Although IR is shorter in form, it
is in more difficult level of text that needs detailed understanding than ER.
It also needs to identify the main ideas and keywords on each paragraph.
The
reason why people read is obviously the next distinction. For enjoyment and a
part of a lifelong reading habit are the reason people read extensively. They
can choose what they like to read in order to decide their own reading pace in
its practice. If they do not like the book or the story, they can put it back
and find the one they like. Unlike ER which the reason people read is for fun, IR
is for those who want to develop their reading skills, vocabulary, and grammar
knowledge controlled by the teacher or the instructor. That is one of the
reasons of why IR has lower rate comprehension than ER.
The
last is about what people acquire from doing these reading activities. In ER,
people gain the general understanding from a text or book. They also get 2% new
vocabularies because they have known the rest. Meanwhile in IR, people focus on
learning to achieve their aims or tasks so that they get the detailed meaning
from the text. Therefore, people can learn new languages and get new words.
They can also obtain 10% new vocabularies in a short text with slower speed
than in ER.
Based
on the explanations above, extensive reading differs from intensive reading in
definition, form, reason, and purpose. The last three are probably the
integrated points from the definition. About the form, ER is longer than IR. Then,
the reason why people read extensively is because of enjoyment rather than
learning new things like in IR. It also shows that ER has higher comprehension
level than IR. Lastly, the purpose of ER is to get the general understanding.
Meanwhile IR’s purpose is to achieve the aims, gain the detailed meaning, learn
something new, and obtain more vocabularies than ER.
