Effects of Extensive Reading on Grade 7 EFL Students' Reading Motivation and Reading Comprehension: Selam Lower Secondary School in Focus

This study was conductedto investigate effects of extensive reading on EFL students’ reading motivation and comprehension. To attain this purpose,pretest-posttest comparison group quasi-experimental design was employed. An experimentalgroup (n = 41) and a control group (n = 39), selected from two intact grade 7 sections atSelam Lower Secondary School in North Wollo Zone, Ethiopia, were involved in the study.The control class received 200-minute conventional reading instruction per week whereas the experimental class received 160-minute equivalent conventional reading instruction and 40-minute extensive reading instruction per week for 14 weeks. To collect data, reading comprehension tests and motivation questionnaires were administered at pre- and posttests. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data.The results revealed that the experimental group scored significantly (p<.05) better than the comparison group on posttest in reading comprehension and reading motivation.The difference might be due to the extensive reading intervention that the experimental group was exposed.Based on the results, it can be suggested that incorporating extensive reading in EFL classes significantly contributes to the development of students’ reading comprehension and reading motivation.