The Effect of Extensive and Intensive Reading on Iranian EFL Learners’ Vocabulary Size and Depth

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of Extensive and Intensive Reading on Iranians' EFL learners' vocabulary size and depth. To this end, 120 participants studying English as a foreign language at Omid English Language Centre were chosen based on their Oxford Quick Placement Test (2004) scores. They were divided into two groups, intermediate and advanced. Then the students in each group were randomly further divided into two groups, one receiving Intensive Reading treatment, while the other Extensive Reading treatment. Two types of vocabulary test-Schmidt's Vocabulary Levels Test (2001) and Read's Word Associates Test (1998) were administered. Each was run twice, once before the treatment (IR/ER) as a pretest and once after the treatment as a post-test to check the effects of the two treatments on vocabulary size and depth of the participants. Two-way ANOVA was used to analyze the data. The results of the study showed that both IR and ER have an impact on learners' vocabulary size and depth significantly and that the students' vocabulary knowledge in terms of size and depth had increased. Moreover, the students at the intermediate level took more advantage of IR than ER, but in the advanced group the students benefited more from ER than IR. Finally the study demonstrated that reading both intensively and extensively can lead to vocabulary development in a way that the number of vocabulary which each learner knows in terms of each word's synonym, antonym and collocation will be improved significantly. Index Terms-intensive/extensive reading, vocabulary size/depth