Abstract
This study investigates the extent to which Monitored Extensive Reading (MER) can enhance L2/FL learners’ sentence building. Sixty-nine Taiwanese students forming two intact classes participated in the study. One class comprised the experimental group and the other the control group. Both classes followed the MER programme, which required the learners to read one book per week outside the classroom and complete the related follow-up activities designed by the teacher. In addition, the experimental group were assigned an extra task to select a passage of four to five sentences to analyze and make five original sentences using the self-selected vocabulary words. Participants’ sentence building was measured pre- and post-test, revealing positive gains for the experimental group, who outperformed the control group in building correct, simple, longer sentences. These findings suggest learners need to pay deliberate attention to the language and structure of reading material if they are to produce their target language, in this case English.Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
Note: Authors are encouraged to post copies of their AJAL published papers to their own institutional or personal/professional websites along with a link to the original paper at the AJAL website. This will assist in diseminating their work as well as raising awareness of the journal.