The impact of an Extensive Reading Programme on the development of French vocabulary of additional language learners

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of extensive reading on the development of French vocabulary of Grade 10 learners in the South African school context. Thirty-one learners from a high school in Gauteng participated in one of three groups: (i) a reading group who read 12 children’s picture books, (ii) a listening group who listened to the same stories, and (iii) a control group who neither read nor listened to the stories. All three groups wrote a vocabulary pretest and a posttest to measure growth in vocabulary recognition and knowledge. The reading group outperformed the other groups in terms of vocabulary acquisition and recognition. Words that occurred most frequently in the stories tended to be acquired more readily than words occurring less frequently. Whether they were avid or reluctant readers prior to the study, all participants in the reading group persevered with reading the storybooks throughout the intervention