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Effectiveness of Narrow Reading on Students= Reading Comprehension and Motivation:

A Case Study at Ubon Ratchathani University


 

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Abstract
The purpose of this research was to investigate the effectiveness of the narrow reading technique on
studentsJ English reading comprehension and motivation. The participants were 56 second and third year
university students, enrolled in a course titled, English for Humanities and Social Sciences Students. News
stories on Thai coups, written in 2002 and 2006, were purposively selected as reading materials for the
study. A pre-test, a post-test, a reading comprehension test of each reading passage, and interview
questions were employed to collect data. The results reveal significant improvement in studentsJ reading
comprehension. It was also found that moderate- and low-proficiency students were highly motivated by
this technique. However, reading passages on the same topic for over about six hours appeared to have a
negative impact on the motivation of some participants, especially high-proficiency students. Therefore, it
is suggested that each reading topic should not take longer than that so the technique will be beneficial for
all proficiency groups.
Keywords:

narrow reading, news article reading, reading comprehension

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researchers agree that reading is the most important

skill for most English students, particularly in
academic contexts (Rance-Roney, 1995; Lynch and
Hudson, 1991). It allows them to access information
and knowledge from a variety of resources
(Changpueng, 2005). Once reading skills are
mastered, they are likely to last longer than other
skills, and they will continue to help students
understand texts more proficiently (Rivers, 1981).
However, it was found that many Thai
students have a poor reading ability resulting from
a lack of adequate reading vocabulary (Chaisuriya,
2006; Limtrakarn, 1999), outdated course books,
inappropriate teaching methodologies, and a lack
of language input (Chaisuriya, 2006; Changpueng,
2005). In search of effective reading techniques for
Thai students, this research project focuses on the
narrow reading technique proposed by Krashen
(2004b, 1981). An empirical study on this technique
was also carried out in Korea by Cho, Ahn and
Krashen (2005). This study is the first attempt to
apply the technique to teach reading
comprehension in a Thai university context, with
an aim to provide useful information for English
teachers who are seeking ways to help improve the
Thais need to improve their English literacy reading-proficiency levels of their students.
rates and one way to achieve this goal is by
improving reading skills. Tang (2000) stresses that
reading provides input for second language acquisition, leading to a higher rate of literacy. Many
I. Introduction
English, the most commonly taught foreign
language in Thailand, is a compulsory subject from
the first grade onwards (Wongsothorn et al., 1996).
Undergraduate university students are required to
study English for at least 12 credits, six in general
English and the other six in academic or technical
English (Forley, 2005; Saengprathum, 2001).
Komin (1998: 265) indicates the need for
English for Thai employees and calls for a better
teaching technique:
Employees in department stores,
shops and even hawkers in big
cities like Bangkok find themselves
learning broken English by trial and
error, out of necessity. This is not to
mention the shortage of English
language proficiency employees in
the increasing number of multinational corporations established in
Asiaw while Thailand is badly in
need of employees who can at least
understand Englishw the effectiveness of existing English language
teaching leaves much to be desired.

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II. Literature Review

2.1. Narrow reading
Narrow reading entails narrowing the
input material of a second language to a single
genre, author, or specific topic to facilitate the
language-acquisition process. The technique is
similar to the reading-in-depth technique (Dubin,
1986), which facilitates learnersJ recognition of
vocabulary, concepts, background information on a
topic, and an authorJs writing style. Narrow reading
is theoretically influenced by the Input Hypothesis
(Krashen, 1982) with its focus on subconscious
language acquisition, comprehensible input through
contextual or extra-linguistic support, and a
communicative orientation.
Through his Input Hypothesis, Krashen
insists that language can only be acquired
subconsciously. Explicit or direct instruction is not
considered helpful. With its emphasis on
comprehensible input for language acquisition,
Krashen (2004a) later prefers to call the hypothesis
the comprehension hypothesis. Accordingly, the
narrow-reading technique aims to make written
language input comprehensible to readers. It
encourages students to read passages written by a
single author, or passages on the same theme,
instead of reading a variety of styles and topics
(Krashen, 1996).
Narrow reading provides students with
more comprehensible input because zthe more one

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reads, the more one will have background knowledge

in a particular topic from a previous context to help
them understand the current context{ (Changpueng,
2005: 89). Students are also exposed to a familiar set
of vocabulary and grammatical structures, which help
them comprehend the reading texts. The feeling of
being able to understand the texts motivates them to
read more, and helps expand their range of reading
(Changpueng, 2005; Cho and Krashen, 1995).
Recent studies have revealed the effectiveness of narrow reading in promoting reading
comprehension and vocabulary development. Lamme
(1975) found that more developed readers are likely
to read books written by a particular writer. Cho, Ahn
and Krashen (2005) found that beginning EFL
learners, who spent 40 hours reading a series of six
Clifford books, experienced improvement in their
reading comprehension and vocabulary. Moreover,
Kyongho and Nation (1989) revealed that runningstory materials have the potential to facilitate lowfrequency word acquisition because they consist of
a repeated set of words, outside the most frequent
word list, that help learnersJ vocabulary acquisition.
Apart from helping to develop comprehension and
vocabulary, Rance-Roney (1995) added that narrow
reading helps to promote critical thinking.
Materials for effective narrow reading can
be a collection of articles on the same theme,
smaller texts taken from one long text, different
types of text on the same topic, or sequential or

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running stories on the same topic (Dubin, 1986). In

this study, the reading texts were two authentic
news stories from The Nation newspaper, available
at www.nationmultimedia.com. The advantage of
using news stories is that they are often written on
particular issues and can run on for several days
(Fredrickson, 2001). Such characteristics make these
kinds of news stories suitable for narrow-reading
materials. Two news stories, both about Thai coups,
were purposively selected as the reading topic for
this study. The news articles were written in 2002
and 2006, the latter after the coup of that year.
The main focus of this research is the
development of learnersJ reading comprehension
and motivation, which is at the heart of the narrowreading technique. Krashen (2004a) suggested that
explaining to learners the implicit languageacquisition theory behind the teaching or learning
approaches used in class helps make sure that
acquisition will take place. Consequently, in this
study, learners were provided with an orientation
session to make sure they understood the narrowreading technique.
III. Methodology
3.1. Participants
The participants in this research project
were students enrolled in course number 1421206,
English for Humanities and Social Sciences, in the
second semester of the 2006 academic year at

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Ubon Ratchathani University. This course is

compulsory for non-English majors at the Faculty
of Liberal Arts. All students had already passed the
prerequisite English I and II courses.
Only students who regularly attended the
14 narrow-reading lessons and test hours were
selected as participants. Accordingly, there were
56 research participants from the following majors:
Thai language and communication, Chinese, history,
and social development. There was also a student
from the Faculty of Management Science who
studied the subject as a free elective. Based on their
grade-point averages (GPA) from Foundation English
I and II, there were 12, 19, and 25 high, moderate,
and low-proficiency students, respectively. The
participants were enrolled in two sections and were
taught by two different teachers. To minimize any
possible effects caused by different inputs from
different teachers, both teachers followed the same
lesson plans.
3.2. Research instruments
The research instruments employed by
this study included eight reading passages, taken
from two news stories, a pre-test, a post-test, a
reading comprehension test at the end of each
passage, and interviews with the participants. The
pre-test and post-test for this study were identical,
and took about one hour each to complete. These
tests were based on two news stories from The

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Nation newspaper, zThais recall life under totalitarian

leadership,{ by Rojanaphruk (2004) and zThammasat
slayings: StudentsJ monument wanted,{ by
Bhumiprabhas and Hongthong (2001). There were
twenty open-ended comprehension questions on these
two stories with a maximum possible score of 15.
These stories included a vocabulary set similar to that
which appeared in the eight narrow-reading passages
used in the classroom.
During the 14 classroom hours, eight
reading passages taken from two long stories on
the coup theme were used. Each story was
originally written in four parts, each with its own
main ideas, so the division did not affect the
comprehension of the passages. The first story was
zSpecial: Remembering October,{ by Bhumiprabhas
(2002), which was divided into four articles, called
zRemembering October 1{, zRemembering October
2{, zRemembering October 3{ and zRemembering
October 4{. The other four were from the news story
zHard to remember, yet difficult to forget,{ by
Bhumiprabhas (2006) which was composed of these
four parts: zHard to remember, yet difficult to forget{,
zA lost history for the losers{, zAn embarrassing
past{ and zA history of violence{. These stories
ranged from 250 to 651 words long. On average,
the participants took one to two hours to read each
story and take the reading-comprehension test.
Finally, to facilitate the elicitation and
analysis of deep and detailed interview data, the

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interviews were conducted with 18 participants,

comprising six participants from each proficiency
group. These interview participants were randomly
selected to represent their proficiency groups. The
structured interviews took about 10-15 minutes for
each individual. Each interview was conducted in
an informal and relaxing environment after the
participants were informed that it would not affect
their grades.
IV. Data collection
The study was in a one group pre-test and
post-test research design. Prior to the study, the
participants were given an orientation regarding
the narrow reading technique and the schedule for
data collection. The pre-test was then administered
after the orientation. However, the entire course (in
which the study was conducted) included both
narrow reading materials and extensive reading
materials; the latter consisted of many different
reading topics and themes. Thus, the first 14 class
hours were used for narrow reading to avoid the
interference of the latter materials.
In the class, the teachers acted as facilitators
in the 14 hours of narrow reading. Students read and
underlined all the unknown vocabulary. The teachers
encouraged them to guess the meanings of the
underlined vocabulary from the context, consult
their friends or look the words up in dictionaries,
and ask teachers to ensure correct understanding.

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181

Difficult structures and vocabulary were reading-comprehension tests were used to calculate
decontextualised. To activate student background means. Finally, the interview results were collated
knowledge, the teachers tried to help students and interpreted.
make connections between new passages and the
previous ones. Finally, the teachers encouraged
students to orally summarize the contents of the
Table 1. T-Test results of the pre- and post-test mean scores
Participant groups

No. of
participants

All participants

56

High-proficiency participants
Moderate-proficiency participants
Low-proficiency participants

12
19
25

passage at the end of the class before they took the

reading comprehension test afterwards. The
participants took the post-test during a separate class
session, and the interviews were carried out, by
appointment, with each of the 18 representatives of
the three proficiency groups at the end of the datacollection processes.
V. Data analysis
Mean scores on the pre-test and post-test
were compared using a T-Test. Data from the
reading comprehension tests were analyzed
separately from the data from the pre-test and posttest. StudentsJ scores from each of the eight

Pre-test mean Post-test

P
mean score
score
(2-tailed)
(out of 15) (out of 15)
5.24
9.03
0.000
7.25
4.92
4.39

12.04
9.16
6.97

0.001
0.000
0.000

VI. Results
6.1. Results from the pre- and post-readingcomprehension tests
The table above shows that the pre-test and
the post-test mean scores of the entire sample were
significantly different at p < .001. The mean scores
on the pre- and post-test of the high, the moderate
and the low proficiency participant groups
confirmed the results of all of the participants in
that they were each significantly different at p <
0.001. The significant improvement in all groups,
particularly the low-proficiency students, reveals
the effectiveness of the narrow reading technique
in improving studentsJ reading ability.

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182

6.2. Results of daily reading-comprehension

tests
A reading comprehension test was
administered to students after they finished reading
each passage to test their levels of comprehension.
Each test consisted of ten open-ended questions.
The first four tests were for the four passages from
the first news story, and the other four were for the
passages from the second story. The results of
these tests are shown in the line graph below.
Comparing the scores students received on their

introduced. The mean scores of the total

participants indicated upward trends during the
reading of each story: the scores increased steadily
from the first to the fourth test. They, however, fell
sharply in the fifth test in the transition to the
second news story. They increased again from the
fifth test to the last test.
Although there were improvements in all
proficiency groups, the lowest proficient students
got the lowest average points on each test. To
conclude, student comprehension scores on each

Average score

Figure 1. Average scores of the total participants of different proficiency groups

9.0
8.0
7.0
6.0
5.0
4.0
3.0
2.0
1.0
0.0

The entire sample

High-proficiency
group
Moderateproficiency group
Low-proficiency
group
1

Reading comprehension test

comprehension of each passage in the two stories

helps us explore the effects of the narrow-reading
technique on studentsJ reading comprehension. We
can use data to compare comprehension as students
read additional passages from the same news
stories, and then how the studentsJ comprehension
level changes when passages in a new story are

passage started with lower scores and continued to

rise significantly until the last passage of each news
story. However, the average starting score on the
second news story was higher than that of the first.

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in some ways. They stated that narrow reading helped

them guess the meanings of subsequent stories. The
stories were related to each other and the
vocabulary was on the same theme, which made it
easy for them to comprehend difficult words. The
participants found that the reading passages were
difficult at first, but became easier later because
they could make use of the vocabulary found in the
previous stories.
The majority of participants said they also
experienced faster reading rates in the later stories.
In particular, the low-proficiency
proficiency students revealed
that this method encouraged them to read more
when they found that they could understand the
English passages better than ever before. However,
proficiency
6.4. Students= reflections on narrow-reading
reading a few students (11.1%) in the high-proficiency
participant group did not like the method. They
teaching techniques
The majority of the participants interviewed found it boring because there was no variety in the
(88.9%) found that reading similar topics was useful vocabulary, and all the stories were about coups.
6.3. Results of the interviews
The interviews took place after the
participants had finished reading all the passages
and taking all the tests. There were 18 interviewees
who comprised 32.1% of all of the participants of
the study (for the reason, see Section 3.2). Six
students were randomly selected from each
proficiency group. Each student was interviewed
using a set of questions designed to reveal their
reflections on narrow-reading
reading teaching techniques,
their opinions about reading stories on a particular
theme versus reading a variety of stories, and their
suggestions for improving the teaching of the English
for Humanities and Social Sciences Students course.
course

Figure 2. StudentsJ opinions on reading stories on a particular theme versus reading a variety of stories

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6.5. Students= opinions about reading themes

Students were also interviewed about
their preferences for reading materials. They were
asked if they preferred to read stories on a
particular theme or on a variety of reading topics.
The results are presented in Figure 2.
Many participants (66.7%), particularly
from the lowest proficiency group, preferred reading
stories on a particular theme to reading on a variety of
topics. However, participants with higher proficiency
in English were more interested in reading materials
on a variety of topics. The reasons that some students
preferred narrow reading were various. Some said
that stories about similar events or a sequence of
events were not confusing. Reading stories with
similar vocabulary sets also helped them save time
because they did not have to look up many new
words in the dictionary. They also added that the
stories on a particular theme helped them
understand better.
Most high-proficiency students believed
that reading on different topics would provide
them with more content and knowledge. Reading
on various topics would make the lessons less
boring. Finally, they suggested that a variety of
topics would help broaden their horizons,
providing them with the ability to look at society
from different perspectives.

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6.6. Participants= suggestions

Participants made some suggestions for
the improvement of the teaching of the English for
Humanities and Social Sciences Students course.
They said it was useful to read stories on a
particular theme, but each reading topic should be
studied for no longer than two weeks, which is six
class hours. The teachers should give a brief
summary of the stories before letting students read
in order to help students understand better.
Students also requested more grammar sessions,
especially at the beginning of the course. They
suggested the teachers ask students more questions
concerning the contents of the passages to facilitate
their accurate understanding. They also thought
that student presentations would make the class
more interesting and that more homework or
assignments would help them understand better.
VII. Conclusions and useful suggestions
Out of 45 hours of class time, a total of
14 hours were used for the narrow reading lessons
and tests. The eight passages dealt with one story
theme, the coups in Thailand. Therefore, the
passages were made up of similar sets of
vocabulary. To measure the effectiveness of the
narrow reading technique in improving student
reading comprehension, pre-reading and postreading comprehension tests and reading

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comprehension tests were administered at the end

of each reading passage.
The pre-test and post-test scores of each
student group were analyzed and compared. It was
found that for all participants, the mean scores on
the pre-tests and the post-tests were significantly
different at the .000 level. Improvements are
obvious in all proficiency groups, especially
among moderate-proficiency and low-proficiency
students. The differences in the mean scores of the
pre-test and post-test for these two groups were
greater than those of the high-proficiency group.
Second, the results of the reading
comprehension tests also showed increases in
studentJs reading comprehension abilities. Though
students got lower scores at the beginning of the tests,
they had higher scores on the later tests. It is
interesting that instead of having a higher score on the
subsequent test, studentsJ scores dropped significantly
on the first test of the second news story. The drop in
the sampleJs scores at the beginning of the second
story is, in fact, the result of changing the story.
Although the two stories had the same theme, were
written by the same author, and had similar sets of
vocabulary, they were not exactly identical. In other
words, reading different passages from the same news
story was more znarrow{ than using a different story
on the same topic.
Hence, it is possible that although
students were familiar with both the vocabulary

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and writing styles, they might not have had the

same amount of background knowledge provided
by previous stories. Moreover, it was found that
despite using two different stories, the first story
was useful for reading the second story because
both stories were on the same theme with similar
sets of vocabulary and writing styles. This was
indicated by the fact that the studentsJ scores on
the first test of the second news story were higher
than those of the first test of the first story.
Importantly, after the first test on the first
passage of the second story, the scores on subsequent
tests went up suddenly and stood at high points until
the last passage. This evidence shows the power of
narrow reading. The findings of this study confirm
the effectiveness of narrow reading in improving
reading comprehension ability (Cho et al., 2005,
Kyongho and Nation, 1989; Krashen, 1981). The
similar sets of vocabulary and writing styles in each
passage on the coup story theme also provided
readers with background knowledge to facilitate
reading latter passages in the same story.
The interviews with students revealed that
most students liked and preferred the narrow reading
technique more than reading a variety of topics.
However, students from the low proficiency group
particularly liked the technique because it helped
them comprehend the English passages and resulted
in higher scores in later tests. These low proficiency
students might not have experienced such

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improvement in understanding English passages

before. In contrast, some high proficiency students
preferred reading a variety of topics better. They felt
bored reading stories on the same topic for a long
period. This finding may also explain the results of
the eight comprehension tests. The longer the time
used on a single topic, the lower the motivation in
reading all students had. Although the studentsJ
test results on the second news story were high,
they were not higher than the peak score found on
the last test of the first story.
This finding is important, and to some
extent it supports the suggestion by Krashen (1981)
and Cho et al. (2005) that language learners narrow
their reading first and expand their reading later.
The participants suggested that the most effective
amount of time for reading each story theme may
be as long as six hours so that they can maintain
their reading motivation. However, this reading
time might not be generalizable in other contexts
due to the fact that students may have different
motivation levels for different reading themes.
The study results inspire two important
suggestions for the implementation of the narrow
reading technique in classroom. First, in classes
with students from all proficiency levels, the time
spent on each reading theme should not be too long,
in order to keep all groups of student motivated,
especially high proficiency students. Second, this
reading technique may be very useful especially for

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low proficiency students. This study found that low

proficiency students were particularly motivated by
narrow reading, which bolstered their improvement.
Finally, it can be concluded that reading
stories on a particular theme is effective in helping
students comprehend reading passages and improve
their reading comprehension ability, which leads
to second language acquisition. However, this study
is to be considered an expository research, so it is
recommended that more studies be conducted. Of
particular interest, investigations on different
approaches to narrow reading apart from reading
passages excerpted from long stories on the same
theme should be carried out.
References
Bhumiprabhas, S. Special: Remembering October.
The Nation. (Online) Available:
http://www.nationmultimedia.com [2002,
October 14].
Bhumiprabhas, S. Hard to remember, yet difficult
to forget. The Nation. (Online) Available:
http://www.nationmultimedia.com [2006,
October 6].
Bhumiprabhas, S., & Hongthong, P. Focus:
Thammasat slayings: StudentsJ monument
wanted. The Nation. (Online) Available:
http://www.nationmultimedia.com [2001,
October 7].

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Chaisuriya, A. 2006. English reading needs and

problems of graduate students of business,
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences,
Burapa University. Journal of Humanities
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(20), 84-105.
Changpueng, P. 2005. The power of narrow
reading. Journal of English Studies, 2,
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Cho, K., Ahn, K., & Krashen, S. 2005. The
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Cho, K., & Krashen, S. 1995. From Sweet Valley
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Dubin, F. 1986. Dealing with texts. In F. Dubin,
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Foley, J. A. 2005. English in Thailand. RELC
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Fredrickson, T. Narrow reading ] a powerful way
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