Idea Sharing: The Use of Read-Share-Act to Promote Extensive Reading

Nisakorn Charumanee believes that a reading teacher has an active role in cultivating reading culture or reading habit and in activating students to "want" to read. One way to do this is to integrate extensive reading into the classroom (Day and Bamford, 1998; Bamford and Day, 2004) where extensive reading can be enhanced if the teacher allows students to choose what they want to read and gives them a chance to share reading experiences (Harmer, 2007). Based on the proposed ideas, Charumanee decided to incorporate extensive reading as part of an existing reading course. An experiment involving specific extensive reading activities which would lead to an opportunity to read and share of what was read was designed. The technique of Read-Share-Act (RSA) was then developed and implemented as a means to promote extensive reading. Students' perceptions towards the use of RSA were studied as well as whether it enhanced their reading habit. In this article Charumanee shares how RSA was carried out and how successful it was as reflected from students' perspective.