"The More I Read, the More I Want to Read": Extending Reading with Reading Logs

This action research aims to extend English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' reading practices through the use of reading logs beyond the classroom. Accordingly, EFL students in an English reading course are encouraged by their teacher, the researcher, to keep weekly reading logs for three semesters. Later, 38 students' viewpoints are collected through a survey. The results show that students favor reading online materials using their smartphones and laptops and use language learning and news websites extensively to source reading materials. Additionally, it is found that updated reading log activity carries the characteristics of successful extensive reading practices. Students agree that they could read a large volume of texts. The practice is regarded as easy and mainly for pleasure. Students have a choice of selection in content and individualized learning. Despite some complaints, such as boredom or perceiving the task as regular schoolwork, the majority of students believe the reading log improved not only their reading comprehension skills, but other language skills. The task kept them consistently busy with English and encouraged them to explore different websites and various reading texts. The research findings offer implications for language teachers who aim to extend language learning beyond the class.