ABSTRACT
The reading is independent because learners differ in proficiency, reading speed, and interests, and so ideally they need to read at their own level of text difficulty and at their own speed. Reading necessarily involves comprehension and so learners should be gaining comprehensible input and be focused on understanding what they read. Reading with enjoyment has not been included as a defining feature of extensive reading, although it is obviously a very desirable feature because enjoyable reading motivates further reading and encourages comprehension. In the very early stages of reading while preparing students for independent self-selected reading, extensive reading preparation classes may involve the whole class reading the same book at the same time with the teacher guiding them through it. Extensive reading does not usually mean the whole class or each learner is working through a long difficult text.
