STUDENTS‟ PERCEPTIONS TOWARD GRADED READERS 2

Students’ Perceptions toward the Use of Graded Readers in Extensive Reading

Classes

Hanung Siwiyanti

Abstract

Many Indonesian students seem to have problem of fluency in English reading skill. The

use of graded readers (GR) which are similar to novel and story books could be a suitable

way to overcome this matter. As Boukella (2010) notes that graded readers are stories in

the form of narration which is simplified to be easier to be read and differ from academic

texts. It is possible for teachers to use graded readers as teaching materials in Extensive

Reading and other classes such as writing. The present study investigated the students‟

perceptions toward the use of graded readers in Extensive Reading classes. The

participants consisted of 15 Indonesian students in the English Department of Satya

Wacana Christian University who have taken the Extensive Reading classes or those who

were taking the course. The data was collected from semi-structured interview, in which

all of the participants were individually interviewed about their perceptions towards the

use of graded readers in Extensive Reading classes. This study found that 11 students had

mentioned positive perception towards graded readers. Therefore, this finding suggested

that graded readers are good to be used as reading materials because the English

Department students‟ reading speed and reading fluency were increasing. Moreover, the

participants got benefits such as enriching vocabulary bank, grammar accuracy, reading

interest, and writing fluency.

Key words: graded readers, extensive reading, reading, vocabulary, and writing fluency