BENEFITS AND ATTITUDES OF INDONESIAN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS TOWARDS EXTENSIVE READING ACTIVITIES IN LEARNING ENGLISH GRAMMAR

In learning a second or foreign language, students commonly read for pleasure, which is called extensive reading (ER). Extensive reading is commonly related to increasing vocabulary knowledge and reading skills; however, extensive reading can also expand learners’ grammatical knowledge Based on the study of Khansir and Dehghani (2015), it was found that ER has improved their Iranian participants’ English grammar (as stated in Ng, Renandya, & Chong, 2019, p. 180-181). Referring to the positive outcome of their study, this study aims to investigate Indonesian university students’ perceptions of the benefits of ER activities on their English grammar knowledge and also their attitudes after experiencing ER activities in Grammar class. The research participants were 30 Indonesian university students who attended Grammar classes at a private university in West Java. The instruments used were an online questionnaire which was distributed at the end of the semester and the students’ weekly ER log. The questionnaire result was counted manually before they were classified into certain categories, whereas content analysis was used to select and analyze the data from the learning log. The findings show both positive and negative outcomes regarding the students’ grammar knowledge and attitudes.


Introduction
Language learning is commonly related to developing several skills, namely listening, speaking, reading, and writing, in which learning grammar is also included in each skill.Second language learners are exposed to learning these skills since the first time they are introduced to a formal learning context, for example: in school or language courses.Among those skills, reading is usually connected with learning vocabulary since words are parts of passages that need to be understood to grasp the meaning of the passages.Harpiansi and Suryani (2019) stated that reading texts are one of the sources of learning English.Reading can also help learners to be immersed in grammatical patterns used in the passages.In addition, reading and being able to comprehend the reading text critically is the most essential factor in education (Hettinger, 2016).Reading is also the principle of academic progress (Fatiloro, Adesola, Hameed & Adewumi, 2017).As Anindita (2020) stated university students need to pass all the subjects taken; therefore, they need to attain the reading skills to be able to read the learning materials well.Not only for being successful academically, but reading is also the foundation of lifetime learning (Erdem, 2015) as reading comprehension is "the process of managing all the desired information, feelings and thoughts to be transferred" (Meinawati, et. al., 2022).
Besides understanding the content of a text, reading can also help learners grasp the grammatical structures being used in the text.As Lee, Schallert, and Kim (2015) mentioned there is a new point of view in studying grammar by reading.They further stated that studying grammar by reading is connected to recent approaches to "grammar instruction that reject discrete sentence-level grammar teaching and emphasize using numerous examples of a target structure in context to develop knowledge of form-meaning connections (e.g., Celce-Murcia & Olshtain, 2000;Nassaji & Fotos, 2004, as cited in Lee, Schallert & Kim, 2015, p. 39).Therefore, ER is suggested to be used in contexts like Indonesia where explicit grammar instruction focuses on learning the grammar theories compared than applying those theories into practice.As Al-Mekhlafi and Nagaratnam (2011) claimed that the traditional grammar teaching approach results in improving learners' grammar knowledge, but "their ability to apply grammar rules in actual language use may not commensurately increase" (as cited in Lee, Schallert & Kim, 2015, p. 39).
Related to reading, Anandari and Iswandari (2019) stated that there are two types of learners: ones who read to learn something and ones who learn to read something.The first type of learners has difficulties in comprehending word meaning, needs more time to read, and puts their focus on vocabulary.The second type of learners read books to enjoy the content, not just for academic purposes.Solihin, Utama, Pratiwi, and Novirina (2019) stated that the second type of learners are "independent readers and have developed reading habits" (as cited in Anandari & Iswandari, 2019, p. 139).Both types of readers should be able to understand the reading texts as Rojabi (2021) defined that "reading comprehension is the process of interaction between the writer and the reader in which the writer encodes a message while the reader decodes the meaning from the text" (p. 132-133).
Extensive reading (ER) is closely related to independent readers as it is defined as "pleasure reading, self-selected reading, free voluntary reading, and wide reading" (Ng, Renandya, Chong, 2019, p. 171).According to Day and Bamford (1998), extensive reading gives learners the opportunity of reading different genres of English books, delighting in the process also simultaneously developing their reading skills (as cited in Ng et al., 2019, p. 172).Moreover, ER allows students to read numerous books at their comfort level which encourages fluency in reading (Stoller, 2015).Yamashita (2015) argued that the important feature of ER is pleasure which is linked to the feelings and emotions of the readers while they are reading the text.In addition, Rodrigo, Greenberg, and Segal (2014) stated that pleasure and being able to accomplish the reading goal could affect students' reading attitude, habit of reading, and enthusiasm to read.McQuillan (2019) further added that reading by pleasure is more effective in increasing students' academic vocabulary than direct teaching.Mikami (2020) stated that ER has become more popular among secondlanguage researchers and teachers.The popularity can be caused by several benefits of ER, such as improving learners' reading fluency (Huffman, 2014;McLean & Rouault, 2017;Nakanishi, 2015), developing vocabulary acquisition (Suk, 2016;Webb & Chang, 2015), and learners' better writing skills (Mermelstein, 2015;Park, 2016).As Nuttall (1982) claimed, "The best way to improve one's knowledge of a foreign language is to go and live among its speakers, the next best way is to read extensively in it" (Renandya, 2007, p. 136).Based on Nuttall's claim, it is clear that ER can help to improve learners' language knowledge.In other words, ER can facilitate learners in learning grammar naturally.Moreover, Tudor and Hafiz (1989) discovered that ER has contributed to students producing sentences that are appropriate and suitable to the context, which means they make natural sentences that avoid ambiguity and result in successful communication (as cited in Park, 2016).
Furthermore, Renandya (2007) stated that the input for a second language (L2) is limited due to teachers cannot create a learning environment that is similar to L1; nonetheless, teachers can expose students to L2 input by providing great numbers of books and other materials in the classroom either printed or not.Besides, Lee, Schallert, and Kim (2015) claimed that ER "engenders positive attitudes because reading depends on positive attitudes to become a frequent activity in a language learner's life" (p.42).In other words, positive attitudes that result from ER activities could encourage learners to read more and more.In addition, Puspitasari (2020) claimed that an ER program that supports the freedom of reading can enhance students' reading enthusiasm when the program is executed in several meetings.When students are enthusiastic to read, they have a good reading level and literacy (Cheung et al., 2016).
Several researches discuss the use of ER in second language learning, particularly in learning grammar.First, Lee, Schallert, and Kim (2015) stated that their participants, who are 124 Korean middle school students, have benefited from extensive reading activities in terms of English grammar learning incidentally (p.49).These participants were involved in either ER or translation for two semesters.The findings showed that there was a different effect which depends on the learners' language proficiency.Higher proficiency learners showed a more positive attitude and gained more grammar knowledge related to ER.
Second, Khansir and Dehghani (2015) conducted a similar study to Lee et al. (2015).Their participants were 40 male English learners in a language institute in Iran.20 students belonged to the experimental group and 20 others in the control group.The findings showed that those in the experimental group performed better in the post-test questions.They found that their Iranian high-school students who learned grammar through ER were more effective than the traditional approach (as stated in Ng, Renandya, & Chong, 2019, p. 180-181).
Third, Nakanishi (2015) conducted a meta-analysis in Asian contexts with 3,942 participants that derived from 34 studies which consists of 32 research articles and two dissertations.A lot of participants were university students, and some of them were high school students.He found the participants benefited from ER in terms of reading rates, comprehension, and vocabulary.Besides, ER has a bigger effect on university students and adults than on high school students (as stated in Ng, Renandya, & Chong, 2019, p. 174-175).
Fourth, Park (2016) studied the effect of ER on 52 L2 Asian university students' writing for one semester.These participants were divided into two groups: the first group used 15 minutes of class time for silent reading and 5 minutes for pair or class discussion related to their reading; the second group spent these 20 minutes for free writing and continued with 5 minutes for pair or class discussion.Besides class activity, the first group did the homework related to their ER activity whereas the second group's homework was based on their textbook.Based on the post-test, it was found that the ER class did better than the traditional class in writing and vocabulary.
Fifth, Xenia and Anjani (2022) investigated the effect of ER on the incidental acquisition of English prepositions, namely in, on, and at.Their participants were 16 Indonesian university students who experienced ER for four weeks (100 minutes/meeting).The instruments used were pre-test, post-test, and questionnaire.The results showed that the participants' knowledge of English prepositions had improved significantly and they had the intuition to choose the correct prepositions to use.
Based on these studies, ER has been researched in correlation with students' grammar knowledge, reading skills, vocabulary, writing, and attitudes.Most participants in the previous studies are Asian, and only one of them come from Indonesia; therefore, it is worth investigating the effect of ER on Indonesian university students, not only the knowledge of English preposition but also English grammar, in general, to fill in the research gap of the previous studies mentioned above.This study has two objectives namely to discover the students' perception of ER towards their grammar knowledge and their attitudes toward ER in their class.These objectives are answered through these research questions: First, What is the student's perception of the benefits of extensive reading activities toward their grammatical knowledge?;Second, How are the students' attitudes towards the extensive reading activities in their Grammar class?

Method
The participants of this research are 30 Indonesian university students in the Grammar: Verb Patterns class which consists of both male and female students.They belong to the third semester due to this subject is required for the thirdsemester students.There were supposed to be 39 students registered in the class but nine of them did not submit the questionnaire.The class was mostly conducted in English language; however, in some circumstances, Indonesian was used in the students faced difficulties in understanding the theory being discussed.The Grammar class was conducted once a week from mid-August until early December 2020.Each class meeting lasted for about 60-100 minutes.
Two instruments were used in this research.First, students' weekly learning log related to the extensive reading activities.The learning log was posted in Google Classroom weekly.In this class, each student was asked to read or listen to a minimum of 1 e-book per week from www.er-central.com.The students had to finish the task in 10 weeks, starting from meeting 2 until meeting 11.The students were free to choose any e-book they liked on that website; however, they were suggested to pick the e-book that suited their reading or listening level.After choosing the e-book to read or listen to, each student was required to fill in a weekly learning log that contained at least two questions regarding the chosen e-book.The samples of the questions are Why did you choose this particular story?What do you like about the story?If you become the main character in the story you have read, what will you do?, etc.In the learning log, the students were asked to write their answers to the questions for about 50-100 words in English.They also were asked to write the title and level of the e-book that they had chosen on the ER website.
The second instrument used in this research was an online questionnaire using Google Forms.The questionnaire was distributed at the end of the semester which pictures the students' journey on doing the ER task.The students were asked to answer seven questions, namely: the number and interesting topics of e-books that they read for the ER task, the reason for doing the ER task, the benefits of doing the ER task, the opinion of continuing reading from ER website after passing the Grammar class and of sharing about ER to other students, and the suggestion for the ER website.
The data taken from the online questionnaire were listed in Microsoft Excel, sorted, and counted manually.Afterward, the data were classified into certain categories.Moreover, the data taken from students' learning logs were randomly selected and analyzed by using content analysis.

Students' perception of the benefits of ER activities towards their grammatical knowledge
To answer the first research question, the students were asked to fill in a Google Form that consisted of several questions.One of them is about the benefits that the students feel after reading books on the ER Website.The following table shows the students' perception of the benefits that they obtained after experiencing ER: Based on the data above, it can be seen that 29 students (96.7%) benefited from ER in certain aspects, but one student (3.3%) did not answer the question.Most students (53.3%) admitted that they learned new knowledge from ER activities.Four students (13.3%) shared that ER helped their vocabulary.Two students (6.6%) stated that their reading has improved and the other two students (6.6%) said that their grammar skills improved by ER.One student (3.3%) mentioned that ER supported their writing and another student (3.3%) said he/she could spend some time while reading.However, three students (10%) admitted that they followed ER due to the extra points that they would get after finishing the task.Samples of the top five benefits of the students' perceptions can be seen below: As can be seen in Table 2, only two students (6.6%) admitted that ER benefited them in terms of grammar as they mentioned ER can "enrich grammar" (S11) and "…improve my grammar" (S28).A small number of students have benefited in terms of grammar due to ER practice; therefore, in this study grammar is proven not the most favorable benefit that has been experienced by the students.Although Mason's study (2004) confirmed that ER could support students' grammar and vocabulary (as cited in Anindita, 2020, p.96); nonetheless, the grammar benefit is not proven in this study.
However, instead of a grammar-oriented benefit, ER has provided the students with new knowledge.Based on the questionnaire result, 16 students (53.3%) shared that ER has broadened their knowledge as they said: "I know some of the information that I didn't know before" (S1), "I have a lot more knowledge in reading works not just from the famous authors" (S4), and "I know a lot more about small things that I usually don't bother know such as Christmas on another country, how diamond is not rare, etc." (S27).This has proven that the students focused more on the content of the e-books that they read compared to the grammar patterns that they were exposed to when they were reading the sentences in the e-books.This finding is in line with Day and Bamford (2002) who stated that "pleasure, information, and a general understanding" are the goal of reading (as cited in Anindita, 2020, p.93).As the students put their focus on the content of the e-books; therefore, their goal in reading is to find information and understand the content.

Students' attitudes toward ER activities in grammar class
To answer the second research question, the students were asked to answer two questions in the questionnaire: first, about the reasons that have made them keep on reading on the ER website; second, about whether they will continue reading on the ER Website after they pass the Grammar class or not.Moreover, several random examples of students' learning logs were analyzed to observe the students' attitudes in doing ER tasks.Based on Table 3, it is clear that all students have positive attitudes to continue reading on the ER website.Most students (66.6%) acknowledged that they were looking for the extra points that they would get once they had finished the ER task.Five students (16.6%) shared that the e-books are interesting to read and five others (16.6%) wanted to improve their reading skills.Observing the students' reasons in Table 3 has resulted in the students' positive attitudes to continue ER being solely based on the extra points, not based on their intention to improve their language skills.As can be seen in Table 4, "No" is the dominant answer from the questionnaire result.19 students (63.3%) refused to continue reading on the ER website after they had passed the Grammar class due to various reasons.The samples of the student's answers are listed below: (S7) Not really an e-book reader (S8) The books/articles in ER need to be added more.(S10) It's not practical to read it on the website instead of the application.(S16) Sometimes the stories in the 'Reading Library' aren't renewed.We need to change the levels to be able to read new titles.

(S18) Sometimes I have no time to read on the website because I always get busy with housework when I reach home especially if I have to log in every time I want to read a book on this website. (S27) I already read a lot of novels in English, and the short story in ER doesn't appeal to me much. (S29) There are going to be a lot of tasks next semester so I won't have time to read another ER story.
Based on the samples of the students' negative attitudes above, their perceptions could be categorized into three categories.First, the ER website, as the answers of (S8), (S10), and (S16) shows that the ER website has several limitations in terms of the number of e-books available also the practicality of using the website.Second, the student's character, as the answer of (S7) and (S27) displays that he/she prefers to read printed books, and his/her reading level is already above the e-books in the ER website.Third, the student's time limitation, as the answers of (S18) and (S29) demonstrate that he/she has no time to continue reading due to being busy with housework and a lot of tasks in the coming semester.
Related to Table 4, samples of the reasons for 11 students (36.6%) were willing to keep on reading on the ER website even after they had passed the Grammar class are listed below: (S2) To spend my spare time I also can use it for listening practice (S9) The topic of books was interesting (S13) Because the topic is interesting (S21) I want to keep practicing.ER Website is very helpful and easy to use.(S25) to make 'reading' a hobby of mine and get peace, another knowledge from reading (S28) Because it is interesting and it has many books to read (S30) The ER website contains many interesting articles Based on the samples of the students' positive attitudes above, their perceptions could be categorized into two categories.First, the ER website, as can be seen in the answers of (S9), (S13), (S21), (S28), and (S30), the website offers many e-books with interesting topics and the website is easy to use and very helpful.Second, students' reasons, as shown in the answers of (S2) and (S25), the students want to read in their spare time, make reading a hobby to get peace, and use ER for listening practice.Compared to Lee, Schallert, and Kim's (2015) argument ER that stimulates positive attitudes, this finding is in line with their point of view as 11 students will continue reading on ER website, even two students (S2) and (S25) will make reading as their hobby.The finding is also in line with the study of Day and Bamford (1998) which pointed out that ER provides students with the chance to read various kinds of English books and improve the skill of reading as two students (S28) and (S30) stated that ER website offers numerous kinds of exciting e-books to read.Besides looking at the students' willingness to read on the ER website (Table 3&4), students' actual performance in doing ER tasks is displayed in Table 5.The data above were taken from two students' randomly chosen learning logs, in which Student 1(S1) is female and Student 2(S2) is male.The learning logs were from meetings 1, 6, and 10.These logs were chosen due to meeting 1 was the beginning of the ER task, meeting 6 was the middle of the task, and meeting 10 was the last ER task that was instructed.
Based on Table 5, the e-book level that S1 chose was increased by one level from meeting 1 and 6 to 10, which was from level 13 to 14.However, for S2, the level was leveling up from 12 to 15 to 17.The number of words that S1 produced gradually increased from 76 words in meeting 1 to 99 words in meeting 6 but decreased to 90 words in meeting 10.Moreover, the number of words that S2 wrote was beyond expectation in meeting 1, which was 132 words, but lowered to 87 words in meeting 6, and increased to 114 words in meeting 10.Table 6 shows the samples of S1 and S2 learning logs from meetings 1, 6, and 10.As can be seen in the above table, S1 and S2 had chosen ER e-books that they liked and they successfully shared their ideas in answering the question(s) provided.
In meetings 1 and 10, the question is similar which is about the reasons for choosing the e-book, whereas in meeting 6 the question is about what to change from the ebook.
Related to S1, she has more words in the ER log of meeting 6 in which she explained in detail what to change from the story that she has read, e.g."How much money do they usually need to make this ceremony or what happens if there are families who do not have enough money to hold this ceremony, whether the ceremony will still be held but postponed or not held" (table 6, S1, meeting 6).However, S2 produced more words in the ER log of meeting 1 in which he described how he likes learning about new things from different countries, e.g."New Zealanders don't share a big warm dinner inside, they have it outside just like a picnic.Because their Christmas is in the middle of summer they also go to the beach a lot instead of snowball fights or building snowmen" (table 6, S2, meeting 1) and he connected the story with his own experience, e.g."I don't celebrate Christmas at all, but because it's a very public and popular holiday, I know most of the popular terms of the holiday.Like how you exchange gifts, playing snowball fight, having a big warm dinner with the family, etc." (table 6, S2, meeting 1).
Observing S1 and S2's ER logs, it can be seen that they have shown a positive attitude through their written ideas.They answered the questions clearly and in detail.Although they were instructed to write between 50 and 100 words, two of the S1 logs were almost to the top limit (90 and 99 words) whereas two of the S2 logs exceeded the top limit (132 and 114 words).The detailed ideas that they put in the logs have proven that they have read the e-books thoroughly and they also have the constructive attitude to pour those ideas in the logs.
Comparing the findings with the previous studies mentioned above, it can be seen that there are two similarities and two differences.The first similarity appeared in Nakanishi's (2015) study in which ER gave benefits to students' vocabulary and knowledge.Likewise, in this study, most students gained knowledge and several of them improved their vocabulary by following ER activities.The second similarity is to the study of Lee, Schallert, and Kim (2015) which resulted in a more positive attitude regarding ER belonging to learners with higher proficiency levels.In this study, students who read more (47-60 e-books 10 times) had a more positive attitude as five out of eight students (62.5%) would continue reading on ER website.Hence, students who read less (1-10 e-books in 10 weeks) showed more negative attitudes as only three out of nine students (33.3%) stated that they would remain reading on the ER website as soon as they have passed the Grammar class.Moreover, based on the result of ER learning logs, two students have proven their positive attitudes by sharing their clear and thorough ideas regarding the e-books that they have read.
Regarding the difference, first, unlike the study of Khansir and Dehghani (2015) also the study of Park (2016) in which they discovered those students in the experimental group, who were exposed to ER, performed better in terms of vocabulary, grammar, and writing than those in the control group, who experienced traditional teaching, this study does not show a similar result like theirs due to no experimental or control group existed.As a result, there is no comparable result in this study.Based on Table 1, most students benefited from gaining new knowledge from ER practice and only a few students had the advantage in terms of grammar, vocabulary, and writing.Second, Xenia and Anjani's (2022) study has shown significant improvement in students' knowledge of prepositions through ER in which the students could notice the incorrect prepositions and correct them; however, in this study, most students admitted that the benefits that they received are mostly on new knowledge about the stories that they read and vocabulary related to those stories.
Although the findings have shown positive results in terms of the benefits that the students obtained from ER activities and the attitudes that they showed in doing ER activities; nonetheless, this research is still limited in terms of participants.Therefore, it is suggested that further studies include more participants to obtain richer data.Besides, this research is also still limited in terms of the instruments used.Interviewing several participants who become top readers is highly recommended to get in-depth data.For further research, it is recommended to design the ER task more to the goal-oriented skill to achieve relatable results.

Conclusion
This study discussed the university students' perception of ER activities towards the improvement of their grammar knowledge also their attitudes toward ER in Grammar class.The findings have implications that ER is beneficial for students in terms of various language skills; however, the task needs to be more specific for improving their grammar knowledge.As the ER task focused more on the students' opinions in answering the questions provided in the learning log, the students were prone to share their ideas and were not required to use certain grammatical patterns in their writing.The type of ER tasks can be designed more specifically to develop students' grammar if first, they are asked to observe and analyze the grammatical patterns or tenses that appear in the e-books that they have read on the ER website; second, they are instructed to apply the patterns or tenses they have analyzed into their writing in the ER logs.Moreover, this study has significant findings as it is proven that ER activities have resulted in more benefits than flaws for the students in terms of gaining new knowledge, vocabulary, and grammar, and in bringing positive attitudes toward ER which it is hoped that these students can practice ER in their daily lives to improve their English skills.

Table 1 .
What benefits did you feel after reading books on the ER website?

Table 2 .
Top five benefits of the students' perceptions related to ER activities

Table 3 .
Students' reasons for reading on the ER website

Table 4 .
Students' perceptions to continue reading on the ER website

Table 5 .
Students' performances in ER learning logs

Table 6 .
Samples of students' learning logs Student 1 Meeting 1