Improving EFL Learners’ Reading Motivation With Intensive Reading Using “ReadTheory”

Abstract

Foundation students need to pass English proficiency courses before joining their Bachelor program. Omani students are English as foreign language (EFL) learners. Therefore, acquiring reading skills is crucial in unlocking their academic performance. The researchers implemented an online intensive reading club seeking to engage unmotivated students into improving their reading through task-based learning from the ReadTheory website. The objectives were twofold, first to identify factors of engagement in the online intensive reading club leading to improved reading skills, and second to explore how these factors could instill long-term reading motivation. A three-cycle action research was conducted over six months with 10 participants. The systematic thematic analysis of observations, discussions, semi-structured interviews, and artifacts resulted in an in-depth understanding of the demotivation, engagement, learning and acquisition processes. Participation to the intensive reading club resulted in heightened motivation and improved reading skills due to the students’ active engagement in the Readtheory enhanced intensive reading tasks. Authentic and meaningful materials, immediate individual performance reports on reading skills and progress contributed to increased engagement, yielding long-term intrinsic and extrinsic reading motivation. The resulting Online intensive reading model will benefit teachers, students, and stakeholders seeking to motivate EFL students to read in the target language.