Narrow Reading: Effects on EFL Learners' Reading Speed, Comprehension, and Perceptions

This study compared the reading speed, comprehension and perceptions of two groups of English as a foreign language (EFL) learners. Each group addressed one of two types of narrow reading: same genre and same title. The same genre texts were three graded readers in the "Sherlock Holmes" series, and the same title texts were "The Railway Children," published by three different publishers at different language levels. The study was conducted over a 3-week period. Then, two approximately 1,000-word texts, one related to "Sherlock Holmes" and one to "The Railway Children," were used to measure whether the participants' reading speed and comprehension differed in reading the two types of texts. The results showed that all participants read significantly faster and comprehended more with the related text than the unrelated text. A questionnaire on participants' perceptions showed positive responses to narrow reading, especially the same title treatment. Pedagogical implications are discussed.