EFL Learners’ Incidental Acquisition of English Prepositions through Enhanced Extensive Reading Instruction

Abstract

This study investigated whether enhanced extensive reading contributed to significant gains on the incidental acquisition of English prepositions. English as a Foreign Language (EFL) secondary school students in Korea ( N=12) received enhanced extensive reading instruction for one semester in an after-school program. Pre- and post-achievement scores on preposition use revealed that this group exhibited gains in noticing and correcting wrong prepositions, and on producing correct prepositions. However, pre- and post- achievement scores drawn from a comparable group not receiving the additional instruction ( N=12) exhibited small gains only in noticing wrong prepositions in sentences. Students’ responses to retrospective interviews provided evidence for five factors likely to affect the acquisition of English prepositions through enhanced extensive reading: increased reading comprehension, increased vocabulary knowledge, frequent encounters of prepositions in meaningful contexts, increased intuition for preposition use, and opportunities to use the newly taken input in output activities. These results suggested that enhanced extensive reading can effectively contribute to EFL secondary school students’ incidental acquisition of English prepositions.