Abstract

The primary purpose of this study is to find out the reading preference of students in an extensive reading (ER) programme conducted in a Malaysian Tamil primary school. The study also reports the children's responses to the different types of post-reading activities in the reading sessions. The participants were 66 multilingual Tamil school students between 10-11 years old. They were involved in reading storybooks extensively in an after-school reading programme which examined the effects of ER and different post-reading activities on vocabulary learning. The qualitative data reported in this paper were analyzed from observations, video-recordings of interactions between student/teacher, reading reports, records from the library checkout cards, teacher feedback forms and vocabulary record sheets. Using thematic analysis techniques, the data from these various sources were categorised, and analysed. The findings of the study revealed that the students preferred to read 3 major genres of storybooks during the reading sessions; (a) adventure; (b) mystery; and (c) informational books. The results also show the reactions of the students towards the different types of word learning activities. Four patterns of responses were identified: (a) positive and negative feelings; (b) active participation; (c) preference for collaboration; and (d) motivation for reading.