Which of the following is NOT the purpose of extensive reading?
2024
Which of the following is NOT the purpose of extensive reading?
- A.
Reading for appreciation
- B.
Reading for extrapolation
- C.
Reading for learning grammar
- D.
Reading for pleasure
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: C
Reading instruction is generally described using two contrasting approaches: extensive reading and intensive reading. Extensive reading means reading large amounts of relatively easy, self-selected text for overall meaning, fluency, and enjoyment, without stopping to analyse individual words or sentence structures. Intensive reading, by contrast, means close, guided study of a short text to build vocabulary, grammar, and detailed comprehension skills.
Extensive reading programmes are built around a small set of recognized purposes. Checking each offered option against this concept:
Reading for appreciation — enjoying and valuing a text's content, style, or storyline as a whole; this fits the broad, enjoyment-driven engagement that extensive reading aims for.
Reading for extrapolation — using information given in a text to infer or project ideas beyond what is explicitly stated; this fits the wide comprehension skills that extensive reading builds through exposure to whole texts.
Reading for learning grammar — closely and deliberately studying a text's sentence structures, verb forms, and syntax to build explicit knowledge of language rules; this fits the aim of intensive reading and focused grammar instruction, not of extensive reading.
Reading for pleasure — reading material of one's own choosing purely for enjoyment, without external testing pressure; this fits the habit-building, voluntary-reading goal of extensive reading.
Reading for appreciation, extrapolation, and pleasure are all recognized purposes of extensive reading, while learning grammar through close structural analysis belongs to intensive reading. So "reading for learning grammar" is the option that is NOT a purpose of extensive reading — the correct answer.