Reading and listening are two main input processes of learning a language. If there is not enough input, it is certain that language learners can’t make excellent output. Chinese contemporary English teaching expert, Hu Chundong, from Beijing Normal University, emphasized in the first International Annual English Teaching Conference “And here I want to stress the importance of reading in English learning. In China people often use the world “reading” instead of “learning”. This is a popular truth. It is also true for English learning and teaching from beginning to end. Of course, reading must be in combination with listening, speaking and writing.” But Chinese learners can’t have full access to the English environment. Thus reading has always been considered to be the main approach to input and often promoted as a solution to the information explosion and as an aid to effective studying. Reading ability also influences the formation and development of the ability to listen, speak, write and translate. Therefore, reading plays an important role in English learning.
However, in class there is no abundant time to guide students to do much reading, in which case, extracurricular reading becomes a necessary approach to make learners be exposed to more input.
It is generally believed that a large amount of English reading after class can lay foundation to the acquirement of a new language. Just as He Huibin (2004) says:“It is reasonable to focus most of a learner’s energy on the basic linguistic knowledge at the beginning stage of learning.” Reading not only enables a learner to learn English knowledge from books but also helps them consolidate their vocabulary and grammar. These vocabulary and grammar are the base of improving the other four English skills—speaking, writing, translation, and listening. What is more, it is also the base of language application (Zhu Fengyun, 2004). So reading can promote English language knowledge to be mastered. One of the most important purposes of extracurricular reading is to open a learner’s eyes through the introduction to the western culture. Reading is a vital language input and collective resource …and information… Reading is a more efficient and firm way than listening input (Dong Yafen, 2003).
According to many scholars’ researches, by extracurricular reading, one can advance their English background knowledge and broaden his or her vision, inspire his thought, build the va1ues, train the creative performance and develop his intelligence. If a person master the English reading skil1s, form a good reading habit and have autonomous learning ability, he or she can be a master of English forever. Therefore, educators should spare no efforts to guide students to do as much extracurricular reading as possible and in this way help them to understand how to learn English autonomously.
