Exploring Best Practices for Promoting EFL Students’ Reading Habit in Extensive Reading

Reading is crucial in learning English because it helps students understand the language. Students will gain a wealth of new knowledge and information. Furthermore, students can more easily comprehend lessons because those who have a reading habit will have a broader knowledge base. Currently, many students only read when working on assignments or exams. If there is no assignment, they will not read. Therefore, they rarely read fiction or nonfiction that they enjoy. Thus, reading is considered essential. This study aims to explore best practices for promoting EFL students' reading habits through extensive reading. This study emphasizes the importance of reading large amounts of relatively easy material for enjoyment and general comprehension, rather than focusing on detailed analysis. This study used a qualitative method with a phenomenological research design. Data were collected through semi-structured interview with five active students from the Department of English Education at UIN Ar-Raniry, who served as the sample. This study offers practical insights for promoting and encouraging students to develop consistent and self-motivated reading habits. The results highlight the importance of extensive reading to improve students’ reading habits, such as becoming better readers, boosting motivation, increasing empathy, and so on. It means students need to do things differently, and within their comfort zones, because extensive reading is expected to help students habituate to reading regularly and consistently.