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As a corollary to this question, what are the benefits of intensive reading for acquiring a second language? A reference paper would be nice but is not required.
Intensive reading refers to reading a smaller piece of text in a very analytical manner with the goal of understanding as much as possible.
My personal experience is that reading in general (intensive, extensive or whatnot) improves your reading skills drastically, increases your vocabulary noticeably but per se won't help to to write and especially to speak.
Talking specifically of intensive reading - let's give some definitions for the starters. According to British Council:
Intensive reading involves learners reading in detail with specific learning aims and tasks. It can be compared with extensive reading, which involves learners reading texts for enjoyment and to develop general reading skills.
Example The learners read a short text and put events from it into chronological order.
Again, I can talk only about my personal experience here, I'm not aware of any studies, but the only difference between extensive reading and intensive reading for me was that if there are written tasks (based on what I've just read) - it helps to some, quite limited, extent to improve writing skills.
Personally, I can say that it helped me to have a better understanding of the language structure and improve my vocabulary. In fact, since intensive reading involves an analytical approach to the text, you are doing much more than simply reading what is written in front of you because you pay much more attention to the text, the structure of the sentences and the use of certain words and idioms than you would with extensive reading.
Moreover, the research paper “Impact of Intensive Reading Strategy on English for Specific Purposes College Students' in Developing Vocabulary” by Edhah Khazaal also showed the benefits of intensive reading on ESP College students at A-Nahrain University in Iraq for the development of their vocabularies and the correct use of words.
It will increase your knowledge, You will see some changes in your behavior. Positivity and Confidence will increase.
