253 | STUDIES IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND EDUCATION, 5(2), 253-268, 2018 Extensive Versus Strategic Reading for Learning English at Khulna University, Bangladesh P-ISSN 2355-2794 E-ISSN 2461-0275 Molla Nazim Uddin Ahmed 1 Molla Azizur Rahman *1 Md. Obaidullah 2 1 Khulna University, Khulna, BANGLADESH 2 Northern University of Business and Technology Khulna, Khulna, BANGLADESH Abstract This article reports on a small-scale research study conducted to investigate the comparative utility of extensive reading versus strategic reading for learning English at the undergraduate level in the English Discipline at Khulna University, a public university in south-western Bangladesh. The study is based on the schema theory where background knowledge is the basis of comprehension. A pre-tested questionnaire was used to conduct a survey. Data was collected from 158 respondents, all undergraduate students in the English Department who were selected at random. The results of the study showed that strategic reading is more favorable to students compared to extensive reading for the purpose of learning ESL/EFL. Finally, the results showed that strategic reading was more effective than extensive reading for learning English. The paper concludes with a call for further large-scale studies. Keywords: Reading strategies, schema theory, learning English language, undergraduate level. 1. INTRODUCTION Learning a language means learning the four basic skills (i.e. listening, speaking, reading and writing) of that language. Reading is one of the four basic skills which supports learning of the other three skills, especially, at the undergraduate level. Reading comprehension ability is considered a prime need for learning a language. Our aim was to make a comparative study of extensive reading versus strategic reading for learning the English language. * Corresponding author, email: mazizurrahmanku@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.24815/siele.v5i2.11176 ©Syiah Kuala University. All rights reserved.