Principles & Practice of Extensive Reading

ISSN OFFICERS AND EXECUTIVE BOARD (January 2014 ~ December 2015) President Jeong-Ryeol Kim (Korea National University of Education)* Vice Presidents Journal Editing & Publication Young-Joo Jeon (Mokwon University)* Conference & Homepage Rob Waring (Notre Dame Seishin University, Japan)* Planning & Coordination Scott Miles (Daegu Haany University)* Public Relations Seok-Chae Rhee (Yonsei University)* Research & Development Kyungsook Chang (Korea Evaluation)*Secretary General Treasurer Institute for Curriculum and Jeyoung Lee (Korea National University of Education)* Myeong-gi Jeong (Song Jeong Elementary School)* Editors Jyun Bang (Busan University of Foreign Studies)* Eunsol Shin (Sogang University)* Koun Choi (Cambridge University, UK) Benjamin Garrido (Mokwon University) Conference & Homepage Dong Joo Lee (Korea National University of Education)* Daniel Stewart (The Kaisei Academy) Jeong-Jee Whang (Pyeongtack University) Planning & Coordination Yoonhee Choi (Chongshin University)* Aaron Jolly (Visang Corporation) Carl Dusthimer (Korea National University of Education) Mike Long (Yonsei University) Public Relations Hoyeol Ryu (Hankyong National University)* Kyeong-chulk Kim (Dongbu elementary school) Tae Hyeok Moon (Haun Elementary School) Ralph Cousins (Pai Chai University) Research & Development Sunmi Park (Brigham Young University of Hawaii)* Heeseong Ahn (Ministry of Education) Seonmin Huh (Woosong University) Becky Elliott (WnB Press) Auditor Yong Joon Yang (Jeju National University) Advisors (January 2014 ~ December 2015) Richard R. Day (University of Hawai’i, USA)* Rod Ellis (University of Auckland, New Zealand)* Alan Maley (Oxford University Press, UK)* Paul Nation (Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand)* Doo-Bon Bae (Hankuk University of Foreign Studies)* Do-Seon Eur (Korea University)* Editorial Committee Members (January 2014 ~ December 2015) Marc Helgesen (Miyagi Gakuin Women's University, Japan)* Keiko Koda (Carnegie Mellon University, USA)* Thomas N. Robb (Kyoto Sangyo University, Japan)* Averil Coxhead (Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand)* Melanie Gobert (Higher Colleges of Technology, United Arab Emirates)* Mark Brierley (Shinshu University, Japan)* Sang-Soo Yeo (Mokwon University) Jien Kim (Kwandong University) Kyungsook Chang (Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation) Hye Young Kang (National Institute for International Education) Kyeong-hoon Kim (Kwangju Women’s University) Journal of Extensive Reading in Foreign Language Korean English Extensive Reading Association Vol. 1, No. 1 Winter 2014 ________________________________________________________________ Tetsushi Takemori, Yoko Kodama, Kriss Lange How a Japanese Junior College Added ER to Its English Curriculum Bjorn Fuisting Principles and Practice of Extensive Reading 1 15 Eunsol Shin Extensive Reading and the English Section 21 of the Korean Scholastic Aptitude Test: A Diary Study of a Korean High School Student Sakae Onoda Investigating Effects of Extensive Listening on 43 Listening Skill Development in EFL Classes Kiyomi Yoshizawa Atsuko Takase Kyoko Otsuki Will Extensive Reading Help L2 Learners’ Use of Context While Processing Text? 57 1 Journal of Extensive Reading in Foreign Language Vol. 1, No. 1 Winter 2014 How a Japanese Junior College Added ER to its English Curriculum TetsushiTakemori Miyagi University of Education Yoko Kodama University of Shimane Junior College Kriss Lange University of Shimane Junior College Takemori, T., Kodama, Y., &Lange, K (2013), How a Japanese Junior College Added ER to its English Curriculum.Journal of Extensive Reading in Foreign Language. 1(1), 1-13. ABSTRACT We started a new English curriculum including ER in 2012. We will report the history and results of our ER program. Starting as an extracurricular ER activity, we continued to develop ways to encourage students to read more by developing our program. We discuss how we made use of ER in our regular classes such as American and British Literature, English Writing, and Graduation Project. We also discuss our new courses such as Extensive Reading A and B, and Extensive Listening with the results of improvements in the students’ English proficiency and in their attitudes toward reading. Our results are based on survey results, class observations, and proficiency test scores. (110 words) I. General Background of English Education at Our Two-Year College In 2007, we restructured the department and build a new curriculum. The general trend was toward fewer English classes. Reading classes, including literature classes especially, were cut back. Before restructuring, there were 8 Literature courses and after 2 Tetsushi Takemori·Yoko Kodama·Kriss Lange restructuring, only 4 were offered in our two-year curriculum. However, other practical skill courses such as speaking, listening and writing courses were maintained at 4 courses for speaking, 3 for listening and 4 for writing.These curriculum changes were in response to the perceived needs of our students who seemed to be more interested in practical English courses. II. Changes We have Found in Students’ English Ability Our most reliable and constant means of evaluating our students’ English proficiency is with the TOEIC test that we give twice a year. The results of the TOEIC test before restructuring our curriculum show that a larger part of the gains made were in the reading section. For example, in 2006 our first and second year student total gains on the two tests were 11.1 points,with 9.4 pointsgained on the reading section, but only 1.7 points on the listening section. The same thing can be said in 2007 where the total gains on the two tests were 19.4 points, with 14.3 gained in the reading section and just 5.1 in the listening section. These proportions clearly favor gains in reading (see Table 1). TABLE 1 TOEIC Score Gains Over 6 Month Period in 2006 and 2007 1st and 2nd Year Listening Reading Total 2006 1.7 9.4 11.1 2007 5.1 14.3 19.4 Students After restructuring, the proportion of TOEIC reading and listening score gains began to change. We began to notice lower gains in TOEIC reading scores. For example, in 2008, almost all of the gains made between the first and second TOEIC tests were from the listening section (32.8 points) and students only gained an average of 0.4 points on the reading section. Again in 2010,of the 21.5 points gained on the second TOEIC, 24.7 points came from listening and there was a negative gain of 3.1 points on the reading sections (see Table 2).1We presumed that our students’ reading proficiency was in decline, possibly due to factors such as the restructuring of the curriculum with the decrease of English reading courses. 3 How a Japanese Junior College Added ER to Its English Curriculum TABLE 2 TOEIC Score Gains Over 6 Month Period in 2008 and 2010 1st and 2nd Year Students Listening Reading Total 2008 32.8 0.4 33.2 2010 24.7 -3.1 21.5 III. History of Using ER at this Junior College 1. Starting ER with graduation project group Professor Lange started using ER in his graduation project seminar with a group of 6 students. The results were very promising. The average reading amount was 608,000 words a year, which means 304,000 words in one semester. One student read 1,291,000 words in one year, while another read 809,000 words and both of their TOEIC reading scores increased by about 80 points during the year. In addition, the average gains on the TOEIC reading section of the 6 graduation project students were on average 41 points higher than the average gains of the rest of the second year English majors (see Table 3). TABLE 3 2009 ER Graduation Project Students’TOEIC Results Students One Year Gains on TOEIC Tests GP 2008.12.03 A 545 B 435 C 245 D 455 E 305 F 325 315 230 300 135 145 100 305 150 215 90 230 95 2009.06.27 530 420 405 530 290 305 265 265 255 165 200 205 310 220 195 95 205 100 TOEIC 2009.11.25 615 560 345 615 335 235 305 310 345 215 235 110 360 255 225 110 140 95 Total Words L.S. R.S. T.S. Read -10 80 70 1,291,047 45 80 125 809,340 90 10 100 690,906 55 105 160 478,635 10 20 30 325,786 -90 0 -90 52,194 4 Tetsushi Takemori·Yoko Kodama·Kriss Lange GP Averages 385 2nd Year Ave. 413 133 262 English Major 252 238 451 175 251 441 183 16.7 49.2 65.8 -3.4 6.6 3.4 607,985 258 436 179 268 444 193 186 (n=23) 2. Extracurricular Activities from the 2nd semester of 2009 to the 1st semester of 2011 Being encouraged by the results of the graduation project, Takemori, Kodama, and Lange moved toward wider implementation of ER for our students. We received a special research subsidy from the Universityof Shimane in 2009 and 2010, with which we could provide our students with more graded readers and leveled readers for ER. From 2011 to 2013, we received a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the government. With this grant we increased the books for ER in our library (see Table 4). TABLE 4 ER Library Publisher and Number of Titles Publisher Stages Titles Cambridge U. Press 0 to 6 83 Footprints Reading Library 1 to 2 26 Foundations Reading Library 1 to 7 42 I Can Read 0 to 4 195 Ladder Series 1 to 5 128 Macmillan Readers 1 to 6 160 Oxford Reading Tree 2 to 11 196 Oxford Bookworms 0 to 6 242 Penguin Readers 0 to 6 337 Our first activity was to introduce ER to the students through an extracurricular activity. The following is the history of the extracurricular activities from 2009 to 2011. 1) ER Club 1 In the second semester of 2009, we organized the ER club and advertised it in various How a Japanese Junior College Added ER to Its English Curriculum 5 English related courses. The activity of the club was simply to get together in a reading room in the college library and read graded readers and leveled readers using the SSS style ER method. SSS style means Start with Simple Stories and students were encouraged to read a lot of easy books without using dictionaries, skipping parts they didn’t understand and switching to a different book at any time if they wanted. The number of participants was 14 with 9 English majors and 5 Japanese majors. We gathered twice a week for 45 minutes, 28 times a semester. Two meetings were used for the pre and post tests.They generally liked reading in this way so they came to the library regularly and read. The average reading amount was 62,000 words with the highest of 85,000 and the lowest of 42,000. We figured out the reading speed as 76 words per minute (wpm), calculating the words read and the time spent (See Table 5). We gave the students the pre and post Cloze tests to measure the increase in their reading proficiency.The students made average gains of 6 points on the post test. The 9 English majors who participated regularly made an average gain of 27.2 points on the reading section of the TOEIC test. The average rate of attendance was 81%. Some students came regularly but others didn’t. This may be because we met after classes and it may have been a little too late for some of them as one student commented in a questionnaire. We realized that it was important to consider the meeting times to maximize attendance. 2) ER Club 2 The activity period for ER Club 2 was in the first semester of 2010. We gathered twice a week for 45 minutes, 26 times a semester. Two meetings were used for the pre and post tests as in Club 1. The number of participants was 8 first year students with 7 English majors and 1 Japanese major. One second year Japanese major continued from Club 1. She was the only one to continue even though many students from Club 1 indicated that they would like to continue doing ER in the questionnaire. The average reading amount was 57,000 words with the highest of 87,000 and the lowest of 30,000. Using the same calculation as in Club 1, we figured out the reading speed as 86 wpm. The one second year student who continued from Club 1 read at 100 wpm. This gain from the average of 76 wpm in Club 1 indicates the importance of continuing extensive reading. On the same Cloze test we used in Club 1, students made an average gain of 15 points. The one second year continuing student from Club 1 made the highest gain of 27 points on the post-test. This student read over 150,000 words in Club 1 and 2. Since she was a Japanese major who took very few English courses, we may be able to attribute these gains to ER. The average rate of attendance was 61%. The meeting times were the same as that of 6 Tetsushi Takemori·Yoko Kodama·Kriss Lange Club 1. Due to scheduling constraints we had to set the club meeting times after classes again. It was especially difficult to adjust the meeting times to the needs of all students of different majors and years (see Table 5). TABLE 5 ER Club from 2009 -2010 ER Club Year Number of Students Number of Meetings (45 min) Attendan Word ce Totals Rate (aver) Highest Lowest Total Total Reading Speed (wpm) Club 1 (2nd sem. 14 28 81% 62,000 85,000 42,000 76 9 26 61% 57,000 87,000 30,000 86 2009) Club 2 (1st sem. 2010) 3) ER Club 3 and ER Club 4 ER Club 3 was in the second semester of 2010. We tried to make several improvements in Club 3 to increase attendance and amount of reading. After seeing the results of rather low attendance rates of Club 2, we set the meeting session at 4 times a week to give choices for the students to fit their own class schedules. But having so many options for meetings was actually detrimental to attendance. The easier they could come, the fewer times they came. We also tried a new test to measure the effectiveness of ER. The Cloze test that we had been using took about 60 minutes and students felt this was too long. So, we used a new comprehension test from the publisher of Penguin Readers. Although we gave the pre comprehension test to the students, we could not give them the post test due to the scarce attendance of the students. For the activity of Club 3, we made an original ER recording booklet called ‘The First Stage’ which already includes the YL (readability score for Japanese students), word numbers and titles of the ER books we have in our library. The students could save recording time especially of the lower level books by using this booklet. They also used ready-made, blank recording books after they finished ‘The First Stage’ booklet. Club 4 was in the first semester of 2011. We gathered twice a week for 45 minutes, 29 times a semester. We tried to find the best possible times for students to meet between classes. The attendance rate was only 36%.We think this illustrates just how difficult it can be to maintain attendance in a club activity. 7 How a Japanese Junior College Added ER to Its English Curriculum 3. In-class Reading in Writing Classes and Making Use of Graded Readers in Literature Classes 1) Writing Classes In order to share the beneficial effects of ER with more students Lange added in-class ER to his writing courses for first and second year students in the first semester of the 2010 academic year. Writing 1 for first year students had 14 students. Writing 3 for second year students had 8 students. Students were given 20 minutes for reading in class. The first year students’ average in reading amount was about 46,000 words for the semester while the second year students read about 31,000 wordson average. If we roughly figure that students read 80 wpm (based on the ER Club’s calculations of 76 and 86 wpm) during the 20 minute in-class ER time, students would have read about 21,000 words, so both groups must have also spent time reading outside of class. Some of the students taking the course were also regular ER Club members. Similar implementation of ER was also carried out in Lange’s 2011 writing courses. Students were given over twice as much time, 45 minutes, in the first year writing classes for in-class ER. This increase in time for reading, however, did not lead to a proportional increase in words read. The average reading amount was 60,000 words. If students read at 80 wpm using the same calculation above to find how many of those words were read in class,we see that about 47,000 words could have been read in class. This figure is only 1000 words more than the first year students’ average of 46,000 words in the 2010 Writing Class,even though they had half as much time to read in class. The first year writing course students in 2011 did in-class ER for 45 minutes but spent less time reading outside of class compared with those of 2010 who did in-class ER for 20 minutes (see Table 6). TABLE 6 ER in Writing Courses in 2010 and 2011 Number Year and Course of Students Expected Actual Time for SSR word Word SSR (min.) totals(80 Totals wpm) (aver) 20,800 45,745 24,945 20,800 30,654 9,854 Words read out of class 2010 Writing 1 (1st year, 1st sem.) Writing 3 (2nd year, 1st sem.) 2011 16 8 13 classes X 20 min. 8 Tetsushi Takemori·Yoko Kodama·Kriss Lange Writing 1 (1st year, 1st sem.) 17 13 classes X 45 min. 46,800 60,000 13,200 This in-class ER was a good chance for more of our students to experience ER. The average word totals were not that large but some students developed the habit of reading extensively with one student reaching over 180,000 words. 2) Literature Classes In 2010 and 2011, ‘Reading British and American Literature B’were offered to second year students in the second semester. About 35 students took the courses. TheChristmas Carol (Oxford Bookworms Stage 3, 10,385 words) was assigned as homework over the winter vacation in both years. After the vacation students took a comprehension test on the book. The average score was 80%. In 2011, ‘Reading British and American Literature C’was offered to second year students in the first semester. 15 students took the course. Moby Dick (Macmillan Readers Level 6, 34,000 words) was used as the textbook for the course. In class students focused on understanding the plot, characters and general content of the novel. In the questionnaires given during the last class period, 60% of the students felt that they could understand more than 80% of the story. About 70% of them enjoyed reading the story. In 2012, ‘Introduction to American Literature’ was offered to the first year students in the second semester.About 35 students took the course. Pocahontas (Oxford Bookworms Stage 1, 5,300 words) was assigned as homework over the winter vacation. After the vacation students took a comprehension test on the book (see Table 7). TABLE 7 ER in Literature Courses from 2010 to 2012 Year / Course Book Title 2nd year, Reading British and A Christmas 2nd Sem. American Literature B Carol 2nd year, Reading British and A Christmas 2nd Sem. American Literature B Carol Sem. Publisher. / Word Homework Stage Total / In-Class Oxford 3 10,385 Homework Oxford 3 10,385 Homework 2010 2011 9 How a Japanese Junior College Added ER to Its English Curriculum 2nd year, Reading British and 2nd Sem. American Literature C Moby Dick Macmillan 34,000 In-Class Oxford 3 10,385 Homework Oxford 1 5,320 Homework 6 2012 2nd year, Reading British and A Christmas 2nd Sem. American Literature B Carol 1st year, Introduction to American 2nd Sem. Literature Pocahontas In these literature courses we expected that they could enjoy the story while improving their reading proficiency by reading famous works of literature. 4. Findings through ER Club activities from 2009 to 2011 Through ER Club activities since 2009, we could obtain the basic information about reading rate and average amount of words students could read. For example, based on the club data, the average number of words they can read if meeting twice a week for 45 minutes, 25 times in a semester is 60,000 words. Student average reading speed is about 80 wpm. We gave a questionnaire to determine student attitudes towards ER and any effects they might have noticed. Some of their responses were consistently high. For example, many students felt that their resistance to reading English lessened, reading books was fun and they’d like to continue to do ER. Nevertheless, student rates of attendance to the ER Clubs were rather low after Club 1. Also, we should take note that only one student continued from Club 1 to Club 2. Thismight have been partly because of the difficulty in arranging an ER club meeting time when students could consistently attend.Another reason we can think of is that second year students at a two year college must focus on job-hunting or transferring to a four year university so their time is limited and continuing extra-curricular activities is difficult. It is said in Tadoku-Tacho Magazine(vol. 19, pp.10-28), if students read more than 100,000 words, they will notice that their reading comprehension will improve. And, reading over 150,000 words, reading speed will increase. One student who read over 150,000 words in ER Club 1 and 2 showed higher reading speeds and better reading comprehension.So, an important first step to continue ER is to help students read over 100,000 words. 10 Tetsushi Takemori·Yoko Kodama·Kriss Lange IV. New Courses for ER and Extensive Listening 1. Establishing the New Courses Starting in 2012 we put ER Course A in the first semester for first year students, and ER Course B and Extensive Listening (EL) in the second semester for first year students into our curriculum. Through ER club activities since 2009, we could gather the basic information on what we can expect students to do. For example, the average number of words they can read over a semester, average gains we can expect on proficiency tests, how much students can maintain interest in ER and to continue with ER. This information was valuable when designing these new courses. By creating courses for ER we could concentrate more directly on motivating students to read and ensure enough time in class for reading the minimum amount of words. By setting ER courses in the first and second semesters, students have a chance to continue reading throughout the year. This creates the continuity needed to reach word totals as high as 100,000. 2. Implementing the Courses We started ‘Extensive Reading A’, ‘Extensive Reading B’ and ‘Extensive Listening’ classes for the 2012 entering students. Almost all of our students majoring in English took these courses but there was a wide range in the number of total words read in each course.The total reading/listening goal for each course was roughly 100,000 words. There were a few students who were able to achieve this goal. Extensive Reading courses A and B both give students about 45 minutes of in-class reading time. Based on the average reading speed of the students, we figured out the minimum number of words they can read just by attending classes. From this number we set the minimum word total requirement for Extensive Reading A at 35,000 words, Extensive Reading B at 40,000 words and Extensive Listening at 20,000 words. These totals, plus the words read from literature courses for first year students, should bring the minimum total number of words to 100,000. In ER Course A there were 25 students who read an average of 49,000 words. In ER Course B and Extensive Listening which are offered in the second semester the combined average word total was 89,000 words. 28 students attended ER Course B and 31 students took EL (see Table 8). 11 How a Japanese Junior College Added ER to Its English Curriculum TABLE 8 ER Courses Results from 2012 Number 2012 ER/ EL Courses of Students ER Course A (first semester 2012) ER Course B (second semester 2012) Extensive Listening Course (second semester 2012) 25 28 31 Expected Actual Time for word total Word SSR (min.) from SSR (at Totals 80 wpm) (aver.) 46,800 48,893 13 classes X 45 min. 13 classes X 45 min. 13 classes X 9 min. 46,800 89,074 9,360 Out of the 22 students who took all three courses, 15 achieved the minimum word goal of 100,000 words. There were two who read over 300,000 and 6 who read over 200,000. On the other hand, 7 students couldn’t achieve the minimum goal. One of our challenges from now on is how to help students who couldn’t reach 100,000 words achieve the minimum word goal. We examined the TOEIC scores for the first year students according to the average number of words they read. We found that those who read more than 200,000 words made average gains of 43 points in the reading section and 78 points in their total score from the first test in July to the second test in December in 2012. Then on the third TOEIC test they gained an average of 63 points on the reading section and 120 for the total score from their first test scores. Students who read between 190,000 and 100,000 words made average gains of 20 points in the reading section and 5 points in their total score from the first test in July to the second test in December in 2012. Then on the third TOEIC test they gained an average of 27.5 points on the reading section and 35 for the total score from their first test scores. These TOEIC scores seem to clearly reflect the amount of reading the students completed(see Figure 1). 12 Tetsushi Takemori·Yoko Kodama·Kriss Lange FIGURE 1 One Year TOEIC Gains Grouped by Amount of Words Read 140.0 120.0 120.0 ER Word Total Groups 100.0 80.0 60.0 57.1 35.0 40.0 20.0 read > 200,000 words 62.9 27.5 7.5 3.8 190,000 - 100,000 words read < 100,000 words 6.3 2.5 0.0 Listening Reading Total V. Conclusion Returning to the topic of gains on the TOEIC tests, our students continued to show a lower percentage of gains on the reading section since the restructuring of the curriculum as discussed in section II. However, the gains for the 2012 entering students, who began attending our college after Extensive Reading A, B and EL were added to the curriculum, are encouraging. Their reading score went up an average of 26.5 points from July 2012 to July 2013. Listening scores also increased by 19 points resulting in a total gain of 45.5 points on the TOEIC in one year. After one year, we could see the expected results of using ER. Our present challenge is to help more students reach the minimum word goal. 13 How a Japanese Junior College Added ER to Its English Curriculum APPENDIX Content Notes for Reference 1 TOEIC Score Summary from 2006 to 2010 1st TOEIC Scores 1st and 2nd year 2nd TOEIC Scores students n L R T n L R T 2006 101 253.3 154.5 407.7 73 254.9 163.9 418.8 2007 97 239.5 164.5 404 84 244.6 178.8 423.3 1st TOEIC Scores 1st year students 2nd TOEIC Scores n L R T n L R T 2008 35 220.9 165.4 386.3 30 253.7 165.8 419.5 2010 24 246.7 170.4 417.1 22 271.4 167.3 438.6 Key words: Extensive reading, English curriculum, Japanese Junior College, TOEIC scores The Authors TetsushiTakemori Faculty of Education, Miyagi University of Education 149, Aramaki-aza-Aoba, Aobaku, Sendai, 980-0845, Japan Tel: 022-214-3496 E-mail: [email protected] Yoko Kodama Department of Arts and Sciences, University of Shimane Junior College Kriss Lange Department of Arts and Sciences, University of Shimane Junior College 24-2 Hamanogi 7-chome, Matsue Shimane, 690-0044, Japan Tel: 0852-26-5525/0852-20-0228 Fax: 0852-21-8150 E-mail: [email protected] / [email protected] This research has been subsidized by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the government from 2011 to 2013. 15 Principles and Practice of Extensive Reading Journal of Extensive Reading in Foreign Language Vol. 1, No. 1 Winter 2014 Principles & Practice of Extensive Reading Bjorn Fuisting Ritsumeikan University Fuisting, Bjorn (2013), Principles & Practice of Extensive Reading. Journal of Extensive Reading in Foreign Language. 1(1), 15-20. ABSTRACT Starting or revamping an Extensive Reading (ER) program can be a daunting task. There are several factors to consider, including reading materials, objectives, grades, and the role of the teacher among others. Richard Day and Julian Bamford (2002) have outlined ten fundamental principles of ER but how can they be used to implement an ER program from the ground up? This article discusses these ten principles of ER and suggests how they can be practically applied when planning an ER program, as well as provides tips for avoiding pitfalls encountered when planning/implementing an ER course. (95 words) I. Introduction Extensive Reading (ER) comes in many shapes and forms. A single definition is hard to come by but in 1990 Susser and Robb summarized various research into their working definition of “reading (a) of large quantities of material or long texts; (b) for global or general understanding; (c) with the intention of obtaining pleasure from the text” (Susser& Robb, 1990, p.165). The definition has since been expanded and explained in more details and Richard Day and Julian Bamford (2002) have listed ten fundamental principles of ER. The Day and Bamford principles were inspired by Williams (1986) and have been developed over the considerable time they have been involved in researching and promoting ER. This article will discuss these ten principles and suggest how they can be practically applied when planning an ER program, as well as provide tips for avoiding pitfalls encountered when planning/implementing an ER course. 16 Bjorn Fuisting II. Top Ten Principles for Teaching Extensive Reading These are the top ten principles as originally listed by (Bamford& Day (2002). 1 The reading material is easy 2 A variety of reading material on a wide range of topics must be available 3 Learners choose what they want to read 4 Learners read as much as possible 5The purpose of reading is usually related to pleasure, information and general understanding 6 Reading is its own reward 7 Reading speed is usually faster rather than slower 8 Reading is individual and silent 9 Teachers orient and guide their students 10 The teacher is a role model of a reader When the list was published in 2002, two responses where published in the same issue of Reading in a Foreign Language (Prowse, 2002, and Robb, 2002). Whilst Prowse mainly concurs with Day and Bamford, he also advocates the use of recordings, Robb disagrees with the 6th principle ‘Reading is its own reward’. He claims that there need to be some kind of control function and that reading “to satisfy a course requirement” might be necessary in order to motivate students to continue to read (Robb, 2002, p. 146). 1. Issues and Advice The ten ER principles are a good starting point but when putting them into practice some issues arise, especially when it comes the reading material, covered by principle 1 and 2, and the purpose, principle 5and6. 1) Reading Material In addition to Day and Bamford’s principles of easy and varied material, Williams claims that “In the absence of interesting texts, very little is possible” (1986, p. 42)and Prowse (2002) stresses that texts should be easy and engaging. This makes selecting books one of the most crucial aspects of any ER program. In the author’s experience, the largest difficulties have been in securing enough funds and convincing faculty and staff to supply material that is easy enough for the students. It is recommended that there should be few or no unfamiliar items of vocabulary. Hu and Nation (2002) state it is Principles and Practice of Extensive Reading 17 necessary for readers to have a 98% coverage rate of the vocabulary. However, this may mean that some college students should be reading very simple texts, such as Reading Foundation Library or even Building Blocks Library. Both these series are excellent for lower level students but were rejected to be purchased by a mid-level private university in Japan due to being deemed beneath university level.As a result, the author had to use his private funds as well as donated samples to secure enough books at an appropriate level for the ER program. Once students are able to read at the 200-250 headword level the choice of material greatly increases, but it can still be a challenge to have your institution purchase enough books. Having students buy and donate books and using library or material budgets are other ways of securing funds (see more suggestions in Waring, 2000). For a successful program you need to have a minimum of three books per student in the program, preferably more (Extensive Reading Foundation [ERF], 2011). There is also a lot of free materials available that can inspire and improve your ER program (Fuisting, 2010). Following the principles of having a variety of topics and engaging material is getting easier with more and more material being published for the EFL market. The Language Learner Literature (LLL) awards, administrated by the Extensive Reading Foundation, can serve as a good guide to high quality books written for learners of English. An excellent example of a low level but extremely engaging, and sadly always current topic, is Phil Prowse’s Why? (2008). It deals with the subject of war but is written at a beginner level of 250 headwords. In terms of variety, it is recommended to include several publishers’ series, and both fiction and non-fiction, original stories and adaptations, as well as a variety of genres (ERF, 2011). 2) Purpose Day and Bamford (2002) state ‘Reading is its own reward’ and other ER advocates (Prowse, 2002; Williams, 1986) strongly discourage the use of the quizzes and other forms of tests to check if students have read the books they claim to have completed. Book talks, reviews and discussions could instead be used to measure if the students have engaged with the book (Bamford& Day, 2003). Depending on the nature of the class this approach might be suitable. However, most educational institutions require some kind of control function and it can be argued that passing a quiz and thereby increasing the number of words read can be motivational (Robb, 2002). In the author’s experience the Moodle Reader, developed by Tom Robb at Kyoto Sangyo University, Japan, is one of the best and easiest to use ER monitoring systems. It can be used for individual classes or institutional wide ER programs. It covers and impressive 3000+ graded readers and books for young readers and is based on the amount of words read 18 Bjorn Fuisting (see www.moodlereader.org). III. Conclusion The principles stated by Day and Bamford are a very good guide and inspiration for how to do ER but each educator should look at his or her situation and adapt these principles as necessary. The students’ and the institution’s needs and capabilities should be taken into account when deciding how to adjust the principles. The author has broken down the original ten ER principles into five areas and added some brief advice for each one that has proven to be successful in the 10 years he has been teaching ER at junior high school, senior high school and university in Japan. Reading Material 1 The reading material is easy 2 A variety of reading material on a wide range of topics must be available Choose material below students’ normal reading level Few or no unfamiliar items of vocabulary or grammar Sets of books can be good but have a variety of series You need a minimum of 3 books per student Include a variety of genres including non-fiction Learner’s choice & goals 3 Learners choose what they want to read 4 Learners read as much as possible Allow students to choose both which level and which books to read One book per week or a set amount of words per semester/course Purpose 5The purpose of reading is usually related to pleasure, information and general understanding 6 Reading is its own reward Use follow-up activities such as book talks, recommendations & discussions There are no or minimal tests and/or book reports If quizzes must be used, the Moodle Reader is highly recommended Principles and Practice of Extensive Reading 19 Reading style 7 Reading speed is usually faster rather than slower 8 Reading is individual and silent Start by having sustained silent reading (SSR) during class time Gradually move to set the reading as homework Consider adding a Speed Reading course to your class Teacher’s role 9 Teachers orient and guide their students 10 The teacher is a role model of a reader Help students select books Read yourself during SSR to show your love of reading Apart from the above recommendations on the implementation of the principles of ER there are also a lot of resources and advice available for starting an ER program. The Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT) ER Special Interest Group has collected some of the major ones on their website (www.ersig.org/drupal-ersig/links) and an in 2010 Oxford published an excellent book written by ten different researcher and practitioners on different aspects of ER (Day et al, 2010). Good luck with your ER program. REFERENCES Bamford, J., & Day, R. R. (Eds.).(2003). Extensive reading activities for teaching language.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Day, R., Bassett, J., Parminter, S., Bullard, N., Furr, M. Prentice, N. Mahmood, M., Stewart, D., & Robb, T. (2010).Bringing extensive reading into the classroom: A practical guide to introducing extensive reading and its benefits to the learner. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Day, R., &Bamford, J. (2002).Top ten principles for teaching extensive reading.Reading in a Foreign Language 14(2), 136-141. Extensive Reading Foundation (2011).The Extensive Reading Foundation’s Guide to Extensive Reading. Japan: Extensive Reading Foundation. Fuisting, B. (2010). Free ER resources from publishers. ExtensiveReading in Japan 3(1), 20 Bjorn Fuisting 13-14. Hu, M., & Nation, I. S. P. (2000).Vocabulary density and reading comprehension.Readingin a Foreign Language 13(1), 403-430. Prowse, P. (2002). Top ten principles for teaching extensive reading: A response. Reading in a Foreign Language 14(2), 142-145. Prowse, P. (2008). Why? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Robb, T. (2002).Extensive reading in the Asian context -- An alternative view.Reading in a Foreign Language 14(2), 146-147. Susser, B., & Robb, T. N. (1990).EFL Extensive reading instruction: Research and procedure. JALT Journal 12(2) 161-185. Waring, R. (2000) Guide to the ’Why’ and ’How’ of using graded readers. Japan: Oxford University Press. Williams, R. (1986). "Top ten" principles for teaching reading.ELT Journal40(1), 42-45. Applicable levels: Junior high school, senior high school, university Key words: Extensive Reading, principles, implementation, practical advice Author Bjorn Fuisting, RitsumeikanUniversityBiwako-Kusatsu Campus. 1-1-1 Noji-higashi,Kusatsu Shiga 525-8577 JAPAN Tel: +81-77-561-3946 [email protected] 21 Journal of Extensive Reading in Foreign Language Vol. 1, No. 1 Winter 2014 Extensive Reading and the English Section of the Korean Scholastic Aptitude Test: A Diary Study of a Korean High School Student Shin Eunsol Korea National University of Education Eunsol, Shin (2013), Extensive Reading and the English Section of the Korean Scholastic Aptitude Test: A Diary Study of a Korean High School Student. Journal of Extensive Reading in Foreign Language.1(1), 21 -41. ABSTRACT In the process of learning English, many Korean students feel pressure to achieve good grades to enter a prestigious university. In such a situation, extensive reading may serve to encourage students to read English books without pressure. Consequently, an 8-week extensive reading individual case study was conducted with an 18-year-old high school student to assess how it can influence performance on the English section of the Korean Scholastic Aptitude Test (KSAT). During 8 weeks, a participant read 16 books according to his level and interest, keeping his reading journals. It was found that the volume of words is expanded, reading speed and comprehension is enhanced, and grades from mock tests are improved. The participant also expressed that he could overcome the fear to read books and solve questions from the Englishsection of the KSAT and raise motivation to study English through the influence of extensive reading. These findings suggest that incorporating extensive reading into theexisting English education system in Korea provides a viable mechanism through which to improve English language learning. (169 words) 22 Shin Eunsol I. INTRODUCTION For most Korean high school students, gaining high scores in the Korean Scholastic Aptitude Test, the most crucial exam to enter the top universities in Korea, could be the strongest motivating factor for studying English.Yet, many students in Korea are burdened by studying English, approaching it with tangible results and achievement in their mind rather than enjoyment.A recent survey of 28,762 elementary, middle, and high school students conducted by the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education (2011), suggests that students are reluctant to study English because they find it boring and difficult.For example, high school students found English class too boring (33.4%) and hard to handle (20.5%).However, this is a natural outcome because the high school curriculum concentrates on preparing students for the college entrance exams, which have many difficult questions often beyond the ability of the students. Moreover, it employs a textbook-based approach focusing on grammar teaching, vocabulary learning, and reading comprehension leading students to harbor a defensive and negative attitude towards English (Heo, Choi, & Lee, 2009), which suggests thatthe future of English education in Korea does not look too promising. Another notable result is that students’ responses about improving the effectiveness of English classes included more interesting classes, improvement of the current classroom environment, and various after-school programs. From the survey by the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education (2011), 18.2% of students also responded that a reading program withEnglish books is needed as the most efficient way of studying English. Thus, to deal with problems facing the Korean English education system, a great deal of change is needed, including encouraging students to study and read English books, as opposed to textbooks, without undue pressure and a governmentlevel improvement to fix the overall picture of English education. For several years, there have been numerous studies indicating that extensive reading affects reading comprehension and speed (Bell, 2001; Robb & Susser, 1989), vocabulary gains (Cho & Krashen, 1994; Horst, 2005, Pitts, White, & Krashen, 1989), writing (Hafiz & Tudor, 1990; Tsang, 1996), and even listening proficiency (Elley & Mangubhai, 1983). These studies offer educators the chance to consider and implement extensive reading programs in classroom settings. These are quantitative studies with a focus on whether extensive reading influences students positively.But, there are few qualitative studies which show what exactly learners are going through and gaining, through an extensive reading program, sometimes losing the opportunity to observe learners’ situation and viewpoint. Besides, there have only been few studies specifically focusing on the relevance between the KSAT and extensive reading until now, except for extensive reading studies Extensive Reading and the English Section of the Korean Scholastic Aptitude Test: A Diary Study of a Korean High School Student 23 regarding classroom environment (Lee & Kim, 2007), vocabulary gains (Cha, 2009), and motivation (Shin & Ahn, 2006) focusing on Korean English education. Consequently, the present study examines the core relationship between extensive reading and the English section of the KSAT in a form of a learner’s diary study, which is defined as “a first-person account of a language learning or teaching experience, documented through regular, candid entries in a personal journal and then analyzed for recurring patterns or salient events”(Bailey, 1990, p.215). In other words, this study aims to investigate both the benefits and challenges that one might have when engaging in extensive reading and find out how extensive reading affects solving questions from English section in KSAT. II. EXTENSIVE READING AND KSAT 1. Extensive Reading The increasing attention to extensive reading is based on Krashen’s (1993) theory which states that “when second language learners read for pleasure, they can continue to improve in their second language without classes, without teachers, without study and even without people to converse with.”Additionally, Krashen’s Input Hypothesis (1982, 1997) and Comprehension Hypothesis (2004) may support the value of extensive reading, asserting that comprehensible input and low affective filter should be considered as the prime need. Krashen also suggests that reading materials must be abundantly available, comprehensible, and of a slightly high-level input. Furthermore, extensive reading acts as an implicit learning system (Grabe, 2009, p. 63). Table 1, drawn from Grabe (2009)outlines the way that reading skills are acquired as implicit knowledge through extensive reading. Table 1 Reading Tasks that Involve Implicit and Explicit Learning Implicit Learning Explicit Learning Improving word recognition with known Learning new words on first encounters words through fluent text reading and through explicit definitions rereading Stabilizing and expanding word meanings by Learning new word meanings by noticing being exposed to words again in similar and new uses of words and figuring out their new contexts meanings 24 Shin Eunsol Expanding word meanings through multiple Learning incidental contacts with a word in consistent intentionally making inferences from context new word meanings by supporting contexts information Processing letter-sounds correspondences by Attending to letter-sound correspondence by reading easy texts direct instruction Increasing word reading fluency through large Attending to words that are not well amounts of extensive reading established by noting words that reappear of intentionally using the word Increasing text reading fluency by rereading Intentionally practicing passage reading to texts and by extensive reading with easy texts improve reading accuracy 2. Korean SAT The Korean College Scholastic Aptitude Test measures students’aptitudein the areas necessary for college education and makes students choose what subjects they take for the test, as a credible and objective resource for universities to select students while also aiming to improve the academic standards of public school system. The English section ofthe KSAT exam demands that students have comprehensive linguistic ability. It assesses communicative competence and thinking skills for college-level inference ability at the same time. There are four types of questions in the test: listening, speaking, reading, and writing to assess language abilityaround vocabulary, grammar, and thinking skill, emphasizing both accuracy and fluency. Examination questionsaim to make the best use of all textbooks published for the year and to avoid introducing a particular subject and textbook. The level of vocabulary is decided on according to frequency in optional subjects or intensive classes. In other words, the English section ofthe KSAT exam demands that students have comprehensive linguistic ability. Thus, whether a single method of teaching English is appropriate for such a wide variety of skills is unclear. Consequently, some language instructors in Korea are increasingly seeking alternative approaches to teaching English but the problem still remains that many students struggle to concentrate on target language and finding effective ways to produce better grades in the KSAT. Introducing extensive reading may complement the existing approach and increase student’s performance in the KSAT. There have been various papers about the effectiveness of extensive reading and analysis of KSAT, but the purpose of this experimentation is to let students, parents, and teachers know how extensive reading influences students, as an initial attempt to relate extensive reading to KSAT. Extensive Reading and the English Section of the Korean Scholastic Aptitude Test: A Diary Study of a Korean High School Student 25 Here are research questions related with what is arranged above. 1. How does the extensive reading help a low-ranking high school student to improve vocabulary, reading speed and comprehension, and especially KSAT scores? 2. What challenges does a student confront in the extensivereading process and how did the learner deal with these challenges? With these research questions, the present study sought to take an exploratory approach to the effectiveness of extensive reading in relation to the KSAT, adopting an in-depth case study with a single participant. A case study provides an illuminating, in depth approach to the understanding of a phenomenon (Rowley, 2000). Consequently, this approach was adopted as it was considered most likely to provide a thorough understanding of how and why extensive reading may or may not support Korean English Language teaching presently. III. METHOD 1. The participant The participant in this case study is 18-year-old high school student. He comes from a middle class family in Korea. He has lived in Korea all his life and never been to any English-speaking countries before. For the last four years, he has spent his time and energy concentrating on athletic achievement such as boxing and taekwondo to get into college on his merits as a sportsman.Even though he has been studying English for about eight years from elementary school and knows the alphabet, basic words, and some phrases, he has always remained in the lowest ranks of his school and been reluctant to study English. In school, he has studied English, using a textbook according to the regular curriculum of his school and an extra workbook which deals with listening and reading comprehension for the KSAT. 2. Procedure The participant was met twice a weekfor 8 weeks from September 17 to November 10 of 2012. Two graded readers a week were provided as homework. Each book has several chapters, from a minimum of five to a maximum of seven chapters.In extensive reading, students are asked to divide these chapters into seven parts to provide a reading for each day of the week. Each session began by checking what he had studied for a week in and out of school and inspecting his assignment of reading graded readers, providing him 26 Shin Eunsol with worksheets and asking him the contents of what he read in order to check whether he actually read the books or not. After reading each book, the student should write short essay in Korean regarding what he read as a form of review and his reaction to the story. He was also supposed to write all the unknown words from the books in his journal. The books he read were borrowed from Sogang University library and classified according to their level. The following table shows the books the participant was supposed to read on a daily basis. Table 2 Book Lists Publisher Level Words Num. Simon and the Spy Penguin Readers Beginner 200 Give us the Money OXFORD Starter 250 Survive! OXFORD Starter 250 The White Stones OXFORD Starter 250 Oranges in the Snow OXFORD Starter 250 Orca OXFORD Starter 250 Starman OXFORD Starter 250 Sally’s Phone OXFORD Starter 250 OXFORD Starter 250 OXFORD Starter 250 Penguin Readers Beginner 300 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Penguin Readers Beginner 300 The Wrong Man Penguin Readers Beginner 300 Amazon Rally Penguin Readers Beginner 300 Penguin Readers Beginner 300 Penguin Readers Beginner 300 Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court Mystery in London The Gift of the Magi and Other Stories Marcel and the Shakespeare Letters A Biker’s Ghost Whenchoosing what he would read, he was allowed to pick what he felt attracted to from a number of books presented to him. However, he was guided to choose books with 95% of known words and 5% of unknown words (Dubin & Olshtain, 1993) in order not to be confused by a number of unknown words, encouraging him to select books of as different a genre and topics as possible. Uponfinding unknown words, he wrote them down on the reading journal and was not allowed to look up dictionary immediately after Extensive Reading and the English Section of the Korean Scholastic Aptitude Test: A Diary Study of a Korean High School Student 27 encountering unknown words. Instead, he was encouraged to figure out what these words were from the context, and allowed to search the dictionary after reading the whole story. When he felt bored toward the book he selected before starting to read in earnest, he could change to recharge his enthusiasm. To be a good model for the student, the researcher read the same books he picked and talked about the contents of the books after reading with him. For pleasure reading, a heavy burden of testing was not imposed on him and it was explained to him that extensive reading was more about what he read and experienced as beneficial tools for his linguisticability rather than to judge him on his capability, even though I prepared after the reading activity and reading journal for each graded reader. It was also emphasized that reading the graded reader silently as homework was like having a sort of relationship with books and experience of extensive reading affected how he learns a foreign language deeply related to his personal life. 3. Instruments and Analysis There were five methods to estimate what the participant has gained during the whole period of experimentation: vocabulary tests (pre and post tests), reading speed (pre and post tests), reading comprehension tests (pre and post tests), mock tests (pre and post tests), and his daily journals. Under conditions of dealing with graded readers for 8 weeks, vocabulary expansion, progress in reading speed and comprehension, improved KSAT mock test scores, and confidence regarding both exams and the language itself would be defined as improved English. Tools for the tests of vocabulary, reading speed and comprehension are extracted from the English exams in the KSAT, and mock tests from professional organizations which are the most similar to the KSAT for judging if a student is influenced by the graded reader books so as to deal with English test. During the experimentation, the participant was not allowed to take other official mock tests. As this study has a purpose of expressing how extensive reading approach influences on a participant in detail, followingstudent’s reading experience with his journals and observing his change is meaningful to the results. Firstly, the vocabulary test was comprised of a word test developed by Lauferand Nation (1999) through a website for word testing to verify the general vocabulary ability and a vocabulary test form with actual words on the English exam of the KSAT from 2009 to 2011, which was devised by the researcher. In order to avoid the participant getting a hint from similar word forms arranged together, words were mixed as randomly as possible. Secondly, reading speed and comprehension ability was measured respectively with exam sheets designed by the researcher, which consisted of 33 random questions extracted from English section of KSAT in 2009– 2011. Because questions set 28 Shin Eunsol at those examinations were taken from careful consideration of eminent scholars in Korea and verified already, the intension of assessing the participant by these questions seems fair. His scholastic level was also measured by mock tests on April 10 from Visangedu (English education institution), June 7 from Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation (KICE,), and November 14 from Gyeonggido Office Education. The last method to judge what he earned from the treatment was his daily journals which included his whole process and history of reading experience – words entries, summary, and reaction to the story in English. Iparticularly guided him to write his feelings in terms of development in his reading in Korean, because it could be the most important standard to write his candid reaction to the language for judging his English ability from what he was saying. This study focuses on the question about how reading graded readers actually affects a student’s grades on the English test of the KSAT. That is why tools are the tests of vocabulary, reading speed and comprehension extracted from the English exams in the KSAT, and mock tests from professional organizations which are the most similar to the KSAT for judging if a student is influenced by the graded reader books so as to deal with English test. During the experimentation, the participant was not allowed to take other official mock tests. As this study has a purpose of expressing how extensive reading approach influences on a participant in detail, thestudent’s reading experience was chronicled with his journals and by observing his change is meaningful to the results. Figure 1 Five Instruments According to Time Order Extensive Reading and the English Section of the Korean Scholastic Aptitude Test: A Diary Study of a Korean High School Student 29 IV. RESULTS 1. Vocabulary During the treatment, the student read two books per week, totaling 16 books. For the first three weeks, he found more than 45 unknown words, about 3 to 4 words per page, from each book and there seemed to be little difference about word gains. However, it was 3 weeks later that the number of unknown words started to reduce gradually. As the experiment entered the sixth week, the numbers seemed to increase to 95 words but the books he read, The Gift of the Magi and Other Stories and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, have 26 pages and 300 headwords, meaning this discrepancy can be explained by asignificant increase in length of readings.Before arriving at the sixth week, he had read books of 250 headwords. To sum up, when taking a close look at the trend of words gain through the whole experimentation, it is easy to verify how he could accumulate vocabulary from graded readers. When analyzing his journals concerning unknown words, several characteristics are found. First, the pattern of unknown words he displayed, including all kinds of inflectional morphemes, lasted for 3 weeks. For example, he could not distinguish the difference between catch and catches, long and longest, asking the meaning of shine, shining, and shines. Secondly, in the first week, he could not recognize what is a proper noun or a common noun. He wrote Skaran and Langrun, which are the name of places, as unknown words in the second week. Yet, he stopped writing those words from the fourth week and presumably could sense the difference. Finally, in his journals, some unidentified words are repeated over and over again, such as suddenly, thief, liquid, nobody, through, etc. Once he was informed that he wrote the same words several times in the third week, he started to pay attention to what he wrote before taking notes and did not write the same words on his journal whatsoever from the fourth week. 2. Reading speed and comprehension In the reading material for the pre-test, there were five questions with 630 words and the participant was asked to check the answer without being pressured by time limitation, having enough time to solve each question. Five post-test reading materials have 678 words and the environment for solving the questions is uniform with that of the pre-test. In the pretest, it took the participant more than 10 minutes to complete the answers and 8 minutes in the post test. Out of 5 questions, he checked 3 correct answers in both tests. In the situation that time is one of the most critical elements in the exams, he reduced more than 2 minutes, which draws a conclusion that he shows marked improvement in this section and possibility of completing questions on time as well. 30 Shin Eunsol Figure 2 Comparison of Pre- and Post-Reading Speed in wpm Reading Speed (wpm) 100 80 60 40 20 0 Reading Speed pretest posttest 58.1 76.75 Reading comprehension test was proceeded by exam papers. Reading materials were made especially for both pre and post test including 33 questions (the same number of questions in KSAT) respectively. Questions were taken out of 2009 – 2011 KSAT English section test papers and they are mixed spontaneously, abiding by the order of questions in KSAT. The number of correct answers and the number of the whole questions are subjected to the following formula: # correct answers # of the whole questions (33) × 100 = reading comprehension scores Figure 3 Reading Comprehesion Score Reading Comprehension Score 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Reading Comprehension pretest posttest 27 69 Extensive Reading and the English Section of the Korean Scholastic Aptitude Test: A Diary Study of a Korean High School Student 31 When taking a close look at his journals, especially in terms of reading comprehension, there is a gradual improvement. It can be seen from the following journal entries, which are translated to English by the researcher: Journal for week 1 “WhenI solved questions in the reading comprehension test from a teacher and questions from mock tests in school, they were too difficult for me to handle, because I did not know most of the words in the paragraphs and honestly, I did not understand what the paragraphs were about. I also felt difficulty in decoding meaning of words in the books the research gave me.” Journal for week 3 “Compared to questions from mock tests or workbook in school, words in the books I read are quite easy for me to deal with. Until last week, I had had hard time understanding and processing what I read, but I think I could grasp the flow of contents in the graded readers.” Journal for week 5 “I like reading comic books rather than normal books with just texts. I also enjoy seeing pictures on certain pages, because I can guess the next episode. As I read the graded readers for the last few weeks, I think the books I read are quite appropriate for my level.” Journal for week 8 “I used to loathe studying English only because I could not understand what it is about. But I think I have confidence from reading graded readers in that I could actually understand contents from the context. I could read one chapter without pausing and concentrate on what I read without distraction, but only if contents were interesting.” Improvement of reading comprehension did not occur in a single day. He received the opportunity to practice and adjust reading materials that he is dealing with from the experience of extensive reading for eight weeks. He often expressed that he was getting better when it comes to reading comprehension and showed satisfaction with graded readers because they did not force him to read against his will. As far as contents are easy and interesting, reading graded readers is effective for reading comprehension and makes learners have confidence about the target language. 3. Mock Test The participant took a mock test as a pre-test before experimentation and one mock test as a post-test for confirming the difference of grades between pre- and post-test. 32 Shin Eunsol Themock test in June proved to be his second examination as a mock test in this year. He confessed that he did not actually solve the questions from the test sheets, checked the answers randomly and fell asleep, even though he controlled himself not to spoil his exam. Table 3 Mock Test Grades Before and After the Treatment Date June 7, 2012 November 14, 2012 Scores out of 100 29 67 After the whole experiment, he scored a 67 on the posttest. He mentioned that he had concentrated on the test felt strained unlike the other times because he took this exam after a committed attempt to study English. He was confident that he could do welland expected better results this time. When compared to the grades of the test in June, 38 points, his achievements in the post-test could provide a greater opportunity to apply for universities because it would be difficult to be accepted by universities with such low grades. In the interview, he expressed excitement and enthusiasm when taking the last exam in that he could actually read questions and solve them with low inhibition and higher confidence. He also mentioned in the following journal entry that doing extensive reading helped him to read fast and see the whole context of the paragraphs he deals with even when he solved questions on mock tests. Journal for week 6 “WhenI solve the questions from workbook in school, I used to translateparagraphs into Korean in my head, because I cannot help but do it. If not, I could not process what I read clearly. In contrast, when I read graded reader, I do not have to translate contents I read in Korean. It sometimes confuses me in that I can read many English words and phrases in graded reader books without stopping and specific translation but when dealing with questions for preparing KSAT, I need to concentrate on the text much more thoroughly and scrutinize even one sentence for a few minutes.” That is, his attitude toward reading materials in English seems to be different from the initial phase of the experiment. Of course, difficult questions require a learner to translate them into Korean and graded readers do not. After experimentation he pointed out that he did feel confusion when dealing with different texts of the KSAT questions and contents in graded reader books. However, he also emphasized that even whenstudyingEnglish questions in school and taking mock test in November, he felt the ratio of reading English texts in English had climbed up. After the period of adjustment, Extensive Reading and the English Section of the Korean Scholastic Aptitude Test: A Diary Study of a Korean High School Student 33 reading habit without translation can be earned by experience of extensive reading and the learner’s desperate effort. V. DISCUSSION This study found that extensive reading facilitated achievement within the English language section of the KSAT. The participant achieved increased performance across all sections of the test and illustrated more confidence and interest in English through his learning diary. The relevance between extensive reading and the English section of the KSAT should be discussed here in terms of research questions regarding vocabulary, reading speed and comprehension, and miscellaneous aspects of learning English with results in this study. First, a low-ranking learner’s limited lexical ability which particularly lacks delexical verbs, collocations, and basic words could be filled with an experience of reading graded readers in addition to intensive drills of difficult and professional words for gaining high grades on the KSAT. Secondly, regarding reading speed and comprehension, the situation that students should squeeze in more accurate answers of the KSAT in a smaller time frame needs a new idea of applying extensive reading into the current intensive reading program. That is because the benefits followed by extensive reading makes a slow reader like the study participant exposed to a repetitious training of reading a wide range of materials, graded readers, as an eclectic way of teaching English. Lastly, while the English section of the KSAT contains many questions related to cultural factors, students at low levels including the participant in this study were not used to understanding cultural points from each question. Also, without motivation and confidence to read texts in English boosted by extensive reading, it would be very challenging to solve many questions in the exam of KSAT as well. Thus, the results say that books with lot of cultural information and driving force to read eventually help the subject to reach advanced levels. In addition to the implication of this study, measuring the effectiveness of extensive reading in practical research should be debated to provide a challenge as researchers aim to measure effective in a realistic and understandable way of parents and educators alike. For instance, the present study investigating relationship between extensive reading and TOEIC scores implies that extensive reading intrigues automaticity and reading fluency with TOEIC scores increased over the 10 weeks of the investigation (Storey, Gibson, & Williamson, 2006). Also,influence of extensive reading on TOEFL score progress was shown to be effective (Constantino, Lee, Cho, &Krashen, 1997). However, this approach was chosen as it was considered the most productive method to garner attention towards 34 Shin Eunsol extensive reading if visible benefits were found. Specifically, the goal of this study was to consider extensive reading as a way of improving scores for the KSAT becauseEnglish is commonly studied for practical reasons, such as gaining good grades on the KSAT. In Japan, Furukawa (2008) examinedthe effects of extensive reading on the Japanese equivalent of the KSAT. The results from that study lead many Japanese language instructors to adoptextensive reading as their approach to teaching English and they intuitively realize that their students need a large quantity of English input through extensive reading (Schmidt, 1996). Thus, extensive reading research focusing on English proficiency tests including the KSAT and school examination should be done so as to grab the attention of Korean students, parents, and teachers. However, some limitations of this study exist. Foremost among these is the use of a single participant as a case study. For example, in single-subjects design it is not uncommon for researchers to do the treatment for a month and check progress, then withdraw the treatment, for two weeks, and see how progress has changed, before restarting the treatment for another two weeks or one month. This is called an A-B-A design in single-subjects research (Christensen, 1941). So, not doing this is another limitation of this study. There could have been a two week period where the student did not engage in extensive reading class with me, seeing if his results dipped again, and then restarting the meetings with him, and measuring if it worked. Without comparing to baseline1 responses recorded before and after the treatment for certain period of time, his response to the treatment condition cannot be fully guaranteed. Thus, extra observation is necessary for seeing whether his improved English ability lasts long after the treatment. Another limitation might be that extra time taking English classes with the researcher could have caused him to become more passionate and more interested in English during his class times. So while extensive reading provided a benefit, some of his improvement could also, potentially, be attributed to his increased concentration in class or situation of being tested. Jones (1994) suggests that if the purpose of a case study is to find out what is involved via the process of learning, records from a subject are what subjectivity represents. Fortunately, this studyprovides positive results about extensive reading in a short period of time in anenvironment of learning that is optimized for a single student. Nevertheless, further studies of extensive reading that increase the number of participants in a variety of situations will provide a more assertive and substantial exploration of the effectiveness of extensive reading. 1 The target behavior of the subject in its naturally occurring stage or prior to presentation of the treatment condition Extensive Reading and the English Section of the Korean Scholastic Aptitude Test: A Diary Study of a Korean High School Student 35 VI. CONCLUSION This case study examined the impact of extensive reading on vocabulary, reading comprehension, and grades of the English test in the KSAT from the perspective of a low-ranking Korean high school student.Reading materials with 16 graded readers were offered to a student for 8 weeks and words and questions from an English test of the KSAT were used to measure the impact of extensive reading on student performance. Since this research is a qualitative study, conclusions cover what a student has gained from experimentation in a close association with the researcher. Results are discussed according to vocabulary gains, reading speed and comprehension, and relevance of the KSAT with extensive reading. Regardingvocabulary gains, the participant seems to add steadily to his stock of words during the 8 week intervention. Throughout this time, he kept his diaries in a conscientious manner, writing down unknown words from the books. As a result of his limited initialEnglish vocabulary, he illustrated word recognition patterns at the elementary school level, such as confusion regarding inflectional morpheme, classification of nouns, and the repetition of writing down the same words. Over time, and especially from the fifth week, these patterns seemed to fade away and he could understand words which used to be challenging for him without pausing while reading. Improvement was also shown in the measurement test using common words and authentic vocabulary from KSAT. This suggests that beginning reading graded readers allowed him to accumulate words from the very beginning level. Secondly, his improvement was manifest in term of reading speed and comprehension. His journals suggest that he gradually grasped the meaning of the context from an initial state of no understanding to that of overall comprehension. When taking the measurement tests of reading speed and comprehension with actual reading questions from KSAT, he demonstrated progress on both speed and comprehension by showing that reading speed increased from 58.1 wpm to 76.75 wpm and reading scores from 27 to 69. It means that reading graded readers lead him to gain speed reading with a better understanding of text. Finally, his grades on an English section of a mock test indicated progress, showing a large gap between pre and post tests. When he took mock test as a pretest in June, he belonged to the sixth grade according to the graded classification of KSAT2. After the treatment, he got a score of 67, which corresponds to the fourth grade, on the English section of mock test in November. Even though he trained himself in preparing for the KSAT and the mock test with workbooks in school, his progress on mock test can also 2 The graded classification of KSAT is to divide all KSAT applicants into nin e groups of grade from one (prime) to nine (the lowest). 36 Shin Eunsol be attributed to experiencing extensive reading to a certain degree. That is because he strongly expressed reading graded reader helped him go smoothly on the test which he used to be stuck in with many obstacles such as difficult words, structure, and long passages. His experience of extensive reading enabled him to overcome his fear to comprehend the overwhelming amount of text for the KSAT in that he had to deal with one book as a whole, even though it is a very easy one, not a single paragraph drill. Overall, the experience of extensive reading from the viewpoint of the once poor student who did not have motivation to study English suggests thought-provoking issue. In other words, there is a possibility for extensive reading to exert a strong influence on many students who are going through learning difficulties, especiallyrelated to studying English. The use of interesting contents with an abundant amount of cultural exposure from appropriate level books without inhibition are beneficial to a student to improve vocabulary and reading comprehension. Furthermore, the positive habits gained through extensive reading also affect grades on theEnglishsection of the KSAT. In this manner, if recognition grows of the effectiveness of extensive reading for studying a second language, there could be many viable options for a proper system of English educationin Korea. REFERENCES Board of Education in Seoul (2011).Research and Development of English Education of Schools in Seoul-focused on human resources and placementAhn, B. K., & Shin, I. S. (2006). The effects of different types of extensive reading materials on reading amount, attitude, and motivation. English Teaching, 61(1), 67-88. Bell, T. (2001). Extensive reading: Speed and comprehension. The Reading Matrix, 1. Retrieved from http://www.readingmatrix.com/archives/archives_vol1_no1.html Bailey, K. M. (1990). The use of diary studies in teacher education programs. In J. C. Richards & D.Nunan (Eds.), Second language teacher education (pp. 215-226). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Cha, J. E. (2009). The effects of extensive reading on enhancing vocational high school students' L2 vocabulary &reading rates.English Teaching, 64(3), 3-30. Cho, K..&Krashen, S. (1994). Acquisition of vocabulary from the Sweet Valley Kids Extensive Reading and the English Section of the Korean Scholastic Aptitude Test: A Diary Study of a Korean High School Student 37 series: Adult ESL acquisition. Journal of Reading, 37(8), 662-667. Christensen, L. (1941). Experimental methodology.Allyn and Bacon. Constantino, R., Lee, S., Cho, K. S.&Krashen, S. (1997). Free voluntary readingas a predictor of TOEFL scores. Applied Language Learning, 8, 111–118. Dubin, F.,&Olshtain, E. (1993).Predicting word meanings from contextual clues: Evidencefrom L1 readers. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Corporation. Elley, W. B., &Mangubhai, F. (1983).The impact of reading on second language learning.Reading Research Quarterly, 19, 53–67. Furukawa, A. (2008). Extensive reading from the first day of English learning.Extensive Reading in Japan, 1(2), 11-14. Grabe, W. (2009).Reading in a second language. New York: Cambridge University Press. Hafiz, F.,& Tudor, I. (1990).Graded readers as an input medium in L2 learning.System,18(1), 31-42. Heo, Y. S., Choi, J. Y., & Lee, W. J. (2009).Comparing motivation to learn of reading classes between Korean and American middle school students.The Journal of Yeolin Education 17(4), 45-63. Horst, M. (2005).Learning L2 vocabulary through extensive reading: A measurement study.The Canadian Modern Language Review, 61, 355–382. Jones,F. R. (1994). The lone language learner: A diary study. System, 22(4), 441-454. Krashen, S. D. (1982). Principles and practice in second language acquisition. New York: Prentice-Hall. Krashen, S. (1993).The power of reading: Insights from the research. Englewood, Co.: Libraries Unlimited. Krashen, S. (2004).Applying the comprehension hypothesis: Some suggestions.International Journal of Language Teaching, 1, 21-29. Laufer, B.,& Nation, P. (1999).A vocabulary size test of controlled productive ability.Language Testing 16(1), 33-51. Lee, H. J.,& Kim, M. J. (2007).A case study of implementing a level-basedextensive reading program in school settings.Modern English Education, 8(1),151-170. Mason, B., &Krashen, S. (1997). Extensive reading in English as a foreign language.System, 25(1), 91-102. Pitts, M., White, H., &Krashen, S. D. (1989).Acquiring second language vocabulary 38 Shin Eunsol through reading: A replication of the clockwork orange study using second language acquirers.Reading in a Foreign Language, 5, 271–275. Robb, T. N., &Susser, B. (1989).Extensive reading vs. skills building in an EFL context.Reading in a foreign language, 5(2), 239-251. Schmidt, K. (1996). Extensive reading in English: Rationale and possibilities for a program at Shirayurigakuen.Sendai ShirayuriGakuen Journal of General Research, 24, 81–92. Shin, I. S.,&Ahn, B. K. (2006). The effects of different types of extensivereading materials on reading amount, attitude, and motivation. English Teaching,61(1), 67-88. Storey, C., Gibson, K., & Williamson, R. (2006). Can extensive reading boostTOEIC scores? In K. Bradford-Watts, C. Ikeguchi, & M. Swanson (Eds.), JALT2005 conference proceedings, 1004–1018. Tokyo, Japan: JALT. Tsang, W.K. (1996). Comparing the effects of reading and writing on writing performance.Applied Linguistics, 17, 210–233. APPENDIX A Journal Example by the Participant Extensive Reading and the English Section of the Korean Scholastic Aptitude Test: A Diary Study of a Korean High School Student 39 40 Shin Eunsol Extensive Reading and the English Section of the Korean Scholastic Aptitude Test: A Diary Study of a Korean High School Student Applicable levels: high school and university levels Key words: extensive reading, Korean scholastic aptitude test, low level language learner, diary study Author Eunsol Shin Korea National University of Education, San 7 DarakriGangnaemyeonChengWonGunChungBuk 363-791, Korea Tel: 82-010-6656-5254 Fax: 82-43-223-2207 E-mail: [email protected] 41 43 Journal of Extensive Reading in Foreign Language Vol. 1, No. 1 Winter 2014 Investigating effects of extensive listening on listening skill development in EFL classes Sakae Onoda Kanda University of International Studies, Japan Onoda, Sakae (2013), Investigating effects of extensive listening on listening skill development in EFL classes. Journal of Extensive Reading in Foreign Language. 1(1), 43-55. ABSTRACT This study investigated the effects of an extensive listening project on the development of listening skills and confidence improvement of university English majors over one academic year. The research draws on the listening skill development instruction suggested by the four strands of teaching (Nation & Newton, 2009). Nation and Newton claim that listening skills will be improved by engaging in meaning-focused input and fluency development tasks using easy and interesting materials for extended periods of time. In the present study, 30 first-year intermediate-level English majors at a university engaged in an extensive listeningactivity: they were required to listen to or watch materials they selected from a large selection of online listening materials for 30 minutes a day. The results show that the approach improved student listening skills as measured using a listening test and confidence as measured using a questionnaire. (141 words) . I. INTRODUCTION The importance of extensive listening is well documented in language learning. L2 literature (Dunkel, 1986; Ellis: 2008; Rost, 2002; Vandergrift, 2007) indicates that a large amount of exposure to input, whether visual or aural, is vital for language acquisition. This seems to be supported by Nation and Newton (2009) who argue that 44 Sakae Onoda listening is the natural precursor to speaking and that the early stages of language development, whether the first language or other languages, are dependent on listening. Thus, the important role listening plays suggests that listening instruction should aim to improve listening fluency (i.e., the ability to automatically understand the main points of texts and interpret speakers’ feelings using top-down-strategies) as well as to promote basic listening skills (i.e., the ability to identify words and phrases using bottom-up skills). In this regard, Nation and Newton’s (2009) four strands of teaching approach is worth considering and employing in order to effectively improve language skills. The four strands are meaning-focused input, language-focused learning, meaning-focused output, and fluency development. They suggest that a language course ideally has about 25 percent of each of these four strands. Different kinds of activities can be used in each component to promote language learning. For the development of listening fluency, tasks from meaning-focused input and fluency-development strands such as listening to easy stories, repeated listening to CDs, and extensive listening are effective; all of these promote automaticity of particular language items through multiple encounters and retrieval of them, therefore enhancing listening fluency. Among them, extensive listening (i.e., listening to easy and interesting materials for extended periods of time) that subsumes the first two tasks appears to be most promising. According to Nation and Newton (2009), extensive listening must meet the following four requirements of the meaning-focused input and fluency strands: (1) learners listen to what is largely familiar to them in terms of vocabulary, content, and discourse features (i.e., encouraging the use of top-down skills), (2) learners focus on meaning (i.e., intrinsically interesting texts), (3) some pressure or encouragement is applied on the learners to perform at a faster than usual speed, and (4) learners are exposed to a large amount of input (i.e., repeated practice of language items). Thus, Nation and Newton’s four strands of teaching appear to substantiate the use of an extensive listening approachto improve student listening fluency and confidence. Here note that in extensive listening, learners are exposed to language items repeatedly, which promotes automatization. It is well documented that automatization is necessary for all kinds of skill development. Anderson’s (1983) ACT theory postulates that the development of skills entails the transformation of conscious describable types of knowledge into more unconscious and automatic types of knowledge that can be available at the time of use. The theory implies that it is repeated practice that can facilitate unconscious and automatic processing, and thereby, skill acquisition (DeKeyser, Investigating Effects of Extensive Listening on Listening Skill Development in EFL Classes 45 2007). It appears that the theory can apply to L2 language learning, particularly listening fluency development. Abundant literature holds that automatization, facilitated by multiple encounters and retrievals of language items (Nation, 2007; Schmitt & Carter, 2004), enhances L2 listening and speaking fluency (Nation & Newton, 2009; Wood, 2001). Automatic linguistic processing requires little working memory capacity when a particular language unit is recognized and retrieved in its entirety. Therefore, attentional resources allow for the processing of other information and enable the listener and speaker to process larger pieces of information efficiently. Although there has been limited research on the effects of extensive listening, some studies indicate that it is effective for improving listening fluency and confidence in language learning. One of them is Millet’s (2010) pedagogical intervention utilizing the QuickListen approach that adopted easy story listening, a task categorized by Nation and Newton as meaning-focused input and fluency development. The results indicate that listening to easy and interesting stories over the course of a year enhances both listening skills and confidence. Similar results were yielded in Onoda’s study (2012). He investigated the effects of QuickListens (Millet, 2010) in tandem with extensive listening assignments on listening skill and confidence development in university English majors over a term. The intervention drew on meaning-focused input and fluency development tasks suggested in the four strands of teaching (Nation & Newton, 2009) and the results of Millet’s study (2010) on the employment of the QuickListens approach. Thirty first-year intermediate level English majors engaged in a QuickListens activity (i.e., listened to an easy and interesting story with time pressure) during every class meeting, and were also required to listen to or watch self-selected materials for 30 minutes on a daily basis outside the classroom. The results show that the intervention improved student listening skills as measured using a listening test and confidence as measured using a questionnaire. These study results substantiated Nation and Newton and Millet’s postulation that student listening skills and confidence improve when they listen extensively to easy texts that arouse their interests. It may be that the practice of extensive listening can be corroborated by several studies to date that investigated the effects of extensive reading on language learning. Elley and Magunbhai (1981) used “book flood” with primary school students and reported that participants improved their abilities to understand sentence structures and memorize them as well as their reading and listening skills. Renandya, Rajan, and Jacobs’ (1999) showed that through extensive reading adult learners in Vietnam improved their general English proficiency. Davis (1995) comments that extensive reading makes learners more positive about reading, which implies enhanced motivation and confidence 46 Sakae Onoda in L2 reading. Summarizing the results of extensive reading studies, Harmer (2001) argues that extensive reading has a number of benefits for the development of language skills, and that the effects of extensive reading are echoed by effects of extensive listening: “The more students listen, the more language they acquire, and the better they get at listening activities in general” (p. 204). Of equal importance, support comes from the literature on the use of listening strategies and self-regulation strategies in L2 learning. The use of extensive listening for listening skill development is congruent with strategies reported by successful English learners, especially those who improved listening skills effectively (Onoda, 2012; White, 2008). In these studies, various strategies were used to increase exposure to spoken language by talking to peers in and out of the class, going to a self-access learning center, and listening to self-selected listening materials at home or while using public transportation. In addition, self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000) and social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1986) explicate the effects of intrinsic motivation and self-efficacy on language skill development. Learners can regulate their learning when they are intrinsically motivated and self-efficacious, and self-regulated learning thus affectively enhanced yields academic achievement, which in turn improves self-efficacy. The theoretical underpinning is corroborated by a large number of studies in educational psychology (e.g., Pintich & De Groot, 1990) and a few studies in second language acquisition (Onoda, 2012). From these findings, it appears that extensive listening will improve listening skill and possibly overall English skills, promote incidental vocabulary learning, and enhance confidence in and motivation for learning English. II. RESEARCH QUESTION Drawing on suggestions by Nation and Newton, the results of extensive reading and listening studies, and self-regulation study results, a large amount of exposure to listening material that is easy and interesting is expected to improve listening skills of the participants who have been exposed to limited amounts of spoken English. This line of thought leads to the research question: To what extent is the use of daily extensive listening assignments effective for listening skill and confidence development in university English majors over one academic year? Investigating Effects of Extensive Listening on Listening Skill Development in EFL Classes 47 III. METHOD 1. Participants The participants were 60 first-year English majors at a university in eastern Japan. Thirty of these students participated in 2009 and the other 30 participated in 2012. Participants demonstrated an intermediate English proficiency as measured by the TOEFL. The 2009 group was composed of 24 female and 6 male students including five repeaters of the course, and the 2012 group comprised 22 female and 8 male students including four repeaters. They had studied English for six years at secondary schools, but because reading and grammar are mainly taught using Japanese and the development of listening and speaking skills is still on the periphery of curricula (Murphey, Onoda, Sato, & Takaki, 2012), they still had difficulties understanding and interpreting naturally spoken English in a timely manner and wanted to improve listening and speaking skills. 2. Research Design Based on the fact that there were no statistically significant differences between the two groups (the 2009 group and 2012 group) in terms of listening skills measured by a listening comprehension test and listening and reading skills measured by the TOEFL at the beginning of the study in April, 2009 and 2012, listening skill improvement was compared between the two groups using a listening comprehension test at the end of each year. The listening comprehension test was composed of 50 questions (monologues and dialogues), lasting for 40 minutes (See Appendix) and demonstrated a high reliability (α= .87). At these times confidence in L2 listening was also measured using a questionnaire, and interviews were conducted in order to elicit feelings about the extensive listening task in which the experimental group had engaged. The classroomtasks and assignments were designed based on Nation and Newton’s (2009) four strands of teaching. Both groups were engaged in learning using TOEFL listening, reading, and grammar exercises (a language-focused learning task) in class, an Academic Word List quiz (another language-focused learning task), and easy story reading and discussions based on it (meaning-focused input and output tasks) . However, the assignments given to them were different. The 2009 control group was given VOA (Voice of America) listening and TOEFL listening practices as an assignment (a language-focused learning task) to do for 30 minutes a day whereas the 2012 experimental group was assigned to do extensive listening practices using 48 Sakae Onoda EnglishCentral(a fluency development task)for 30 minutes a day outside the classroom. The extensive listening assignment was designed based on some of the principles of extensive reading posited by Day and Bamford (2002): 1. The reading material is easy, 2. A variety of reading material on a wide range of topics must be available, 3. Learners choose what they want to read, 4. Learners read as much as possible, 5. The purpose of reading is usually related to pleasure, information, and general understanding, 6. Reading is its own reward, 7. Reading speed is usually faster rather than slower, 8. Reading is individual and silent. It is important to note that while student engagement in the listening assignment (i.e., VOA listening and TOEFL listening practices) was checked by their completed listening diaries to be handed in every two weeks, their engagement in the extensive listening assignment was monitored by the teacher on the EnglishCentral website and by reading their completed listening diaries to be handed in every two weeks. IV. RESULTS This study investigated the effects of extensive listening assignments on the development of listening skills and confidence improvement of university English majors by comparing the achievements of the control and experimental groups over an academic year. The descriptive statistics for the listening comprehension test scores and the confidence questionnaire results are presented in Tables 1 and 2. Listening skill improvements by the control group and experimental group as measured by the listening comprehension test were analyzed using t-tests, and it was found that the mean of the experimental group (M = 65.57, SD = 11.81) was significantly different from the mean of the control group (M = 57.56, SD = 10.14), t(29) = 3.21, p< .001. In addition, results of the questionnaire conducted in both groups in April 2009 and in January 2010, and in April 2012 and January 2013 indicated that confidence in L2 listening increased in the experimental group but not in the control group. On a 5 pointLikertscale (1 = not confident at all to 5 = very confident), confidence in L2 learning did not improve in the control group (M = 2.91, SD = 0.75, in April 2009 and M =3.25, SD = 0.44, in January, 2010) as much as in the experimental group (M = 2.86, SD Investigating Effects of Extensive Listening on Listening Skill Development in EFL Classes 49 = 0.57 in April 2012 and M = 3.77, SD = 0.61, in January 2013). TABLE 1 Descriptive Statistics for the Listening Comprehension Test Scores Groups Tests Control group (n=-30) Experimental group (n=30) Pre-test Post-test Pre-test Post-test M 53.50 57.56 54.10 65.57 SE 0.84 0.84 0.84 0.84 [51.00, 58.21] [52.31, 562.50] [2.10, 59.20] [89.23, 72.45] SD 9.82 10.14 9.95 11.81 Skewness 0.92 -0.83 -0.89 -105 SES 0.40 0.40 0.41 0.41 Kurtosis 0.85 -.079 0.41 2.01 SEK 0.80 .0.80 0.81 0.81 95% CI Note: CI = Confidence interval. The skewness and kurtosis statistics for the listening comprehension test scores was acceptable, and no outliers were identified. In addition, the listening comprehension test demonstrated a high reliability coefficient of α= .87. TABLE2 Descriptive Statistics for the Confidence Questionnaire Results Groups Tests M SE Control group (n=-30) Experimental group (n=30) Pre-test Post-test Pre-test Post-test 2.91 3.25 2.86 3.77 0.04 0.04 0.04 0.04 [2.54, 3.43] [2.78, 3.81] [2.56,3.51] [3.32, 4.21] SD 0.57 0.44 0.57 0.61 Skewness 0.52 0.56 0.41 0.59 SES 0.14 0.14 0.15 0.15 Kurtosis 0.36 0.41 0.33 0.54 SEK 0.28 0.28 0.29 0.29 95% CI Note: CI = Confidence interval. The skewness and kurtosis statistics for the confidence questionnaire was acceptable, 50 Sakae Onoda and no outliers were identified. V. DISCUSSION Results show that the extensive listening practice (a fluency development task) helped improve listening skills significantly and improve confidence in listening to naturally spoken English to a greater extent than the VOA and TOEFL listening practice (a language-focused learning task). The results of this study on extensive listening seem to parallel some of the benefits of extensive reading reported in L2 literature: it is fun and provides a sense of achievement, improving motivation for and confidence in listening to naturally spoken English. Student feedback may help clarify the reasons for improved listening skills and listening confidence. Fifteen students in the experimental group discussed the value of the extensive listening practice and described the benefits: they took pleasure in understanding the listening materials, had stronger motivation for and confidence in listening, and in fact learned expressions. Seven students said they had practiced shadowing to memorize sentences and five students said that they had felt some of the English sentences echoing in their head. Eight students commented that using the TOEFL practice book (language-focused learning) in addition to the extensive listening assignment (fluency-development) felt well balanced. The TOEFL reading, listening, and grammar exercises were a little difficult, and the students had to read, listen, and think very attentively. Although they had to study for TOEFL tests, they were often discouraged because they could not answer the questions correctly. However, students could relax and easily follow the storyline when engaged in theextensive listening task. This was not the case with the control group, who reported that it was good to practice TOEFL listening exercises at home, but that there were a lot of difficult vocabulary included in the TOEFL listening exercises and sometimes they felt discouraged and lost motivation to continue the study. Also, student feedback revealed the value of the material used for the research and their proactive and possibly self-regulating learning behaviors. EnglishCentral provided a wide range of listening materials from TV news clips to movies and TV dramas, and students were free to choose the materials that were suited to their interests and English proficiencies. The materials in each genre were changed every few weeks by the website organizer so that students could keep watching the same types of texts (such as TV dramas, movies, and TV news clips) and maintain their interest in and motivation for learning English for a long time. Also, they could watch the same material as many times as they wanted to within the few weeks, check their understanding by looking at the transcripts and subtitles, and learn words and phrases they were interested in by using Investigating Effects of Extensive Listening on Listening Skill Development in EFL Classes 51 explanations given by the texts. Using EnglishCentral, twelve students in the experimental group reported to have improved their listening skills and to have expanded their English vocabulary, enhancing their confidence in naturally spoken English. Eight students utilized various listening strategies such as watching movies without subtitles first, then watching them with subtitles, and finally discussing the content with their friends or teachers, in order to improve their understanding. More importantly, student feedback appears to substantiate some of the benefits of Nation and Newton’s (2009) four strands of teaching; they postulate that four strands be employed in language teaching to develop student language skills effectively. The control group was engaged in three strands or types of tasks that did not include fluency development whereas the experimental group experienced the four strands or types of tasks including a fluency development task. The inclusion of a fluency development task, particularly extensive listening, appears to be better balanced and more cognitively and motivationally beneficial for student language learning. The results can also be supported by self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000) and social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1986) that postulate that intrinsic motivation and self-efficacy have a deep impact on academic achievement. These theories imply that improved self-efficacy appears to be related to improved listening skills (Onoda, 2012; Pintrich, & De Groot, 1990). VI. CONCLUSION The use of the extensive listening task appears to be effective for the improvement of listening skills and confidence in listening to naturally spoken English in university English majors; extensive listening seems to have similar effects as extensive reading. However, given the small sample size (n = 30), some caution should be exercised in the interpretation of the results. Replication with a larger sample size with more rigid control of the control group’s engagement in a different task may provide more substantial data to verify these findings. Finally, it might yield more accurate and pedagogically useful data if the improvement of student listening skills and confidence in listening is investigated by using a growth curve model. 52 Sakae Onoda REFERENCES Anderson, J. R. (1983). The HarvardUniversity Press. architecture of cognition. Cambridge, MA: Bandura, A. (1986).Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory.Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Davis, C. (1995). Extensive reading: An expensive extravagance? ELT Journal 49(4). Day, R. R., (2008). Teaching foreign language fluency.The Language Teacher 32 (7). Day, R. R., &Bamford, J. (2002).Top ten principles for teaching extensive reading.Reading in a Foreign Language, 14,136–141. Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2000). The "what" and "why" of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior. Psychology Inquiry, 11(4), 227-268. DeKeyser, R. (2007). Practice in a second language: Perspectives from applied linguistics and cognitive psychology.Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press. Dunkel, P. A. (1986). Developing listening fluency in L2: Theoretical principles and pedagogical considerations.Modern Language Journal 70, 99-106. Ellis, R. (2008). The study of second language acquisition.Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press. Elley, W. B., &Mangubhai, F. (1981).The impact of a book flood in Fuji primary schools.New Zealand Council for Educational Research and Institute of Education: University of South Pacific. Harmer, J. (2001).The practice of English language teaching.Essex: Pearson Education. Mason, B., &Krashen, S. D. (1997).Extensive reading in English as a foreign language.System, 25, 91–102. Millet, S. (2010). Quicklistens. Retrieved from http://www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/staff/Publications/The_No__1_Ladies_Detective Agency.pdf. Murphey, T., Onoda, S., Sato, K., &Takaki, M. (2012).Language of Interaction in Japanese EFL JHSs & SHSs,” presented at the JALT Conference, Shizuoka, Japan, 2012. Nation, P (2007). The four strands. Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, 1(1),1-11. Nation, I. S. P., & Newton, J. (2009).Teaching ESL/EFL listening and Investigating Effects of Extensive Listening on Listening Skill Development in EFL Classes 53 speaking.Newcastle, UK: Routledge. Onoda, S. (2000).Introducing productive activities into Media English teaching— with a primary focus on group projects.JACES, 39, 87-102. Onoda, S. (2012).Self-regulation and its relation to motivation and proficiency. Unpublished Ed.D dissertation, TempleUniversity: Philadelphia. Pintrich, P. R., & De Groot, E. (1990).Motivational and self-regulated learning components of classroom academic performance.Journal of Educational Psychology, 82, 33-40. Renandya, W. A. Rajan, B. R. S., & Jacobs, G. M. (1999).Extensive reading with adult learners of English as a second language.RELC Journal, 30(1), 39-61. Rost, M. (2002).Teaching and researching listening. London, UK: Longman. Vandergrift, L. (2007). Recent developments in second and foreign language listening comprehension research.Language Teaching, 40, 191-210. White, G. (2008). Listening and good language learners.Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press. Williams, M., & Burden, R. L. (2005).Psychology for language teachers.Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press. Wood, D. (2001). In search of fluency: What is it and how can we teach it? The Canadian Modern Language Review, 57(4), 573-589. 54 Sakae Onoda APPENDIX Listening comprehension test Monologues: (Script) 1. American alligators once almost completely died out. In 1967, the United States government began to protect them. Today there are over one million alligators in the United States. They are found mainly in the southern party of the United States, especially in the states of Florida and Louisiana. They love in rivers, lakes, ponds, or wetland areas. These animals are great swimmers. They have strong feet and tails that help them swim quickly through the water. An average male alligator is three to five meters long. Half of its length is its tail. An average male alligator weighs between 220 and 270 kilograms. Females are usually smaller than males. Female alligators are gentle mothers to their young. A mother alligator makes a nest on shore, where she lays her eggs. Then she guards her eggs until they’re ready to hatch. When the baby alligators come out of their eggs, she gently carries them in her mouth to the water nearby. Their mother protects them from animals that might hurt then, including other alligators. The young alligators stay with their mother for up to two years, until they are able to take care of themselves. Question 1: What is true about American alligators? a) They are poor swimmers. b) They rarely love in lakes or ponds. c) They love mainly in Florida and Louisiana. d) They are especially found in northern rivers and lakes. Question 2: What is true about baby alligators? a) They are born from eggs. b) They are born in the water. c) They protect their mother. d) They live with their mother for over three years. Dialogues: (Script): 1. W: Did you know that we need at least 8 hours of sleep every day? Investigating Effects of Extensive Listening on Listening Skill Development in EFL Classes 55 M: Don’t people say different things about the amount of sleep we need? W: Right, but most seem to agree that teenagers don’t sleep enough for their schooling. M: Well at least that explains the low scores on my exams. Question 1: What are the man and the woman talking about? a) The results of the exams b) The necessary amount of sleep c) Teenagers’ school behavior d) Sleeping students during class hours 2. M: So, where are we going to watch the program? At your place or my place? W: What program? M: I told you yesterday. There’s going to be a TV program about famous doctors in Japan. W: Ah, I forgot. Sure. I7ll come to your place. What time does it start>? M: In an hour. Question 2: What are the man and the woman going to do next? a) Go to the man’s place. b) Go to a hospital. c) Go out to see a movie. d) Go to the woman’s house. Applicable levels: high school and university levels Key words: extensive listening, confidence-building, the four strands of teaching, listening fluency development, listening skill development Sakae Onoda Dept. of English, KandaUniversity of International Studies 1-4-1 Wakaba, Mihama-ku, Chiba-shi, Chiba-ken, 261-0014 , Japan Tel: 0081-43-273-1320 Fax: 0081-43-273-1322 E-mail: [email protected] 57 Journal of Extensive Reading in Foreign Language Vol. 1, No. 1 Winter 2014 Will extensive reading help L2 learners’ use of context while processing text? KiyomiYoshizawa Atsuko Takase Kansai University Kyoko Otsuki Hiroshima Shudo University Yoshizawa, K., Takase, A., &Otsuki, K. (2013), Will extensive reading help L2 learners’ use of context while processing text?Journal of Extensive Reading in Foreign Language.1(1), 57 -69. ABSTRACT It is hypothesized that extensive reading (ER) helps learners to learn grammar in context and to expand the scope of text to processwhen they read. This study examines whether EFL learners expand the scope of text to process as they engage themselves in reading. Data was collected over three academic years. 341 Japanese EFL learners participated in all the data collection sessions, and they took a cloze test developed to place learners and monitor their progress.Each deletion of the cloze test was classified into four types, depending on the amount of information required for a successful task completion (Bachman, 1985). In order to examine how the learners’ responses to the items in each of the four categories changed over time, a linear growth model was applied. The results indicate that the participants’ rate of change was rather similar to each other across different types of items. (148 words) I. INTRODUCTION Extensive reading (ER) has been widely recognized as one of the effective ways to learn languages for the last two decades. In Japan, more institutional organizations, 58 Kiyomi Yoshizawa·Atsuko Takase·Kyoko Otsuki including secondary schools, colleges and universities, have implemented ER to improve their students’ English ability. This trend is backed by an abundance of research, which demonstrates that ER contributes to improvement in various aspects of learners’ language learning: reading proficiency (e.g. Elley & Mangubhai, 1981; Mason & Krashen, 1997; Yamashita, 2008), vocabulary acquisition (Cirocki, 2009; Horst, 2005), reading rate and fluency (Beglar, Hunt,& Kite, 2011; Iwahori, 2008), writing ability (Irvine, 2011; Janopoulos, 1986;), gains on the TOEIC scores (Nishizawa, Yoshioka, & Fukada, 2010), and improvement of general English proficiency (Takase, 2008, 2012; Takase & Otsuki, 2012). In addition to these various effects of ER on linguistic improvement, ER has great impacts on learners’ positive attitudes towards learning English and self-confidence (Mason & Krashen, 1997; Takase, 2004, 2007, 2009). Among these reports on effectiveness of ER on development of various language aspects, research on grammar is scarce. To our knowledge, Maruhashi’s research (2011) is the only one, in which she reported 137 university students’ improvement on some grammatical aspects after three months of ER. Meanwhile, Takase (2008) reported that after three months of ER, over 40 % of the unmotivated reluctant repeaters in university perceived improvement in their grammar knowledge such as the structures of English sentences or role of adjectives. The participants in the study had been acquainted with those grammatical points, but they had not completely understood them since their early stage of studying English at secondary school. The students in the study actually showed a significant improvement on the postEdinburgh Project on Extensive Reading Placement/Progress Test (EPER PPT, hereafter). EPER PPT is acloze test developed by the Institute for Applied Language Studies in the University of Edinburgh in 1992 in order to measure general English proficiency including grammar in context, and to place learners into appropriate reading levels. It alsomonitors their progress. The cloze test, by its nature, requires learners to process text at various levels, ranging from clauses to across sentences. On the other hand, research reports that poor L2 readers focus on a limited range of text when they read for comprehension (e.g., Yoshizawa, 2000). Thus, obtaining high marks in the EPER PPT could indicate that learners are capable of processing wider range of context required for giving answers. Considering these observations and the report from Takase (2008), it might be assumed that while learners are engaged in extensive reading, processing unit in context will be expanding, which is reflected in the improvement of their performance on different types of items deleted in the EPER PPT. The present study aims to examine how learners’ rates of change grow across different types of cloze items over time. Thus, we posed the following research questions: Will Extensive Reading Help L2 Learners’Use of Context While Processing Text? 59 1) Will extensive reading help learners expand the scope of text to process? 2) Do learners differ in their estimated rate of change across different types of EPER items? 3) Is there any relationship between the learners’ initial language proficiency and their rate of change? II. METHOD 1. Participants A total of 526 second-year Japanese EFL university students participated in the study. Out of 526 participants, 341 participated in all the data collection sessions. Their majors were commerce, economics, law, and literature. Their English proficiency varied from false beginner to advanced level, which can be converted to approximately CFER A1 to B2. Each student was engaged in ER in a reading class for one academic year, choosing books appropriate to their English proficiency levels and their interest. 2. Materials The participants took the EPER Placement/Progress Test (Form A) three times during the course. The EPER PPT, mentioned above, is a cloze test which comprises 12 short passages (approximately 80 words on average) taken from different levels of graded readers and arranged in an ascending order of difficulty. There are 141 deleted items at the rate of 4 to 12 words (M = 6.30, SD = 1.16). Among language testing researchers, the type of language ability measured by cloze tests is inconclusive. According to Bachman (1985), cloze tests can measure both lower level (e.g. within clause) and higher level (e.g. across sentences) reading abilities. Also, empirical research demonstrated that cloze tests can measure learners’ proficiency level (Chihara et al. 1994; Sasaki 2000; Yamashita 2008) including micro-level linguistic competence such as vocabulary, spelling and morphosyntax, as scoring criterion is limited to the list of given answers. As 12 short passages in the EPER PPT were all taken from obsolete graded readers, the EPER PPT is considered as an appropriate test to measure general English proficiency and improvement of the learners who use various graded readers for ER. Each deletion in the EPER Form A test was classified into four types based on 60 Kiyomi Yoshizawa·Atsuko Takase·Kyoko Otsuki Bachman’s classification (1985), reflecting four different levels of context required for closure: Type 1 requires context within the same clause where the closure is located; Type 2 requires context across clauses, within a sentence; Type 3 requires context across sentence, within a text; Type 4 requires extra-textual knowledge. Type 1 items require grammatical knowledge and respondents need to use context within the same clause where a particular blank is located. From Type 2 to Type 4, context required for answering items expands from sentence level to text level and ultimately world knowledge. The following are examples of deletion of each type. Simon looks at the people in the station. (1) can see students in jeans, and men (2) suits. He can see families and children. He cannot see any spies. Simon’s train goes (3) 11.00, and it is 10.57 now. Simon (4) to the train. There is an old woman with an umbrella near Simon. She is walking very fast. Simon does not see her. He does not see her bag. (Simon and the Spy, Penguin Readers) In order to answer item 1, learners should read the previous sentence and know that Simon is a name for men (world knowledge), which leads to the answer, the third person singular masculine pronoun he. Thus, answering item 1 requires the context across sentences (Type 3) and world knowledge (Type 4) as well as grammatical knowledge. In order to answer item 2, learners need to look at the sentence in which item 2 is included. Since two types of clothes jeans and clothes are juxtaposed, the preposition in will come here. Because the information called for the closure is from two clauses within the sentence, this is the Type 2 deletion. Item 3 serves as an example of Type 1 items: only grammatical knowledge is required to reach the correct answer for item 3. The word which comes before the time expression (i.e., 11:00) will be at. To fill in (4), learners need to know how Simon is engaged in the train in this context. Based on the previous sentence, learners know that the train is going to leave soon, which leads them to consider that Simon is in a rush. Therefore, item 4 is categorized into Type 3. According to the scheme explained above, deleted items were classified by two of the authors and another person from outside, resulting in the high degree of consistency. The distribution of deletion types in EPER (A) is as follows: Type 1 counts for 27.0%; Type 2, 19.9%; Type 3, 47.5%; and Type 4, 5.7%. Will Extensive Reading Help L2 Learners’Use of Context While Processing Text? 61 3. Procedure At the onset of the course, Edinburgh Project on Extensive Reading (EPER) Placement/Progress Test (PPT) (Form A) was administered as the pre-test in order to investigate the participants’ general English proficiency. The same EPER Test was administered as a mid-test at the end of the first semester (14 weeks after the pre-test), and as a post-test at the end of the academic year (9 months after the beginning of the course including summer vacation) in order to examine the learners’ improvement in their general English proficiency. The class met once a week for 15 sessions each semester. During the 90-minute session, participants were provided with 40 - 45 minutes for in-class reading including the time to keep their reading log and to exchange books delivered to class by the instructor, meaning that participants were engaged in Sustained Silent Reading (SSR, hereafter) for approximately 30 - 35 minutes in each session. They were also encouraged to read as many books as possible outside class and required to keep a reading log each time they finished a book. Concerning the reading materials, the participants used two types of materials: graded readers that are written for EFL and ESL learners; and leveled readers and young readers that are written for L1 children of English. Major graded readers participants read include Cambridge English Readers, Foundations Reading Library, Macmillan Readers, Oxford Bookworms, Penguin Readers, and Scholastic ELT Readers. Leveled readers include Oxford Reading Tree, Longman Literacy Land Story Street, Rookie Readers, Scholastic Reading, Step Into Reading, Capstone Series, Nate the Great, A to Z Mysteries, Magic Tree House, etc. 4. Data Analysis The EPER PPT data were analyzed using RaschUnidimensional Measurement Model software (RUMM Laboratory). The main purpose of conducting Rasch analysis was to convert the data into an interval scale. The dichotomous model was used. In order to confirm that the data fit the dichotomous model, the following aspects were examined prior to obtaining the participants’ ability scores (i.e., pre-, mid- and post-test scores) in logits: the item-total statistics fit of items and persons to the model, the assumption of the local item independence, unidimensionality, targeting of the scale, and reliability. By the end of the Rasch analyses, 23 items were deleted as misfitting items. Table 1 shows the result of the final analysis. When the data fits the model, the mean of the fit residuals becomes close to zero and the standard deviation becomes close to one. The results show a fairly good fit to the model. However, the means of the items and persons 62 Kiyomi Yoshizawa·Atsuko Takase·Kyoko Otsuki indicate that item difficulty has a higher logit than the person logit, meaning that items were rather difficult for the participants. Also, a Rasch item reliability was .93. TABLE 1 The Summary Statistics of the Rasch Analysis Items Mean SD Persons Location Fit residuals location Fit residuals 0.000 2.405 -0.167 1.644 -0.670 0.993 -0.233 0.769 FIGURE 1. Figure 1 shows the person-item threshold distribution. The upper graph shows the distribution of the persons (i.e., participants); the lower graph shows the distribution of items. Although the distribution of the items is greater than that of the persons, indicating that there are easier and more difficult items than the abilities of the participants, the items are well targeted. In the second part of the data analysis, we applied the linear growth curve modeling to examine whether ER would help learners expand the scope of text to process and what type of closure would improve most. We examined whether individuals differ in their estimated rate of change across different types of EPER items. 63 Will Extensive Reading Help L2 Learners’Use of Context While Processing Text? III. RESULT Table 2 shows the descriptive statistics for the standard scores of the EPER administered at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of the extensive reading course. The mean score of the EPER at the beginning of the course was 50.69 (SD = 13.86), 60.81 (SD = 13.31) in the middle of the course, and 61.70 (SD = 13.66) at the end of the course, respectively. Figure 2 shows the mean scores of the EPER PPT at three administrations. Those results show that the participants scored about 10 points higher at the end of the first semester (Time 2) than they did at the beginning of the ER course (Time 1). On the other hand, they scored only about one point higher at the end of the course (Time 3) than they did at the end of the first semester (Time 2). Based on the last Rasch analysis where 23 test items were deleted, a separate analysis was conducted for each of the four types of items. For each type of items, it was confirmed that the data fit the Rasch model. Then, person measures were created based on the items of the same type. Similar to the person measures based on all the items, person measures were converted to standard scores ranging from zero to 100. Table2 shows the descriptive statistics of four types of items. On the table, MIN 0 refers to the minimum score and MAX 100 refers to the maximum score, respectively. The results show patterns similar to those described about the person measures based on all the items. TABLE 2 The Descriptive Statistics for the EPER at Three Administrations Time 1 Mean SD MIN MAX Time 2 Mean SD MIN MAX Time 3 Mean SD MIN MAX ALL TYPE 1 TYPE 2 TYPE 3 TYPE 4 50.69 13.88 0 92 41.98 12.57 0 76.21 51.54 15.65 0 93.58 50.48 14.08 0 89.9 52.26 14.75 0 91.1 60.81 13.31 3 90 51.12 12.66 13.88 100 58.60 15.21 0 100 60.65 13.17 0 94.78 60.82 14.41 0 100 61.7 13.66 14 100 51.91 12.28 13.88 85.67 59.30 15.74 9.77 100 61.39 13.77 18.88 100 61.98 14.39 18.43 100 64 Kiyomi Yoshizawa·Atsuko Takase·Kyoko Otsuki FIGURE 2. The Mean Scores of the EPER at Three Administrations In order to answer our research question, we applied linear individual growth models to examine the change of the learners’ reading performance over time. Linear growth models include two components: level-1 and level-2 submodels. The former describes how individuals change over time, i.e., within-person change; the latter describes how these changes differ across individuals, i.e., between-person differences in change. In this study, we focus only on the level-1 submodel. We write the level-1 submodel as: Yij= π0i+π1i (Time)ij + eij (Equation 1). In the study, we applied liner growth models to estimate (a) an intercept (i.e., an initial status at the onset of the ER course); (b) a mean growth curve and the extent of individual variation around it; (c) the correlation between an initial status and rate of change. Four types of items were analyzed separately, using HLM version 6 software (Scientific Software International, Inc.). Table 3 shows the results of fitting a liner growth model for change to the EPER data. The estimated average initial status and rate of growth were 43.43 and 5.01 for Type 1 items, 47.96 and 4.31 for Type 2 items, 45.85 and 5.98 for Type 3 items, and 47.49 and 5.43 for Type 4 items, respectively. In other words, the average score of Type 1 items at the pretest time were estimated to be 43.43 and the participants were gaining 5.01 points per year, for example. Also,both the 65 Will Extensive Reading Help L2 Learners’Use of Context While Processing Text? intercept and the slope were significant and both parameters were necessary to explain the mean growth trajectories across four types of items. Next, we examined the individual variation in growth trajectories from the mean curve. The variance components in Table 3 indicate the amount of variability left after fitting the model. The estimates for the variances of individual growth parameters (i.e., the initial status and the rate of change) were 99.11 and 0.50 for Type 1 items, 209.73 and 12.42 for Type 2 items, 142.16 and 0.79 for Type 3 items, and 135.68 and 0.82 for Type 4 items, respectively. The variance of the intercept was significant for all four types. This indicates that the participants varied significantly in their abilities to endorse each type of items at the onset of the ER course. On the other hand, the variance of the growth rate indicates different patterns. The variance of the growth rate was significant for Type 2 items, but insignificant for other types of items. This means a lot of individual differences were involved in the growth rate of Type 2 items. Further, we examined the correlations between the initial state and the growth rate. In general, negative correlations ranging from -0.07 to -0.49 were observed between the initial status and the growth rate. TABLE 3 Results of Fitting aLiner Growth Model for Change to Four Types of Items Fixed effect Estimate s.e. Type 1 initial status 43.43 0.67 rate of change 5.01 0.24 Level 1 error -correlation -0.27 Type 2 initial status 47.96 0.94 rate of change 4.31 0.36 Level 1 error -correlation -0.49 Type 3 initial status 45.85 0.76 rate of change 5.98 0.26 Level 1 error -correlation -0.07 Type 4 initial status 47.49 0.89 rate of change 5.43 0.34 Level 1 error -correlation -0.26 * P< .05 ** p< .01 *** p< .001. Variance components χ2 df p Estimate p *** *** 99.11 0.50 42.53 813.23 470.40 467 467 *** 0.45 *** *** 209.73 12.42 73.58 941.11 604.67 467 467 *** *** *** *** 142.16 0.79 49.11 941.33 479.61 467 467 *** 0.33 *** *** 135.68 0.82 87.51 700.55 446.64 467 467 *** 0.50 66 Kiyomi Yoshizawa·Atsuko Takase·Kyoko Otsuki IV. DISCUSSION 1. Main findings It is hypothesized that extensive reading (ER) helps learners to learn grammar in context and to expand the scope of text to process (across sentences or entire paragraphs) when they read. Our first research questionis as follows: Will extensive reading help learners expand the scope of text to process? Based on the results of the linear growth modeling, we can conclude that the learners’ growth rates were quite similar across four types of items. The growth rates range from 4.31 (Type 2) to 5.98 (Type 3). Although the slope of Type 3 items seems to be slightly higher than the rest, the difference is quite small. The second research question is “Do learners differ in their estimated rate of change across different types of EPER items?” We hypothesized that learners would show greater growth rates in Type 2 and Type 3 items than Type 1 items. Learners have to use context across clauses within a sentence to answer Type 2 items correctly and context across sentences within text to answer Type 3 items correctly. However, the data analyses show a different picture. That is, the learners’ growth rates were quite similar across four types of items. This may indicate that the participants improved their implicit knowledge of grammar through ER. Table3 shows that the growth rate of Type 1 items is similar to those of the other types of items. This result may provide additional support for what is reported in Takase (2008, 2012). She reports that over 40% of the repeaters in her ER class perceived their improvement in grammar. The participants in the current study might have improved their knowledge of grammar through ER and this is shown in the growth rate of Type 1 items. Further, the results of the data analysis direct us to a future direction of our research. Even though learners’ growth rates were very similar to each other, Type 2 items show rather large variability. This indicates that learners show individual differences in their growth rates. In the current study, we focused on only the level-1 submodel and examined the within-person changes over time. Other time-varying predictors should be able to give a clearer picture about learners’ growth trajectories. The third research question is whether there is any relationship between the learners’ initial language proficiency and their rate of change. There was a weak negative correlation between the learners’ initial status and their growth rate especially for Type 2 items. This indicates that the learners who had limited language proficiency at the beginning of the ER course, measured by Type 2 items, tended to gain at rather a faster rate than those who had higher language proficiency. Will Extensive Reading Help L2 Learners’Use of Context While Processing Text? 67 2. Limitations The results of the present study should be viewed taking the following limitations into consideration. First, the participants of the present study were Japanese EFL learners at a university. The generalizability of the results is limited to the learners in similar learning context. Second, the participants were in the ER class for one academic year. If they had continued to read extensively for a longer time period, clearer trends might have been obtained across different types of cloze items. Third, we need to confirm the degree in which Bachman’s classification of items on a cloze test would match the way test-takers would respond each of the items on the EPER PPT. 3. Educational Implication As the results of this research illustrate, even one year of engagement in extensive reading help learners, from low- to high-level university students, improve their general English proficiency by processing texts using grammar in context, context within and across sentences, or extra-textual knowledge. With implementation of extensive reading into school curriculum at an early stage of formal English education in elementary school or secondary school, these skills could be developed faster and better than translation practice and explicit knowledge of grammar rules, which have been practiced extensively in the learning context where the current study took place. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This study was supported by JSPS Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) Grant Number 24520678. REFERENCES Bachman, L.F. (1985). Performance on cloze tests with fixed-ratio and rational deletions.TESOL Quarterly 19(3), 535-569. Beglar, D., Hunt, A., & Kite, Y. 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Applicable levels: All practitioners and learners Key words: Extensive Reading, Grammar in context, Implicit knowledge of grammar, Text processing KiyomiYoshizawa Kansai University 3-3-35 Yamate-cho, Suita-shi, Osaka 564-8680 Japan Tel: +81-6-6368-0827 Fax: +81-6-6368-0036 [email protected] AtsukoTakase Kansai University 3-3-35 Yamate-cho, Suita-shi, Osaka 564-8680 Japan Tel: +81-6-6368-1121 Fax: +81-6-6368-0036 [email protected] KyokoOtsuki Hiroshima Shudo University Faculty of Law 1-1-1 Otsuka Higashi, Azaminami-ku, Hiroshima-shi, Hiroshima 731-3195 Japan Tel: +81-82-830-1123 [email protected] Information for Contributors of English Manuscripts -‘Journal of Extensive Reading in Foreign Language’Journal of Extensive Reading in Foreign Language is a referred, quarterly –published journal of the Korean English Extensive Reading Association(KEERA). 1. 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If the title of the article and of the journal is not known in English, romanize it, including its English translation in brackets. 14) In the list of references, single-author citations precede multiple-author citations regardless of when the citations were published. 15) “Applicable levels” and “key words” should be listed at the end of the article. 16) After the list of the key words, the author’s name, affiliation, mailing address, home/office phone number, fax number, email address, and cell phone number should be provided. 17) When two or more authors submit an article, the degree of authorial participation should be indicated such as a co-author, a corresponding author, a first author, a second author, etc. 3. Style Guidelines All submissions to Journal of Extensive Reading in Foreign Language should conform to the requirements of Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). The following are some important examples taken from the manual. 1) Text Citation (1) One Work by a Single Author: The last name of the author and the year of publication are inserted in the text at the appropriate point. — He stated, “[t]he .placebo effect. disappeared when [his own and other.s] behaviors were studied in this manner” (Smith, 1982, p. 276). — Smith (1982) found that “[t]he .placebo effect. disappeared when [his own and other.s] behaviors were studied in this manner” (p. 276). (2) One Work by Two Authors: Cite both names every time the reference occurs in the text. — Gardner and Lambert (1976) found that their previous study (Gardner & Lambert, 1972) could not . . . (3) One Work by 3-5 Authors: Cite all authors the first time the reference occurs; in subsequent citations include only the surname of the first author followed by “et al.” and the year in parentheses. — First citation: William, Jones, Smith, Bradner, and Torrington (1983) found that . . . — Second citation: William et al. (1983) studied the effect of . . . (4) One Work by More Than Six Authors: Cite only the surname of the first author followed by “et al.” and the year in the first and subsequent citations. However, in the reference list, the names of all six or more authors should be spelled out. (5) Two or More Works Within the Same Parentheses: Arrange two or more works by the same author by year of publication, and list two or more works by different authors in alphabetical order by the first authors. surnames. Separate the citations with semicolons. — Oxford (1986, 1989, 1994) reported that many studies (Gosden, 1992; Hanania & Akhtar, 1985;Hopkins, 1987, 1988a, 1989; Tarone et al., 1981) used strategy training . . . (6) Authors with the Same Surname: If a reference list includes publications by two or more authors with the same surname, include the authors’ initials in all text citations to avoid confusion, even if the year of publication differs. — H. D. Brown (1993) and J. D. Brown (1994) agreed that . . . (7) Personal Communications: Personal communications may be private letters, memos, some electronic communications (e.g., e-mail, messages from non-archived discussion groups, or electronic bulletin boards), personal interviews, telephone conversations and the like. Because they do not provide recoverable data, personal communications are not included in the reference list. Give the initials as well as the surname of the communicator, and provide as exact a date as possible. — T. K. Lutes (personal communication, April 18, 2010) — (V.G. Nguyen, personal communication, September 28, 2009) 2) Reference List All sources cited in the text must be included alphabetically in the reference list. Below are examples of the entries: journal articles, books, articles or chapters in the edited book, magazines or newspaper articles, reports, proceedings of meetings and symposia, and doctoral dissertations or master’s theses. Reference examples of online sources are added in each entry. (1) Journal Articles — Setter, J., & Jenkins, J. (2005). Pronunciation. Language Teaching, 38, 1-17. — Sillick, T. J., & Schutte, N. S. (2006). Emotional intelligence and self-esteem medicate between perceived early parental love and adult happiness. E-Journal of Applied Psychology, 2(2), 38-48. Retrieved from http://ojs.lib.swin.edu.au/index.php/ ejap (2) Books —Bachman, L. F. (2004). Statistical analyses for language assessment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. —Strunk, W., Jr., & White, E. B. (Eds.). (1979). The elements of style. New York, NY: Macmillan. — American Psychiatric Association. (1980). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (3rd ed.). Washington, DC: Author. (3) Articles or Chapters in the Edited Book — O’Grady, W. (2003). The radical middle: Nativism without universal grammar. In C. Doughty & M. Long (Eds.), The handbook of second language acquisition (pp. 43-103). Oxford, UK: Blackwell. (4) Magazines or Newspaper Articles — Gardner, H. (1981, December). Do babies sing a universal song? Psychology Today, pp. 70-76. — Clay, R. (2008, June). Science vs. ideology: Psychologists fight back about the misuse of research. Monitor on Psychology, 39(6). Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/ monitor/ — Schwartz, J. (1993, September 30). Obesity affects economic, social status. The Washington Post, pp. A1, A4. — Brody, J. E. (2007, December 11). Mental reserves keep brain agile. The New York Times, pp. 2-3. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com (5) Reports — Newport, E. L. (1975). Motherese: The speech of mothers to young children (Tech. Rep. No. 53). San Diego, CA: University of California, Center for Human Information Processing. — Gottfredson, L. S. (1980). How valid are the reinforcement pattern scores? (Report No. CSOS-R-292). Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University, Center for Social Organization of Schools. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 182 465) (6) Proceedings of Meetings and Symposia — Miyagi, T. (2006, May). Technology-enhanced collaborative projects and internet-based instruction. Paper presented at the conference of the MATESOL program, San Francisco State University, San Francisco. — Wells, C. G. (1984). Lexical-grammatical features of child language. Proceedings of the Fourth International Symposium on Child Language (pp. 83-92). Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada: Mitchell Press. — Muellbauer, J. (2007, September). Housing, credit, and consumer expenditure. In S. C. Ludvigson (Chair), Housing and consumer behavior. Symposium conducted at the meeting of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Jackson Hole, WY. (7) Doctoral Dissertations or Master.s Theses — Kevins, G. M. (1981). An analysis of ESL learners’ discourse patterns. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. McGill University, Montreal. — Appelbaum, L. G. (2005). Three studies of human information processing: Texture amplification, motion representation, and figure-ground segregation. Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B. Sciences and Engineering, 65(10), 5428. — Foster, M. E. (1982). An analysis of the relationship between preservice teacher training and directed teaching performance (Doctoral dissertation, University of Chicago, 1981). Dissertation Abstract International, 42, 4409A. — Pendar, J. E. (1982). Undergraduate psychology majors: Factors influencing decisions. Dissertation Abstracts International, 42, 4370A-4371A. (University Microfilms No. 82-06, 181) — Bruckman, A. (1997). MOOSE Crossing: Construction, community, and learning in a networked virtual world for kids (Doctoral dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology). Retrieved from http://www-static.cc.gatech.edu/~asb/thesis/ Journal of Extensive Reading in Foreign Language Publisher publication Email Homepage Date of publication Jeong-Ryeol Kim The Korean English Extensive Reading Association 317-1 English Education Dept. Teachers’ College 21 Mokwon-gil, Seo-gu, Daejeon 302-729, Korea Tel. +82-42-829-7448 Fax. +82-42-829-7038 Mobile. +82-10-4132-2048 e-mail: [email protected] http://keera.or.kr/ 31st of Jan., 2014 ISSN (print) ISSN (online)