What types of texts and reading aids are good for Japanese graded readers (original) (raw)
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The Reader-Text-Writer Interaction: L2 Japanese Learners' Response toward Graded Readers
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This paper reports on two projects which investigated graded readers (GRs) as meaningful input for learners of Japanese as a foreign language (JFL). Project One examined the intentions of six writers of Japanese GRs. A focus group interview demonstrated that the writers had a genuine communicative intent in the writing process. Project Two investigated how fourteen learners of JFL responded to the GRs produced by these writers. Most participants welcomed lexical simplification in the GRs and their think-aloud protocols indicated that they experienced an effortless reading process with the GRs. This implies that GRs can be productive reading materials for JFL reading fluency development. In the affective domain, the less proficient participants tended to react favourably to the writers’ communicative intent, whereas advanced participants demonstrated negative perceptions toward reading the GRs. The paper argues that the potential of GRs as meaningful input for learners of JFL is maxi...
Graded reader readability: Some overlooked aspects
2015
Most extensive reading programs rely on graded readers as the main source of reading material, especially for learners at lower proficiency levels. There is considerable variation among publishers with regard to the way graded readers are categorized into levels of difficulty. The most common means of categorization is the number of headwords. This paper reports on some initial findings of a 3-year study of Japanese language learners. Interviews and think aloud protocols carried out with junior and senior high school and university students ( N = 83) show that additional factors need to be taken into consideration when assessing the level of difficulty of graded readers. The findings suggest that authors and editors need to pay closer attention to the likely age range of the target readers, cultural issues, use of idiomatic and figurative language, literary devices, illustrations, and plot structure when determining the readability of graded readers.
Assisted repeated reading with an advanced-level Japanese EFL reader: A longitudinal diary study
Reading fluency has attracted the attention of reading researchers and educators since the early 1970s and has become a priority issue in English as a first language (L1) settings. It has also become a critical issue in English as a second or foreign language (L2) settings because the lack of fluency is considered a major obstacle to developing independent readers with good comprehension skills. Repeated Reading (RR) was originally devised by in order to translate Automaticity Theory (LaBerge & Samuels, 1974) into a pedagogical approach for developing English L1 readers' fluency. Extensive research has been conducted to show the positive effects of RR in English L1 settings. A growing number of L2 reading researchers have demonstrated that RR may be a promising approach for building fluency and comprehension in L2 settings. However, while L1 research has demonstrated a robust correlation between improved reading fluency and enhanced comprehension, L2 fluency research has not yet shown such a strong correlation. In addition, most studies on reading fluency in L2 settings have used quantitative approaches and only a few of them have explored the "inside of L2 readers' brain," that is, what is actually happening while they engage in RR. The present study attempts to reveal the inner process of L2 reading fluency development through RR for an advanced-level L2 reader who is articulate in describing her metacognitive processes. Using a diary study approach comprising more than 70 RR sessions over the course of 14 weeks, the current study investigated an L2 reader with good comprehension skills
M-Reader as a catalyst for change in a Japanese university EFL extended reading project
International Journal of English Language Teaching (IJELT), 2020
This practical action research examines the choice between using unabridged novels and graded readers in the context of an extensive reading project. The comparison mainly consists of data on word-count gains as recorded throughout two ten-week sessions with the same target group. For the comparison, thirty-five first year non-English-major Japanese university EFL students in a year-long communication class were assigned to read an unabridged novel through a ten-week period during the first semester of the school year. For another ten-week period during the second semester, the same group read graded readers in tandem with the M-Reader computer-assisted language learning program. The findings suggest that a change in pedagogy in favor of the method involving graded readers with the M-Reader program is the most beneficial choice for the course.
Japanese high school textbooks: How readable are they? Working
1998
Guidelines for the high school English classroom, there is much evidence to suggest that, for many teachers, teaching practice still remains focused primarily on grammar-translation, pattern drills and memorization. This seems to be especially true of the English reading classroom. Other research which had looked into the prevalence of the Yakudoku method of translating English passages into Japanese has suggested that it is largely a result of either historical or sociological factors. The research presented here adds to this discussion by exploring whether or not reading difficulty and lexical load also contribute to this overreliance on translation. Randomly selected passages from the top three selling Mombusho approved reading textbooks were scanned into a computer and analyzed for readability via traditional readability formulas such as the Flesh-Kinkaid, and for lexical difficulty via VocabProfile (Nation, 1993). Results indicate that although most passages were rated as relat...
Reading in a foreign language, 2017
Fluency development instruction lacks in reading in Japanese as a foreign language instruction. This study examined how 34 upper-intermediate level learners of Japanese responded when they first experienced pleasure reading and speed reading. The participants also engaged in intensive reading, the main component of which was translation. Survey results indicated that the two novel approaches were more welcomed than translation. There was a positive correlation between the participants’ favorable ratings of pleasure reading and speed reading. The participants exhibited flexibility toward the two novel approaches in that they were willing to be meaningfully engaged in pleasure reading, whereas they put complete understanding before fluent reading when speed reading. The latter phenomenon may be explained by their predominantlyaccuracy-oriented attitudes, fostered by long-term exposure to the grammar-translation method. The study’s results imply that key to successful fluency developme...
CHOOSING THE ADEQUATE LEVEL OF GRADED READERS - PRELIMINARY STUDY
Abstract: Graded readers have been used as second language teaching material since the end of the Second World War. They are an important source of simplified material which provides comprehensible input on all levels. It is of crucial importance for a successful usage of graded readers in the classroom and in studies which focus on graded readers, that an adequate level of graded readers is chosen. In this paper the following will be explored: the theoretical background of choosing the adequate level of graded readers, explanation of the criteria for placement of graded readers in different levels, the differences in levels between the most important publishers and the selection of the adequate level of the graded readers. Furthermore, this paper presents preliminary research results, the goal of which was to test whether assigned CEFR levels represent a sufficient criterion for the selection of graded readers without previously testing reading skills or using tests provided by the graded reader publishers. Six subjects participated in the research; they were divided into three levels of English language knowledge (A2, B1, C1). Each participant read one and listened to another graded reader. In this research an interview was used for gathering data, the key component of which were text and audio material comprehension questions. The results showed that not all graded readers used in the study were adequate and that there are grounds for conducting further research with a larger sample.
A Comparative Analysis of MEXT English Reading Textbooks and Japan’s National Center Test
2010
Despite the influence of changing demographics in Japan, the National Center Test for University Entrance Exams continues to assert an ever increasing role in the process of university admissions. In preparation for this examination, the majority of senior high school students learn from textbooks approved by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT). This study compares Section Six of the 2003-7 and 2008-9 National Center Test English reading examination with three widely used MEXT senior high school reading textbooks. By triangulating analyses of vocabulary, reading ease/grade level indices, reading skills, and comprehension item formats, thereby expanding the methodologies of previous research in this area, the study poses the question: To what degree do the text and comprehension tasks of MEXT textbooks compare with those which students will be expected to comprehend in the National Center Test reading examination? Updating the results of earlier studies, the descriptive and inferential statistics reveal that while the vocabulary levels of the textbook now appear to correspond more closely with recent versions of the examination, further alignment of readability, grade levels, and comprehension tasks is necessary if MEXT textbooks are to support the development of reading proficiency now required.
The Reading Matrix : an International Online Journal, 2015
A perennial challenge to second language educators and learners is getting sufficient input in settings where the L2 is not widely used, in this case beginning-level American university students learning Japanese. Reading is a significant means of getting L2 input, with recent calls for attention to reading and authentic texts as curriculum components for language learners at all levels. Nonetheless, L2 learners do not read much. This underscores a significant impediment, which is L2 learners’ lack of reading fluency. Using a time-series design, this report focused on a theory-based reading fluency program called Repeated Reading in which learners read a text repeatedly both silently and with audio support (where a text is read aloud while learners follow along silently). Engaging in a moderate-intensity 23-treatment program over a full semester, 14 beginning Japanese language learners in a U.S. university increased their hiragana character and word decoding skills, and improved the...
Japanese High School Textbooks : How Readable Are They ?
2009
Despite the clear focus on the development of students' communicative competence in the 1994 Mombusho (Japanese Ministry of Education) Course of Study Guidelines for the high school English classroom, there is much evidence to suggest that, for many teachers, teaching practice still remains focused primarily on grammar-translation, pattern drills and memorization. This seems to be especially true of the English reading classroom. Other research which had looked into the prevalence of the Yakudoku method of translating English passages into Japanese has suggested that it is largely a result of either historical or sociological factors. The research presented here adds to this discussion by exploring whether or not reading difficulty and lexical load also contribute to this overreliance on translation. Randomly selected passages from the top three selling Mombusho approved reading textbooks were scanned into a computer and analyzed for readability via traditional readability formu...