Instruction and Extensive Reading in Japanese High School Education : An Introductory Course in Jonan-Ryoso High School (original) (raw)
Related papers
2004
This article discusses how we incorporated an extensive reading (ER) program into a second semester Japanese course at the University of Hawai‘i using Japanese children's literature. After summarizing the ten principles of ER, we describe how we addressed six critical issues faced while introducing ER into the course. We also discuss the outcomes of this ten-week program, which showed that the students improved their scores according to a traditional measure of reading comprehension. We also found positive results in an affective questionnaire that measured attitudes toward and motivation for learning Japanese. keywords: teaching Japanese, extensive reading, teaching reading, curriculum
Vocabulary Gains in a Japanese University Extensive Reading Program
JALT Postconference Publication - Issue 2021.1; August 2022
Extensive Reading (ER) programs are established within many Japanese universities because of their numerous benefits (Nation & Waring, 2019). The issue for teachers is not whether to include ER, but how much they should require students to read and how to persuade institutions to invest in more books. In this pilot study into the relationship between ER and incidental vocabulary gains, these issues are explored through a discussion of data drawn from 160 undergraduates in a year-long English course requiring minimum reading goals. During the year, data were collected on reading rates (using MReader and XReading) and vocabulary knowledge (using Nation & Beglar’s 2007 Vocabulary Size Test). The main finding was that a subgroup of consistent readers, who read over 40,000 words, had a significant positive correlation (r (26) = 0.41; p <0.05) between the amount read and VST gains. This implies that even a limited amount of ER over a one-year period can lead to measurable vocabulary ga...
Reading Performance of Japanese High School Learners Following a One-Year Extensive Reading Program
Reading in a foreign language, 2019
The present study investigates the effects of extensive reading on developing the language knowledge and reading abilities of high school learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) over the course of one school year. Participants were divided into control (n = 205) and experimental groups (n = 200), with the former receiving regular grammar instruction and the latter receiving extensive reading instruction. Preand posttests consisting of a grammar and vocabulary section and a reading section were conducted to test the effects of the extensive reading program. The study further divided the participants into three proficiency groups. The results showed that the scores of the middleand lower-proficiency groups increased dramatically compared to the higherproficiency group. These findings suggest that the participants activated the knowledge they had learned in junior high school through the one-year extensive reading course, resulting in the improvement of their language knowledge...
Reading in a Foreign Language, 2010
I am currently Senior Lecturer and Coordinator of the Japanese Language Program in the Department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages and Literatures at Washington University in St. Louis. My response to the MLA Report on "Foreign Languages and Higher Education: New Structures for a Changed World" relates exclusively to the role of reading Japanese (although similar issues presumably apply to the teaching of other Asian languages) and is based predominantly on my experience as language instructor and program coordinator. I have occupied the latter position for the past twelve years. With the support and expertise of my colleagues in Japanese language and literature, I have designed an integrated curriculum that produces lifelong learners who, after four years of undergraduate study, possess the linguistic, communicative, and cultural competence to express themselves in a culturally coherent and appropriate manner when interacting with educated native speakers of Japanese.
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...
This study investigated the effects of a six-month course in speed reading on three areas of reading proficiency development: (1) general reading comprehension; (2) knowledge of high-frequency vocabulary; and (3) reading-rate and accuracy. The participants (N = 105) were Japanese students studying English as a foreign language in Grade 10 of a Japanese private senior high school, randomly assigned to an experimental group (n =51), which received the speed reading treatment, and a control group (n =54), which received supplementary activities focused on high-frequency vocabulary development. The findings indicated that both the experimental and control groups made significant improvements in general reading comprehension. However, there was no significant difference between the experimental group (M = 14.27, SD = 4.01) and control group M = 14.31, SD = 4.07; t (103) = -.051, p= .959. Both the experimental group (M = 1.29, SD = 2.52) and control group (M = 1.35, SD = 2.49) increased their knowledge of high-frequency vocabulary. However, again there was no significant difference between the experimental group (M = 25.78, SD = 2.96) and control group M = 25.61, SD = 2.24; t (103) = -.337, p= .737. In terms of reading-rate development, the findings indicated a significant increase (M = 47, SD = 41.99) t (50) = 8.01, p < .0005. Finally, while higher levels of general reading comprehension and high reading speeds were correlated, the relationship was a small, r=.19, n = 51. The range of findings emerging from this current study adds weight to the existing research and go beyond those conducted in the Japanese context to date. One of the important questions these findings raise relates to the greater influence that other variables, such as lexico-grammatical knowledge, might have on the development of reading comprehension at this level of language proficiency.
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...
That ‘eureka feeling’: A case study of extensive reading in Japanese
A considerable amount of research has been undertaken over the last two decades to support claims about the benefits of extensive reading (Day & Bamford, 1998 summarise a number of studies). The majority of these studies target the learning of English, with only a limited amount of research carried out in the learning of other languages, including Japanese, a language which can pose orthographic challenges for learners from alphabetic first language backgrounds and for which suitable extensive reading resources are not as readily available as they are in English. This paper considers these issues and reports on a case study of a learner who read extensively in Japanese over a three-month period. The exposure to extensive reading helped the participant become a more strategic and more confident reader, and appeared to facilitate language learning with her experience of passive knowledge turning into active knowledge as a result of extensive reading.
An Extensive Reading, Graded Reader Programme at Tokyo University of Science
東京理科大学紀要 教養篇, (52), 137-158., 2020
Any educational context evolves over time. In this regard, the English language teaching curriculum at Tokyo University of Science (TUS) is no different. With this report, we take into consideration the background to the study of English in Japan, the reasons for recent national and institutional policy reform and the repercussions in the teaching of reading. In this regard, we review the literature regarding what constitutes best practice in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context of Japan. Furthermore, we analyse the benefits and pitfalls of introducing first-and second-year students to an online extensive reading programme.