Extensive Reading with Adult Learners of English as a Second Language.docx

Extensive Reading with Adult Learners of English as a Second Language.docx

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ExtensiveReadingwithAdultLearnersofEnglishasaSecondLanguage

ExtensiveReadingwithAdultLearnersofEnglishasaSecondLanguage

WillyARenandya

BRSundaraRajanandGeorgeMJacobs

SEAMEORELC,Singapore

 Renandya,W.A.,Rajan,B.R.S.,&Jacobs,G.M.（1999）.ExtensivereadingwithadultlearnersofEnglishasasecondlanguage.RELCJournal,30,39-61.

Thebestwaytoimproveone’sknowledgeofaforeignlanguageistogoand

liveamongitsspeakers.Thenextbestwayistoreadextensivelyinit.

Nuttall（1982:

168,citedinYu,1993）

Thispaperreportsonastudyoftheimpactofextensivereading（ER）onthelanguageproficiencyofagroupofVietnamesegovernmentofficialsstudyingEnglish.Twoquestionswereofinterest.First,wewantedtoexamineifERcouldbesuccessfullyimplementedwithadultsecondlanguagelearnersbeyondtraditionalstudentage.Secondly,wewereinterestedintherelationshipbetweenlearninggainandasetofERvariables,suchasamountofERmaterialsread,theextenttowhichthismaterialwasperceivedtobeausefulandenjoyableactivity.TheresultsindicatedthatolderadultsecondlanguagelearnerscouldindeedbenefitfromacarefullyplannedandsystematicallyimplementedERprogram.Further,aregressionanalysisshowedthatamountofERwastheonlysignificantpredictorofparticipants'gainscores.

INTRODUCTION

The1990ssawrenewedinterestinERandtheroleitplaysinsecondlanguagelearning.TheMay1997issueofTheLanguageTeacher（ajournalpublishedbytheJapanAssociationforLanguageTeaching）,forexample,wasdevotedtopapersonER.TheauthorsofthesepapersarguethatERshouldbegivenalargershareinourlanguagecurriculumandpresentideasonhowtoachievethis.ThepresentarticlebeginsbypresentinganoverviewofwhyandhowtoimplementER.ThisisfollowedbyareportonastudyoftheimpactofERonthelanguageproficiencyofagroupofVietnamesegovernmentofficialsstudyingEnglish.

TheprincipaltheoreticalmotivationbehindtheuseofERinsecondlanguagelearningcomesfromtheideathatlearnersneedlargeamountsofcomprehensibleinputintheirnewlanguageinordertomakeprogresstowardoverallcommandofthatlanguage（Krashen,1982）.Inthisway,ERbenefitsnotonlyreadingproficiencybutoveralllanguageproficiencyaswell.NumerousresearchstudiesinbothL1（e.g.,Herman,Anderson,Pearson,&Nagy,1987;Nagy,Herman,&Anderson,1985;foranextensivereview,seeKrashen,1993）andL2（Elley,1991;Elley&Mangubhai,1983;HafizandTudor,1990;Krashen,1997;Mason&Krashen,1997;Nation,1997;Lituañas,JacobsandRenandya,toappear;Sims,1995）haveconsistentlyshownthebenefitsofERforlearners’languagedevelopment.

TheexperimentreportedbyLituañas,Jacobs,andRenandya,forinstance,demonstratedhowremedialstudentsatasecondaryschoolinthePhilippinesconsiderablyimprovedtheirreadingskillsduringasix-monthERprogram.Inthisexperiment,twogroupsofstudentsreceivedthesameamountofdailyinstruction（40minutes）duringtheirremedialreadingclass.However,unlikethecontrolgroupwhoweretaughttheconventionalway,theexperimentalgroupweregivenclasstimetoreadbooks,magazines,andnewspapers,andwereencouragedtocontinuethisERoutsideclasshours.Aftersixmonths,theERtreatmentwasassociatedwithlearninggainsthatweregreatertoastatisticallysignificantdegreethanthoseregisteredbyremedialstudentstaughtviathetraditionalmodeofreadinginstruction.

Inadditiontobeingassociatedwithlearninggainsinexperimentalstudies,ERhasalsobeenareliablepredictorofsecondlanguageproficiencyinexpostfactoresearch.InastudyofESLstudentsintheUS,Constantino,S.Y.Lee,Cho,andKrashen（1997）reportthat,alongwithamountofpreviousEnglishstudyintheirhomecountriesandlengthofresidenceintheUS,theamountofreadingwasasignificantpredictorofstudents’TOEFLscores.Incontrast,othervariables（i.e.,amountofTVviewinginEnglish,frequencyandamountofL1reading,andamountofEnglishstudyintheUS）includedinthestudywerenotsignificantlycorrelatedwithTOEFLscores.

InanotherstudyinvolvingESLstudentsintheUnitedStates,Y.O.Lee,Krashen,andGibbons（1996,citedinKrashen,1997）reportthatamountofL2readingwasalsoareliablepredictorofstudents’abilitytotranslateandtoperformagrammaticalityjudgementtask.Itisinterestingtonotethatinthisstudy,unliketheTOEFLstudyabove,amountofformalstudyinEnglishandlengthofresidenceintheUSwerenotsignificantpredictors.ProvidingevidencefortheviewthatERbenefitsallaspectsoflanguageproficiency,Jonopoulos（1986）foundasignificantcorrelationbetweentheamountL2readingandL2writingproficiency,asmeasuredbyholisticevaluationofstudentwriting.

Whiledefinitionsvary,expertsagreethatERinvolvestheindependentreadingofalargequantityofmaterialforinformationorpleasure.TheprimefocusofERisonthemeaningofwhatisbeingreadratherthanonthelanguage.Ontheotherhand,inintensivereadingstudentsworkwithshorttextsundertheguidanceoftheteacher.Theaimofintensivereadingistohelpstudentsconstructdetailedmeaningfromthetext,todevelopreadingskills,suchasidentifyingmainideasandrecognisingtextsignals,andtoenhancevocabularyandgrammarknowledge.Thesetwoapproachestoteachingreading-intensiveandextensivereading-arenotseenasbeinginopposition,asbothservedifferentbutcomplementarypurposes（Carrell&Carson,1997;Nuttall,1982）.

WhatarethecharacteristicsofsuccessfulERprogrammes?

Thefollowingcharacteristicsaregenerallythoughttobeamongthemostimportant（Campbell,1989;Davis,1995;DayandBamford,1997;Fielding&Roller,1992;Gambrell,1979;Hill,1997;Hsui,1994;Jacobs,DavisandRenandya,1997;Kim&Krashen,1997;Nash&Yun-Pi;Park&Turn,1987;Raja,1995;Waring,1997;Yu,1993）:

1.    Studentsreadlargeamountsofprintedmaterial;

2.    Studentschoosewhattheywanttoread;

3.    Studentsreadavarietyofmaterialsintermsoftopicandgenre;

4.    Thematerialstudentsreadiswithintheirlevelofcomprehension;

5.    Studentstakepartinpost-readingactivities;

6.    Teachersreadwiththeirstudents,thusservingasrolemodelsofgoodreaders;

7.    Teachersandstudentskeeptrackofstudentprogress;

8.    Teachersprovidehelpandguidancewhereneeded.

FindingthematerialstosupportPoints1,3,and4abovecanbedifficult,especiallywherefundingisinsufficient.Lituañas（1997）describeshowshecollectedmaterialsfromawidervarietyofsources,includingfellowteachers,paststudents,andcommunitygroups.TohandRaja（1997）explainwaysthatteachersthemselvescanwriteERmaterialssuitedtotheirstudents’culturalcontextsandproficiencylevels.WaysthatstudentscanbeinvolvedincreatingreadingmaterialsforthemselvesandpeersareexploredinDavidson,Ogle,Ross,Tuhaka,andNg（1997）andDupuyandMcQuillan（1997）,whileDerewianka（1997）givesideasforfindingERmaterialsontheinternet.

ItisworthnotingthatnotallwritersonERagreewithPoint5above,i.e.,includingpost-readingtasksintheERprogram.Themainobjectionisthatpost-readingtasksmayspoilstudents’readingenjoyment,andthatinER,readingshouldbeseenasitsownreward.However,wefeelthatpost-readingtasks,ifcarefullydesigned,canserveusefulpurposes（seeYu,1993;MasonandKrashen,1997forasimilarview）.Post-readingactivitiescanbeusedto（i）reinforcewhatstudentshavelearnedfromtheirreading;（ii）givestudentsasenseofprogress;and（iii）helpstudentsshareinformationaboutmaterialstoreadoravoid.Theoutputhypothesis（Swain,1985,1993,inpress）providesadditionalsupportfortheuseofpost-readingtasks.Thishypothesisstatesthatwhilecomprehensibleinputsuppliesanessentialbasisforsecondlanguageacquisition,itmustbesupplementedbytheproductionofcomprehensibleoutputiflearnersaretoreachahighlevelofproficiencyinthetargetlanguage.Swainarguesthatproductiontasksforcelearnerstonoticefeaturesofthetargetlanguageandtoformandtesthypothesesaboutthelanguage.Anumberofpost-readingactivitiesusedinthepresentstudyaredescribedinthenextsection.

SomeeducatorsusestudentgroupstosupportER.Groupactivitiessupportreadinginterestandproficiencyandcantakeplacebefore,during,andafterER.Forinstance,Cockburn,Isbister,andSim-Goh（1997）,Rhodes（1993）,Rodgers（1997）,andSamway,Whang,andPippitt（1995）depictprogrammesinwhichmoreproficient,oftenolderreaders,supportlessproficient,oftenyoungerstudents,invariousliteracyactivities.Daniels（1994）,HillandVanHorn（1997）,andMcQuillanandTse（1997）describegroupactivitiesthatprovidereaderswithopportunitiestodiscusswhattheyhavebeenreading.

Thepresentstudywasdesignedtoaddressthefollowingquestions.First,sincepreviousstudieshavedealtwiththeeffectofERonchildrenoryoungadults,wewantedtoexamineifERcouldbesuccessfullyimplementedwitholderadultsecondlanguagelearners.Secondly,wewereinterestedintherelationshipbetweenlearninggainandasetofERvariables.ThesevariablesincludetheamountofERmaterialread,theextenttowhichthismaterialisperceivedasinteresting,easy/difficult,andcomprehensible,andwhetherornotERisperceivedtobeausefulandenjoyableactivity.Inthenextsection,wedescribethecontextinwhichourstudywasimplemented.

THESTUDY

Participants

Participantsinthestudywere49VietnamesegovernmentofficialswhowereinSingaporeforatwo