TEMPLE UNIVERSITY JAPAN STUDIES IN APPLIED LINGUISTICS CLASSROOM RESEARCH IN THE JAPANESE CONTEXT Number 122, January 2019 Temple University Japan Studies in Applied Linguistics Classroom Research in the Japanese Context Editors: Brian Dubin, Mulia Teguh Nguyen, & Travis Past Series Editors, David Beglar & Tomoko Nemoto Number 122, January 2019 © Copyright 2019 Temple University, Japan Campus ii Studies in Applied Linguistics Temple University, Japan Campus Graduate College of Education PROGRAMS Master of Education Degree Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages Doctor of Education Degree Curriculum, Instruction, and Technology with specialization in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages FACULTY David Beglar Eton Churchill Tim Doe Paul Leeming Robert Nelson Tomoko Nemoto Edward Schaefer Correspondence should be addressed to: Studies in Applied Linguistics Graduate College of Education Temple University, Japan Campus Azabu Building, Minami Azabu 2-8-12 Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0047 Tel: (03) 5441-9800 Fax: (03) 5441-9811 iii Temple University Japan Studies in Applied Linguistics 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 Pronunciation Manual for the Sounds of American English, Fall 1984 (Vol. 1, No. 1) Teaching the Grammatical Structures of English: A Manual for Teacher, Tokyo Ed., Spring 1985 (Vol. II, No. 1) A Teachers’ Manual: Teaching the Grammatical Structures of English, Osaka Ed., Spring 1985 (Vol. II, No. 2) First and Second Language Acquisition: A Survey of the Primary Research, Tokyo, Fall 1985 (Vol. II, No. 3) First and Second Language Acquisition: A Survey of the Primary Research, Osaka, Fall 1985 (Vol. II, No. 4) First and Second Language Acquisition: A Survey of the Primary Research, Osaka, Fall 1985 (Vol. II, No. 5) Techniques in Teaching Pronunciation, Spring 1986 (Vol. III, No. 1) Communicative Activities for Teaching Pronunciation, Fall 1987 (Vol. IV, No. 1) Communicative Activities for Teaching the Grammatical Systems of English, Fall 1987 (Vol. IV, No. 2) Strategic Interaction: Using Scenarios to Teach English as a Foreign Language, Fall 1988 Vol. V(1) Classroom Activities for Teaching Listening and Speaking, Fall 1989 (Vol. VI, No. 1) Communicative Grammar Activities, Spring 1990 (Vol. VII, No. 1) Communicative Activities for Teaching Pronunciation, Fall 1990 (Vol. VII, No. 2) Grammar Consciousness-Raising Tasks, Fall 1991 (Vol. VIII, No. 1) The Communicative Teaching of Pronunciation, Spring 1992 (Vol. IX, No. 1) Activities for Literature in Language Teaching, Spring 1993 (Vol. X, No. 1 Grammar Consciousness-Raising Tasks, Fall 1993 (Vol. X, No. 2) Humanistic Techniques in the EFL Classroom, Spring 1994 (Vol. XI, No. 1) Pronunciation Manual for the Sounds of American English, Spring 1994 (Vol. XI, No. 2) Grammar Consciousness-Raising Tasks, Spring 1995 Collaborative Projects in Language Learning, Summer 1995 Action Research, Summer 1996 Approaches to Grammar: Tasks for the Classroom, September 1996 Communicative Activities for Teaching Pronunciation, Spring 1997 Grammar Activities for the Classroom, April 1998 English as a Stressful Language: Teaching Suprasegmental Pronunciation to Japanese Learners, July 1998 Phonology: Pronunciation and Beyond, February 1999 The Development of Teaching Materials for the EFL Classroom, February 2000 Activities for Teaching English Pronunciation, April 2000 Developing Teaching Materials for the EFL Classroom, July 2000 Teaching Materials for the EFL Classroom, November 2000 Consciousness-Raising and Communicative Grammar Activities, February 2001 The Development of Teaching Materials for the EFL Classroom, February 2002 Approaches to Grammar: Tasks for the Classroom, May 2002 The Development of Teaching Materials for the EFL Classroom, March 2003 Language Assessment, December 2003 The Development of Sound System Teaching Materials for the EFL Classroom, March 2004 Language Assessment, December 2003 I: Grammar Activities, March 2004; II: Materials for Teaching Pronunciation for the EFL Classroom, April 2004 Grammar Activities, May 2004 Teaching Vocabulary to Second Language Learners, June 2004 Activities for Building Confidence in English Pronunciation February 2006 The Next Great Leap: Using CALL in the Classroom, July 2006 Activities for Teaching Pronunciation Skills to Japanese Learners of English, November 2006 Bilingualism, November 2006 The Development of Teaching Materials for the EFL Classroom, April 2007 An Anthology of Grammar Activities, April 2007 Classroom Activities for Teaching Pronunciation, May 2007 The English Sound System Theory and Practice, October 2007 Developing Teaching Materials for EFL Classrooms, March 2008 Speaking and Listening in the Classroom, August 2008 Communicative Pronunciation Activities and Syllabi, July 2009 Issues in Second Language Writing: From Theory to Practice, July 2009 Content-Based Foreign Language Instruction in Japan, July 2009 Developing Materials for English Language Instruction in Japan, October 2009 Applying the Pillars of SLA Theory, November 2009 Grammar: Communicative and Consciousness-Raising Activities, January 2010 Studies in Second Language Acquisition: Theory and Practice, January 2010 Vocabulary Acquisition and Teaching, April 2010 Grammar: Communicative and Consciousness-Raising Activities, November 2010 Echoes from the Past: Foreign Language Education in Japan, November 2010 Activities for Pronunciation, February 2011 Teaching English Grammar to ESL/EFL Learners, February 2011 Developing Learner Pragmatic Competence Through Instructional Intervention, March 2011 Communicative Activities for Teaching the English Sound System, March 2011 iv 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 Consciousness-Raising and Communicative Grammar Tasks for EFL/ESL Learners, March 2011 Vocabulary Teaching and Research, May 2011 Approaches for Teaching Vocabulary to Japanese EFL Learners, June 2011 Foreign Language Pedagogy in the Japanese Context, August 2011 Grammar Instruction for Japanese Learners of English, September 2011 Grammar Topics: Explanations and Teaching Activities, November 2011 Content-Based Instruction: Bringing Second Language Acquisition to the Foreign Language Classroom, November 2011 Issues in Teaching English as a Foreign Language in Japan, December 2011 Teaching the Sound System of English to Japanese Learners, May 2012 Vocabulary Instruction for Japanese Learners of English, June 2012 Classroom Research in Teaching the Sound System of English, June 2012 Teaching English as a Foreign Language in Japan, August 2012 Issues in Teaching, Learning, and Researching L2 Writing, August 2012 Developing Reading Skills and Strategies in a “Communicative” EFL Environment, August 2012 From Theory to Practice: Designing Courses Based on Beliefs about Language and Language Learning, January 2013 Studies in the Teaching of English Grammar, May 2013 Studies in Curriculum Development, May 2013 Teaching Materials for the Four Skills, June 2013 Teaching the Sound System of English, August 2013 Teaching Aspects of English Grammar, August 2013 Approaches to Teaching English to EFL Learners, August 2013 Qualitative Studies on Language Learners and Educators in Japanese Contexts, October 2013 Developing Pedagogical Materials for EFL Learners, October 2013 Communicative Vocabulary Teaching in Japanese Contexts, November 2013 Teaching the Sound System of English, May 2014 Developing and Validating Assessment Tasks, June 2014 Content-Based Instruction in the Japanese Context, July 2014 Applying Findings in Educational and Cognitive Psychology to the Teaching of Foreign Languages, August 2014 Individual Differences in Second Language Acquisition, August 2014 Grammar Instruction in the Japanese Context, September 2014 Teaching Foreign Language Skills, January 2015 Teaching and Learning the English Sound System, February 2015 Teaching and Learning the English Grammar, March 2015 Approaches to Teaching English to Young Learners, August 2015 Current Issues in Bilingualism and Dual Language Education, September 2015 Developing Pedagogical Materials for Japanese Learners of English, September 2015 Approaches to Teaching English in the Japanese Context, October 2015 Teaching and Researching Listening and Speaking, December 2015 Developing Pedagogical Materials for the Japanese EFL Context, April 2016 Activities for Teaching Pronunciation to Japanese Learners of English, April 2016 Approaches to Teaching English: Post-High School Education, July 2016 Approaches to Teaching Grammar, July 2016 Approaches to Teaching in Japanese Contexts, September 2016 Approaches and Methods: Teaching the Four Primary Skills, September 2016 Principle Grammar Instruction for Native Japanese Speakers, September 2016 Psychology of Learning and Materials for Learning, February 2018 Listening, Speaking, and Validity, February 2018 Approaches to Grammar Instruction, March 2018 Teaching Grammar in Japan, July 2018 Teaching English Grammar to Japanese Learners, October 2018 Modern Approaches to Teaching Grammar, October 2018 Syllabus Design: Developing a Course Outline for an EFL Classroom, October 2018 Teaching English Grammar to Japanese EFL Learners, December 2018 Phonetics and Phonology: Studies on Reading Aloud and Shadowing, December 2018 Educational Curricula in the Japanese Context, December 2018 Teaching the Sound System of English, January, 2019 Classroom Research in the Japanese Context, January, 2019 v Table of Contents Introduction ...............................................................................................................................................vii Mulia Teguh Nguyen Improving Speaking Fluency for the IELTS Test....................................................................................... 1 Alex Garin Complexity, Accuracy, and Fluency: Improving Paraphrasing Skills Using Direct and Indirect Methods ......................................................................................................................................... 9 Brian Dubin Increasing Lexical Complexity in Spoken Output .................................................................................... 19 Mulia Teguh Nguyen Using Incidental Form-Focused Instruction and Repetition Tasks to Improve Complexity, Accuracy, and Fluency.............................................................................................................................. 28 Travis Past Pre-Teaching Vocabulary for Improving Reading Comprehension ......................................................... 37 Travis Past The Effects of Reading Comics on Reading Fluency ............................................................................... 47 Sari Ellilä Extensive Reading for Adolescent Language Learners: A Review .......................................................... 52 Adelia Falk Grammar-Translation and Yakudoku in Japanese Secondary Schools .................................................... 57 Brian Dubin Options for Preserving an Extensive Reading Program at a Changing Secondary Institution ................. 62 Lydia Eberly A Proposal for Introducing Extensive Reading in English Classes at JCMU Using Xreading ................ 67 Samuel Sorenson The Effectiveness of Graphic Organizers on the Reading Comprehension of EFL Students: A Proposed Syllabus ................................................................................................................................. 73 Steven Wong A Strategy-Focused EFL University Course Curriculum ......................................................................... 80 Eric Shepherd Martin Developing Word Recognition and Reading Pleasure.............................................................................. 86 Mulia Teguh Nguyen vi Introduction Improving a learner’s language level in the four skills of reading, writing, listening, and speaking is a difficult task for language teachers, as language learning is very individualistic. What works for one learner, might not work for another. Because of this, it can be hard to know how to approach teaching these four skills to a learner. What can also complicate matters is that teachers find themselves all in vastly different teaching contexts, with different types of learners, and with different teaching approaches. The task of finding something that works for all situations can be difficult, but not impossible. With some understanding of the underlying ideas on how to teach the four skills, teachers will be able to adjust their teaching to suit the needs of their learners. This issue of TUJ Studies in Applied Linguistics hopes to provide the readers with some insights, and ideas for teachers engaging in the teaching of the four skills, focusing mainly on the skills of speaking and writing. It is hoped that readers can take the ideas presented, tweak them, and apply them to their teaching context. The issue starts off with some research conducted for improving speaking, and reading comprehension skills. There is also a proposal for research into looking how to improve a learner’s reading skills. It is then followed by literature reviews in to extensive reading, and some proposals to how to implement it in certain contexts. Lastly, there are some syllabi with the goals of increasing different aspects of reading skills for learners. We hope you enjoy reading this issue, and are able to use it. Sincerely, Brian Dubin, Mulia Teguh Nguyen, and Travis Past. December, 2017 Osaka, Japan vii Improving Speaking Fluency for the IELTS Test Alex Garin The purpose of this study was to investigate whether through a short-term time period of spaced instruction a student’s speaking skills could be improved. The main focus of the research was on speaking fluency, with the additional focus on speaking accuracy and complexity. Speaking fluency was chosen as the main area of improvement after the conduction of a speaking pretest. Smooth, continuous speech without repetitions and prolonged pauses proved to be problematic, so the student expressed a desire to improve upon it. The student also had a specific learning goal that coincided with the purpose of the study, namely to prepare for IELTS English proficiency test. IELTS test has a speaking section, so an additional purpose of the study was to help the student achieve a high score on that section of the test. Although there is no single definition in research literature, fluency often refers to the flow and smoothness of delivery (Chambers, 1997; Koponen & Riggenbach, 2000). In this study the utterance fluency of the student was measured by counting syllables per minute. Ellis and Barkhuizen (2005) provide useful definitions of complexity and accuracy. Complexity is the extent to which learners produce elaborated language and use a wide range of structures. Accuracy measures show how well the target language is produced according to the rule system of the target language. In this study, syntactical complexity was measured using AS-units to determine the student’s ability to construct complex and extended syntactic turns. Accuracy was measured using the general words/error ratio. The speaking section of the IELTS test is conducted in an interview format designed to assess the speaking proficiency of the test-taker. This format simulates real-life communicative situations. For this reason, I designed the tasks in the study based on communicative language teaching method. The pedagogical approach used in this study was adapted from ACCESS methodology in the Gatbonton and Segalowitz (2005) study on automatizing fluency. It is a task-based communicative learning approach composed of a pre-task, main task, consolidation phase, and free communication phase. In my study, each learning session included a pre-task, a main task, and feedback followed by the repetition of the main task. According to Gatbonton and Segalowitz (2005), the learning goal of ACCESS is to promote fluency and accuracy while maintaining the communicative nature of the task. The goal of this study coincided with ACCESS, in that I wanted to increase my student’s fluency through practicing speaking communication. As part of the pre-task, conversational strategies, variety of perspectives, and explicit marking criteria were pre-taught to the student. Pre-task planning in the form of strategic planning was also part of the pre-task. The direct approach for teaching speaking skills was selected for this study. The 4/3/2 repetition activity was used in the main task of the lesson, as part of this approach. Explicit feedback was provided after each fluency task to consolidate the activity that was just performed. Literature Review Strategic planning was part of the pre-task in each of the four learning sessions. According to Ellis (2009), both rehearsal and strategic planning can further conceptualization and therefore facilitate fluency. Because improving the student’s fluency was one of the main goals of the study, I felt it appropriate to include this type of pre-task planning. Lynch and Maclean (2000) found that students without planning time were more likely to pause frequently and at length and to use less complex language. In addition, unguided planning increased accuracy. Improving the student’s accuracy and complexity was an additional goal of the study, so unguided planning was provided for her. Before each speaking task the student had an opportunity to plan the content, the structure and the language of her speech for 1 to 2 minutes. She could also make notes to help her organize her production during the main task. The planning time in the study was consistent in length with the planning time provided on the IELTS test. Also as part of the pre-task, conversational strategies and rules were pre-taught to the student. This was part of the direct approach to teaching of speaking skills. Dörnyei and Thurrell (1994) described the direct approach as planning the conversation program around specific microskills, strategies and processes that are part of fluent conversation. The rule of topic-shift was pre-taught to help the student make a smooth transition between various themes in her discourse. The strategies of paraphrasing and use of fillers were pre-taught to help the student summarize her narrative in 4/3/2 activity and to fill pauses in her speech respectively. According to Dörnyei and Thurrell (1994), conversational rules help organization and structure of speech and conversational strategies can improve fluency and efficiency of 1 communication. In the speaking pretest, the student had trouble organizing her reasoning and supporting examples. She also had prolonged pauses in her speech. To help her improve in these areas conversational rules and strategies were pre-taught. A specific strategy for preparing for IELTS test was also pre-taught. It involved giving the student a variety of perspectives from which to discuss the question on the test. According to Issitt (2008), describing a question from a variety of perspectives helps students to feel comfortable in a sustained conversation and to use the perspectives as props and stimuli for ideas. During the pretest, it was a challenge for the student to elaborate on a variety of reasons and examples. For this reason, I suggested to her to think of her answers from several different perspectives. The marking criteria of IELTS speaking test were pre-taught to the student as part of the pre-task. Fluency, lexical resource, grammatical range and accuracy, and pronunciation were explained in detail to make the student familiar with the process of evaluation on the test. Even though the goal of the study was not to improve in all of these areas, I felt it was important to inform the student about the criteria the examiners focus on. Issit (2008) suggested that effective engagement with the IELTS test criteria is beneficial for the test-taker. The focus of the main task was on measuring and improving fluency, with additional focus on accuracy and complexity. It was composed of three parts: controlled and semi-controlled activities, free communication task, and feedback followed by repetition of the free communication task. Conversational strategies, variety of perspective strategy, and marking criteria for IELTS speaking test were pre-taught as part of the initial pre-task, in the first teaching session. Focus on form instruction was a pre-task for controlled activities and strategic task planning was a pre-task for the main fluency task. According to Ellis, Basturkmen, and Loewen (2002), learners usually do not achieve high levels of linguistic competence from entirely meaning-centered instruction. For this reason, a focus on form instruction was provided before all controlled and semi-controlled activities. The instruction focused on techniques and phrases for asking questions, expressing opinions, providing examples, and giving reasons. It was followed by a variety of controlled and semi-controlled activities. This included fill in the blanks, ranking activities, expressing agreement or disagreement, and discussion questions. In each activity, the student was asked to use the forms and expressions pre-taught in focus on form instruction. Focus on form instruction, controlled, and semi-controlled activities had an instructional purpose, and were aimed to improve complexity and accuracy in student’s speech. They were taken and adapted from What Do You Think? Interactive Skills for Effective Discussion by Doe, Hurling, Kamada, Livingston, Moroi, and Takayama (2014). The free communication part of the lesson was conducted in the format of 4/3/2, a simple, time-pressured task that was used as a part of the direct teaching approach. It was repetitive and communicative in nature. It was also adapted to fit the interview format of the IELTS test. Two specific formats were chosen, narrative and dialogue, with pre-task planning time provided for both. Both topic narrative and dialogue are part of the IELTS speaking test. Either a narrative or a dialogue were produced in the time span of 4 minutes and then repeated immediately in the time of 3 and then 2 minutes. In researching the 4/3/2 task, Nation (1989) observed an increase in speech rate and a decrease in false starts, repeated words and hesitations. Because these findings indicated an improvement in fluency, 4/3/2 was chosen as the main fluency task of the study. After each fluency task, corrective feedback (CF) was provided to the student in the form of explicit instruction and advice. Hattie (1998) contended that formative feedback is especially effective in enhancing achievement. During each free communication task, I noticed areas for improvement and provided encouraging, positive advice on how the student could improve her production. Bender (1997) asserts that any teacher giving feedback needs to maintain an encouraging coaching attitude. After second, third, and forth feedback sessions the student repeated the fluency task, attending to the possible areas of improvement. Bygate (1996) found that repetition led to improvement in fluency and accuracy, and significant improvement in repertoire. He noted that being more familiar with the task on the second attempt allowed the learner to give more attention to linguistic formulation. There were six lessons, including the pretest and the posttest. They were equally spaced with an interval of one week between each lesson, so the spaced distribution teaching method was used. According to Miles (2014), the spaced distribution method goes beyond the rote memorization of facts, and can assist in learning more complex concepts that require the integration of several skills. 2 Research Questions I investigated three research questions: 1. Can the student’s speaking fluency be improved through a short-term study of four speaking fluency tasks? 2. Are timed repetition and explicit feedback an effective means of improving speaking fluency and accuracy? 3. Can the student’s speaking complexity be improved through a short-term study of three controlled and semi-controlled focus-on-form tasks? Methods Participant The participant was a 29-year-old Japanese female, named Michiko (pseudonym). She has been continuously studying English from the age of six in several private language schools. In addition to that, she took mandatory English classes in both junior high school and high school, as well as a short-term English class in university. At the age of 22 Michiko participated in a university exchange program. She spent a total of ten months living and studying in New York City and Miami. In 2010, she took a TOEIC test and received a score of 970. At the time of this study, Michiko was preparing for the IELTS exam, with a future goal of enrolling into an English language master’s program. One of the sections of the exam is on speaking proficiency. Michiko expressed a desire for the study to be helpful in her exam preparation. Overall, her English level can be described as advanced and highly proficient. Her speaking is fluent, her pronunciation is clear, and she does not have a noticeable accent. Speaking Activities The study was conducted over a period of six weeks. The pretest and the posttest were held in the first and in the sixth weeks respectively. In the middle, there were four teaching sessions, each consisting of the pre-task, the main task, and corrective feedback. The pretest and the posttest were approximately 30 minutes long each. The four teaching sessions were approximately one hour long each. No instruction or feedback was provided in the pretest session. Feedback was provided after the posttest session. All six sessions were video recorded for the purpose of measuring fluency, accuracy, and complexity. The recordings were also a source of feedback for the student. The pretest was in the form of a sample speaking section of an IELTS test. The pretest, the posttest, and the fluency activities in the four teaching sessions were taken from the Cambridge English IELTS 10 test preparation book. The sample speaking section in the pretest consisted of three parts: general interview-style questions about personal leisure time, a timed speaking narrative on the topic of ‘a person who you admire’, and interview-style questions on the topic of skills and abilities. This is a general format of a speaking section on the IELTS test. I tested all three parts in chronological order. Michiko was given planning time only on the second part of the sample test section. During the pretest, she showed several types of dysfluencies, namely repetitions and extended pauses in her speech. Michiko also commented that it was challenging for her to provide a variety of content in her spoken discourse. Despite planning provided in the speaking narrative part of the test, it was difficult for her to give reasons and provide examples. For these reasons, I pre-taught a chronological organization of spoken discourse in the first teaching session. As part of the pre-task instruction, I suggested organizing Michiko’s speech into three separate, distinct reasons, providing examples for each, and narrating them in chronological order. This was done to help decrease her repetitions and the length of pauses. I also pre-taught conversational strategies and marking criteria for IELTS test. I then pre-taught the variety of perspectives strategy described by Issit (2008). This was done to help her give variety to her reasoning. The main fluency task in the first session was a timed speaking narrative, in a 4/3/2/ format, on the topic of ‘importance of local businesses in the neighborhood’. Michiko repeated the narrative on the same topic in timed segments of four, three, and two minutes. She was given a break of one minute between each narrative. This 4/3/2 format was followed in all subsequent sessions. She was also provided with planning time of two minutes before the first four-minute segment. After listening to the recording of the session, I provided corrective feedback on the overly-repetitive use of the phrase ‘local businesses’ by suggesting synonyms and alternative phrasing. The pre-task in the second teaching session was in the form of explicit instruction on expressions for asking and giving reasons (Why do you think so? One reason is…). The expressions were provided in the context of a dialogue. It also included a controlled fill in the blank exercise, and two semi-controlled exercises: expressing agreement or disagreement and answering discussion questions and providing 3 reasons. Both types of exercises in this and the following three sessions were adapted from What Do You Think? Interactive Skills for Effective Discussion (2014). In all three exercises the student was encouraged to use expressions for asking and giving reasons. The main fluency task was in the 4/3/2 format, a speaking narrative on the topic ‘a favorite shop in my neighborhood.’ Michiko planned her speech for two minutes and took notes. After the fluency task, I provided explicit corrective feedback focusing on improperly used prepositions and uncountable nouns in the fluency session. Then Michiko repeated the fluency task one more time in the timed period of two minutes. The pre-task in the third teaching session was in the form of explicit instruction on expressions for asking and giving examples (For example/For instance? One example is…). The expressions were taught in the context of a dialogue. Controlled practice was given in the form of fill in the blank exercises and semi-controlled practice was in the form of short discussion questions, where Michiko was encouraged to use expressions for giving examples. The main fluency task was in a 4/3/2 format, this time in the form of a dialogue between me and Michiko, on the topic ‘types of things people in your country most want to own.’ Michiko had two minutes to plan her speech and take notes. After the fluency task, I gave explicit corrective feedback focusing on interrogative sentence structure and conditional sentences with if clauses, as Michiko had difficulty constructing her sentences with these grammar forms. Then she repeated the fluency task one more time for the timed period of three minutes. As the student encountered some difficulty with if clauses in the previous teaching session, I decided to focus on this grammar form in the pre-task of Session 4. Explicit instruction was provided on expressing possibilities using if clauses (If I find a good job, I will live in the city). The expressions were taught in the context of a dialogue. Controlled practice was given in the form sentence completion exercise with if clauses. Semi-controlled practice was in the form of discussion questions, where the student was encouraged to express possibilities using sentences with if clauses. The main fluency task was in a 4/3/2 format, a speaking narrative on the topic ‘something you don’t have now, and would really like to own in the future.’ Michiko was given two minutes for planning and note-taking. After the fluency task corrective feedback was given on plural nouns, definite/indefinite articles, pronouns, and correct use of adverbs to modify verbs. Then Michiko repeated the fluency task for the period of two minutes. For the reason of consistency, the posttest did not include a pre-task and was based on the same IELTS speaking test sample as the pretest. It included a two-minute speaking narrative on the topic ‘a person who you admire’, and a second two-minute speaking narrative on the topic ‘skills and abilities.’ As in the pretest, the student was given planning time of two minutes before each question. Data Collection The student’s speaking output was recorded on video, using mp4 software program on a personal computer. The pretest included three video files, one for each section of the sample speaking test. The posttest included two video files, one for each question of the sample speaking test section. Each teaching session had four separate video files, one for each section of the 4/3/2 activity, plus a fourth file for a fluency activity after feedback. The entire pretest and posttest were transcribed. In the second teaching session, the same two-minute narrative was transcribed twice, before and after feedback. The transcription process was then repeated for Session 4. The transcriptions included all words in each speech and did not include fillers. Analysis Michiko’s fluency was measured using syllable per minute ratio and the syllables of each speech were counted using the ‘poetry soup’ online counting tool. After that all the false starts and reformulations were removed from the transcripts. Then accuracy was measured by the ratio of error free clauses to total number of clauses. And then complexity was measured by counting the number of AS units. The transcribed data provided quantitative information on the amount of improvement in speech fluency, accuracy, and complexity, if any, that the student has made during the research project. The measures of fluency, accuracy, and complexity from pretest 1 and 2 were compared to the measures from the Sessions 2 and 4, and to the measures from posttest 1 and 2. The results are presented below. Results Fluency Measures When measuring fluency, all the false starts and reformulations were left intact in the transcripts. Fluency was measured in the first and second narratives of the pretest, as they provided continuous, uninterrupted speech from the student. The third narrative of the pretest featured numerous interviewer questions, the student’s speech was difficult to isolate and time, so for practical purposes it was not measured for 4 fluency. The first speech narrative had a fluency rate of 120 syllables per minute. The second narrative had a rate of 131 syllables per minute. There was a slight decrease in fluency rate in the second teaching session. Interestingly, the speech rate also declined after corrective feedback was provided. Before feedback it was 115 syllables per minute and after feedback it was 109 syllables. In the fourth teaching session, the fluency rate went back up. However, again there was a slight decline after corrective feedback. Before feedback it was 130 syllables per minute and after feedback it was 128 syllables. In the posttest, the fluency rate decreased again. In the first narrative, it was 117 syllables per minute and in the second narrative there was a slight increase to 119 syllables. The results of fluency development remained inconsistent between the teaching sessions, first decreasing, then increasing, and then decreasing again. However, within the teaching sessions the rate of syllables per minute only changed slightly and corrective feedback seemed to have had no effect on increasing fluency rate. Accuracy Measures Before measuring accuracy, all the false starts and reformulations were removed from the transcripts. In the first narrative in the pretest 22 out of 25 clauses were error free. In the second narrative 19 out of 23 clauses were error free. In the pre-feedback spoken narrative of the second teaching session 14 out of 19 clauses were error free. After corrective feedback, 17 out of 21 clauses were error free. In the pre-feedback narrative of Session 4, 16 out of 25 clauses were error free. After corrective feedback, there was a noticeable improvement in accuracy, 22 out of 26 clauses were error free. In the first narrative of the posttest, 27 out of 30 clauses were error free. In the second narrative of the posttest, 18 out of 25 clauses were error free. Overall, accuracy remained consistent between the teaching sessions, with the number of errors per each narrative ranging between 9 and 3. However, accuracy improved within the teaching sessions, the number of errors decreasing noticeably after the corrective feedback. The student usually did not repeat the errors that were pointed out to her. Complexity Measures Complexity was measured in pretest and posttest 1 and 2, as well as in Sessions 2 and 4, before and after the corrective feedback. All narratives were approximately two minutes, plus/minus 1-4 seconds. The only exception was pretest 1, with a time of 1 minute and 43 seconds. Each narrative was analyzed for the number of AS units and clauses, and clause/AS unit ratio. Pauses longer than 0.5 seconds were measured using a stopwatch on an Ipad. The results are presented in Table 1. Table 1. Results for Complexity Pretest 1 Pretest 2 Session 2 before CF Session 2 after CF Session 4 before CF Session 4 after CF Posttest 1 Posttest 2 Number of AS units 12 15 9 14 14 14 15 9 Number of Clauses 25 23 19 21 25 26 30 25 Clause/AS unit ratio 2.27 1.53 2.11 1.50 1.76 1.86 2.00 2.78 Number of pauses 0.5 seconds or longer 2 6 3 3 3 1 6 2 Discussion Research Question 1 asked if the student’s speaking fluency be improved through a short-term study of four speaking fluency tasks. Throughout the six weeks of the study the student displayed no significant quantitative improvement in her fluency development. There were slight increases and decreases in syllables per minute rates from week to week, but the fluency rate of spoken narrative within teaching sessions remained uniform. One possible explanation for the lack of noticeable improvement is the short-term nature of the study. Not including the pretest and the posttest, the student only had approximately four hours (one hour each week) of instruction, controlled and semi-controlled exercises, and fluency practice. Both the overall six-week duration of the study, and the amount of fluency practice per week, were not enough to make significant improvements. This finding is supported by DeKeyser (2007), who argued that a majority of study abroad students make measurable progress in speaking, especially in speaking fluency, at least in the programs of longer duration. He went on to say that many students make less progress than expected because of limited quantity and quality of occasions to proceduralize and automatize the rule use. If Michiko had more time to practice the 4/3/2 activity, both in 5 terms of hours during the week and the number of weeks, her improvement in fluency might have been more noticeable. However, Michiko showed some fluency improvement based on my own observations. After instruction on how to chronologically organize her speech into three distinct reasons and giving examples, my impression was that her speech became more relaxed and confident. Her pauses became shorter and less frequent and she used fewer repetitions of the same reasons and examples. The data showed that her fluency rate did not change significantly, but our mutual impression was that it was easier for her to think of the next sentence to say. So, anecdotal evidence suggests that her processing capacity was freed up because of organizing and planning more effectively. She also commented that thinking of her speech topic from different perspectives was equally helpful, it gave her more ideas, especially during planning time. The variety of perspectives strategy proved to be useful. Michiko felt that overall the study was helpful, despite a lack of evidence of quantitative fluency improvement. She commented that it provided her with good speaking practice. She is using English in her daily communication, but she had only limited experience of talking on an unfamiliar topic for a set amount of time. Michiko went on to say that the fluency activities gave her an opportunity to think about several themes she did not usually think about. Now she feels more confident organizing and planning her speech, especially if the topic is unfamiliar. She said that before the study, it would be challenging to do that even in Japanese. Additionally, Michiko reflected that it was good to listen to her own speech and that she did not usually do it. It gave her an opportunity to think more objectively about how she sounds. Research Question 2 asked if timed repetition and explicit feedback are effective means of improving speaking fluency and accuracy. Due to the short-term nature of the study, I could only partially answer the second research question. Quantitative data showed that there was no noticeable improvement in fluency, although both Michiko and I had some positive impressions about her overall improvement. It is not possible to definitively say whether timed repetition and explicit feedback were effective means of improving speaking fluency. Again, if the study was longer, the evidence might have been clearer. However, the study showed strong evidence that timed repetition and explicit corrective feedback helped improve speaking accuracy. In both teaching sessions that were measured for accuracy, the number of error free clauses increased after CF. The ratio of error free clauses to the total number of clauses also increased after CF in both sessions. In most instance, Michiko did not repeat the same mistakes after the corrective feedback. The proper grammatical expressions were still fresh in her mind, so the mistakes were easy to avoid. These findings are confirmed by Tuttle and Tuttle (2012), who argue that formative feedback focuses on how and what is said to the students, so that they understand it, and are willing and able to make an improvement. During CF Michiko understood her mistakes and was eager to improve upon them, and her improvement was visible in the next fluency task. Also, the fluency task after the CF was the fourth time she practiced speaking on the same topic. Practicing the same speech four times allowed her to pay less attention to the content, and focus more on accuracy. In addition, Michiko mentioned that in her daily English conversation she feels that she makes mistakes often, but she does not always know when it happens. Her interlocutors rarely correct her to avoid embarrassment and to keep the flow of the conversation. With corrective feedback, she could clearly see where she made a mistake and how to say a proper expression or grammar form. She felt the improvement in her English was much more tangible and noticeable. Research Question 3 as if the student’s speaking complexity was improved through a short-term study of three controlled and semi-controlled focus-on-form tasks. Throughout the study the student’s complexity appeared to have improved. The clause/AS unit ratio has gradually increased with each narrative, starting from Session 2 after CF. The ratio in pretest 2 was virtually identical to Session 2 after CF, 1.53 and 1.5 respectively, so it can also be considered a starting point. The ratio was much higher in pretest 1, but that can possibly be accounted for by the much shorter amount of time that the student was speaking, 1 minute and 43 seconds. Whereas all the other narratives were either 2 minutes exactly or plus/minus 1-4 seconds. The only other inconsistent ratio was in Session 2 before CF. This can potentially be explained by the lower number of both AS units and clauses, compared to other sessions. Otherwise, the ratio has steadily increased from about 1.5 in pretest 2 to 2.78 in posttest 2. The increase in the ratio can be explained by the gradual increase in the number of clauses in each narrative, while the number of AS units has mostly remained consistent. Again, pretest 1 and Session 2 before CF are not consistent with the overall trend. Both controlled and semi-controlled tasks, as well as the repetitive nature of 4/3/2 fluency activity appear to have had a positive effect on complexity. The number of long pauses did not follow a steady pattern, decreasing and evening out in the middle of the study, but then increasing again in posttest 1, and decreasing in posttest 2. Controlled and 6 semi-controlled tasks appear to have benefited with the pauses. The tasks were not included in the pretest and the posttest, so the number of pauses was high in pretest 2 and posttest 1. However, controlled and semi-controlled practice was included in Sessions 2 and 4, and the number of pauses decreased from pretest 2 and remained consistent in these sessions. The speaking narrative was repeated a total of four times in the Sessions 2 and 4. While narratives in the pretest and posttest were only performed once. This might also have had a positive effect on the number of pauses. Conclusion Over the course of the study timed, repetitive 4/3/2 task did not noticeably improve the student’s fluency. However, accuracy has improved due to corrective feedback and repetition and complexity has improved due to repetition and practice of controlled and semi-controlled tasks. Additionally, instruction on strategy improved the student’s organizational skills. The study had some limitations. One of them was the time constraint. Because the study was conducted over a period of six weeks, it was not possible to see any tangible improvement in student’s fluency, which was its main purpose. Had it been longer, the improvement in fluency might have been more noticeable. The number of students was another limitation. Because only one learner participated in the study, it is not feasible to generalize the results. Other learners might have different proficiency levels, learning styles, L1 and cultural backgrounds. As it is, the results can be applied to a highly proficient Japanese learner of English. A third limitation was the approximate nature of data collection. The recorded narratives I used for comparing fluency, accuracy and complexity were not all precisely two minutes long. Therefore, the data values represent only approximate results. Furthermore, pauses in speech were measured using a stopwatch on an iPad. This also gave only approximate results, as it was difficult to determine when each pause began and ended and to push the button on the stop watch at the exact moment. The results of the study would be more comprehensive if a wider variety of measures was used for fluency, accuracy, and complexity. As it is, only one measure was used for each, syllables per minute, error free clauses, and AS units respectively. Here again, a greater amount of time would be need to use two or three measures for each. All of the above limitations could be potentially improved upon in the future studies. Overall, Michiko’s response to the study was positive. Every week she was eager to participate and to work on her speaking skills. She has a high intrinsic motivation and a specific purpose for improving her speaking. She wants to get a high score on the IELTS test and to get accepted into an English language master’s program. The study was part of her preparation for the test. One challenge Michiko faced was talking continuously for a set amount of time. Often it was difficult for her to provide enough ideas, reasons and examples, especially when she was talking for 4 minutes. Another challenge was to avoid repeating reasons and examples she has already given. Michiko suggested one improvement in her feedback to the study. As we were working on improving her fluency for an academic purpose, after the study she expressed a desire for learning more academic language. In the future, she wanted me to provide more academic expressions to reformulate her speech. Overall, Michiko now feels more confident in her speaking compared to the beginning of the study. However, she says she needs a lot more speaking practice to be confident on the IELTS test. One of my goals was to make her more familiar with the speaking tasks on the test and this goal was accomplished. With continuing practice, she can feel even more relaxed and prepared during the test. This study has changed and improved my understanding about teaching speaking. After doing the study I am much more knowledgeable about the ways of measuring speaking fluency, accuracy, and complexity. I am also more knowledgeable about the kinds of tasks and activities teachers can introduce to help improve their student’s speaking. I have learned about these tasks in theory, but more importantly, I have tried them out in practice, in a real learning situation. After doing this project and taking this class, I now realize that the process of teaching L2 speaking can be structured and intricate. My goal is to be able to use the knowledge I gained with my future students. References Bender, W. (1997). Learning disabilities: characteristics, identification, and teaching strategies. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Bygate, M. (1996). Effects of task repetition: Appraising the developing language of learners. In J. Willis & D. Willis (Eds.), Challenge and change in language teaching (pp. 136-146). Oxford, England: Heinemann. Cambridge English IELTS 10. (2015). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. 7 Chambers, F. (1997). What do we mean by fluency? System, 25(4), 535-544. DeKeyser, R. M. (2007). Study abroad as foreign language practice. In R. M. DeKeyser (Ed.), Practice in a second language: Perspectives from applied linguistics and cognitive psychology (pp. 208-226). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Doe, T., Hurling, S., Kamada, Y., Livingston, M., Moroi, T., & Takayama, I. (2014). What do you think? Interactive skills for effective discussion. DTP. Dörnyei, Z., & Thurrell, S. (1994). Teaching conversational skills intensively: course content and rationale. ELT Journal, 48(1), 40-49. Ellis, R., Basturkmen, H., & Loewen, S. (2002). Doing focus-on-form. System, 30, 419-432. Ellis, R., & Barkhuizen, G. (2005). Analyzing learner language. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. Ellis, R. (2009). The differential effects of three types of task planning on the fluency, complexity, and accuracy in L2 oral production. Applied Linguistics, 30(4), 474-509. Gatbonton, E., & Segalowitz, N. (2005). Rethinking communicative language teaching: A focus on access to fluency. The Canadian Modern Language Review, 61(3), 325-353. Hattie, J., & Jaeger R. (1998). Assessment and classroom learning: a deductive approach. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 5(1), 111-122. Issit, S. (2008). Improving scores on the IELTS speaking test. ELT Journal, 62(2), 131-138. Koponen, M., & Riggenbach, H. (2000). Overview: Varying perspectives on fluency. In H. Riggenbach (Ed.), Perspectives on fluency (pp. 5-24). Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. Lynch, T., & Maclean, J. (2000). Exploring the benefits of task repetition and recycling for classroom language learning. Language Teaching Research, 4(3), 221-250. Miles, S. W. (2014). Spaced vs. massed distribution instruction for L2 grammar learning. System, 42, 412-428. Nation, P. (1989). Improving speaking fluency. System, 17(3), 377-384. Tuttle, H. G., & Tuttle, A. (2012). Formative assessment overview. In H. G. Tuttle & A. Tuttle (Eds.), Improving foreign language speaking through formative assessment (pp. 15-39). Larchmount, NY: Eye on Education. 8 Complexity, Accuracy and Fluency: Improving Paraphrasing Skills Using Direct and Indirect Methods Brian Dubin When it comes to how students learn to speak an L2, there has been discussion as to which method is the most useful. Some teachers believe that learners should be taught specific grammar or vocabulary, and that their learning should be guided whether or not they are having difficulties, so that they clearly understand what they are learning. By doing this, the learners should have few problems when they are learning the new target language. Long (2014) explains that intervention starts with the language to be taught, and involved practices such as dividing it into smaller linguistic units of various kinds, presenting them to learners and practicing them intensively until they are correct, then moving on to the next point. This method is useful in the language classroom, but it might not always be the best approach to take when teaching a specific grammar or vocabulary point. There is another method that might work just as well, if not better, for learners. In this alternative approach, the students learn the target language implicitly as it is not explicitly taught to them. Long (2014) says, of this approach, that it is using more language-like behavior and that students can use it more communicatively and spontaneously, thus it works more with the learner’s inner syllabus as opposed to working with the artificial syllabus of a text book or course syllabus. Successful performance in task-based contexts, which focus on the use of authentic language and on asking students to do meaningful tasks using the target language, has often been characterized as containing the following: more advanced language, leading to complexity; a concern to avoid error, leading to a higher accuracy if this is achieved; and the capacity to produce speech at a normal rate and without interruption, resulting in greater fluency (Skehan, 2009). After considering this and the two types of approaches, can both of these approaches be used in a complementary manner and have a positive effect on learners’ lexical complexity, accuracy and oral fluency (CAF) skills? In the following study, I look at this question and see if these methods can be used simultaneously as well as if they have a positive effect on learners’ CAF skills. Literature Review Over the last few decades there has been a shift away from the traditional teacher-centered language lessons to more student-oriented, task-based lessons. During this time, we have seen a rise of the ‘task’ as a fundamental concept in L2 teaching methodology, materials, and course design (Nunan, 1991). Because of this shift away from teacher-centered lessons has occurred, task-based lessons that include task-oriented activities have become a commonly used method of teaching the L2. Willis (1990) referred to a task as “an activity which involves the use of language but in which the focus is on the outcome of the activity rather than on the language used to achieve that outcome” (p. 127). In task-based lessons, the focus is on improving the learners’ language ability, and not just completing the task. The learner should be learning about the L2 through the course of a single task, or over a longer period of time or perhaps a semester. Willis also stated that “the most dynamic element in the process is the learner’s creativity. By exploiting rather than stifling that creativity, we make learning vastly more efficient” (p. 130). In task-based lessons, the goal of the lesson is to promote the student’s usage of the L2 and have them practice it as much as possible in a controlled environment. Within task-based teaching, there are two types of approaches that are used: The indirect approach and the direct approach, which Long (2014) calls the analytic approach and the synthetic approach respectively. When focusing on learners speaking accuracy, fluency and lexical complexity, both of these approaches have their merits. We then have to consider if one approach is more beneficial for learners than the other. The Indirect Approach In the indirect approach, or analytic approach, “conversational competence is seen as the product of engaging learners in conversational interaction” (Richards, 1990, p. 76). This can include situational role-plays, problem-solving tasks, and information gap exercises (Dörnyei & Thurrell, 1994). Using the indirect approach allows the learners to work out and understand the language on their own, as they are 9 not explicitly taught any specific forms or grammar. If they come across a specific grammar point during an activity that they might not know, they might receive assistance or guidance from the teacher. Students are exposed to samples of the L2, as natural and authentic representations of target language communication as possible, and gradually engaged in genuinely communicative target language production. The learner’s job is to “analyze the input, and thereby to induce rules of grammar and use” (Long, 2014, p. 20). The basis for the indirect approach is that it is supposed to emulate the way a child learns their L1, adults can learn the L2 in a similar way. When using the indirect approach, the L2 becomes the medium of instruction (Long, 2014). Ultimately, the indirect approach uses focus on form, which is a type of instructional focus that encourages learners to notice syntactic features while processing text for meaning (Rost, 2011) and more implicit instruction. The Direct Approach The direct approach is the opposite of the indirect approach in that it involves planning a conversation program around the specific microskills and strategies, and processes that are involved in fluent conversation. The direct approach handles conversation more systematically than the indirect approach, and aims at fostering the students’ awareness of conversational rules, strategies to use, and pitfalls to avoid, as well as increasing their sensitivity to the underlying processes (Dörnyei & Thurrell, 1994). The direct approach can be useful for lower-level learners, or if the teacher is trying to introduce a specific point or rule. The direct approach also focuses on the language that will be taught, dividing them into linguistic units of one or more kinds—words, collocations, and grammar rules—sequencing them according to one or more criteria—valency, criticality, frequency, saliency, and difficulty—and presenting items to the learner one by one. Looking at the direct approach, we see that it uses focus on meaning as well as more explicit instruction. Furthermore, Skehan (1996) suggested that in communicative interactions, the intense focus on meaning might prevent students from noticing the form of the utterances they use. If learners are focused only on communicating, they might not understand or notice how the language is being used. Their primary concern is only with using the language and we want our learners to focus on the usage of the language as well as the meaning. Problems with the Direct and Indirect Approaches Both the indirect and direct approaches seem as though they would be beneficial to learners in a wide array of situations; lower level learners might benefit more from the use of the direct approach, while intermediate to advanced level learners might benefit from the use of the indirect approach. However, there has been criticism and concern over both approaches and how well they aid learners in acquiring the L2. Widdowson (1990) argued that: Incidental, natural language acquisition is a long and rather inefficient business and the whole point of language pedagogy is that it is a way of short-circuiting the slow process of natural discovery and can make arrangements for learning to happen more easily and more efficiently than it does in natural surroundings (p. 162). However, in a task-based class the main idea is to make it so that acquisition can occur more smoothly and easily for L2 learners. Long (2014) says that the problem with the direct approach, as well as focus on forms, is: The assumption that learners can and will learn what they are taught when they are taught it, and the further assumption that if learners are exposed to ready-made target versions of L2 structures, one at a time, then, after enough intensive practice, they will add the new target versions, one at a time, to their growing native-like repertoire (p. 21). This is implying that L2 learners can learn via a scaffolding-like manner in that once they have a foundation for the language they can simply build off of that foundation. According to Long (2014), as it is the learners, not the teachers, that have the most control over learner’s language development, they might not develop linguistic features due to a lack of understanding to native-like command of new items in a single step. It is important to always remember that as a teacher, you are setting the learners up for learning, and not just giving them the information. Teachers are focusing on the process of speaking as opposed to the final product. We want our learners to learn from their mistakes as they encounter them, and they should not be concerned with a sounding just like a recording that have repeated over and over again. If you are giving the learners the information and not allowing them the opportunity to practice and use it, they are not learning. Learners need to improve their control of using the acquired language. 10 Learners cannot learn target forms and structures on demand. Corder (1967) says interlanguage development is regulated by common cognitive processes referred to as the internal ‘learner syllabus,’ not external linguistic syllabus embodied in synthetic teacher materials. If we try to force learners to learn in a way that is unnatural to their inner syllabus, for example via textbook or a teacher-made syllabus, it does not follow their natural instinctive way to learn a L2, and therefore they might have difficulties learning the L2. With the direct approach, learners as well as teachers are faced with trying to meet a psycholinguistically unrealistic timetable (Long, 2014). With the indirect approach, teachers and learners face four problems (Long, 2014). First, a pure indirect approach and focus on meaning assume that the capacity for implicit learning remains strong in adults. Second, implicit learning takes time, and language teaching needs to be efficient, not just minimally necessary and sufficient. As most classroom courses meet for just a few hours a week, there is nothing that approaches a full-time L2 experience. Third, as a result of possessing an L1, learning from positive evidence alone no longer works effectively. Because many adult learners of L2 might have to unlearn verb orders and other grammatical knowledge that they have from their L1, it takes much time and practice for learners to acquire the proper verb order as well as other grammatical features of the new L2. Finally, a purely indirect approach ignores substantial evidence that L2 instruction also includes various types of attention to language works. An Analytic Approach with Focus on Form There are clearly problems with choosing only the direct method or the indirect method. By only using the direct method, you are choosing to focus on meaning, and might miss opportunities to let learners discover the language on their own. With the indirect approach, there might not be enough focus on forms and the learners might have difficulty understanding the target language. Despite this, both the indirect and the direct method have been used together to improve learners’ L2 acquisition abilities. Long (2014) argues about a third option in which he calls an analytic approach with focus on form. Focus on form involves reactive use of a variety of pedagogic procedures to draw on learner’s attention to linguistic problems in context, as these problems arise, during communication, thus increasing the likelihood that attention to code features will be synchronized with the learner’s internal syllabus developmental stage, and processing ability. Furthermore, focus on form exploits the symbolic relationship between explicit and implicit learning, instruction and knowledge. This idea is saying that it is possible to use both the indirect and direct approaches simultaneously with L2 learners. Both the direct and the indirect approaches are valuable in the L2 classroom. As we have seen they both have their advantages and disadvantages. Teachers need to carefully choose the correct approach when considering making a syllabus, creating lessons, and making specific activities. Using both approaches, as Long argued earlier, is another option to ensure that you are covering all of the bases in regards to how learners acquire the L2. Using his analytic approach with a focus on form appears to have benefits for learner acquisition; however, there is no guarantee that it will work because not every method words for all learners. Each learner has a certain way in which they learn the best. Ultimately, as with most matters regarding L2 acquisition, these approaches should be implemented in ways that learners benefit from in regards to allowing them to see the progress they are making. For learners to benefit from them, they should be implemented in the classroom and the learners need to be practicing and using them on a continuous basis. Method Participant The participant in this study was a 40-year old Japanese female. She studied English for six years in junior high school and senior high school. She also studied in English conversation classes as well as regular English classes for two years in university. However, after those two years of studying in university, she ceased studying English in a formal setting but continued to learn at her own pace throughout her 20s and 30s. She has lived overseas where she needed to use English for daily conversation. The learner is upper-intermediate as she can hold a conversation with little difficulty, and can understand high-level vocabulary. She presently speaks and uses English every day, and is trying to improve her English as she is planning to go to the United States this summer. 11 Speaking Activities The speaking tasks that were chosen for this study were chosen to help improve the learners paraphrasing abilities. There are times in which the learner cannot think of a specific word, and has difficulty paraphrasing to help the interlocutor understand what the word is. A speaking pretest was given in which the student talked about a movie she had recently seen called The Dictator. This activity was chosen because the learner had a high anxiety level about speaking, and being recorded. Therefore, if the learner was to speak about something she was familiar with, it would be less stressful for her, and alleviate some of the anxiety. This pretest was used to decide upon the activities that would be chosen for the study. Over the course of a month and a half, activities were chosen to improve the learners’ accuracy when speaking. There were four sessions over the course of the month and half. New phrases, and ways to paraphrase words that the learner did not know how to say, were introduced. Each session started off with an activity called Don’t Say It! in which the teacher would describe a word using four descriptive words. The learner would then try to guess the correct word based on the clues. Next, the learner would continue and say the descriptive word clues, and the teacher would try to guess the word. This was done three to four times at the beginning of each session as a warm-up activity. In the first session, a split information activity was done to practice describing objects and things that might be new to the learner. “The essential feature of the split information arrangement is that only by working together in combining their material can the learners find the required answers” (Nation & Newton, 2009, p.104). In the second and third sessions, two spot the difference activities were used. In these lessons the use of paraphrase and approximation (=using an alternative word) were introduced. When looking at the spot the differences paraphrasing structures such as “a kind of/ sort of…, something which you can…, the thing you use for…, it’s a bit like…, it’s kind of/sort of….” (Dörnyei & Thurrell, 1992) were learned so that the learner could use them when doing the activity. In the final session, to continue with paraphrasing structures that we had previously learned, we did the Martian activity. In this activity, the teacher pretended that to be a Martian. The teacher pretended to be unfamiliar with everyday English words and did not have a wide vocabulary in English. The learner tried to help the teacher understand what each object or idea was. Once the learner was finished speaking, the teacher asked a new question about a word that they heard (Ur & Wright, 1992). An example of this was the teacher asked the learner what a cat was. The learner described the cat, and in the description used the word fur. Then the teacher asked the learner what is fur? This continued for around six minutes so the learner could have as much speaking time as possible. There were two posttests. The first posttest was similar to the pretest in that the learner spoke freely about a television show she had recently seen called Peep Show, which is a British comedy. She spoke for around five minutes about a recent episode. In the delayed posttest, the learner looked at a picture of a city scene, and spoke about what she saw only in the city scene at the top for around five minutes as well. She used the paraphrasing and approximation words that were described earlier to describe what was happening in the picture. Data Collection and Analysis This study focused on three parts of speech: Lexical complexity, accuracy, and fluency. All of the sessions, with the exception of the first and fourth sessions, we recorded and then transcribed. The initial transcriptions included reformulations, repetitions and false starts that were uttered as long as they were lexical. However, non-lexical utterances were not transcribed. The pretest, as well as both posttests, were also recorded and transcribed the same way as the sessions had been so that the progress of the learner could be measured as well as if the learner had made any improvement over the course of the sessions. Once the sessions were transcribed, the learners’ fluency was initially looked at, followed by lexical complexity, and finally the learners’ accuracy. It should be noted that specific activities varied in time, therefore the results might have been skewed, as a couple of the activities were longer than the others. Most of the activities averaged around five minutes with the longest activity, in lesson three, being around eight minutes long. Fluency First we will look at how the learners’ fluency was measured. When looking at the learners’ fluency, the amount speech being produced in real time was measured. In this case, temporal fluency was examined, 12 which is measurable by the rate of speaking, length of fluent runs between pauses of a standard length, and the frequency, length and placement of pauses (Skehan, 2009). For this study, the learners’ speech rate was examined, which is the number of syllables per minute. This measure was chosen because it was an area of speech that learner needed improvement in, and the learner wanted to improve this area of speech as well. Once the sessions were transcribed, including reformulations, repetitions, and false starts, the transcriptions were put into an online syllable counter called poetrysoup.com to count the syllables including errors. Any non-lexical utterances were not transcribed. Once the syllables were counted Segalowitz’s (2010) formula of 60 sec. times the total number of syllables divided by total time (including pauses) in seconds was used to determine the speech rate, and to figure out the number of syllables per minute. Using this formula, the pretest, both posttests, and all of the sessions that were recorded were calculated to obtain the learners speech rate. Lexical Complexity Next, the lexical complexity was measured for this study. When measuring the learner’s fluency, all of the lexical utterances were transcribed including reformulations, and false starts. After the learner’s speech rate was measured, the transcripts of each session, as well as the pre- and posttests, were cleaned up. All false starts, reformulations, and repetitions were removed from the transcripts before beginning to measure the learner’s lexical complexity so that the repetitions would not deflate the type-token ratio when measuring complexity. Once the transcripts were cleaned up, each session’s transcript was input into Lextutor. In Lextutor (Cobb, n.d.), the vocabulary profiler can be used to determine how many words the text contains from the following four frequency levels: (a) the list of the most frequent 1,000 word families, (b) the second 1,000 word families, (c) the Academic Word List, and (d) words that do not appear on the other lists or off-list words. After a transcript was input into lextutor, the transcripts were put into another online tool called text inspector, which is a free online tool for measuring textual lexical diversity (MTLD) and VOCD, which is used to measure the diversity of the text units. Lexical diversity refers to “the range of different words used in a text, with a greater range indicating a higher diversity” (McCarthy & Jarvis, 2010, p. 381). The following two units were measured in text inspector: sentence count and average sentence length. It should be noted that in the post- and delayed posttests the transcription texts were too long to be input into text inspector as it allows a maximum of 250 words. Because of this, they were split into two parts, and the sentence counts were added together. The average sentence length was averaged between the two texts. After all of these units were measured in lextutor, and the posttests were combined and averaged, they were put into an excel spreadsheet so that the data could be calculated, and averaged alongside the rest of the data from the study. Accuracy Finally, the accuracy was measured for this study. First, all of the transcripts were broken down into AS-units. An AS-unit is “a single speaker’s utterance consisting of an independent clause, or sub-clausal unit, together with any subordinate clause(s) associated with either.” (Foster, Tonkyn, & Wigglesworth, 2000). The number of clauses in each transcript were also measured alongside the AS-units. An example of words / errors would be I went to shopping on yesterday. That sentence has six words and two errors, so it would be marked as 6:2. When looking at error-free AS-units / total number of AS-units, an example of that would be and she has a black hair. That sentence has no error-free AS-units and is one AS-unit, and would be marked as 0:1. When looking at accuracy, the following types of errors were taken into account: verb phrase errors, noun phrase errors which included case, possessive, determiners and modifiers; syntactic errors which included closed cases, and lexical errors, which included open classes (nouns and verbs) (Tonkyn, 2012). This is when speakers use the wrong kind of open class word for example I saw a dream last night. These were all counted when marking words / errors as well as the error-free AS-units / total number of AS-units. Once all of the AS-units, clauses, words / errors, and error-free AS-units / total number of AS-units were calculated they were put into the same excel spreadsheet as the fluency and lexical complexity measures. Lennon (1995) has stated that a measure of lexical accuracy is a valuable compliment to measures of lexical range in assessing short-term proficiency gain. Two different measures of accuracy were taken and focused on more than fluency or lexical complexity as this area was where the study was looking to see if the learner improved or not. 13 Results Fluency: Syllables per Minute First, we will look at the progress of fluency throughout the study, which can be seen in Table 1. In the pretest the learner had a rate of 76 syllables/minute. One of the reasons that this number might seem a bit low is because the learner was anxious about speaking because she knew she was being recorded. She was having language anxiety (Dörnyei, 2001), which reduces motivation and achievement (MacIntyre, 1999). After the pretest, the following sessions, the posttest, and the delayed-posttest were recorded. The learner was not explicitly told when the recorder was turned on in order to prevent the learner from feeling anxious or hesitant to speak. In the second session, the rate of syllables/minute went up by three points however it dropped by 15 points in the third session because the learner was trying to use language that she was unfamiliar with, and had difficulties trying to use the language in the task. In the posttest, her rate of syllables/minute increased to 81 syllables/minute, and increased further in the delayed posttest to 87 syllables/minute. This could be attributed to the fact that she was talking about a topic she was familiar talking about, wanted to use the new language, and was unaware that she was being recorded, so there was no anxiety about making mistakes. Table 1. Fluency Operationalized as Syllables per Minute Syllables per minute Pretest 76 Session 2 79 Session 3 64 Posttest 81 Delayed posttest 87 Lexical Complexity: High- and Low-Frequency Vocabulary, Sentence Length, and Count Changes in lexical complexity in the study are shown in Table 2. The measures that were looked at for lexical complexity were the percentages of high- and low-frequency vocabulary that included the most frequent word families (from 0-1,000), the second most frequent word families (from 1,001-2,000), the Academic Word List, and words that do not appear on those lists (i.e., low-frequency vocabulary). First we will look at the most frequent word families from 0-1,000 and 1,001-2,000. Throughout the study, the learner averaged around 84.43% usage of the most frequent word families from 0-1,000. There was never a time during the study in which this usage percentage greatly increased or decreased. This was likely due to how short the study was, and if the study was longer, the percentage might have changed more. However, when looking at the most frequent word families from 1001-2000, there was one instance in which it jumped up much more than at any other time during the study. This occurred during the third session, which had an 11.98% usage of the second most frequent word families. This included 17 word families, 20 different word types, and 29 tokens. This might have been because the learner was speaking for longer turns than in the previous sessions, trying to use the target language as well as focusing more on the task as it was a topic that the learner enjoyed talking about. Another factor could have been the topic itself, as some topics are more likely to require certain kinds of vocabulary. When looking at the Academic Word List words in the study, there were numerous times in which the learners use of academic words went up, although it never increased by an exceedingly large margin. In the pretest, the learner used five academic words. In the second session, there were hardly any academic words used by the learner. However, in third session, the learner used seven academic words, which were the most used in the entire study. Again, this has to do with the fact that the learner had longer speaking turns in this session as opposed to the previous and following sessions. For the remainder of the sessions, as well as the post- and delayed posttest, the learner used five academic words. Though, there is no specific reason for why the learner used the academic words when she did. Finally, we come the off-list words, or words that do not frequently appear on the previously mentioned word lists. Throughout the study the percentage of off-list words were low, and the usage percentage never went above six percent. Though in the posttest and delayed posttests, the percentage of off-list words went up, especially in the posttest, with 46 off-list words being used. In the delayed posttest, the number of off-list words dropped to 23 words. 14 Table 2. Lexical Complexity Word Counts Pretest K1 words (1-1,000) K2 words (1,001-2,000) AWL words (academic) Off-list words K1 words (1-1,000) K2 words (1,001-2,000) AWL words (academic) Off-list words Session 2 K1 words (1-1,000) K2 words (1,001-2,000) AWL words (academic) Off-list words K1 words (1-1,000) K2 words (1,001-2,000) AWL words (academic) Off-list words K1 words (1-1,000) K2 words (1,001-2,000) AWL words (academic) Off-list words K1 words (1-1,000) K2 words (1,001-2,000) AWL words (academic) Off-list words Session 3 K1 words (1-1,000) K2 words (1,001-2,000) AWL words (academic) Off-list words K1 words (1-1,000) K2 words (1,001-2,000) AWL words (academic) Off-list words K1 words (1-1,000) K2 words (1,001-2,000) AWL words (academic) Off-list words Posttest K1 words (1-1,000) K2 words (1,001-2,000) AWL words (academic) Off-list words K1 words (1-1,000) K2 words (1,001-2,000) AWL words (academic) Off-list words Delayed Posttest K1 words (1-1,000) K2 words (1,001-2,000) AWL words (academic) Off-list words Families Types Tokens Percent 44 3 2 — 71 2 3 — 49 3 2 9 80 2 3 13 97 3 2 11 171 2 3 16 85.84% 2.65% 1.77% 9.73% 89.06% 1.04% 1.56% 8.33% 43 9 — — 28 5 — — 35 2 — — 61 11 — — 49 9 — 8 30 6 — 6 38 2 — 3 68 13 — 11 98 11 — 10 59 7 — 7 91 6 — 5 134 15 — 11 82.35% 9.24% 0.00% 8.40% 80.82% 9.59% 0.00% 9.59% 89.22% 5.88% 0.00% 4.90% 83.75% 9.38% 0.00% 6.88% 66 17 — — 70 7 6 — 67 15 1 — 79 20 — 11 78 8 6 7 80 15 1 14 199 29 — 14 179 12 14 9 217 17 1 17 82.23% 11.98% 0.00% 5.79% 83.64% 5.61% 6.54% 4.21% 86.11% 6.75% 0.40% 6.75% 86 14 2 — 76 9 1 — 104 15 2 27 94 10 1 19 212 16 2 35 191 14 1 23 80.00% 6.04% 0.75% 13.21% 83.41% 6.11% 0.44% 10.04% 87 6 2 — 102 6 2 23 303 9 2 35 86.82% 2.58% 0.57% 10.03% Throughout the study, sentence count and average sentence length were also looked at, and can be seen in Table 3. In the pretest, the sentence count was 34 sentences. As the study progressed, the sentence count reached its peak at 84 sentences during the third session. After this session, the sentence count gradually dropped back down to 40 sentences during the posttest, and 33 sentences during the delayed 15 posttest, which was lower than the pretest. When looking at average sentence length, it did increase over the course of the study. However, because the study was quite brief, it did not increase or decrease greatly. The sentence count was at its lowest during the second session at an average of 8.06 sentences. This was likely due to the fact that the learner was speaking in smaller chunks and not one extended amount of time. It was at its highest during the posttest at an average of 12.59 sentences. This was because the learner was talking about the TV show which she enjoys, and had also just watched less than 30 minutes prior to the posttest. Table 3. Sentence Count and Average Sentence Length for Lexical Complexity Sentence count Mean sentence length Pretest 34 9.28 Session 2 57 8.06 Session 3 84 8.52 Posttest 40 12.59 Delayed posttest 33 11.14 Accuracy: Words/Errors and Error Free AS-Units/Total AS-Units The accuracy measures, which included words/error and error free AS-units/total AS-units, can be seen in Table 4. Two measures of accuracy were looked at in this study because this was the main focus when looking at the learner’s speech. The pretest had the lowest amount of words/errors. As mentioned previously, this is likely due to the learner being nervous and not wanting to speak, as she was aware that she was being recorded. She was also nervous and kept making simple mistakes that she would otherwise not have made. Over the course of the following two sessions recorded there were 444 words with 38 errors in the second session, and 464 words with 99 errors in the second session. This was likely due to two things: first, the learner was unaware that she was being recorded, and second, the topics and activities were more interesting for her, and she was willing to try the paraphrasing techniques that she learned. In the posttests, there were 490 words with 70 errors in the first posttest, and 333 words with 48 errors in the delayed posttest. There was a significant increase in the amount of words used in the second session and posttest. This was because the learner was talking about the TV show that we had just watched, and all of the information from the show was fresh in her memory, so she was able to speak in depth about what she had seen. When looking at errors in these sessions, there were the most errors in the third session because the learner was trying to use new vocabulary as well as the new grammar that the learner was not comfortable using. Because of this, the learner made more errors than usual as she was trying to include the new language in her speech. She had difficulty using the new language because she was not sure when to use it. This is because the teacher attempted to teach the new language using the indirect approach, however in hindsight, it is apparent that using the direct approach would have benefitted the learner in this situation. When looking at the error free AS-units/total AS-units there were 21 error free AS-units out of 35 AS-units in the pretest. Session 2 had the most error free AS-units with 55 out of 76 total AS-units. In the second session the learner was not speaking for a long amount of time, but instead speaking for shorter intervals of time, therefore it is believed because of this the number of error-free AS-units went up. In the third session as well as the posttest, the error free AS-units decreased because the learner was speaking for longer turns, therefore the ratio of error free-AS units to total AS-units decreased in Session 3 as well as in the posttest. In the delayed posttest, the error free AS-units decreased even more. This might have been caused by the fact that the learner was speaking for five minutes as opposed to the previous sessions in which the learner spoke for shorter amounts of time. The delayed posttest was similar to the pretest in regards of error free AS-units. Table 4. Accuracy Measures Pretest Session 2 Session 3 Posttest Delayed posttest Words/Errors 299/44 444/38 464/99 490/70 333/48 Error-free AS-units/Total AS-units 21/35 55/76 47/82 41/60 22/44 16 Discussion Throughout this study both the direct and indirect approaches were used, sometimes simultaneously during the same lesson. The primary focus of the lessons was on using useful structures for paraphrasing, thus it was thought that explicitly teaching these phrases as opposed to implicitly teaching them would help the learner to remember and use them. However, that was not what happened. The learner spent more time trying to figure out how to use the phrases then focusing on the task at hand. “While practice has a role in automatizing what has been learned, L2 acquisition is not just a process of forming new habits to override the effects of L1 transfer” (Long, 2014, pp. 23-24). This is what happened when the structures for paraphrasing were being introduced using the direct approach. It was difficult for the learner to suddenly try and use these new phrases in her speech. These phrases were taught in the second and third sessions, and in these sessions both her accuracy and fluency declined. In the second session, her syllables per minute count was 79, and then in Session 3 it was 64. Furthermore, her accuracy also declined in these two sessions where the direct approach was implemented. In Session 2, her words/error count was 444 words with 38 errors, and in the third session her words/error count was 464 words with 99 errors, which was the highest throughout the course of the study. Her error free AS-units/total AS-units also varied during these sessions. In Session 2 her error free AS-units/total AS-units was 55/76, and in Session 3 they were 47/82. Because of this decline in fluency and accuracy, it was decided that the remaining new forms should be implicitly taught using the indirect method in the following lesson. After they were taught in the fourth lesson, which was not recorded, she began to include the paraphrasing forms more in her description of things. In the posttest, we can see that her fluency, accuracy, and parts of her lexical complexity went up. However, her sentence count, token count, and type count went down. This might have to do with the fact that accuracy and fluency, but not complexity, are raised in personal exchange tasks, and that tasks based on concrete or familiar information advantage accuracy and fluency (Skehan, 2009). Furthermore, Skehan (2009) stated that this idea is supportive of a Trade-off Hypothesis in that it indicates that simultaneously advantaging complexity, accuracy, and fluency performance areas is uncommon. This was the case in this study as both accuracy and fluency increased in both the post- and delayed-posttests, while lexical complexity continued to vary. As this was the first study of this kind done by the author, it should be noted that all of the information within this study are subject to some potential mathematical errors as well as other small errors. This is because another person did not check the study. Also, as mentioned previously, the session times were not consistent so some caution should be taken when considering this study. Conclusion In conclusion, it is hoped that the present study will provide some insight into a learner’s speaking abilities, especially their CAF skills. Despite being a brief study, it was quite interesting to carefully examine a learner’s speech patterns, and how they perform under specific circumstances. This kind of research gives language teachers a much better understanding of what methods and practices will help our learners become better speakers. After completing this study, it helped to illustrate when and how to implement the direct and indirect methods. During the study, both the direct and indirect methods were used at different times for example introducing paraphrasing, the indirect method would have been more beneficial than the direct method, as the direct method caused the learner to focus too heavily on paraphrasing. As mentioned in the literature review, it is possible to implement both methods using an analytic approach to focus on form. This might prove more beneficial in certain teaching situations as it will help a wider variety of learning styles than choosing either the direct or indirect methods. However, in this study it did not seem useful for teaching ways to paraphrase words. This study gave a much broader insight into how learners speak, and what speaking encompasses. When considering a learner’s speaking, there are many variables to take into account such as speech analysis units (AS-units), academic words, sentence lengths, sentence counts, the number of syllables a learner utters per minute, and anxiety, all of which play a role in a learner’s motivation and willingness to communicate (WTC). Lightbown and Spada (2013) say that WTC might change with the formality of the circumstances, the topic of conversation or even with whether we are tired or energetic at a given moment. In this study, the formality of circumstances played a role in the learners WTC in the pretest. All of this became of great interest and it is hoped that the author will 17 attempt a similar study in the future, as there is not a great deal of CAF studies presently as opposed to other types of studies in the field of SLA. By doing more studies looking at CAF, researchers can help our learners improve their speaking abilities as well as understand why they speak the way they do. References Cobb, T. (n.d.). Compleat Lextutor (online software). Available from http://www.lextutor.ca/ Corder, S. P. (1967). The significance of learners’ errors. International Review of Applied Linguistics, 5, 161-170. Dörnyei, Z. (2001). Motivational strategies in the language classroom. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Dörnyei, Z., & Thurrell, S. (1992). Conversation and dialogues in action. New York, NY: Prentice Hall. Dörnyei, Z., & Thurrell, S. (1994). Teaching conversational skills intensively: Course content and rationale. ELT Journal, 48(1), 40-49. Foster, P., Tonkyn, A., & Wigglesworth, G. (2000). Measuring spoken language: A unit for all reasons. Applied Linguistics, 21(3), 354-375. Lennon, P. (1995). Assessing short-term change in advanced oral proficiency: Problems of reliability & validity in four case studies. ITL: Review of Applied Linguistics, 109-110, 75-109. Lightbown, P., & Spada, N. M. (2013). How languages are learned (4th ed.). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. Long, M. H. (2014). Second language acquisition and task-based language teaching (1st ed.), Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. MacIntyre, P. D. (1999). Language anxiety: A review of the research for language teachers. In D. J. Young (Ed.), Affect in foreign language and second language learning (pp. 24-45). Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill. McCarthy, P. M., & Jarvis, S. (2010). MTLD, vocd-D, and HD-D: A validation study of sophisticated approaches to lexical diversity assessment. Behavior Research Methods, 42(2), 381-392. Nation, I. S. P., & Newton, J. (2009). Teaching ESL/EFL listening and speaking. New York, NY: Routledge. Nunan, D. (1991). Communicative tasks and the language curriculum. TESOL Quarterly, 25(2), 279-295. Richards, J. C. (1990). The language teaching matrix. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Rost, M. (2011). Teaching and researching listening (2nd ed.). Harlow, England: Longman/Pearson. Segalowitz, N. (2010). The cognitive bases of second language fluency (1st ed.). New York, NY: Routledge. Skehan, M. (1996). A framework for the implementation of task-based instruction. Applied Linguistics, 17, 38-62. Skehan, P. (2009). Modeling second language performance: Integrating complexity, accuracy, fluency, and lexis. Applied Linguistics, 30(4), 510-532. Tonkyn, A. P. (2012). Measuring and perceiving changes in oral complexity, accuracy and fluency: Examining instructed learners' short-term gains. Language Learning & Language Teaching (MS), 221-245. Ur, P., & Wright, A. (1992). Five-minute activities: A resource book of short activities. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Widdowson, H. G. (1990). Aspects of language teaching. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. Willis, D. (1990). The lexical syllabus. London, England: Collins. 18 Increasing Lexical Complexity in Spoken Output Mulia Teguh Nguyen Bygate (2009) proposed two questions when it comes to the teaching and testing of speaking. The first question is how do we determine a learner’s proficiency, and the second is how to work towards increasing it. The answer to the first question can be answered by referring to the notions of complexity, fluency, and complexity (CAF) (Skehan, 1998). Although there are other factors that play into the role of speaking fluency, i.e. pragmatics, these three notions provide researchers with an objective, quantitative, and verifiable way to gauge a learner’s speaking proficiency in the L2 (Housen, Huiken, & Vedder, 2012). The second question then can be answered once teachers have a better understanding of what CAF is and how it influences a learner’s oral output. Complexity, Accuracy, and Fluency and How They Are Measured CAF (complexity, accuracy, and fluency) factors into how proficient a learner is perceived. As the oldest measurements of proficiency, accuracy is the more transparent and consistent of the three units (Housen, & Kuiken, 2012). It refers to the correctness of a learner’s production. The more a learner deviates from the norms of a second language, the more they will increase in error rates. Accuracy is a good measurement for proficiency as lower proficiency learners would tend to generate more errors in their performance when matched against the linguistic norms of a native speaker. The measurements for accuracy are usually sensitive enough to look for changes in a learner (Tonkyn, 2012), meaning teachers can track the learner’s understanding of different linguistic items, by measuring their accuracy of use. Accuracy can be measured in terms of general accuracy features (error-free AS-units/total AS-units), specific local (words/verb phrase error), global grammatical errors (i.e. words/syntactic phrase error), and lexical (words/lexical errors) (Tonkyn, 2012). Fluency is characterized by how a learner uses the language with “ease, eloquence, and ‘smoothness’” (Housen & Fuiken, 2009, p. 463). A learner will be perceived to have a higher level of fluency if they produce spoken output that is fast and flowing. Similar to accuracy, there are different dimensions to fluency. They include speed fluency (syllables/minute), breakdown fluency (mean length of pauses), and repair fluency (false starts) (Tavakoli & Skehan, 2005). The last of the measurements is complexity. It is split into two categories, linguistic complexity and cognitive complexity. However, they both refer to language features (i.e., items, and patterns) or subsystems (i.e. syntax, and lexis) (Housen & Fuiken, 2009). Linguistic complexity refers to the “size, elaborateness, richness, and diversity” (Housen & Fuiken, 2009, p. 464) of a learner’s linguistic knowledge and its use in oral production. Where cognitive complexity is concerned with language features that are processed and used in language production. While linguistic complexity is measurable, cognitive complexity is a feature of the task that the learner is performing and not their output, i.e. monologues will require learners to draw from a wider range of language features and produce longer utterances, than an interview, where learners do not want to break the rules of maxims and might produce shorter utterances. CAF is important when trying to increase a learner’s proficiency. Norris and Ortega (2009) claimed that the effects of instructions targeted towards the development of speaking proficiency cannot be known without measuring a learners CAF. Learners’ CAF displays their linguistic abilities, and how they are compared against the standards of a native English speaker. This answers Bygate’s (2009) question of how to measure learners’ proficiency. How then do teachers use this information to answer Bygate’s second question and target the different aspects of language oral production. Skehan (2012) found that a learners CAF in a performance was affected by their opportunities to plan for what they were going to perform. Planning Time and Complexity, Accuracy, and Fluency There are two types of planning: pre-task, which is further split into strategic planning and rehearsal; and within-task planning; which is split into pressured and unpressured (Ellis, 2008). The different aspects of CAF are affected by the planning time given to the learner (Skehan, Xiaooue, Qian, & Wang, 19 2012). Strategic planning is time given before a task for learners to plan what they are going to say for the performance. Research has found that the use of strategic planning helped increase a learner’s complexity and fluency, however, accuracy was not affected as much (Skehan & Foster, 2005). This can be the result of what learners choose to attend to in the strategic planning phase. When given strategic planning time, learners tend to focus on meaning and organization first, then to linguistic form needed to generate the meaning (Ellis, 2008). As the learners produce language, it can be difficult for learners to transfer the plans of using particular forms into the performance aspect of the task (Ellis, 2008). As learners focus on the particular aspects of the performance their cognitive processes create a trade-off situation. Figure 1. Skehan’s three aspects of task performance from Ellis & Barkhuizen (2005) p. 143. Trade-off is when “one performance area might deplete attention to other areas such that performances in those areas might be lowered” (Skehan & Foster, 2012, p. 200). Figure 1 shows Skehan’s three areas of task performance. When determining which aspect to focus on in a task, there are choices that the learner makes, focusing on one aspect can be detrimental for the other aspects. Skehan (1998b) claimed that when approaching a task, there is initial attention between meaning, which affects fluency, and form which is split into control and restructuring. As stated earlier, learners tend to focus on meaning first. The result of focusing on meaning is an increase in a learner’s fluency. After spending time on meaning, learners attend to form. Their choice when attending to form comes down on which the learners believe best conveys their message; the control of the language, which affects accuracy, or restructuring, which affects complexity. A concentration of focus in any of the particular areas results in decrease performance on others. The second type of planning is within-task or online planning. Within-task planning is when learners are given time during the task to monitor their language use. It is broken down to pressured, where learners are given a limited amount of time to complete their tasks; or unpressured, where learners have unlimited amounts of time to complete their task (Ellis, 2008). Within task planning helps with increasing a learner’s accuracy depending on the pressure that they under. Hulstijn and Hulstijn (1984), found that unpressured online planning allowed learners to use their rule based system of language and thus create more accurate output as they were able to monitor it, where pressured online planning had learners draw more from their exemplar based knowledge. Although being a branch of pre-task planning, rehearsals can be considered in a category of planning on its own. Rehearsals are opportunities to practice the task before doing the task (Ellis, 2008). Rehearsal can ease the influence of trade-off as it provides learners with task repetition. It gives learners an opportunity to test and monitor their production in the repetition or seek feedback on their output. Learners are able then able to fix areas of their performance that are deficient. Lynch and Maclean (2000) found that learners with lower proficiency increased their accuracy with the rehearsals as learners with higher proficiency increased their complexity. The repetition of the task helps learners generate qualitative improvements in their output as it allows them to go through a process of integrative planning (Bygate & Samuda, 2005). Integrative planning is where learners use the first repetition to prime them for the second performance. As the conceptualization and formulation is completed, learners can spend time adjusting the formulations to focus on more complex language features or improve the accuracy of the performance for the second time. 20 The effect on planning time on CAF is important when determining how to approach the creation of tasks for teaching speaking. If teachers want to increase all facets of a learners speaking proficiency, then it is important for them to give learners opportunities to plan. The focus of this study will be to increase the learner’s lexical complexity. Complexity can be affected by all forms of planning. This means that any performance that learner attempts will have to factor this in. What is particularly interesting is Bygate and Samuda’s (2005) idea of integrated planning, and more importantly, the idea of priming. Priming and Complexity Bygate and Samuda (2005) found in their research that repeated encounters with a task allows learners to work differently on the same materials, and thus increasing difference aspects what is required of the task. This is because the materials were primed for the learners to work with and adjust. It is this priming that creates an interesting aspect to increasing a learner’s complexity. Priming is when learners are presented with target language that they are going to use before doing a performance. This increases the chance of learners using that particular language in the performance as learners tend to use language that they have previously encountered pertaining to similar tasks (Huber, 2008). The study will look at two particular ways. The first will be task repetition as priming, and the second is lexically priming learners to use particular words. It is here where Levelt’s model of speech production (1983) provides possible explanation to why these two can help with increasing a learner’s lexical complexity in oral output. There are five stages to Levelt’s model. However, language production comes down to the three major stages of conceptualization, formulation, and the articulation. In the conceptualization stage, a preverbal message is generated, this is the ideas the learner wants to represent in their spoken output. This message the moved to the formulation stage which applies the appropriate syntax and lexis to the message. In the articulation stage, learners verbalize the formulated message. What task repetition allows the learner do is go through these stages repeatedly. If the learner does not alter the message that they want to convey, then the learner can move on from the conceptualizer stage quickly and onto the formulator stage of production. It is here where the learner can choose to pay attention to refining the language that they used to create the message correctly, or they can use the opportunity to readjust the language to make it more complex for the second performance (Bygate & Samuda, 2005). As the trade-off hypothesis states, the learner will have to choose one, which means that there will be a decrease in performance of the other (Skehan, 1998a). However, with multiple repetitions, a learner is able to attend to all aspects of their production. The problem with repetition then relies on the learner’s ability, or desire to monitor their production, in the last two stages of the Levelt’s model. The last two stages of Levelt’s model deals with the parsing and monitoring of speech. In the parsing stage, learners listen to the output to determine what the message that is being said. Levelt (1983) states that the parsing mechanisms have the access to the same resources as the formulator. It is in the monitoring stage where learners compare the speech with the original conceptual message to make sure what is said matches, and to detect errors. This can be difficult for low proficiency level learners as they might be cognitively stressed if they have to pay attention to too much information as is the case for lexis. Therefore, while the use of task repetition can help with priming the learner on what to say, it then comes down to if the learner can, or wants to, monitor their own output. The second priming that this study will look at is the priming of lexical items before its use. Priming a learner lexically is done by exposing the learner to the language items before they use it. Lexical priming has uses when dealing with collocations, colligations, and semantic preferences (Pace-Sigge, 2013). It is the idea of semantic preferences that this study will use in terms of increasing lexical complexity. Semantic preference is linked to specific topics and lexis linked to those topics. When developing L2 lexical knowledge, it is not uncommon for learners to overuse a particular feature when they first encounter it as it is part of their development stage (Ellis, 2008). It is also not uncommon for learners to default the usage of a particular word, especially if the new words have similar meaning to it and they can be used interchangeably (Pace-Sigge, 2013). What lexical priming does is activate lexical forms, making learners more aware of the words so they can use it later on as they have activated the links to the words in their memories. Huber (2008) found that when giving learners a question with two equally correct responses, the learners would answer with the answer that they had already encountered 21 previously. It can be then useful for learners to be lexically prepared to use different lexical forms so they are conscious is it for use in production. The goal of this study is to determine whether priming, be it lexical or through rehearsal, can increase a learner’s lexical complexity. The Study Participant John (pseudonym) is an upper intermediate level English language learner from Switzerland. He is a native Swiss-German speaker, and is currently studying Japanese at a language school. In Switzerland, John did not have any formal English language instruction in schools, however claims he built up a lexical knowledge through listening to English rap songs. John studied English at a language school in Canada for two years. During that time, he states that he progressed though the levels quickly, due in part to this knowledge. John’s main source of English speaking is in his communication with his roommates at his share house. He resides with native English speakers and he receives an equivalent of 4 hours a day of speaking practice. He roommates come from the United States, Australia, England, and Canada, so he has plenty of opportunities to talk with native speakers. John’s fluency with the spoken English would be perceived as fluent. However, his accuracy and his complexity with the language is intermediate. This can be the result of his limited studies in English. He is not too concerned about his accuracy or grammatical complexity of his language. However, he did state that he would like to increase his lexical complexity to sound ‘smarter’. This consideration was taken into account when instructing the learner. Methods The study used both forms of priming (repetition and lexical priming) to increase a learner’s lexical complexity. By using the repetition for priming, the learner’s attention is focused on lexical items that learners use constantly for the different topics that are introduced. It is then through the focus of those lexis and the active changing of those lexis to ones with similar meaning, that the learner can begin to think about using different lexical items for same words. The use of pre-production lexical priming then moves the focus of using different lexical items before the production, so that the learner will be able to produce dialogue that is lexically diverse. The study took place at irregular times (see Table 1), as the instruction had to work around John’s social and school schedule. Time available for the instructions were usually Wednesdays to Friday evenings, and all day on the weekend. Times for the lessons ranged from 20 to 90 minutes. Table 1. Session Times and Duration Session Date Pretest Wednesday (Jan 27) 1 Saturday (Jan 30) (Repetition) 2 Thursday (Feb 4) (Repetition) 3 Sunday (Feb 7) (Repetition) 4 Saturday (Feb 13) (Lexical Priming) 5 Friday (Mar4) (Lexical Priming) 6 Saturday (Mar 5) (Lexical Priming) Posttest Saturday (Mar 26) Duration (minutes) 10 20 30 90 60 90 30 30 The treatment started with a pretest to determine John’s complexity score in term of lexical complexity. For the pretest, he was given autonomy on the topic for the spoken test. He chose the topic of Clash of Clans, an online strategy game. John was given 10 minutes to plan his speech and was given an option to plan for the pretest by writing down notes. However, he did not take that option. The topics chosen for the test were ones that John had stated were his interests. In the first lesson, John was asked about his life and interests. This was done so that John could connect with the learning experience, as the study used topics that he would often speak about, there was a higher chance that it would lead him to reflect on the lessons, and on the language he would (Najeeb, 2013). The topics for the treatments were; 1. Clash of clans, 2. Sightseeing in Switzerland, 3. Duce Bigalow Male Gigalo, 4. Foods in Switzerland, 5. Two picture narratives, and 6. Study abroad experience in Canada. 22 The first treatment consisted of planning a script, and changing the repeated lexical items from the script. In the planning stage at the beginning, John was asked to write out the full scripts of what he was going to say. He was then tasked to scan though his scripts and change the words that repeated. He would then perform the task by reading the script. The second treatment was similar to the first. However, John was asked to write down notes as he performed the script. The third treatment tried to move the process from written to memory. John performed a speech and was asked to keep mental note of what he said in the oral performance, and for the second performance, he would change those words. The movie Duce Bigalow was used as a topic as the learner had seen it the night before and had seen the movie it a couple of times. This was to lessen the cognitive load on the learner. The fourth treatment had John plan for the lexical items before using them. He was asked to think about words that he was going to say and think of variables for those words. Using the list, he performed a monologue, and tried to use the different variations as much as possible. There was no time pressure placed on him for the performance. The fifth treatment used two picture narratives that were taken from Foster and Tavakoli’s (2009) study. John had to plan out a story and words that he thought would be in the story, for the story he was given unpressured online planning time. The last treatment had John perform the same task as the fourth treatment. However, the learner was placed under a time pressure for his spoken output. The posttest was performed two weeks after the final treatment. For a consistent measurement of the post-task, the opportunity to write down notes for his posttest was not given to him as an option. The results of the treatment are given in the following sections. Results Table 2 shows the results for the lexical complexity between the pretest and the posttest. The test used the same topic to see if there would be any changes to the way the learner prepared for the oral output. Table 2. Results for Lexical Complexity Pretest Tokens 286 Type 120 Type-Token Ratio 0.42 Tokens per type 2.38 Lexical density 0.50 Posttest 247 116 0.47 2.13 0.50 What is seen in the results is that while there was a decrease in the tokens and types from the pretest to the posttest. However, the type token ratio (TTR) increased from 0.42 to 0.47. with his lexical density remaining the same in the posttest. The results indicate that although the learner produced less language in the final test, his TTR did seem to increase slightly. However, as the difference size only showed and an increase of .05, the results can be seen as insignificant, and cannot be linked to the effectiveness of lexical priming and an increase of lexical complexity. Although not a target of the treatments, the results for accuracy and fluency cannot be ignored as it is important for determine a learner’s proficiency with the language (Norris & Ortega, 2009). For the accuracy measurements, I used the general measurement of accuracy of error free AS-units compared to the total AS-units. John’s accuracy on the pretest was 11:21 (52.38%) and his accuracy on the posttest was 9:18 (50.00%). As there was no instruction in that area, so the effects of the treatment should not have affect accuracy in the oral production of the learner too much. As such, any errors pertaining to syntax or lexis use should have carried over from the pretest to the posttest. The results confirm this as the posttest only showed a slight decrease in accuracy for the learner’s production. The fluency for the tests were measured in syllables per minute. Like accuracy and complexity, fluency was also affected. Syllables per minute decreased from 111.97 syllables/minute on the pretest to 99.67 syllables/minute on the posttest. The decrease in both fluency and accuracy shows that a trade-off took place with learner’s production and is discussed in the following section. 23 Discussion Planning The results indicate that the effects of lexical priming might not work as Huber (2008) suggested that it will. The changes to the TTR was small, and can be influenced by a few factors. The first being what John had planned in the planning session. As stated earlier, planning time is an important factor when determining the CAF of a learner’s output (Skehan, 2012). John was given 10 minutes to plan, in which he had the option of writing down notes. He opted not to use this option, instead decided to mentally take notes. John wanted to use a smoking break to think about what he was going to say, so there were no observations of what he was thinking about when planning for the test. However, when asked what he planned about for the first test, John said that he thought about everything that he knew about the topic. This is in line with the claims that learners attend to meaning first, then organization and language when planning for oral output (Ellis, 2008). Observations of John’s planning habits in the posttest showed that John spent time lexically priming himself for the posttest. This was different from the pretest. Instead of taking a break before the test, he sat down and could be observed thinking about the different lexical items he would use as he engaged in some private speech of possible lexical items, and asked the teacher for some lexical items. This shows that the learner was planning for the use of lexical items for use in the spoken output. However, although lexical priming was done by the learner, the effects were not shown in the output. The output appeared to show no effects of the planning. Ellis (2008) claimed that learners have difficulty transferring the planned linguistic features over from the planning to the production phase. Analyzing the output that John produced, it appears he tries to replace some words in the output. In the posttest John has the opportunity to use the word family ‘enemy’ six times in the output. The second time he encounters the word he uses a different variation of the word. Opting to use the word ‘the attacker’. However, after some slight thought, he does revert back to the more common lexical item used, as demonstrated in the following utterance. |… the attack of the attacker the … your enemy. However, he does make a conscious effort at the end again to change that lexical item, by referring to the enemy’s base as “his base” and “the other one’s base”. If the other two instances of enemy were changed in the final production, it would have increased the TTR by 0.01 points. Again, this is not a significant increase. Another reason for the slight increase in lexical complexity could have been due to the online planning time that was given to John. In both tests, John was told that he would only be given three minutes to perform the task. Hulstijn and Hulstijn (1984) stated that learners rely more on their exemplar based language systems when placed under timed pressure. John reversion back to the use of enemy, and not what he planned, can be viewed as him referring back to easily accessed knowledge. This is seen in the TTR in Lessons 4, 6, and the posttest, all of which used a similar task requirement. Table 3. Results for Lexical Complexity Through the Treatment 1 (49s) 2 (67s) 3 (180s) Tokens 144 119 294 Type 82 77 127 Type-token ratio 0.57 0.65 0.43 Tokens per type 1.76 1.55 2.31 Lexical density 0.44 0.52 0.44 4 (180s) 231 124 0.54 1.86 0.50 5 (160s) 164 81 0.49 2.02 0.52 6 (180s) 286 139 0.49 2.06 0.43 Lesson 6 and the posttest used a similar pressured online planning, while Lesson 4 had no such requirement. While the learner did produce less tokens in the spoken output than in Lesson 6 and the posttest, the TTR is higher. The unpressured time allowed John to refer to his notes and make a conscious effort to change the different lexical items. In Lesson 6, while he did have his note to assist with the spoken output, the time pressure meant that he only has a short time to refer to his notes. This meant that he would often use the first words on his list. With the posttest, as he did not have the list to refer to, it can be assumed that John used whatever information he could retrieve the quickest from his memory. This resulted in him using more frequently used lexis, and not the lexis he primed. 24 Priming Overall, the results suggest that the effects of priming had a positive effect on the learner’s lexical complexity, even if the effects were not significant. The complexity score for lessons one and two has to be disregarded as John had access to both the script with the lexical changes while performing or had a chance to memorize the scripts with the changes. Lesson 3 had John not only perform the spoken output, but also monitor it and change the lexical items himself. While he did perform better in terms of TTR than the pretest. It was only by a slight margin. What was interesting about the output produced in treatment three, was the second performance lead to a restructuring of what John said. This is in line with what Bygate & Samuda (2005) claim, where rehearsals allow learners to focus on different aspects of production when attempting it a second time. While John was asked to focus on varying his linguistic features for the second performance, what ended up happening was a focus on restructuring what he said in the rehearsal. This lead to a decrease in opportunities for linguistic diversity, as some linguistic features that he used multiple times in the rehearsal, were did not appear in the second performance. This shows that learners will attend to meaning first before attending to linguistic features of a performance (Skehan, 1998b). Lexical priming also helped with topics that learner did not nominate. In the treatment five, the learner was given a picture narrative in which he had create a story. Planning time was used to plan for lexical items that he would use. While John did not produce much output for the task, he did produce output that was equivalent to tasks where he knew the topics well and can talk about them. Trade-Off Effects The results of the posttest show that there is a there is trade off when the learners focus on different aspects for CAF. What is observed in the results is an increase in one aspect of CAF with a decrease in the other two. This is in line with what Skehan (2012) claims about trade-off. With trade-off, learners have to first choose between attending to meaning or form when producing language. As John was asked for his output to focus on form, especially the restructuring (complexity) aspect of form, it was expected that accuracy and fluency would decrease from this focus. The data shows that this is the case, with fluency decreasing more than accuracy in the posttest as accuracy falls into the focus of form on the same branch as complexity. Overall, this study provides a faintly positive view of lexical priming as a positive influence on increasing lexical diversity. Lexical priming, whether it be through rehearsals or planning for its usage, improved the learner’s lexical diversity in the tasks in general. It also shows the different effects that planning has on the production of the learner, with pre-task planning and unpressured online planning providing the highest increase in lexical complexity. However, there were limitations to this study that might have affected the outcomes of the results and a view of the study overall. Limitations of the Study There were a few limitations to this research. The first being the change of focus of the treatments. As described in the methods section, the treatments were divided into two different methods of teaching. One where lexical items were primed in the production and changed afterwards and another where lexical items were primed before the first production. Although there was a change in the lexical complexity of the learner in the posttest, the effects of the treatment could have been higher, if the learner had been exposed to a constant form of treatment, rather than two different treatments. The study was conducted in such a manner, as the researcher believed that it would yield better results for the learner to see their current production and how they could change the lexical complexity of their language. The researchers original goal was to persist with the rehearsal as lexical priming, however, the results of the third treatment prompted a change to the design, and the use of lexical priming before the production was used. The results of the treatment would have been different if one form of instruction was used or the N size increased to compare the two treatments. The second limitation to the research was the irregularity of the treatments. Some treatments were done close together, and others were done further apart. This was seen in results between treatments 4 and 5, and 5 and 6. Treatments 4 and 5 were done a week apart, while treatments 5 and 6 only three days apart. There was a decrease in lexical complexity between the fourth and fifth treatments, while the lexical complexity remained the same. However, this could be seen as more of an impact of the planning time, as stated above, as opposed to the treatment frequency. 25 The third limitation was the lack of the posttest using a different speaking topic. While the posttest was conducted one week after John had completed the final treatment, he was given a topic that he had talked about two times before. While the use of familiar topics can help a learner increase some areas of their CAF (Skehan, Xiaoyue, Qian, & Wang, 2012), it is unknown if the treatment were able to help transfer the skills to other topics of speech. The inability to show transfer of the skill to other topics does show a limitation of the study. Conclusion This study looked at lexical priming to increase a learner’s lexical complexity in oral production. The results of the study show that there is a slight effect on oral output by lexical priming. This could be the results of many factors that were not accounted for when approaching this research. Further research in this area could concentrate on the limitations that this study encountered, such as regular instruction, a control, and change of topics. However, this study does show that there is a trade-off effect when deciding on which areas of CAF to focus on. What this means for instructors is that they need to be aware of these effects when trying to increase the different areas. This includes varying the planning options that are available to the learners to help them improve their CAF. References Bygate, M. (2009). Teaching and testing speaking. In M. H. Long & C. J. Doughty (Eds.), The handbook of language teaching (pp. 412-440). Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. Bygate, M., & Samuda, V. (2005). Integrative planning through the use of task repetition. In R. Ellis (Eds.) Planning and task performance in a second language (pp. 37-74). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Benjamins. Ellis, R. (2008). The study of second language acquisition (2nd ed.). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. Ellis, R., & Barkhuizen, G. (2005). Analysing learner language. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. Foster, P., & Tavakoli, P. (2009). Native speakers and task performance: Comparing effects on complexity, fluency, and lexical diversity. Language Learning, 59(4), 866-896. Housen, A, & Kuiken, F (2009). Complexity, accuracy, and fluency in second language acquisition. Applied Linguistics, 30(4), 461-473. Housen, A., Kuiken, F., & Vedder, I. (2012). Dimensions of L2 performance and proficiency: Complexity, accuracy and fluency in SLA. Philadelphia, PA: Benjamins. Huber, D. E. (2008). Immediate priming and cognitive aftereffects. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 137(2), 324-347. Hulstijn, J. H., & Hulstijn, W. (1984). Grammatical errors as a function of processing constraints and explicit knowledge. Language Learning, 34, 23-43. Levelt, W. J. M. (1983). Monitoring and self-repair in speech. Cognition, 14(1), 41-104. Lynch, T., & Maclean, J. (2000). Exploring the benefits of task repetition and recycling for classroom language learning. Language Teaching Research, 4(3), 221–250. Najeeb, S. S. R. (2013). Learner autonomy in language learning. Procedia—Social and Behavioral Sciences, 70, 1238-1242. Norris, J. M., & Ortega, L. (2009). Towards an organic approach to investigating CAF in instructed SLA: The case of complexity. Applied Linguistics, 30, 555-578. Pace-Sigge, M., (2013). Lexical priming in spoken English usage. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. Skehan, P. (1998a). A cognitive approach to language learning. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Skehan, P. (1998b) Task-based instruction. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 18, 268-86. Skehan, P., & Foster, P. (2005). Strategic and on-line planning: The influence of surprise information and task time on second language performance. In R. Ellis (Eds.), Planning and task performance in a second language (pp. 193-216). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Benjamins. Skehan, P., & Foster, P. (2012). Complexity, accuracy, fluency and lexis in task-based performance: A synthesis of the Ealing research. In A. Housen, F. Kuiken, & I. Vedder (Eds.). Dimensions of L2 performance and proficiency: Complexity, accuracy and fluency in SLA (pp. 199-220). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Benjamins. 26 Skehan, P., Xiaoyue, B., Qian, L., & Wang, Z. (2012). The task is not enough: Processing approaches to task-based performance. Language Teaching Research, 16(2), 170-187. Tavakoli, P., & Skehan, P. (2005). Strategic planning, task structure, and performance testing. In R. Ellis (Ed.), Planning and task performance in a second language (pp. 239-273). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Benjamins. Tonkyn, A. (2012). Measuring and perceiving changes in oral complexity, accuracy and fluency: Examining instructed learners' short-term gains. In A. Housen, F. Kuiken, & I. Vedder (Eds.), Dimensions of L2 performance and proficiency: Complexity, accuracy and fluency in SLA (pp. 221-245). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Benjamins. 27 Using Incidental Form-Focused Instruction and Repetition Tasks to Improve Complexity, Accuracy, and Fluency Travis Past Most second language (L2) learners share a common goal of wanting to become a fluent speaker in their target language. This is especially the case with learners of English, which is quickly becoming a lingua franca across many countries and cultures. As the need to be proficient in English grows, so does the need for informed, research supported, L2 teaching approaches and methods. This is especially true in Japan, where learners of English face the challenge of having years of compulsory English instruction in junior and senior high school, but lack experience of using and producing language. Many learners in this context have not been given the opportunity to practice speaking in meaningful ways. Furthermore, there has been a deficiency of instruction targeted at helping the speaker perform at a higher level. For too long, the communicative approach to “just get them speaking” was seen as a viable solution to help in the Japanese context. Although certainly a step in the correct direction, getting learners to speak more is only the first step in helping them make clear gains in their speaking ability. Therefore, this study proposes an instruction method directed at helping L2 learners improve their speaking in recognizable and measurable ways. Literature Review The value of oral production in second language (L2) classes has been widely agreed upon and is a main feature among various perspectives in the field of second language acquisition (SLA). In fact, according to researchers, speaking in an L2 is not only the end goal of a language class, but a vital part of the language acquisition process. Swain (1995), in her output hypothesis, argued that output was also a contributing factor to language learning. She suggested that output allows learners to notice gaps in their interlanguage, test hypotheses, and think about language metalinguistically. Swain’s output hypothesis is consistent with Schmidt’s (2001) noticing hypothesis, which considers the act of perceiving a gap in what a learner wants to say, and can say, as a prerequisite to language acquisition. Swain (2005) further argued that input alone is not enough to cause learners to notice the gap in their interlanguage. Learners can often comprehend input without having to closely look at grammar. However, receptive L2 knowledge is not automatically ready for production and needs to be practiced. Therefore, spoken output practice has become an essential part of second language classes. Complexity, Accuracy, and Fluency Overview Bygate (2009) posed two questions in considering the teaching of speaking. The heart of these questions were; a) how can a speaker’s proficiency level be defined; b) how can speakers improve. Skehan (2009) suggested three measures in determining proficiency of a sample of spoken language; complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF). He defines complexity as the use of more advanced language, accuracy as the avoidance of errors, and fluency as the ability to produce speech at a natural rate without interruption. These measures allow quantitative analysis of spoken output and give instructors insight in how to help learners improve their speaking. Much of the research in CAF has shown a common trend, called the trade-off hypothesis, when giving instruction targeted on these areas. The human brain is a limited capacity processor (Levelt, 1989). Due to processing limitations, targeting one area of CAF might negatively influence performance on another (Ellis, 2009). To put it simply, concurrent gains in complexity, accuracy and fluency are rare. Although some studies do report that depending task type and task conditions, gains in accuracy and fluency, or complexity and fluency are possible, whereas accuracy and complexity seem to be more dichotomous in nature. Robinson (2001) even argued that this trade-off is not inevitable, and that tasks can be designed to facilitate gains in each area of CAF. Complexity Language complexity is most commonly approached from two sides, lexical complexity and syntactic complexity. In its simplest form, lexical complexity is a measure of the type/token ratio of a text. This is an analysis of the range of different lexicon a speaker uses. While this kind of complexity measure is insightful and vocabulary instruction should not be neglected, Cobb (2007) noted that lexis used in written texts tends to be more complex than that used in conversation. 28 Therefore, for the analysis of spoken complexity, syntactic complexity is a more suitable measure. An effective method to analyze syntactic complexity is to look at the coordinating and subordinating clauses within a speech act (Nation & Newton, 2009). Taking into consideration the spontaneity and fluidity of spoken language, Foster, Tonkyn, and Wigglesworth (2000) defined and suggested using the AS-unit. The AS-unit is “a single speaker’s utterance consisting of an independent clause or sub-clausal unit, together with any subordinate clause(s) associated with either” (p. 365). The AS-unit is particularly efficacious in analyzing spoken output, as pausing and intonation are factors taken into account when identifying AS-units. Using the AS-unit, complexity can be measured in clauses per AS-unit and words per AS-unit. Skehan (2009) found that certain types of speech acts and tasks led to greater complexity. Specifically, narrative tasks allowed for greater speaking complexity than in personal exchange tasks. As noted in the trade-off hypothesis, more complicated tasks will negatively affect complexity, therefore, allowing learners to engage in simpler speaking tasks allows for an increase in complexity. Furthermore, planning time has been shown to have a positive effect on complexity (Crookes, 1989; Ortega, 1999; Skehan, 2009). When given time to plan ideas and phrases, learners are able to produce longer, more grammatically complex utterances. Planning frees up more attentional resources, which can be used to aid complexity during speaking. Accuracy Making errors and mistakes is a natural part of any learning process, and is especially true of learning to speak a second language. Measuring accuracy is useful to see how many mistakes a speaker is making as well as to identify patterns in what kinds of errors are made. Corrective feedback (CF) is a widely agreed upon method to address errors and help learners grow from them. Meta-analyses have clearly shown that corrective feedback (CF) plays an integral role in improving a learner’s accuracy and overall language development (Mackey & Goo, 2007; Russell & Spada, 2006). Lyster and Saito (2010) further described what forms of CF led to the most uptake, or recognition of feedback in students. They reported that while recasts were the most common type of CF, more explicit forms, such as explicit correction or elicitations/prompts, result in greater uptake. When used to draw learners’ attention to linguistic form, this kind of reactive feedback is what classifies as focus on form. Prominent researchers in the field of SLA (Ellis, 2001; Long, 1991) have long agreed on the merits of focus on form, though there is still some debate on when and how focus on form instruction should be given. Ellis distinguished between planned focus on form, where structures are preselected, and incidental focus on form, which, similarly to explicit error correction, addresses forms as they arise naturally during meaning-focused activities. For too long, form-focused and meaning-focused activities were viewed in opposition with each other. Ellis advocated incidental focus on form as it allows for an integration of meaning-focused and form-focused activities. Long believed that this incidental focus on form is the only true version, and opposed using a syllabus to highlight pre-selected forms. Through incidental focus on form, teachers can address errors as they occur naturally. Therefore, lessons can be more closely tied to a learners’ true ability, and not a synthetic syllabus of grammar topics. Loewen (2005) posited that incidental focus on form allows learners to attend to form, meaning, and use in a single event, thereby facilitating the greatest amount of uptake. With greater uptake, learners will produce fewer errors, thereby increasing their accuracy. Fluency A common aspiration among most second language (L2) learners is the desire to become a fluent speaker in their L2. Although this goal is familiar among learners and teachers, defining, operationalizing, and improving fluency has proved to be a difficult undertaking. Speakers view fluency as the ability to interact in smooth and meaningful ways, not hindered by processing constraints that L2 learners face. Schmidt (1992) defined fluency as processing language in real time. Accordingly, fluent speakers are able to participate in meaningful conversations without disrupting the flow of talk. In this sense, fluency can be understood as a general, overall proficiency in a language. However, fluency can also be understood in a narrower sense, that is, the temporal measure of spoken output in a language (Lennon, 1990). The narrow sense of fluency considers factors such as the rate of speaking, repetitions, hesitations, and the number of pauses in a sample of speech. For this study, fluency is viewed in this narrow sense, though I believe that in improving the temporal features of speaking, an L2 speaker’s overall proficiency will also develop. Nation and Newton (2009) included fluency as one of the four strands of speaking. They argue that equal class time needs to be dedicated to each strand; meaning-focused input, meaning-focused 29 output, language-focused learning, and fluency development. Fluency is a skill to be practiced and so, 25% of the activities done in class should be focused explicitly on fluency development. Nation and Newton (2009) outlined three conditions to developing fluency: 1. The speaker is engaging in a meaning-focused activity 2. The speaker is using familiar language 3. There is time pressure to encourage the speaker to perform at a more advanced level In fluency activities, speakers attend to meaning over form. They should speak well within their language level about topics that they have experience with. The time pressure is an essential part of fluency building in that it pushes the speaker to speak faster and hesitate less. Researchers agree on the benefits on using task repetition as a feature of fluency development (Bygate, 2001; De Jong & Perfetti, 2011; Maurice, 1983; Nation & Newton, 2009). Through task repetition, learners’ attentional resources are freed up and they are able to speak more fluently. Utilizing these newly freed attentional resources, speakers are able to attend more to the quality of what they are saying. Therefore, some researchers have suggested that fluency development also supports the development of accuracy and complexity (Arevat & Nation, 1991; Lynch & Maclean, 2000; Nation, 1989). As with complexity, planning and preparation has also been found to be an effective way to help speakers increase their fluency (Foster & Skehan, 1996; Yuan & Ellis, 2003). Planning allows learners to map out ideas, words, and phrases that speakers can easily access while speaking. When paired, planning and task repetition are even more effective in supporting the fluency development of speakers. The Present Study According to the trade-off hypothesis, improving all three features, complexity, accuracy, and fluency should be impossible. However, there has been some research that suggests otherwise. Nation (1989) found that a simple 4/3/2 activity allowed for some learners to increase in every aspect of CAF. When comparing the first and last speech in the 4/3/2, Nation found that learners could speaker faster, using more complex language, with less dis-fluencies, and greater accuracy. It has been accepted that 4/3/2 is beneficial for fluency and complexity, but there are fewer studies that show gains in accuracy as well. Skehan, Bei, Qian, and Wang (2012) reported that repetition had large to huge effect sizes on each aspect of CAF. They found that planning and familiarity also have positive correlations with a speaker’s CAF, though not as strongly as repetition. However, it is still not clear as to whether the speaking gains made in a repetitive task (such as 4/3/2) on a particular topic will also be seen in other topics as well (De Jong & Perfetti, 2011). Theoretically, a meaning-focused task implementing pre-task planning, incidental focus on form, and repetition would have a lasting effect on improving each aspect of CAF. Therefore, the present study aims to further investigate gains in CAF using the 4/3/2 task, accompanied by pre-task planning and incidental focus on form instruction. Research questions: 1. When integrated with pre-task planning and incidental focus on form, is the 4/3/2 task facilitative to gains in each aspect of CAF? 2. Do gains measured in a 4/3/2 task carry over to other topics? Method Participant There was one participant, Hiromi (pseudonym), a 30-year-old Japanese female who met with the researcher for this study. Hiromi began studying English in junior high school and continued formal study throughout university. In 2006, she participated in a 9-month long English immersion program at a university in the United States. Although Hiromi has not had any formal instruction in English since graduating university, she regularly uses English in her job working for an export company, as well in her personal life. Hiromi expressed quite clearly her feelings of inadequacy in expressing her opinions in English. Though she had learned English for many years, she stated that she often feels incapable of clearly expressing her ideas in English. She expressed that it often takes time for her to say what she wants to. Even though she uses English daily both in her professional career and in her personal life, Hiromi does not consider herself to be a “fluent” (in the broad sense) English speaker. She stated that she wanted to practice and improve sharing her ideas and opinions more fluently. 30 Procedures The program consisted of a pretest, four treatment sessions, and a posttest spread out over a month. In preparing for the study, I met with Hiromi to explain and discuss the objectives and goals of the study. During this time, we also generated a list of relevant topics that she would be interested in speaking on. From this list of topics, I selected two topics, one for both the pre- and posttests. For these tests, Hiromi was given the topic at the beginning of the session and allowed 3 minutes to prepare a 3-minute speech about the topic. Each treatment session lasted 20-30 minutes. To begin each session, Hiromi and I looked at the remaining items on our topic list and discussed possible topics for the day’s speech. This served as both a warm-up and was a practical way to encourage the participant to consider and discuss topics relevant to her life. After roughly 2-3 minutes, a topic was settled on. Similar to the pretest, Hiromi was given 3 minutes to prepare a 3-minute speech about the chosen topic. During each speech, I listened closely and took notes on a variety of issues, such as sentence structure, grammar, content organization, discourse markers, appropriateness, and vocabulary. Once she had finished giving her speech, we began the incidental focus on form session where I gave instruction directed at the issues I previously noted. In order to facilitate the most uptake, I aimed to give prompts to elicit corrections from Hiromi. I did this by two methods. The first was by asking her to repeat certain sections of the passage. I also tried repeating exact lines from her speech and prompting her to find and offer corrections to errors. As mentioned above, instruction not only focused on grammar and sentence structure, but also targeted discourse, organization and pragmatic elements of language. After reviewing her performance on the pretest, I introduced a simple outline to help Hiromi organize her ideas more logically. This instruction portion of the treatment session typically lasted about 10 minutes. After the feedback, Hiromi completed a repetitive fluency-building activity. Initially, this was a modified version of 4/3/2 speaking activity. Because the initial speech was 3 minutes long, the activity was shortened to 3/2/1. However, in the first session Hiromi expressed some anxiety over not being able to finish her thoughts in the 1-minute speaking task. So, during the second treatment session, instead of requiring her stop speaking at exactly one minute, I allowed her finish her thoughts and the timing came to roughly 90 seconds. Therefore, in subsequent treatment sessions I decided it would be more beneficial to practice the full 4/3/2 speaking activity. Table 1. Schedule of Instruction Session Speaking Topic Pretest Your job 1 Marriage life 2 Future dreams 3 Hobbies 4 Travel Posttest Saving money Instruction Prep/Speech Prep/Speech/Feedback/ 3-2-1 Prep/Speech/Feedback/ 3-2-1 Prep/Speech/Feedback/ 4-3-2 Prep/Speech/Feedback/ 4-3-2 Prep/Speech Results Following Skehan’s (2009) suggestion, for this study, spoken proficiency was analyzed for complexity, accuracy and fluency. In order to do this, Hiromi’s speeches from each session were recorded and transcribed for analysis. Fluency As Lennon (1990) pointed out, fluency can be measured and understood in a narrow sense. For the purposes of this study, fluency was measured temporally and analyzed as syllables per minute; thus, all words in the speech were transcribed. The entire passage was evaluated in an online syllable counter. The total syllables in the speech were then divided by the total speaking time of the speech act. In many Hiromi’s speeches early in the program, she either finished early or spoke a little over the time limit. To account for that, when calculating fluency, the total syllable count was divided by how long Hiromi spoke and not how long the set time was. In Table 2, speaking times are noted in parentheses next to the fluency rate when there was a discrepancy in set time and speaking time. By Session 3, Hiromi had become accustomed to speaking for the set time and finished with the timer. 31 Table 2. Fluency Measures, Average Syllables per Minute Session Attempt 1 3 minutes 3 minutes Pretest 89.33 — 1 102.18 (2:45) 103.50 (2:30) 2 96.00 (2:45) 93.60 Attempt 1 4 minutes 3 91.66 79.50 4 86.60 84.50 Posttest 80.00 — 2 minutes — 111.43 (1:45) 108.50 3 minutes 90.66 100.30 — 1 minute — 129.91 (1:10) 124.00 (1:30) 2 minutes 115.50 120.50 — Complexity After finishing the analysis of fluency, all false starts, reformulations, repeated words were removed from the speech transcripts. The remaining segments of the speeches were then divided into clauses and AS-units. The AS-unit is a speaker’s utterance consisting of an independent clause or sub-clausal unit, together with any subordinate clause(s). Foster et al. (2000) advocated the AS-unit for analyzing spoken language, as it accounts for pauses and sub-clausal units common to natural speaking. After each speech was divided into AS-units, complexity was measured by clauses per AS-unit. For this brief study, only the pretest, posttest, and treatment Sessions 1 and 4 were analyzed for complexity. Table 3. Complexity Measure, Average Clauses per AS-Unit Session Attempt 1 3 minutes Pretest 1.67 1 1.88 1.50 Attempt 1 4 minutes 4 1.53 1.61 Posttest 2.20 2 minutes 1 minutes 1.69 3 minutes 2.14 2.00 2 minutes 2.00 Accuracy The final measure in the study was accuracy. Accuracy was analyzed in two ways, error-free clauses/ total clauses and error-free AS-units/ total AS-units. The Tables below show both the raw scores as well as percentage for accuracy in parenthesis. The accuracy of clauses and AS-units were reviewed and determined by the researcher. Errors were further divided into the following error-type categories, verb phrase (VP), noun phrase (NP), syntactic phrase (SP), and lexical (L) errors. One frequently occurring NP error was the use of the correct determiner (a, the). Often, Hiromi didn’t use the most ‘natural-sounding’ determiner. Because ‘natural-sounding’ is a rather subjective idea, determiners were only marked as errors in the case of an omitting a determiner when one was necessary. Therefore, in this analysis, use of a less preferred determiner was not marked as an error. Table 4. Accuracy Measure, Error-Free Clauses/Total Clauses Session Attempt 1 3 minutes Pretest 21/27 (77.78%) 1 21/32 (65.62%) 19/27 (70.37%) 2 Attempt 1 4 minutes 3 4 14/23 (60.87%) 24/34 (70.59%) Posttest 28/33 (84.85%) 2 minutes 1 minute 19/22 (86.36%) 11/18 (61.11%) 3 minutes 2 minutes 24/30 (80%) 22/28 (78.57%) Table 5. Accuracy Measure, Error-Free AS-Unites/Total AS-Units Session Attempt 1 3 minutes 2 minutes Pretest 10/15 (66.67) 1 7/17 (41.18%) 10/18 (55.56%) 10/13 (76.92%) 4 Posttest 1 minute 5/9 (55.56%) Attempt 1 4 minutes 3 minutes 2 minutes 8/15 (53.33%) 10/15 (66.67%) 12/21 (57.14) 9/14 (64.29%) 9/14 (64.29%) 32 Table 6. Total Errors and Error Type Session Number of errors Pretest 7 1 – Attempt 1 12 1 – 3 min 9 1 – 2 min 3 1 – 1 min 7 4 – Attempt 1 9 4 – 4 min 11 4 – 3 min 7 4 – 2 min 6 Posttest 6 Total (%) 77 VP 1 6 5 3 4 4 4 3 5 2 37 (48%) NP 5 2 0 0 1 2 1 2 0 1 14 (18%) SP 1 3 3 0 2 2 6 2 1 2 22 (29%) L 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 4 (5%) Discussion The research questions that were asked at the beginning of this study were if this instruction program would lead to gains in CAF and if those gains would carry over to other topics. In order to answer to both research questions, the findings for each aspect of CAF will be addressed individually. Fluency In analyzing fluency, as seen in Table 1, there is a clear trend of gains in syllables per minute throughout the repetition tasks. This finding confirms what previous research has shown about the use of repetition. Because language is being recycled multiple times, it becomes familiar and readily available without much demand on any attentional resources (Bygate, 2001; De Jong & Perfetti, 2011; Nation & Newton, 2009). Furthermore, as Nation and Newton argued, the increased time pressure forces the speaker to perform at a higher level. This is clearly the case with Hiromi, who increased her speaking speed at a rate of 25-35 syllables per minute between first and final speech attempts. Skehan et al. (2012) argued that this gain is also a result of greater preparedness. Whereas Ellis (2005) considered preparation as just a pre-task, preparation can also be considered in terms of having expressed the same ideas before, familiarity, and repeating tasks. Having repeated much of the same language in each repetition, Hiromi was better prepared for subsequent attempts at the same speech. The second research question for this study asked whether or not gains in a particular topic would carry over to other topics. In looking at her speaking speed on the pre- and posttest, Hiromi performs at roughly the same level, speaking at a rate of about 80-90 syllables per minute. These results suggest that fluency gains do not carry over to other topics. One explanation of this finding is that Hiromi just felt less pressure from the time constraint and spoke at a relaxed pace. Or it could be that because Hiromi was speaking on a less familiar topic and she was less prepared. Skehan et al. (2012) noted that the effect sizes of topic familiarity on fluency are small. That being the case, there is another factor that might have had an effect on this result. The speech that had the highest syllables per minute rate on the initial attempt was the first treatment session after the pretest. One possible explanation for this spike in fluency is the use of an outline in the initial pre-task planning. After reviewing Hiromi’s planning notes from the pretest, it became apparent that she needed some help in organizing her ideas and topics in a more logical way. So, at the beginning of the first treatment session, I gave her a simple blank outline to organize her ideas into topic sentences and supporting details. This kind of strategic planning has been shown to have significant effects on fluency as well as complexity (Ellis, 2005; Crookes, 1989; Wigglesworth 1997). In subsequent treatment sessions, Hiromi was reminded and encouraged to use the same of the kind of outline in her planning, but was allowed to prepare however she saw fit. Accuracy As with fluency, there is a trend of gains in accuracy during the repetitive 4/3/2 task. This further gives support to claims made by Nation (1989) and Skehan et al. (2012) that task repetition also increases accuracy. However, there was a notable dip in the 1-minute speaking task during treatment Session 1 that needs to be addressed. As noted above, Hiromi stated that having to fit the entire 3-minute speech into one minute was a stressful task and this stress could have caused a decrease in accuracy. Although, in analyzing her speaking from this session, it is clear that one 4-clause AS-unit in particular caused a significant drop in accuracy. The AS-unit was as follows. “|We had fun time for at least four months but :: I had to go back to Japan :: to graduate my university :: so we are separated four years|” 33 This AS-unit contributed to three of the seven error-clauses in the 1-minute speech. The marked errors are the missing determiner (a fun time) in the first clause, the missing preposition in the third clause (from my university), and the verb phrase error (we were separated) in the fourth clause. The errors in these clauses were mainly consistent throughout the repetition practice, though, as other correct clauses were cut due to time constraints, the impact of these errors on the overall accuracy increased. The present tense/past tense copula error highlighted in the “so we are separated four years” clause was a commonly occurring error across the treatment session. It also received some targeted feedback, though just in the form of a recast, which as Lyster and Saito (2010) argued, might not have been perceived by the learner as corrective feedback. Perhaps more explicit feedback or an elicitation would have been necessary to allow for uptake. However, when looking at that particular clause, there was one instance when Hiromi substituted the form for one she was more comfortable with. In the preceding speech, Hiromi change that clause to “So we had a separate time for four years”. While still not the most natural sounding phrase, the verb phrase in this version of the idea is correct. This indicates that through repetitive practice, Hiromi was self-correcting her language and was becoming more accurate. It is more difficult to draw clear conclusions as to whether or not gains in Hiromi’s speaking accuracy carried over to other topics. By looking at the first attempts found in Table 4 and Table 5, it is clear that Hiromi performed better on both the pre- and posttests in comparison to the treatment sessions. In Table 4, when looking at the error-free clauses, it appears there is a noteworthy gain in accuracy between the pre- and posttests, implying that there is some accuracy improvement from topic to topic. However, when analyzed as error-free AS-units in Table 5, the level of accuracy in both preand posttest are identical. The accuracy scores of treatment sessions in between the pre- and posttest were drastically lower than either test and suggest that no significant gain in accuracy was found between topics. I believe that in order to see consistent gains in accuracy across topics, more treatment sessions are necessary. Improving general speaking accuracy is difficult task, needing more time than 6-30 minute sessions. A final note on accuracy is that it seems that measuring error-free clauses/total clauses (as seen in Table 4) is a more sensitive measure, showing a more precise analysis of speech accuracy at a clausal level. This measurement reflects each error within the clauses of an AS-unit. If there are three errors in an AS-unit, the score will reflect that. On the other hand, when measuring by error-free AS-units, the same three errors in a single unit will only be treated as a single incorrect AS-unit. Complexity measures will be treated in the following section, but with an increased time pressure, ideas from different AS-units are being strung together to form fewer units. As the length of the AS-unit increases, there is a greater likelihood that it was also absorb problematic clauses from other units in previous repetitions. I believe that this accounts for drops in accuracy seen in the 1-minute speaking attempts. Because there are fewer AS-units, each error has a greater impact on accuracy measures. Complexity In this study, complexity was the measure with the most consistent gains. As seen in Table 3, there is a clear improvement in the average number of clauses per AS-unit across the repeated attempts in the treatment sessions. As noted in the discussion of fluency, Skehan et al. (2012) explained that this gain in complexity is a feature of increased preparedness of the speaker. At the beginning of each session, Hiromi was given encouragement on how to make the best of her pre-task planning through the use of an outline. Furthermore, during each repetition, Hiromi was more comfortable with the ideas she was sharing because she had just said them moments before. The language to express these ideas had already been prepared and was ready for use. The result was a greater increase in both complexity and fluency. Having shared the idea before, Hiromi was able to produce longer AS-units with fewer and shorter pauses between clauses. Regarding the second research question, there also appears to be a significant gain in complexity (Table 3) between the pre- and posttest, suggesting that complexity gains in 4/3/2 carry over to other topics. In fact, the posttest was one of Hiromi’s best performances in complexity. This is especially surprising because Hiromi, after finishing the posttest, shared that this topic, “saving money”, was the most difficult and unfamiliar topic for her to speak on. However, analysis of her speech shows an increase in the amount of 3 and 4-clause AS-units. | So, I think :: saving money is difficult :: but if you just put the little bit money in your wallet :: you don’t need to use| 34 This finding further supports the claim that topic familiarity does not have any significant effect on syntactic complexity (Skehan et al., 2012). Instead, strategic planning and repetition seem to have a greater impact on complexity. Limitations A few limitations of this study need to be addressed. First, as an individual case study, the results obtained should not be generalized to all L2 learners of English. Second, the study was relatively short. In order to obtain more accurate findings on the impact of 4/3/2 and incidental focus on form instruction on a speaker’s CAF, a longer study with more treatment sessions is necessary. Also, I believe the results found in this study would have been more reliable if the full 4/3/2 training had been implemented from the first treatment session. The initial use of 3/2/1 was too short and might have been too stressful for the speaker. Finally, in consideration for future studies, it would be interesting to investigate how having the speaker listen to their own recordings to identify and self-correct errors. The instructor could record the first speech attempt and play it back to the speaker immediately after. Then before doing a repetition practice, the speaker is asked to identify errors in their own speech. This might be even more facilitative for uptake and could help improve CAF even more. Conclusion The findings in this study provide support that while it is difficult to improve all aspects of CAF at the same time, a task with strategic pre-task planning, incidental focus on form, a repetition practice such as 4/3/2 is an effective way of strengthening a speaker’s CAF. Therefore, in order to become more complex, accurate and fluent speakers, L2 learners need the opportunity to repeat tasks and language. This finding should influence teachers to plan activities with built-in repetition in order to fortify the learners’ speaking abilities. References Arevat, S., & Nation, I.S.P. (1991). Fluency improvement in a second language. RELC Journal, 22(1), 84-94. Bygate, M. (2001). Effects of task repetition on the structure and control of oral language. In M. Bygate, P. Skehan, & M. Swain (Eds.), Researching pedagogic tasks: Second language learning, teaching and testing (pp. 23-48). Harlow, England: Pearson Longman. Bygate, M. (2009). Teaching and testing speaking. In M. H. Long & C. J. Doughty (Eds.), The handbook of language teaching (pp. 412-440). Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. Cobb, T. (2007). Computing the vocabulary demands of L2 reading. Language Learning & Technology, 11(3), 38-63. Crookes, G. (1989). Planning and interlanguage variation. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 11, 367-383. De Jong, N., & Perfetti, C. A. (2011). Fluency training in the ESL classroom: An experimental study of fluency development and proceduralization. Language Learning, 61, 533-568. Ellis, R. (2001). Investigating form-focused instruction. Language Learning, 51(Suppl. 1), 1-46. Ellis, R. (2005). Planning and task-based performance: Theory and research. In R. Ellis (Ed.), Planning and task performance in a second language (pp. 3-34). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Benjamins. Ellis, R. (2008). Explicit form-focused instruction and second language acquisition. In B. Spolsky & F. M. Hult (Eds.), The handbook of educational linguistics (pp. 437-455). Oxford, England: Blackwell. Ellis, R. (2009). The differential effects of three types of task planning on the fluency, complexity, and accuracy in L2 oral production. Applied Linguistics, 30, 474-509. Foster, P., & Skehan, P. (1996). The influence of planning on performance in task-based learning. Studies in Second Language Acquisition,18(3), 299-324. Foster, P., Tonkyn, A., & Wigglesworth, G. (2000). Measuring spoken language: A unit for all reasons. Applied Linguistics, 21(3), 354-375. Lennon, P. (1990). Investigating fluency in EFL: a quantitative approach. Language Learning, 40(3), 387-417. Levelt, W. (1989). Speaking: From intention to articulation. Boston, MA: The MIT Press. Loewen, S. (2005). Incidental focus on form and second language learning. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 27, 361-386. 35 Long, M., (1991). Focus on form: A design feature in language teaching methodology. In K. de Bot, R. Ginsberg, & C. Kramsch, (Eds.), Foreign language research in cross-cultural perspective (pp. 39-52). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Benjamins. Lynch, T., & Maclean, J. (2000). Exploring the benefits of task repetition and recycling in classroom language learning. Language Teaching Research, 4(3), 221-250. Lyster, R., & Saito, K. (2010). Oral feedback in classroom SLA. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 32, 265-302. Mackey, A., & Goo, J. (2007). Interaction research in SLA: A meta-analysis and research synthesis. In A. Mackey (Ed.), Conversational interaction in second language acquisition: A collection of empirical studies (pp. 407-452). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. Maurice, K. (1983). The fluency workshop. TESOL Newsletter, 17(4), 29. Nation, I.S.P. (1989). Improving speaking fluency. System 17(3), 377-384. Nation, I. S. P., & Newton, J. (2009). Teaching ESL/EFL listening and speaking. New York, NY: Routledge. Ortega, L. (1999). Planning and focus on form in L2 oral performance. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 21, 109-148. Robinson, P. (2001). Task complexity, cognitive resources, and syllabus design: A triadic framework for examining task influences on SLA. In P. Robinson (Ed.), Cognition and second language instruction (pp. 287-318). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Russell, J., & Spada, N. (2006). The effectiveness of corrective feedback for second language acquisition: A meta-analysis of the research. In J. Norris & L. Ortega (Eds.), Synthesizing research on language learning and teaching (pp. 133-164). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Benjamins. Schmidt, R. (1992). Psychological mechanisms underlying second language fluency. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 14, 357-385. Schmidt, R. (2001). Attention. In P. Robinson (Ed.), Cognition and second language instruction (pp. 3-32). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Skehan, P. (2009). Modelling second language performance: Integrating complexity, accuracy, fluency and lexis. Applied Linguistics, 30, 510-532. Skehan, P., Bei, X., Qian, L., & Wang, Z. (2012). The task is not enough: Processing approaches to task-based performance. Language Teaching Research 16(2), 170-187. Swain, M. (1995). Three functions of output in second language learning. In G. Cook & B. Seidhofer (Eds.), Principles and practice in the study of language (pp. 125-144). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. Swain, M. (2005). The output hypothesis: theory and research. In E. Hinkel (ed.), Handbook of research in second language teaching and learning (pp. 471-483). Mahwah, N.J.: Erlbaum. Wigglesworth, G. (1997). An investigation of planning time and proficiency level on oral test discourse. Language Testing, 14(1), 21-44. Yuan, F., & Ellis, R. (2003). The effects of pre-task planning and on-line planning on fluency, complexity and accuracy in L2 monologic oral production. Applied Linguistics, 24, 1-27. 36 Pre-Teaching Vocabulary for Improving Reading Comprehension Travis Past Many second language (L2) reading authorities agree that lexical knowledge is a central element in reading comprehension. Even more than syntax, reading skills, and identifying main ideas, vocabulary knowledge has been found to be more predictive of reading comprehension (Laufer, 1996; Ulijin & Strother, 1990; Anderson & Freebody, 1981). Therefore, vocabulary acquisition is crucial for developing skilled readers. There have been many suggestions made for the best way for learners to acquire vocabulary for reading comprehension, though perhaps the most direct approach is by pre-teaching vocabulary through pre-reading tasks. Nation (2008) recommended that in pre-reading activities, a small amount of vocabulary can be pre-taught to enhance comprehension of the text. This study describes a case study where pre-reading activities were used with one Japanese learner of English to pre-teach vocabulary for improving reading comprehension of subsequent texts. The study examines the effect of a pre-reading instruction plan based on Nation’s (2008) 4-strands of language acquisition for increasing vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension, as well as the learner’s perspective on which kind of pre-reading activities are most effective. Literature Review History of Vocabulary Instruction Vocabulary instruction has been predominantly neglected in the past century of second language acquisition (SLA) theory. As Richards (1976) points out, SLA researchers tend to prioritize syntax and phonology over lexicon as “more serious candidates for theorizing” (p. 77). Indeed, throughout a majority of the 20th century, syntax and phonology were viewed as more central and critical to SLA theory and pedagogy. Little emphasis had been placed on lexicon until more recently, though it is arguably central feature to SLA. In order for the indispensable role of vocabulary acquisition to be fully realized, it is important to understand how it has been viewed and treated theoretically and pedagogically in the history of SLA. By the end of the 18th century, the grammar translation method was the predominant approach used to teach modern languages in schools. In this method, learners were asked to read, analyze, and translate classical literature. Second languages were generally taught as a mental exercise and students were not expected to use or interact in the target language (Zimmerman, 1996). Instruction focused mainly on syntactic structure and the conjugation of verbs. Though this method was practiced well in to the 20th century, it began to receive a lot of criticism for lacking any realistic, oral production. As archaic as the method was, its proponents did place value on vocabulary, and learners often had access to bilingual word lists and dictionaries for their exercises (Kelly, 1969). However, little attention was given to the acquisition of lexical items; instead, more weight was given to the reference tools used to access them. In response to the criticism of the grammar translation method, Henry Sweet established the reform movement in England. Sweet (1964) argued that the grammar translation method was “based on insufficient knowledge of the science of language” (p. 3). Instead of focusing on the translation of text, reformers, such as Sweet, prioritized the oral production of language. Although certainly a step in the direction of contemporary SLA theory, Sweet unfortunately disregarded the importance of lexicon. He stated that though a language is made up of words, people speak in sentences. Therefore, the sentence is the unit of language, not the word, and, “from a purely phonetic point of view words do not exist” (p. 97). Sweet continued by stating that “practical” words are important to know, but are dull and boring for students to learn. Moreover, the study of vocabulary can even be a distraction from learning more interesting and important materials (Howatt, 1984). During World War II, attitudes to SLA shifted once again and American linguists developed a new structural approach called the audio-lingual method. This method integrated the attention to structural syntax that was central to the grammar translation method and the prioritization of oral production found Sweet’s reform movement. Proponents of the audio-lingual approach emphasized the use of intensive oral drilling, rote memorization of forms and sentences, and rigorous pronunciation practice (Zimmerman, 1996). Language learning was viewed as behavioristic and developed through the formation of habits (Lightbown & Spada, 2013). Vocabulary was overshadowed by phonology. Though many of the techniques used in this method were adopted later for vocabulary instruction. 37 It was not until the 1980s that attitudes toward vocabulary began to change. Krashen and Terrell’s (1983) natural approach acknowledged the importance of lexis, though it lacked a clear methodology for vocabulary instruction. Krashen’s controversial model of language acquisition held that acquisition occurs through a learner’s exposure to comprehensible input (Krashen & Terrell, 1983). Words carry meaning, so they are considered of great importance in making input comprehensible. Thus, acquisition will not occur without the comprehension of vocabulary. Krashen held that vocabulary is also acquired through exposure to comprehensible input; however, he offered no pedagogical suggestions other than to have learners read freely. In the years following Krashen's (1983) call for greater attention to words, many researchers have performed more in-depth vocabulary research. With the continual development of technology, large-scale analyses of lexis occurring in natural texts has become possible through corpus analysis and computational linguistics. Corpus analysis sheds light on how language is used, and gives insights on lexical collocations. Using corpus linguistics, Lewis (1993) claimed that lexicon is central to language use and need to be a key part of SLA pedagogy. Researchers have also begun to see the importance of learning lexical phrases and multiword units (Nattinger & Decarrio, 1992). Lewis (1993) concurred with this view that language consists of multiword chunks and argues that communicative approaches focus on integrating these naturally occurring units. Finally, after decades of neglect, vocabulary has begun to get the attention it deserves by the SLA community. Modern researchers have at last come to the conclusion that has long been reverberating among many second language learners; vocabulary acquisition is a crucial component in SLA. Though even still, various contemporary theories of SLA have differing views on the value of vocabulary in pedagogy. Vocabulary in Reading Comprehension The field of SLA that most values vocabulary instruction is reading. Laufer (1996) argued that reading comprehension is directly related to vocabulary knowledge. She states that lexis is the best predictor for reading comprehension, even more so than syntax or general reading skills and strategies. Anderson and Freebody (1981) agreed by concluding that understanding single words is more predictive of text comprehension than the ability to make inferences and grasp main ideas. Ulijin and Strother (1990) also commented on the importance of vocabulary knowledge by stating that lexical knowledge is more facilitative of reading comprehension than syntactic knowledge. That is, vocabulary knowledge has a greater impact on reading comprehension than grammar knowledge. Moreover, Carver (2000, 2003) and Stanovich (2000) pointed out the cyclical nature of the relationship between vocabulary and reading comprehension in that vocabulary growth leads to improved comprehension, which in turns leads to more reading and consequently more vocabulary growth. Therefore, the importance vocabulary instruction becomes clear. As learners continue to build their vocabulary knowledge, they are able to comprehend more advanced texts. The threshold of how much lexical knowledge a reader should have is still in question, though certainly more is better. Laufer (1996) argued that in order for a reader to begin to apply helpful reading strategies, they must know at least 3,000 word families (5,000 lexical items). Below that minimum threshold, reading strategies are ineffective. This estimate is supported by Nation (2001) who argued that learners should strive to acquire the 2,000 most frequently occurring English words. Coxhead (2000) further investigated word frequency in the development of the Academic Word List (AWL). She found a total of 570 word families that were common among a variety of academic fields. She claimed that in many texts, adding lexical items from the AWL to the 2,000-3,000 high frequency word base accounts for up to 90% of the lexical knowledge required to comprehend academic texts. Hu and Nation (2000) set an even higher goal when considering fiction texts, claiming that in order to understand a text without any assistance a reader must know at least 98% of the words contained in a text. Vocabulary Instruction What becomes irrefutable from the research is that vocabulary instruction is essential for reading comprehension. However, the most effective methodology in administering instruction remains uncertain. Many researchers propose a multifaceted approach to teaching vocabulary. Nation called for vocabulary instruction to fit the same four strands he proposes for SLA in general; well-balanced vocabulary instruction provides equal emphasis on meaning-focused input, meaning-focused output, language-focused learning, and fluency development (Laufer, Meara, & Nation, 2005). When considering meaning-focused input, Beglar and Hunt (2005) further differentiated input into decontextualized and contextualized forms. Nation advocated that, in regards to decontextualized 38 input, teachers need to select lexical items for students to learn (Laufer et al., 2005). Beginners need to master high frequency vocabulary before moving onto to less frequent words, and accordingly teachers need to select high frequency words for the learners to acquire. Coxhead (2000) stated that more intermediate to advanced learners benefit from words found on the AWL. To this end, Laufer et al. (2005) suggested creating a vocabulary syllabus to fit the students’ needs. By doing so, it becomes easier for the teacher to keep track of and provide multiple exposures to target lexicon. After the temporary decontextualization, Beglar and Hunt (2005) stressed the importance of providing learners with contextualized use of the target vocabulary. Just as Sweet (1964) argued that sentences, and not words, are the unit of language, Laufer et al. (2005) concurred by recommending that teachers give context to lexical items. Whereas working with single words can be difficult, providing a context, such as a newspaper headline with only one unknown word, will make it easier to remember what the word means and how it is used (Laufer et al., 2005). One of the best ways to provide students with contextualized input is by encouraging them to become avid readers. The benefits of extensive reading have been agreed upon by many researchers, all of whom state that the repeated exposure to contextualized vocabulary items increases the probability that learners will retain previously encountered vocabulary (Beglar & Hunt, 2014; Day & Bamford, 1998; Nation, 2001). Meaning-focused output activities encourage students to use the language and attempt to find their own voice in the target L2. Nation advocated using carefully designed speaking and writing activities to promote the use of the target vocabulary in the text (Laufer et al, 2005). Beglar and Hunt (2005) further explained that output activities can occur as pre-, main- and post-activities. The goal of any of these exercises are the same, to promote student’s use of the target lexicon in a meaningful way. Therefore, pair work, word ranking exercises, problem solving activities, and group discussions can be effective meaning-focused output activities. The third strand of Nation’s (2008) four strands is language-focused learning. An example of this is form-focused instruction where students are aided in accurate acquisition of vocabulary and are able to overcome challenges in problematic areas of L2 lexicon learning. Without guiding learners by means of explicit instruction, they run the risk of acquiring vocabulary inaccurately, or not at all. Temporarily decontextualizing words and focusing on the meaning, spelling, and pronunciation of vocabulary is an effective way to encourage learners to make connections to their L1 meaning. Laufer et al. (2005) noted that teachers should not be opposed to the L1 translation of words. Some instructors might seem hesitant to wander into “grammar translation territory”, but learners tend to translate regardless, and research shows that both glosses and bilingual dictionaries are beneficial for reading comprehension. Even among motivated learners, most tend not to be ‘word collectors’ who are always eager and ready to acquire new vocabulary. Some teacher intervention is necessary to encourage students to learn new words and to learn them correctly. The final strand of Nation’s four strands is fluency development. Laufer et al. (2005) stated that learners need to consistently review vocabulary. Non-reviewed vocabulary is forgotten vocabulary. Review can be done through making traditional word cards. Though such review exercises have been criticized for being “old fashioned” or “behaviorist”, Tan and Nicholson (1997) defended the use of word cards. They found positive effects in both single-word and multi-word phrase training for reading comprehension. Without this kind of behavioristic drilling, words can be forgotten quickly. Nation claimed that fluency can also be developed through extensive reading (Laufer et al., 2005). Grabe and Stoller (2011) supported this view remarking that most readers are just not reading enough to develop fluent L2 processing. Day and Bamford (1998) recommended reading one easily comprehensible book per week. Nation set a higher target, advocating that learners read one to two books a week, or 500,000 running words per year (Beglar & Hunt, 2014). As with the meaning-focused input strand, fluency development through extensive reading is an effective way for learners to reencounter previously learned vocabulary. The Present Study The focus of this present case study is to investigate methods in applying integrated lexical instruction through pre-reading activities in order to increase comprehension of reading passages. Inspired by Nation’s (2008) four stands of language acquisition, activities were designed to include meaning-focused input, meaning-focused output, and language focused learning. For this short-term study centered on pre-reading activities, the instruction method is focused on the first three strands (input, output, and language learning) and not on fluency development, which would be implemented with less time constraints through extensive readings, repeat readings, and consistent and regular vocabulary review. 39 Pre-reading activities were chosen as the method of instruction because they can help increase sight word knowledge for the subsequent reading task. Pulido and Hambrick (2008) found that the automatic recognition of known words impacts both L2 vocabulary acquisition and reading comprehension. Therefore, providing learners with the opportunity to practice and acquire key vocabulary from a text is beneficial. Nation (2008) agreed that in pre-reading activities, a small amount of vocabulary can be pre-taught to enhance comprehension of the text. Adequate time must be given to each term for it to be adequately acquired and instruction should include the lexical item’s form, meaning, pronunciations, collocations, and use. These words should be included in tasks before, such as making glossaries. One gap in the research is the effect that verbalizing the target lexical items in context has on noticing the target items in the reading passage. As proponents of the audio-lingual approach emphasized drilling and oral production (Zimmerman, 1996), it is expected that learners will benefit from practicing reading aloud passages selected from the text containing the target vocabulary. This oral drill training should increase the probability that the learner will notice and comprehend the practiced lexical items and passages as they appear in the text, as well as give them the opportunity to practice and improve their pronunciation and intonation. Therefore, how pre-reading activities increase the saliency and comprehension of a subsequent reading passage was investigated. Research Questions 1. Is pre-teaching vocabulary an effective strategy for text comprehension? 2. What is the upper limit of target words and phrases introduced in a pre-reading exercise? 3. Does verbally reading selected passages with target vocabulary aloud pre-reading increase saliency of that passage during reading? Method Participant There was one participant, Hiromi (pseudonym), a 29-year-old Japanese female who met with the researcher for this study. Hiromi began studying English in junior high school and continued formal study throughout university. In 2006, she participated in a 9-month long English immersion program at a university in the United States. Although Hiromi has not had any formal instruction in English since graduating university, she regularly uses English in her job working for an export company, as well in her personal life with her friends. Hiromi expressed quite clearly her feelings of inadequacy in English lexical knowledge. Though she had learned English for many years, she stated that she had forgotten a lot of the words she learned in school and typically only uses words and phrases that she is comfortable with. Moreover, because she often has to correspond with English speakers through email for her job, Hiromi stated that she wanted to learn more vocabulary, specifically higher-level words that she might encounter or use in her correspondence. Reading Passages Four reading passages were taken from Spargo’s (1989) Timed Readings. Fifty 400-word passages with questions for building reading speed. Book 8, and were adapted to suit the needs of the current study. All passages were approximately 400 words long and included words from the academic word list. Each passage was analyzed with Tom Cobb’s Vocabprofile, which utilizes Laufer and Nation’s 4-way vocabulary sorter. The 4-way vocabulary sorter analyzes a text and separates the vocabulary into frequency categories. The categories are divided into the first and second thousand most frequently used English words (K1 and K2, respectively), academic words as defined by Coxhead (2000) (AWL), and off-list words. The reading passages were adapted so that approximately 90% of the words contained in the text were found K1, K2, and AWL levels. The remaining 10% was sorted as off-list. Off-list words that were kept largely fell under the following categories; (a) the off-list word is a proper noun, (b) the off-list word is defined in the reading passage, (c) the off-list word is a content word chosen for the pre-teaching activity. Words for the pre-teaching activities were mainly chosen from the AWL, though exceptions were made as in case (c) described above, and in multiword units that consist high frequency words which take on new meaning. An example of this can be found in Reading Assignment 2 where take charge has been selected as item to be pre-learned. Though the constituent lexical items take and charge are both found in the 1,000 most frequent vocabulary, as a multiword unit, it takes on a new meaning. Multi-word units were included based on research in corpus linguistics that shows the 40 importance of learning lexical phrases as well as single words (Lewis, 1993; Nattinger & Decarrio, 1992). A description of the lexical profile of each reading passage is detailed in Table 1. Table 1. Vocabulary Profile of Reading Assignments Word category Reading 1 Reading 2 K1 (1-1,000) 75.31% 80.56% K2 (1,001-2,000) 9.88% 3.58% AWL 1.48% 5.88% Off-list 13.33% 9.97% Note. AWL = Academic Word List. Reading 3 77.17% 5.21% 7.94% 9.68% Reading 4 80.05% 4.09% 7.93% 7.93% Instrumentation Hiromi’s initial vocabulary knowledge was measured by a pretest using Nation’s 1990 vocabulary level test 2k-10k. At the end of each treatment session, Hiromi answered three to four multiple-choice questions to measure reading comprehension of the text. Following the comprehension questions, Hiromi also filled out a short survey answer questions to how she felt during the treatment section. These survey questions were designed to be prompts for further interview and elaboration. The researcher asked Hiromi to expand and explain her choices on the follow up survey. Following the treatment sessions, a posttest was administered. The posttest consisted of three sections. First, Hiromi matched words to definitions of selected lexical items from the treatment. Second, Hiromi completed sentences by choosing the correct vocabulary term from a list. The final section of the posttest was the same vocabulary level test that was administered as a pretest. Procedure The program consisted of a pretest, four treatment sessions, and a posttest spread over four weeks. Each instruction section lasted between 30-60 minutes, with the initial sessions taking less time and the later sessions closer to 60 minutes. Each treatment session, Hiromi was presented with a handout containing: (a) a set of lexical terms (both single and multiword units); (b) three pre-reading activities: an uncompleted glossary, a generative meaning focused exercise, sample sentences; (c) a reading passage with comprehension questions; and (d) a brief survey. First, Hiromi was asked to look at the lexical items presented and match them to simplified definitions provided, thereby completing a gloss that could be referred to during the following activities. When necessary, Hiromi was free to use a bilingual English-Japanese dictionary to fill in words that she was unsure of or did not know. Though this kind of gloss and L1 use could be criticized for being too reminiscent of the grammar translation method, Laufer et al. (2005) defended the use of L1 in L2 learning. Learners will translate regardless of if they are “allowed” to. Their research shows that glosses, even if they are in L1, are beneficial for comprehension and word learning. The gloss completed in this activity was done primarily in English with the use of Japanese allowed. After Hiromi completed the definitions, her answers were checked and confirmed by the instructor. When all of the lexical items were paired with their matching definitions Hiromi began the second activity of the treatment session. This activity required Hiromi to think about and process the target terms in a generative way. Wittrock (1991) stated that the generative learning process is to build relationships with the parts (words) and the student’s knowledge. Therefore, words must be comprehended, related to the learner’s schema, and related to one another (D. Beglar, Vocabulary Learning and Testing Colloquium, September 13, 2015). An effective generative activity asks the learner to make inferences, categorize, and organize words. To that end, each treatment session Hiromi was asked to either organize the words on a positive-negative valence scale or to categorize the words in a way that was meaningful to her. Through this, the learner has to engage in deep semantic processing of the target lexical items, thereby increasing and strengthening the cognitive connections of these words in their mind. Once completed, Hiromi discussed her ranking/categorization with the instructor and explained why she organized the terms in that way. Discussion is essential as it is a way to encourage communicative output. As Beglar and Hunt (2005) stated, this gives the learner a chance to develop their own voice in the L2 and to try out new words they are learning. Following the generative activity, the decontextualized terms were given context as Hiromi used them to complete sentences taken from the subsequent reading passage. As mentioned above, it has been widely agreed that words need to be put into context (Beglar & Hunt, 2005; Krashen, 1983; Laufer et al., 2005; Sweet, 1964); thus, Hiromi was given the opportunity to contemplate and see how the newly learned lexical items function within a sentence. This activity also provides the learner with 41 some clues as to the topic of the reading passage. Hiromi could begin to consider what kind of text she would soon be reading and could draw upon her existing knowledge. Next, the completed sentences were read aloud in as a language-focused learning activity. Taking cues from the audio-lingual approach detailed above, the instructor led Hiromi in an intensive oral drill using the target lexical items in their contextualized sentences. Attention was given to pronunciation of segmental features such as individual phonemes and words, as well as suprasegmental features such as rhythm and intonation. Through the oral production of the sentences, it was hoped that the saliency of the terms and sentences would be increased as they are read in the subsequent reading passage. After completing all of the pre-reading activities, Hiromi was presented with a reading passage and as much time as she needed to comfortably read it. Each reading passage was approximately 400 words long and generally took less than 5 minutes for Hiromi to complete. Each reading passage was followed by 3-4 multiple-choice questions testing comprehension of the reading passage. Two of the questions were information taken directly from the text and at least one question was designed to ask the reader to make inferences based off the information presented in the reading passage. The final part of the treatment session was a survey designed to probe how Hiromi felt during the exercises. The questions were aimed at uncovering if she felt confident in the new vocabulary she had learned, whether or not she felt she comprehended the text, if she noticed the target lexicon and sentences in the text, and if she felt that there were too many target lexical items to remember. Results Treatment Session 1 For the first treatment session, four lexical items (two single words and two multiword units) were chosen to be pre-taught before a reading passage about keeping food free from bacteria and contamination. Hiromi seemed to have no trouble in matching the terms to their definitions. The generative activity for this session was placing terms on a positive-negative scale. Hiromi was confident in placing the term ‘prevent contamination’ on the positive end of the spectrum and ‘infection’ on the negative. Though confident in the first two pre-reading activities, Hiromi was more reserved in placing the terms in the correct sentences. Despite being able to do it on the first try, she said that she was unsure of herself. This hesitation subsided during the oral drill, in spite of some difficulty in pronunciation. Hiromi moved through the reading passage steadily. Although not prompted to do so, she marked five other terms in the reading passage that she did not understand. These were discussed once she completed the comprehension questions. Reflecting on the passage, Hiromi said, “I have to cook a lot at home, so I understood the contents of the reading.” Treatment Session 2 For the second treatment session, six lexical items (three single words and three multiword units) were chosen to be pre-taught before a reading passage about Russian and American space programs. Hiromi made two mistakes in matching the vocabulary to the definition, though before proceeding to the next activity they were discussed and corrected by the instructor. The generative activity used for this session was placing terms on a positive-negative scale. With the addition of two more terms, Hiromi had more difficulty deciding where to place the terms. One term, take charge was especially difficult. She remarked, “I don’t know where to put take charge. I think it can be good if you’re a powerful person, but bad if you’re below people.” It was encouraging to see that she was engaging in some level of deep semantic processing during this activity. Hiromi made two errors in the sentence completion activity. One term, ‘satellite’ was also a word that she mistakenly defined in the first activity. Her mistakes were corrected before continuing on to the oral drill. The reading for this session appeared to be more strenuous than the previous session. Once again, Hiromi marked four terms that she did not understand while reading. She expressed that she is not interested in space and so it was difficult for her to understand the text. There was one notable occurrence when reflecting on the reading passage. The instructor pointed to the word “hypothesis” and asked if she knew what it meant. Hiromi quickly said yes and explained that it meant a person who said one thing and did another. Without realizing it, she mistook the word hypothesis with hypocrite. Laufer (1996) refers to this kind of mistaken identification as “words you think you know.” For Hiromi, this mistaken identification could have been due to her not carefully reading the whole word. Instead she might have read just the first four letters and settled on the meaning of a word she knew. Mistaken identification of “words you think you know” is particularly 42 adve1rse to comprehension because learners might not even realize there is a problem and are led to a potentially different understanding than that intended from the author. Treatment Session 3 For the third treatment session, eight lexical items (four single words and four multiword units) were chosen to be pre-taught before a reading passage about monitoring and protecting fish populations. Even with the increased number of terms, Hiromi was able to correctly match words and definitions. For the generative activity, Hiromi was asked to decide her own categories and fit the lexical items into them as she chose. This was much more difficult than the previous tasks and led to a longer discussion after the activity. She made a category of words that are related to data, verbs, and nouns. Some issues arose when placing the “conduct research” term as it is indeed a verb, but thematically might be more suited for the data category. Another issue arose with placing “estimate”. Hiromi was familiar with the noun use of this word, but did not realize that it would be used as a verb in this passage. She later realized this in the following activity. It would have been more preferable for the categories to be more meaning based, but Hiromi was told to organize the words as she saw fit and was able to justify why she did so. Hiromi finished the sentence completion exercised without much difficulty and practiced the oral drill with the instructor. With the larger number of terms and sentences, the oral drill took a much longer amount of time than when it was just four terms. Hiromi was able to read the passage confidently again marking only four words that she did not understand the meaning of. She answered the comprehension questions correctly. Treatment Session 4 For the fourth treatment session, ten lexical items (five single words and five multiword units) were chosen to be pre-taught before a reading passage about archaeology. Hiromi displayed having a much greater difficulty in identifying the definitions of ten terms. Initially, she correctly matched six out of the ten terms with their definitions. After being directed to the mismatched terms, Hiromi was able to assign them all correctly on her second attempt. As in the third session, Hiromi was asked to decide her own categories and fit the lexical items into them as she chose. She was asked to arrange them in categories that have a meaningful relation. She then explained her reasoning in choosing the categories. Although it took longer than in the previous sessions, Hiromi chose meaningful categories and was able to express why she had placed the terms in their respective categories. The sentence completion activity in this session was overwhelming for Hiromi. She took over 10 minutes in deciding the correct placement of the terms in the sentences and only got four correct. She expressed feeling that there were too many ideas and terms to keep track of and that she had resorted to guessing. Even after being directed to the problematic sentences, it was not until the third or fourth attempt that Hiromi was able to correctly assign the terms to their corresponding sentences. By the time that she began her oral drill, it was apparent that her motivation and energy level was waning. Even still, she proceeded with the instructor to drill all ten sentences. With the increased number of terms and sentences, this became a rather time consuming task. Hiromi continued on to the reading exercise. She was able to read the passage within five minutes and answered two of the three comprehension questions correctly. She was not able to answer the inference based question correctly and admitted to resorting to guessing strategies instead of using what was written in the text. Immediately following the fourth and final treatment session, Hiromi was asked to respond to written questions about her experience in the treatment session. When asked what number of vocabulary items was best to pre-taught, she responded that between 4 and 6 words is the limit to memorize new words. 8-10 words are too many and the task becomes too difficult. When asked if it is better to learn single words or phrases, Hiromi responded that single words are easier to memorize and that phrases are more difficult because they are made up of single words that each have different meanings. She responded positively when asked if drilling the sentences out loud made it easier to notice the sentences in the reading. When asked which activities were most useful, she responded that matching and practicing the vocabulary used in sentences was most useful. When asked which activity was useless, she responded that categorizing words was useless because “everyone has a different idea of words, so the answer is just not one.” 43 Pretest and Posttest The results of the pretest indicated that Hiromi was proficient in the first 3,000 most frequent in English. This justified the use of reading passages with 90% of text within the 3K plus AWL level. The results of the posttest show that there was no significant gain in vocabulary over the treatment sessions. Table 2. Pretest and Posttest Scores of Nation’s (1990) Vocabulary Levels Test 2k-10k Level Pretest % Posttest % 2K (18 items) 89% 94% 3K (18 items) 100% 94% 5K (18 items) 61% 44% University word List (18 items) 50% 39% 10K (18 items) 6% 6% Treatment Session Survey: As noted above, at the end of each treatment session Hiromi completed a short survey answering questions about the tasks. In Table 3, her responses are marked as (+) for agree, (-) for disagree, and (=) for neutral. Table 3. Results of Treatment Session Survey (+) agree, (-) disagree, (=) neutral) Session Session Question 1 2 I felt I understood today’s vocabulary. (=) (=) Overall, I could understand the text. (=) (-) I noticed the sentences I practiced while reading the text. (+) (+) I felt there were too many new words to remember. (-) (-) Session 3 (-) (=) (+) (+) Session 4 (-) (-) (+) (+) Discussion In answering the first research question, the results of the study indicate that pre-teaching vocabulary is an effective method to increase reading comprehension of a text. By pre-teaching AWL lexical items that occurred in the text, Hiromi was able to read the text with greater comprehension. Though she was never too confident in her survey responses, Hiromi was able to correctly answer most of the comprehension questions following the reading passages. Grabe and Stoller (2011) stated that passages become more comprehensible when a reader has more vocabulary knowledge about the specific passage. They assert that increasing passage sight vocabulary, that is, words that can be recognized automatically, improves reading comprehension. Pre-teaching vocabulary from a text can be an effective way of temporarily boosting sight vocabulary knowledge. Hiromi was able to access the meaning of the words she encountered more quickly, or refer back to gloss that she had made in the pre-reading exercise. With a higher sight vocabulary, readers are able to allocate more attentional resources to other processes such as sentence parsing, constructing ideas, and monitoring comprehension (Pulido & Hambrick, 2008). Regarding the second research question of the upper limit of words that can be pre-taught before a reading exercise, there were two clear findings. First, according to the post-treatment survey, Hiromi was able to perform better with 4-6 target lexical terms. She had a more difficult time handling and keeping track of all the terms when given sets of 8 and 10 terms. Even though Grabe and Stoller (2011) said that increasing passage sight vocabulary improves reading comprehension, there is a limit in each individual learner as to how many new lexical items can be quickly learned retained for a reading passage. For Hiromi, the limit was six terms. The second consideration regarding how many words can be pre-taught relates to time on task. Teachers and students have limited time each session and activities need to be well planned with good pacing. When given 4 and 6 terms, Hiromi remained engaged and motivated in the tasks. She was able to complete them in a timely manner and move on to the reading passage. When provided 8 and 10 terms, Hiromi took a long time to complete each pre-teaching task and soon became tired and unmotivated. This caused poorer performance on the reading section and led to her use of guessing strategies on the comprehension questions. Therefore, this instruction procedure is better suited for pre-teaching 4-6 terms. The answer to the third research question, if orally drilling passages from the text would increase saliency when reading, was yes. Hiromi reported that she always noticed and remembered the pre-practiced passages, and that she felt more confident in understanding them. These sentences provided islands of understanding from which the reader was able to jump to. A second benefit in 44 practicing them was that it activated the readers mind into building an idea of what the following passage might be about. So, the reader is given a chance to guess what ideas the passage contains and recall any background knowledge they have. Pulido and Hambrick (2008) claimed that readers who engage higher order thinking processes such as incorporating background knowledge are more successful at inferencing and experiencing lexical gains. Limitations A few limitations of this study need to be addressed. First, as an individual case study, the results obtained should not be generalized to all L2 learners of English. Hiromi’s ability and preference for focusing on 4-6 lexical terms in a pre-reading task is characteristic to her own learning style and experience. Second, as Laufer et al. (2005) pointed out, fluency development is truly an important part of vocabulary acquisition. Being a short-term study focused on pre-reading tasks, fluency development was not incorporated. Fluency development training through techniques such as word cards would have better served the learner to more fully acquire the lexical items, and should be included in any L2 instruction. Conclusion This study produced three main findings; (a) pre-reading activities are an effective method to pre-teach vocabulary for increasing reading comprehension; (b) 4-6 lexical items were the ideal amount to be pre-taught to the learner in this study; (c) orally drilling passages selected from the reading containing target lexical items increased the saliency of the passages while reading. All of the findings provide support for the widely held belief that lexical knowledge is a key factor in reading comprehension. References Anderson, R. C., & Freebody, P. (1981). Vocabulary and knowledge. In J. T. Gutrie (Ed.), Comprehension and teaching: Research review (pp. 77-117). Newark, DE: International Reading Association. Beglar, D., & Hunt, A. (2005). Six principles for teaching foreign language vocabulary: A commentary on Laufer, Meara, and Nation’s “Ten Best Ideas.” The Language Teacher, 29(7), 7-10. Beglar, D., & Hunt, A. (2014). Pleasure reading and reading rate gains. Reading in a Foreign Language, 26, 29-48. Carver, R. (2000). The causes of high and low reading achievement. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Carver, R. (2003). The highly lawful relationships among pseudoword decoding, word identification, spelling, listening, and reading. Scientific Studies of Reading, 7, 127-154. Coxhead, A. (2000) A new academic word list. TESOL Quarterly, 34, 213-38. Day, R., & Bamford, J. (1998). Extensive reading in the second language classroom. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Day, R., & Bamford, J. (2002). Top ten principles for teaching extensive reading. Reading in a Foreign Language, 14(2), 136-141. Grabe, W., & Stoller, F. L. (2011). Teaching and researching reading. Harlow, England: Longman. Howatt, A. P. R. (1984). A history of English language teaching. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. Hu, M., & Nation, P. (2000). Unknown vocabulary density and reading comprehension. Reading in a Foreign Language, 13(1), 403-430. Kelly, L. G. (1969). Centuries of language teaching. Rowley, MA: Newbury House. Krashen, S., & Terrell, T. (1983). The natural approach: Language acquisition in the classroom. Oxford, England: Pergamon. Laufer, B. (1996). The lexical plight in second language reading. In J. Coady & T. Huckin (Eds.), Second language vocabulary acquisition, a rational for pedagogy (pp. 20-34). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Laufer, B., Meara, P., & Nation, P. (2005). Ten best ideas for vocabulary teaching. The Language Teacher, 29(7), 3-6. Lewis, M. (1993). The lexical approach: The state of ELT and a way forward. Hove, England: LanguageTeaching. Lightbown, P. M., & Spada, N. (2013). How languages are learned (4th ed.). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. Nation, I. S. P. (2001). Learning vocabulary in another language. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. 45 Nation, I. S. P. (2008). Teaching ESL/EFL reading and writing. New York, NY: Routledge. Nattinger, J. R., & DeCarrico, J. S. (1992). Lexical phrases and language teaching. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. Pulido, R., & Hambrick, D. Z. (2008) The virtuous circle: Modeling individual differences in L2 reading and vocabulary development. Reading in a Foreign Language, 20, 164-190. Richards, J. (1976). The role of vocabulary teaching. TESOL Quarterly,10(1), 77-89. Spargo, E. (1989). Timed readings: Fifty 400-word passages with questions for building reading speed (3rd ed.). Providence, RI: Jamestown. Sweet, H. (1964). The practical study of languages: A guide for teachers and learners. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. Stanovich, K. (2000). Progress in understanding reading: Scientific foundations and new frontiers. New York, NY: Guilford Press. Tan, A., & Nicholson, T. (1997). Flashcards revisited: Training poor readers to read words faster improves their comprehension of test. Journal of Educational Psychology, 89(2), 276-288. Ulijin, J. M., & Strother, J. B. (1990). The effect of syntactic simplification on reading EST texts as LI and L2. Journal of Research in Reading, 13, 38-54. Wittrock, M. C. (1991). Generative teaching of comprehension. The Elementary School Journal, 92(2), 169-184. Zimmerman, C. B. (1996). Historical trends in second language vocabulary instruction. In J. Coady & T. Huckin (Eds.), Second language vocabulary acquisition, a rational for pedagogy (pp. 5-19). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. 46 The Effects of Reading Comics on Reading Fluency Sari Ellilä The Dual-Coding Theory (DCT), invented by Paivio (1986), states that pictures (imagens) and verbal input as text, or logogens, when received as simultaneous input, will create an even stronger mental image than text only, and can improve the reader’s memorization and comprehension of the words. The positive effects of extensive reading on fluency has been proven in multiple studies (Taguchi, Takayasu-Maass, & Gorsuch, 2004; Nation, 2009; Grabe & Stoller, 2011). ER has also been found to improve multiple other reading-related skills, including comprehension, vocabulary development, writing skills, oral proficiency, and motivation to read. Comics have been looked down on as instructional material in classrooms; however, this is changing (Perez & Rodriguez, 2009). Instructors are beginning to notice the positive effects that comics and other visual media have on children’s reading and writing skills. Fenwick (1998) states that "(t)eachers who allow their use, often feel uneasy about it, anxiously keeping an eye on the classroom door and hoping no-one will come in to question the legitimacy of their decisions" (p. 142). However, Morrison, Bryan, and Chilcoat (2002) claim that; (w)e, on the other hand, possess no such timidity, believing that for children the important thing is not so much what they read, but that they read. While the use of comic books in school might be controversial, there is no doubt that the comic is a popular source of reading for students (p. 760). Some benefits of comics are that they have a variety of stories, and they can be related to popular films and dramas (such as Marvel, DC Comics, or the Walking Dead-series), which can motivate learners to read (Perez & Rodriguez, 2009). Comics have been found to be especially useful with boys’ literacy skills, as boys tend to be less motivated to read regular books (Kerneza & Abersek, 2014). However, one negative side to comics suggested by Perez and Rodriguez (2009), is that it is difficult to control the level of appropriate language and content in comics depending on the age of the readers. For this study, our learners will be 15 years and over, so they will not need to be limited too much, however, content of comics used will be checked to be age appropriate. In this study I investigate whether extensive reading of comics will have similar gains as have been proven with extensive reading of (often graded) readers, or regular books. There will be a control group that reads only graded readers, and the treatment group that only reads comics. The research questions for this study are: “Does reading comics enhance students’ reading fluency?” “Does reading comics enhance fluency skills more than reading regular books?” “Are the gains different for lower level and higher level learners?” “How do students perceive their own reading skill improvement after extended reading of comics?” The study will also see whether comprehension skills have improved, although the main focus is on other aspects of fluency: reading speed and word recognition. Literature Review Swain (1978) studied the effects of comic book reading on school grades. She conducted a survey of 169 students from grades four to twelve, in North Carolina, U.S.A. Around half of the participants were obtaining higher grades in school (an A or a B), and half lower grades (a D or an F). Swain found that most of the A-, or B-grade students read comic books. There were more higher-grade students who read comic books or comic strips than there were lower-grade students. The students who read comic books reported learning many things from them, including words, culture, various topics, and how to read and spell better. Swain (1978) also found that reading comics did not discourage the students from reading regular books. 91% out of the higher-grade students reported reading both comic and regular books. This number was 79% for the lower-grade students. Swain’s study suggests that comic books do not interfere with learning, and that most students do not lose interest in other types of books, even though they read comic books. The study shows that comic books can be a useful study tool as meaning-focused input. The students were reading in their L1, but they reported learning language, culture, history, jokes, and so on, from the comic books, which are aspects that would be important also for L2 learners to learn in their target language. Liu (2004) conducted a study on 107 ESL University students in the United States that tested whether reading text with comic strips would aid students’ reading comprehension. He also wanted to know, whether the difficulty level of the texts would affect results. Based on proficiency tests, he divided the 107 students into lower intermediate and higher intermediate level groups. The materials were two texts, one lower and one higher difficulty level, and one comic strip. The comic strip and the texts 47 contained the same main information. Both groups were divided into four sub treatment groups: T1, T2, T3, and T4. T1 was provided with the low-level text only, T2 with low-level text with the comic strip, T3 with the high-level text only, and T4 with the high-level text and the comic strip. They tested the students’ comprehension of the texts with written immediate recall protocols. The results showed improvement for the lower-level students with the comprehension of the more difficult texts when accompanied with the comic strip. No improvement was found for the higher-level students for either text only or text with the comic strip. Liu (2004) stated that his results support the mental model theory of Marcus, Cooper, and Sweller (1996), which states that seeing visuals lessens the cognitive load because when only seeing a text one needs to create the mental image in one’s head; this step is not required because it is automatic with visuals. Liu found that the higher-level learners did not improve their comprehension, while the lower level learners did, because the pictures in comic strips are often more compatible with lower level text than higher level text. When this type of incompatibility is present, the cognitive load of the reader is not reduced. This especially explains why there are no gains in reading a text with imagery that is too simple. Imagery is often not as complex as text is. Liu (2004) argues, that the higher-level students did not need to rely on the comic strips for comprehension, but because the lower level students had two sources of information for the higher-level texts, it helped them improve both their comprehension and replies on the immediate recall protocols. Liu (2004) found that the effect of the use of comic strips depends on different factors such as how well the students comprehend the text, how their comprehension is measured, and on personal processes used when reading to comprehend. The results did not support the universality aspect of DCT claimed by Sadoski and Paivio (2001), but showed that the proficiency level, and the level of difficulty of the text, mattered. Liu (2004) also found that the mental image created is stronger if the imagery’s complexity level matches with the complexity level of the text (the reason why there were no improvements for the higher-level group). When text and images are incompatible, text only is as good as text with images. The results of Liu’s (2004) study suggest that, comics where the images match the complexity level of the text should be chosen to guarantee improvement, which is what will be used for this study. Also, as images often fail to match complexity of text, lower level students should be used for the study, so that appropriate material can be chosen. Higher-level students’ texts might not result to improvements with the help of comic strips. Liu (2004) mentioned the processes that happen when students connect images to text; …the comic strip…might lead students to notice the text's linguistic input and thus enable them to comprehend the text through matching and mapping among factors such as word recognition, phonographemic features, syntax, intertextual perceptions, and back-ground knowledge (p. 236). Shalmani (2010) conducted a study to examine the effects on reading comprehension of reading together with textual glosses, pictorial glosses, and picto-textual glosses. The participants were 120 intermediate level EFL students studying TEFL in an Iranian University. They used online programs that could also control the time used on the tasks. It was a one-hour treatment administered soon after the pretest. The results showed that both the pictorial gloss, and the picto-textual group outperformed the textual gloss group, with the picto-textual group showing the best results of the three. Shalmani (2010) states that the results of her suggest that having a picto-textual gloss come up while reading will aid the learner as they will not have to search for words in their memory as long as they would with only text. This way working memory is left to be used for comprehension processes. Shalmani (2010) also states that her results match with the DCT. Shalmani’s (2010) study is relative to this study in the way that it further proves the DCT, the connection between visuals and text to aid comprehension and memory. However, this study uses glosses, and extensive comic- and regular book-reading differs from that. Students in this study will probably use slightly different processes, because no specific keywords will especially pop up as in glosses. In this study, students will more likely use the images as a guideline to understand the overall story and to guess words based on the image. Comics differ from glosses in the way that a lot more information can be included into the image, than just having one image presenting one object or concept. With comics, students will need to use slightly more of their working memory, as meanings of words will not be explicitly shown to them, but they will have to guess it from the image. Day (1982) stated that visuals will raise students’ curiosity towards the concepts in the text that they are trying to comprehend. He argues that such stimulation could make them more concentrated on the text and to aid them in memorizing and comprehending the information. 48 The Participants and the School The site for this study will be Kulosaari Secondary School in Helsinki, Finland. The school was in the top ten schools of the whole country in the year 2015-ranking. It is a school that has two fully English (international), one half-English half-Finnish, and one fully Finnish class on all levels from seventh to ninth grade in the lower secondary. The high school is mostly English at all levels; however, a few classes are offered in Finnish. The school has British, Canadian and Finnish English teachers. The participants will be chosen from the ninth grade half-Finnish, half-English class, and the high school first and second grades. These levels are considered appropriate for the study, because they are considered higher intermediate, and as Liu’s (2004) study suggests, the effects of image and text – technique might lose its benefits with text that is much more complex than the images. No native English speakers will be chosen for the study. All the students’ proficiency levels will be tested and they will be put into two different level-groups. The number of participants will depend on the number of students who volunteer, but the goal is to keep the number of regular book-readers and comic-readers as equal as possible. About 125 students will be asked whether they wish to take part in the study, so hopefully the number of participants will be close to a 100. There will be a regular book reading group and a comic-reading group for both proficiency levels. First, volunteers for the only reading-treatment will be asked for, because motivation might hinder results if the participants do not practice much reading for pleasure in their free time. The rest will be placed in the comic-reading group. The students’ English proficiency levels will be evaluated based on their previous semester’s test results. Another evaluation of proficiency will be made based on the pretests. Based on the usual proficiency level of the secondary school’s Grade 9 and high school, we will be expecting to have a lower intermediate-level group, and a higher intermediate-level group. Materials The challenge is finding appropriate comics that would fill the two requirements of ER: being the correct level in difficulty, and being enjoyable (Nation, 2009). Inserting parts of text from comics into the Lextutor website program will give the details on the difficulty of vocabulary. Vocabulary can also be measured with the Flesch-Kincaid program that comes with Word. I will test multiple comics from a variety of genres, and choose the ones that are suitable for intermediate level. Readers should understand around 98% of vocabulary to be able to benefit from the reading in terms of ER and fluency development (Nation, 2009), so quite easy comics and topics should be selected. Comic series available at libraries in Helsinki will be examined and an appropriate selection chosen. The students have easy access to these comics, as all students have library cards and are used to borrowing books from libraries. Because it is time consuming to check the difficulty level of many different comics, we will receive help from comic experts who will suggest comic series, and only those will be checked. The selection will include DC’s superhero comics as well as Japanese manga translated into English. Manga is rich in different genres, and often has series that are written for girls especially. As a popular comic form, manga is enjoyed by a lot of readers. By choosing comics that are at the top of popular comic rankings, it is highly possible that the reading will be enjoyed by the students. To ensure the appropriateness of the regular books, graded readers will be used. The higher intermediate level would be about a level five or six of most graded readers, and the lower intermediate-group around level four. This is only an estimation, but students will be encouraged to read a few pages to check that the books are an appropriate level for them, for extended reading purposes, before they begin reading the book properly. The online library “X-Reader” will be used, as well as the quizzes that the site provides. The students will have access to 500 graded readers on this site. There is a pre-, midterm-, and posttest. These are all similar tests, with a timed reading with comprehension questions. The reading will be easier for the lower-intermediate level and more difficult for the higher level. The midterm test will test whether possible improvement will be strongest in the beginning or the end part of the treatment. For each test, there will also be a separate exercise testing word recognition speed. In this exercise the students are given a time limit to find words in a text that are written above it and they need to underline the words. If they finish before the time ends, they need to mark their time on the paper. The students will be reminded that this is not a competition, but it is a research project, so they have no need to cheat on the marking of the timing. The students will also receive surveys about the experience. They will be asked about how they themselves perceived the results. This will be conducted before letting the students know their results on the other tests. 49 Treatment The students will be required to do a large amount of reading during their school year (both Fall and Spring semesters). There are different opinions on the number of words that readers should read before improvement in reading skills can happen, but some scholars say it should be at least 150,000 words. Others believe the number to be even higher, up to 200,000. In this study, the students will be required to read a graded reader every ten days. The number was chosen so that the students will keep their motivation in reading by not being rushed too much, but so that they will also read a sufficient amount. The treatment will be nine months long, with the treatment beginning in August, a week after the Fall semester begins, until two weeks before summer vacation in May. During this time, the students will be required to read a minimum of 27 books, which gives them ten days to finish one book. After finishing a book, the students need to take the quiz on X-Reader to provide evident that they have read the book. Students’ accounts on the website can be observed by instructors, telling them how much time was used on readings. This way the students’ reading rates can be controlled. The comics’ word count will be compared to the typical word count for a graded reader of the same level. By that information, the comic readers will have set times to finish each comic. It will be controlled so that the comic-readers will end up reading the same amount as the graded-reader readers. After finishing a comic, the students will take a quiz about the content of the comic to prove they had finished it. This will be similar to the quizzes on X-Reader. Possible Limitations One possible limitation is the language used in comics. It is more similar to spoken language than written language, and this might cause students to only improve in that style of language. However, the goal of the project is to see whether overall fluency improves. For extended reading, the main requirements, which include reading speed and word recognition (Nation, 2009), will be met even with the more spoken language-style text of comics. Reading is reading, and the vocabulary level of the comic books will be tested to be appropriate. Another difficulty this study might face is keeping the students motivated throughout the long treatment period. The enjoyment factor should eliminate this issue. However, even though teenagers might enjoy the reading, it is typical for that age to still have phases of strong motivation and phases where the motivation and interest is lost in reading in general, enjoyable or not. Even if the students are forced to read, the purpose of enjoyment in extended reading is lost. Prediction of Results I predict that the study will show improvement in reading skills in both groups, as it is a longitudinal study, and multiple studies have already proven extensive reading to be beneficial. Both groups will improve in reading speed, however, based on the Dual-Coding theory, I predict that word recognition skill will improve more for the comic-reading group. Comprehension will probably not improve more for the comic-reading group, because they will not have images in the final reading. The mental image is strong when there is an image related to the text, however, there is no proof of this translating to comprehension of reading regular texts. Based on Liu’s (2004) results, it might be possible that that the higher-level comic-reading group would have fewer gains than the lower-level comic-reading group. Based on that study as well, it is possible that in the higher group, there will be less difference in the regular book-reading group’s and comic-reading group’s results than in the lower-level groups’ results. Hopefully the study will motivate the students to keep reading after they finish their school year. The study should introduce a variety of stories to them, and broaden their view on literature. For the comic-readers, the hope is that they will become more fluent, and will transfer their interest in reading into regular books as well, as they will be able to read them with more ease. References Fenwick, G. (1998). The Beano-Dandy phenomenon. In J. Evans (Ed.), What's in the picture? (pp. 132-145). London, England: Paul Chapman. Grabe, W., & Stoller, F. (2011). Teaching and researching reading (2nd ed.). Harlow, England: Pearson Education. 50 Kerneza, M., & Abersek, M. (2014). Comics–A method that allows boys deeper experience of children’s literature. Revija za Elementarno Izobraževanje, 7(2), 125-149. Liu, J. (2004). Effects of comic strips on L2 learners' reading comprehension. TESOL Quarterly, 38(2), 225-243. Marcus, N., Cooper, M., & Sweller, J. (1996). Understanding instructions. Journal of Educational Psychology, 88, 49-63. Morrison, T., Bryan, G., & Chilcoat, G. (2002). Using student-generated comic books in the classroom: designing their own comic books can help students develop their writing, comprehension, and research skills. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 45(8), 758-767. Nation, I. S. P. (2009). Teaching ESL/EFL reading and writing. New York, NY: Routledge. Paivio, A. (1986). Mental representations: A dual coding approach. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Rodriguez, J., & Perez, M. (2009). Teaching visual literacy: Using comic books, graphic novels, anime, cartoons, and more to develop comprehension and thinking skills. International Journal of English Studies, 9(2), 171-174. Sadoski, M., & Paivio, A. (2001). Imagery and text: A dual coding theory of reading and writing. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Shalmani, H. (2010). Pictorial, textual, and picto-textual glosses in e-reading: A comparative study. English Language Teaching, 3(4), 195-203. Swain, E. H. (1978). Using comic books to teach reading and language arts. Journal of Reading, 22, 253-258. Taguchi, E., Takayasu-Maass, M., & Gorsuch, G. (2004). Developing reading fluency in EFL: How assisted repeated reading and extensive reading affect fluency development. Reading in a Foreign Language, 16(2), 70-96. 51 Extensive Reading for Adolescent Language Learners: A Review Adelia Falk A great deal of research into second language extensive reading (ER) has been conducted at institutions around the world. However, only a small proportion of these studies have focused on adolescent learners in secondary schools. In this review, several aspects of ER in secondary schools are discussed, including the core principles of ER, the effects of ER on reading rate and comprehension, the effects of ER on vocabulary and grammar acquisition, the effects of ER on writing, the use of strategies in ER, and student motivation to engage in ER. Studies that did not include junior high school- or high school-aged participants were not included in the review. Recommendations for future research are provided given the analysis of the reviews. Extensive Reading in Secondary Schools Research in extensive reading (ER) for L1 learners is well-established, and there is a large and expanding body of research regarding the effects of ER on second language acquisition. However, the majority of ER research for L2 learners has been focused on university students, and relatively few researchers have examined ER as a method of language learning in secondary schools. Only recently have there been enough empirical studies published that focus on ER in secondary schools to permit their inclusion in meta-analyses. Such analyses suggest that ER has different effects on language learning at different ages (Jeon & Day, 2015; Nakanishi, 2015). It is therefore necessary to continue to expand research into the effects of ER for language learners in secondary schools. The focus of individual studies of ER in secondary schools has been guided primarily by the interests of the researchers, rather than by any overarching theories. The studies have typically been tailored to particular schools, groups, or communities and their results are difficult to generalize. However, all of the researchers have reported positive associations between ER and some aspect of language learning, including improvements in reading rate (Iwahori, 2008; Lai, 1993; Tanaka & Stapleton, 2007), comprehension (Krashen, 2007; Lai, 1993; Nakanishi, 2015; Wan-a-rom, 2012), grammar (Song & Sardegna, 2014), writing (Hafiz & Tudor, 1990), and motivation (Asraf & Ahmad, 2003; de Burgh-Hirabe & Feryok, 2013; Nishino, 2007; Powell, 2005; Takase, 2007; Wan-a-rom, 2012), strategy use (de Burgh-Hirabe & Feryok, 2013; Nishino, 2007; Wan-a-rom, 2012), and vocabulary acquisition (Huckin & Coady, 1999; Nakanishi, 2015). The goals of ER programs range from modest and well-defined goals, such as improvement in reading rates (Tanaka & Stapleton, 2007), to ambitious and generalized goals, such as instilling good reading habits or a love of reading (Yamashita, 2015). In some contexts, ER might serve as the main source of L2 input (Asraf & Ahmad, 2003; Hafiz & Tudor, 1990; Wong, 2001). Core Principles of Extensive Reading Although ER does not have a single definition, it is generally agreed that it involves reading relatively large amounts of text at a relatively fast pace with a goal of general comprehension. Operational definitions of this concept in the literature have ranged from reading a set number of words in weekly assigned readings (e.g., Tanaka & Stapleton, 2007), to ‘as much as possible’ from student-selected texts (e.g., de Burgh-Hirabe & Feryok, 2013). Some authors have put forth core principles of extensive reading. One of the most frequently cited lists of core ER principles is that proposed by Day and Bamford (2002), although there have been more recent explorations of core ER concepts (Yamashita, 2015). Day and Bamford (2002) assert that ER materials should be easy, a variety of reading materials should be available, learners should choose their own reading materials, learners should read as much as possible, reading should be done for pleasure or to obtain information, reading is its own reward, reading should be relatively fast, reading should be individual and silent, teachers should guide student reading, and the teacher should serve as a role model for students. Most authors agree with Day and Bamford’s assertion that ER texts should be easy, and the primary measurement of reading ease is typically the percentage of known vocabulary words. Authors frequently suggest that a minimum of 95% of the words in ER text be known to the reader, and many have used a target of 98% known words, based on Hu and Nation’s recommendations for enabling vocabulary acquisition and language growth (Hu & Nation, 2000; Huckin & Coady, 1999). However, there is by no means a consensus regarding how strictly this principle should be observed. Nation (2009) 52 argued that selecting texts based on content and moving between levels is not overly problematic, provided that learners continue to engage in large amounts of reading. Researchers in ER motivation have argued that although success with easy texts can be motivating to some students, others prefer the sense of accomplishment they experience after reading challenging materials (de Burgh-Hirabe & Feryok, 2013). Similarly, most authors have argued that students should read as much as possible and that reading should be done for pleasure or to obtain information. However, in practice, these goals are not always easy to define or to meet. Determining the appropriate quantity of reading for ER programs has been largely tied to the relative importance placed on ER in a given curriculum. Some ER programs are purely voluntary, extracurricular ER programs and have allowed students to determine the amount of reading they do, and the amounts read by students in those programs has varied widely from 0 to 3 graded readers per week (de Burgh-Hirabe & Feryok, 2013; Nishino, 2007). In ER programs that are part of English curricula, targets have been set that range from no minimum requirement to 5 graded readers per week (Iwahori, 2008; Judge, 2011; Lai, 1993; Powell, 2005; Wan-a-rom, 2012). Reading for pleasure or for general comprehension is sometimes undermined by classroom atmosphere or pressure to perform a large number (or difficult) tasks associated with readings, and teachers must often be convinced of the value of ER (Asraf & Ahmad, 2003; Wong, 2001). The remaining core principles of ER suggested by Day and Bamford (2002) have received varying degrees of support, particularly student choice of reading material and reading as its own reward. There is evidence that student choice of reading material enhances motivation for reading (de Burgh-Hirabe & Feryok, 2013) and, among university students, can also improve reading comprehension (Lee, 2005). However, some teachers and researchers have advocated assigning readings to classes to facilitate class discussions and reading activities or to enable glossing of difficult texts (Asraf & Ahmad, 2003; Nishino, 2007; Tanaka & Stapleton, 2007). Several authors have explicitly or tacitly supported Day and Bamford’s suggestion that reading should be its own reward (e.g., Charumanee, 2014; Lai, 1993; Powell, 2005). However, others have argued that some level of accountability is desirable or necessary for maintaining motivation for ER (de Burgh-Hirabe & Feryok, 2013; Tanaka & Stapleton, 2007). Effects of Extensive Reading on Reading Rate and Comprehension Two of the most commonly reported effects of ER programs on reading in secondary students are an increase in reading rate and improvements in comprehension. In a short-term intensive ER program that met for about three hours per day, five days per week, for four weeks, middle school students in Hong Kong were able to modestly improve their reading comprehension (with one group achieving gains that exceeded those of control students over the course of an entire academic year) and most were able to significantly improve their reading rate (Lai, 1993). The authors of the study reported that the relative gains in reading rate and comprehension between ER groups might have differed due to differences between groups in teacher emphasis. In one group, teachers emphasized reading carefully to avoid making incorrect guesses about word meanings, whereas in another group, students were repeatedly encouraged to read quickly. In a seven-week ER program in which the reading goal was a total of 28 graded readers, Japanese high school students made modest improvements in English proficiency, as measured by C-tests, but significantly increased their reading rate by an average of 28.64 wpm (Iwahori, 2008). In a slightly longer, six-month study, Tanaka and Stapleton (2007) supplemented the regular high-school English curriculum with 38 custom-created texts. They further encouraged students to voluntarily read graded readers outside of class and about 18.6% of the students did so. In comparisons between control and experimental groups, they found that the reading rate of students in the experimental group exceeded that of those in the control group at the end of the experiment and those students who read graded readers outside of class significantly outperformed controls in comprehension tests. Sheu (2003) similarly found that Taiwanese junior high school students engaged in a 9-month ER program improved their reading comprehension and increased their reading rate to a greater degree than students in a control group. Three meta-analyses have also reported positive effects of ER on comprehension or language proficiency. Krashen (2007), Nakanishi (2015), and Jeon and Day (2015) conducted meta-analyses of ER effects that included studies of secondary students and adults. Krashen reported positive effect sizes for all included studies on either cloze or comprehension tests (or both). He further found that the number of titles available for each student (access) was predictive of comprehension improvement (Krashen, 2007). Nakanishi reported moderate effects of ER on language proficiency (including both tests of vocabulary and comprehension) when treatment groups were compared to controls, and large effects of ER on language proficiency when post- and pretests were compared. These effects were, however, different 53 between age groups, with the biggest effects observed for adults and university students, followed by high school students, and then junior high school students (Nakanishi, 2015). Jeon and Day (2015) similarly found small to moderate positive effects of ER on language proficiency (including reading rate, comprehension, and/or vocabulary) that varied with age: the strongest effects were found for adults and the weakest effects were found for adolescents. Effects of Extensive Reading on Vocabulary and Grammar In addition to improvements in reading rate and comprehension, some researchers have reported improvements in grammar during participation in ER programs. Few studies of ER effects on vocabulary were found (but see Sheu, 2003), but when attempting to explain observed effects, some authors suggested that there were likely unmeasured improvements in vocabulary due to ER (Hafiz & Tudor, 1990; Iwahori, 2008; Song & Sardegna, 2014; Wan-a-rom, 2012). In his comparison of ER using graded readers, ER using texts written for native English speaking children, and controls, Sheu (2003) found that Taiwanese junior high school students who engaged in ER not only improved reading rate and reading comprehension to a greater degree than controls, but they also improved their scores on grammar tests to a greater degree than controls. Those students who read graded readers also significantly improved their vocabulary relative to controls. Song and Sardegna (2014) specifically investigated the effects of ER on the ability of Korean junior high school students to correctly identify and correct problems with prepositions in sentences. After one semester, all students improved their ability to notice incorrect prepositions. However, the improvement in the ER group was much greater than that in the control group. Moreover, students in the ER group were also better able to correct preposition errors at the end of the study than they were at the beginning, but students in the control group were not. Song and Sardegna attributed these improvements to increased reading comprehension and vocabulary knowledge, student encounters with prepositions in context, an increased intuition for preposition use, and the use of output activities as part of the ER program. Effects of Extensive Reading on Writing and Strategy Use Only one study of the effects of ER on the writing of secondary students could be found. Hafiz and Tudor (1990) compared writing samples of high school students engaged in a 12-week ER program to those of students in a control group. Students in the ER group showed significant gains in fluency (number of words written), vocabulary base, and accuracy of expression. However, the syntactic complexity of sentences did not change, and lexical density decreased slightly. The control-group scores on each of these measures either remained unchanged or decreased slightly throughout the study. Studies of reading strategy use by secondary students engaged in extensive reading are also limited. However, Wan-a-rom (2012) reported that students increased their use of strategies as they read three graded readers and they particularly increased the frequency with which they guessed the meanings of words from context. In her 2.5-year longitudinal case study, Nishino (2007) reported that the two students she followed changed their reading strategies as they developed into increasingly independent readers. Initially, the students relied heavily on glosses, but came to use them less over the course of the study. Strategies for determining the meaning of unknown words also included word groupings, using background knowledge, guessing and refining guesses based on subsequent exposures, and using a dictionary. The relative frequency with which each participant used these strategies appeared to be affected by learning style. Motivation for Extensive Reading Perhaps surprisingly, a relatively large proportion of the investigations into ER in secondary school contexts have included inquiry into motivation for ER. The primary methods of assessing the factors the influence ER motivation are interviews and surveys. Extensive reading programs are often evaluated highly by students (Asraf & Ahmad, 2003; Charumanee, 2014; de Burgh-Hirabe & Feryok, 2013; Judge, 2011; Powell, 2005; Sheu, 2003; Tanaka & Stapleton, 2007; Wan-a-rom, 2012). During the course of some studies, there was an increasing number of ER program participants who indicated that reading in English is enjoyable or who sought out additional English texts either completely independently or with assistance from a teacher (Asraf & Ahmad, 2003; Powell, 2005; Tanaka & Stapleton, 2007; Wan-a-rom, 2012). Nishino (2007) and Powell (2005) reported that all, or nearly all, respectively, of their participants stated their intent to continue extensive reading on their own after participation in an ER program. de Burgh-Hirabe and Feryok (2013) noted that motivation is not a static state, but rather waxes and wanes in a dynamic fashion. Among the factors reported to increase motivation for ER are interesting materials, free choice of reading material (including both easy and challenging materials), some degree 54 of student accountability, success with texts, love of L1 literacy (although Takase (2007) found no connection between love of L1 literacy and L2 reading), view of reading as intrinsically valuable, parental involvement and family attitude to reading, positive peer attitudes to reading English, the pleasure of reading, sharing reading experiences with friends and classmates, and the belief that ER might help them to prepare for exams. Factors reported to negatively influence ER motivation include entrance exam pressure, a lack of suitable reading materials to select from, and extracurricular time pressures (Asraf & Ahmad, 2003; de Burgh-Hirabe & Feryok, 2013; Judge, 2011; Nishino, 2007; Powell, 2005; Takase, 2007). Discussion and Conclusion The definitions of ER and modes of ER delivery vary widely between studies. Research into the relative importance of various aspects of ER in the secondary school context is sorely needed. It is unknown, for example, whether the effectiveness of weekly 45-minute sessions (as used in Hong Kong (Wong, 2001)) differs from that of daily 10-minute sessions (as used by Tanaka & Stapleton, 2007). The minimal amount of text required for significant improvement in various reading skills is similarly unknown, as is the impact of the addition of social aspects of learning to ER programs. Despite the gaps in our knowledge about the effects of ER on language acquisition by secondary-school students, many benefits of ER have been demonstrated, particularly in reading rate, reading comprehension, and motivation to read English. Given these benefits, it is somewhat surprising that ER has not been widely adopted in school systems. As research continues into the effects and benefits of ER for secondary students, research is also needed into teacher and administrator attitudes toward ER. It is not clear whether there is active resistance to the inclusion of ER in secondary curricula, educators are simply unaware of the potential benefits of ER, or there are some other barriers to the formation of ER programs. Teacher attitude and class atmosphere, along with interesting and readable materials, can be crucial to the success of ER programs (Asraf & Ahmad, 2003; Wong, 2001). Teachers must therefore be convinced of the value of ER programs and be trained in how to successfully implement ER programs at their schools if such programs are to be successful. When contemplating the inclusion of ER in any curriculum, it is important to have reasonable expectations and goals for the program. There is considerable evidence to suggest that ER can improve attitudes toward reading in English, but the degree to which individual students experience such changes is likely to be highly variable. Reading rate and reading comprehension are the most likely areas of linguistic improvement in ER programs, particularly in short-term programs. Vocabulary is assumed by some authors to increase during ER, but this has not been sufficiently tested in the secondary-school context. Students might also improve their writing or grammar ability, but this is less likely without additional output activities. In fact, some authors have advocated integration of ER into task-based curricula (Green, 2005) or English for academic purposes curricula (Carrell & Carson, 1997). Although it has been suggested that intensive reading and ER complement one another, research into the ways in which these modes of reading instruction support one another in the secondary school context is lacking. In some contexts, ER (supplemented by intensive reading) might be the primary form of L2 input for students (Asraf & Ahmad, 2003; Hafiz & Tudor, 1990; Tanaka & Stapleton, 2007; Wong, 2001). However, there is almost no published research in which connections between ER and speaking or listening skills in secondary school contexts have been investigated. Although there can be a connection between these skills, it has not been established; therefore, it might be unreasonable for educators to expect ER to improve speaking or listening skills. References Asraf, R. M., & Ahmad, I. S. (2003). Promoting English language development and the reading habit among students in rural schools through the guided extensive reading program. Reading in a Foreign Language, 15(2). 83-102. Carrell, P. L., & Carson, J. G. (1997). Extensive and intensive reading in an EAP setting. English for Specific Purposes, 16(1), 47-60. Charumanee, N. (2014). Idea sharing: the use of Read-Share-Act to promote extensive reading. PASAA: Journal of Language Teaching and Learning in Thailand, 47, 183-198. Day, R., & Bamford, J. (2002). Top ten principles for teaching extensive reading. Reading in a Foreign Language, 14(2), 136-141. de Burgh-Hirabe, R., & Feryok, A. (2013). A model of motivation for extensive reading in Japanese as a foreign language. Reading in a Foreign Language, 25(1), 72-93. 55 Green, C. (2005). Integrating extensive reading in the task-based curriculum. ELT Journal, 59(4). 306-311. doi:doi:10.1093/elt/cci059 Hafiz, F. M., & Tudor, I. (1990). Graded readers as an input medium in L2 learning. System, 18(1), 31-42. Hu, M., & Nation, P. (2000). Unknown vocabulary density and reading comprehension. Reading in a Foreign Language, 13(1), 403-430. Huckin, T., & Coady, J. (1999). Incidental vocabulary acquisition in a second language: a review. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 21, 181-193. Iwahori, Y. (2008). Developing reading fluency: A study of extensive reading in EFL. Reading in a Foreign Language, 20(1), 70-91. Jeon, E. Y., & Day, R. R. (2015). The effectiveness of core ER principles. Reading in a Foreign Language, 27(2), 302-307. Judge, P. B. (2011). Driven to read: enthusiastic readers in a Japanese high school's extensive reading program. Reading in a Foreign Language, 23(2), 161-186. Krashen, S. (2007). Extensive reading in English as a foreign language by adolescents and young adults: a meta-analysis. International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching, 3(2), 23-39. Lai, F. K. (1993). The effect of a summer reading course on reading and writing skills. System, 21(1), 87-100. Lee, S.Y. (2005). Sustained silent reading using assigned reading: is comprehensible input enough? The International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching, 1(4), 10-14. Nakanishi, T. (2015). A meta-analysis of extensive reading research. TESOL Quarterly, 49(1), 6-37. doi:10.1002/tesq.157 Nation, I. S. P. (2009). Teaching ESL/EFL reading and writing (1st ed.). New York, NY: Routledge. Nishino, T. (2007). Beginning to read extensively: a case study with Mako and Fumi. Reading in a Foreign Language, 19(2), 76-105. Powell, S. (2005). Extensive reading and its role in Japanese high schools. The Reading Matrix, 5(2), 28-42. Sheu, S. P. H. (2003). Extensive reading with EFL learners at beginning level. TESL Reporter, 36(2), 8-26. Song, J., & Sardegna, V. G. (2014). EFL learners' incidental acquisition of English prepositions through enhanced extensive reading instruction. RELC Journal: A Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 45(1), 67-84. Takase, A. (2007). Japanese high school students' motivation for extensive L2 reading. Reading in a Foreign Language, 19(1), 1-18. Tanaka, H., & Stapleton, P. (2007). Increasing reading input in Japanese high school EFL classrooms: an empirical study exploring the efficacy of extensive reading. Reading Matrix: An International Online Journal, 7(1), 115-131. Wan-a-rom, U. (2012). The effects of control for ability level on EFL reading of graded readers. English Language Teaching, 5(1), 49-60. Wong, C. K. (2001). What we know after a decade of Hong Kong Extensive Reading Scheme. Retrieved from http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED458806 Yamashita, J. (2015). In search of the nature of extensive reading in L2: cognitive, affective, and pedagogical perspectives. Reading in a Foreign Language, 27(1), 168-181. 56 Grammar-Translation and Yakudoku in Japanese Secondary Schools Brian Dubin Having been an assistant language teacher (ALT) in public junior and senior high schools in Japan, I witnessed firsthand the overuse of and demotivation caused by the grammar-translation method and yakudoku. Students sit in a classroom repeating words or phrases that are taken out of context and have little to no meaning to them. The teacher provides systematic word-by-word translation of English texts into Japanese (Morita, 2014) as well as providing grammatical explanations in Japanese, while English is rarely used (Morita, 2010). It should come as no surprise that so many Japanese secondary school students cannot understand the importance of learning English. In the new Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) course of study guidelines for junior high schools, it states that the number of class hours will be increased from 105 to 140 per year (MEXT, 2008). Although this plan is eight years old, it is still in effect today. From their first year in junior high school until their final year in senior high school, students study English almost as much as they study their native language Japanese. Despite the intentions of MEXT to develop the population’s practical English communication abilities, teaching English using communicative approaches is uncommon in Japanese secondary schools (Nishino & Watanabe, 2008). However, the one thing Japanese learners understand is English grammar, sometimes better than native speakers. One of the primary reasons for this is because the grammar-translation method is one of two main methods used to teach English in Japan. The other is yakudoku, which has some similarities to grammar-translation but is different. This paper looks at the grammar-translation method and yakudoku, causes of demotivation that stem from these methods, washback from entrance exams and teacher beliefs regarding grammar-translation and yakudoku. This paper discusses if these processes tap into skills that learners need to improve. Finally, advice and pedagogical implications are given in regards to how to implement grammar-translation or yakudoku so that it benefits the learner’s understanding of the L2. The Grammar-Translation Method and Yakudoku The grammar-translation method has been and is still one of the most widely used methods of teaching English in secondary schools in Japan. According to Hawkins (2015), the grammar-translation method, which relies heavily on the L1, is the most commonly used form of instruction in Japan. Howatt (1984) gives a thorough explanation of how the grammar-translation method came to be: Grammar-translation is a method that was developed in nineteenth Century Europe through a collision of the older study of classical literary texts in higher education with the changing realities of a rapidly growing public secondary education movement for young people. Rather than focusing on longer classical literary texts learned through self-study, the grammar-translation method focused on grammar rules through explicit instruction and by using single written sentences to exemplify grammar structures thought to be essential for students to learn. The sentences we also used to provide opportunities for students to practice using the grammar structures in pedagogical, classroom based exercises (p. 132). Some characteristics of the grammar-translation method include: classes that are largely taught in the students’ L1, attention is given to lists of isolated vocabulary and grammar rules, reading is given exclusive focus with related grammatical analysis, translation exercises typically from the L2 to the L1 are performed and little or no attention is given to oral production or communication (Brown & Lee, 2015). Because of this, there is little opportunity for learners to use the L2 in a communicative way. In Japan, there is also yakudoku, which is likened to the grammar-translation method and can be considered a Japanese-style grammar-translation. Hino (1988) identifies a three-step process of yakudoku. First, the reader makes a word-by-word translation of the English text, then the translation is reorganized to match the Japanese grammar style and finally the translated words are written down to more closely match the Japanese grammatical style. There are a few differences between the two methods. In yakudoku, Japanese learners translate the text into Japanese so that they can understand it more easily. The texts are studied for their content after being translated into Japanese. There is a great deal of effort and attention is placed on decoding the text and understanding it at a word to sentence level in Japanese. Another difference is that yakudoku “lacks the structural focus of grammar-translation” (Law, 1995, p. 220) and is strictly lexical translation with little attention paid to 57 English grammar. Grammar translation is a direct translation of the foreign language and the main focus of the method is the mastery of the grammar rules (Gorsuch 1998), while yakudoku is a reflexive process in that “it’s effect is to turn the foreign language text precisely inside out; the focus of attention is only initially on codes of foreign language…most of the productive energy of the method is directed towards the recoded Japanese version” (Law, 1995, p. 216). Despite some differences there are similarities between the grammar-translation method and yakudoku. Gorsuch (1998) states four similarities between grammar-translation and yakudoku. Both methodologies are accompanied by entrance examinations that are administered to students that dictate what will happen in the students’ classes. Because of this, there is quite a strong washback effect on the way that English is taught because of the strong emphasis on testing. The third similarity is that there is a heavy focus on written text and oral communication/skills are an afterthought. This can be related to the strong washback effect that testing has on teaching in secondary schools, as there is no oral component to high school and university entrance exams. The fourth similarity is that in the majority of English classes taught, there is an inclination for teachers to use Japanese instead of English as the language used for classroom instruction (Gorsuch, 1998). She goes on to say that a prominent feature of yakudoku is that it is primarily text-based style of foreign language instruction and has some similarities to grammar-translation. As we have seen, although grammar-translation and yakudoku are similar, there are also differences between the methods. Problems with the Methods Nagy (2015) mentions that learners’ failure to handle communicative situations was largely due to shortcomings of the grammar-translation method even though learners mastered the grammar of the language. This sums up the biggest problem with the use of grammar-translation and yakudoku in Japanese secondary schools. In junior high school, learners can understand the grammar, do repetitive translation and read texts at around sentence level using bottom-up processing skills, which include the processing of texts in a linear, word by word or sentence by sentence approach. In high school, learners are using more top-down processes as they have had more exposure to grammar, vocabulary and have more opportunities to read. They use background knowledge, inferencing and executive control processes such as strategy use, reassessing and re-establishing goals and repair comprehension to assist their reading skills. Despite using these processes while reading and translating, little to no opportunity is presented for communication situations. This is one of the reasons that Japanese learners have difficulty communicating in the L2. When faced with communicating using the L2, more times than not, learners are unable to do so. Watanabe (1996) discusses how translation is a time-consuming activity and because of this, teachers do not have extra time to teach skills such as writing, listening, or speaking. He goes on to say that high school English classes revolve around grammar-translation as opposed to the development of other skills. Learners are receiving quite a large amount of input, but are not getting the chance to create output or focus on fluency development. Thus, students are demotivated because they are not making progress. This stems from a lack of fluency and output practice. Kikuchi (2009) did a study in which he conducted interviews as well as administered questionnaires to Japanese university students to find out what some of the demotivating factors were during their time in high school when studying English. The grammar-translation method was one of many demotivating factors. Students said that they did not get an opportunity to speak English, the class was entirely about translating, teachers attempted to have students use all of the English grammar correctly and they felt that the lessons were not practical with a heavy emphasis on grammar. Students also said that because the class was entirely devoted to translating, they could not take advantage of language lab facilities that were available in their schools. Learners are not able to engage communicatively with the language, focus on fluency and output and are not making progress with the language making it a demotivational method. This is not just because it focuses on grammar, it is because it only focuses on grammar and does not support language acquisition. Furthermore, Kikuchi (2009) mentions that many factors related to demotivation are connected with the old-style teacher-fronted approach. The grammar-translation method and yakudoku are not beneficial for learners as stand-alone methods, and learners express dissatisfaction when being taught using these methods. Yet, these methods are still common ways of teaching English as a foreign language in Japan. Entrance Exams and Teacher Beliefs One of the main reasons for the strong emphasis in using grammar-translation and yakudoku stems from both high school and university entrance exams. In the same questionnaire and interview sessions 58 Kikuchi (2009) looks at learner’s views on how entrance exams and testing affected their high school English classes. Students felt that high school classes were just about entrance exams and were not interesting because there was not a strong source of motivation. Furthermore, they went on to say that the test questions were identical to the ones in the textbook and that the test only required rote memorization. Students also said that the focus was only on grammar and vocabulary and there was no opportunity to do anything else, as there is no oral communication part of entrance exams. Ultimately, they were dissatisfied with the fact that the sole purpose of their high school English classes was to prepare them for the entrance exams. This has to do with how the teachers are supposed to teach English in order to help learners take entrance exams in junior and senior high school. Nishino and Watanabe (2008) gave various reasons as to why even though MEXT has attempted to improve Japanese learner’s communication abilities, communicative approaches in secondary school classrooms are not widespread. The first reason is most English teachers did not major in English and received little training in communicative approaches to teaching English and they had little time or opportunity to learn about communicative activities. Next, there is a low English proficiency of Japanese English teachers. Third, many Japanese English teachers perceive their speaking skills as weak and that they could face ridicule if they make mistakes in front of their students. Finally, because of the long-standing tradition of Japanese English teachers who feel that “detailed grammatical knowledge and intensive reading skills are crucial for Japanese secondary school learners” (Nishino & Watanabe, 2008, p. 134). When Gorsuch (1998) reported her study of two high school English classrooms, she interviewed the teachers afterwards and asked them why they relied so heavily on translation and looked at their beliefs in relation to their teaching practices. One teacher expressed that it made it easier to learn a new language as it removed the need for lengthy explanations of the new language features. The teacher also said that he believed that translation helped the students prepare better for entrance exams. Another teacher said that using the translation method allowed teachers to easily determine which leaners understood the text by the quality of their translations. Both classes were mostly teacher-centered, Japanese was predominantly used, and the students did not have many opportunities to ask questions. Despite this, teachers are under pressure and are forced to give priority to teaching English through grammar-translation to meet the demands of various university entrance exams (Watanabe, 1996). Because of pressure from university entrance exams, the teachers become handicapped as to what they can teach. They might want to teach their students other skills in English, however they do not have the time to do this and they believe that this is the best way for their students to pass the entrance exams, by rote learning of English grammar and vocabulary. Integrating Grammar-Translation into Communicative Language Classes Kim (2010) reported a study in Korea in which she used the grammar-translation method in a reflective and collaborative environment. Students did a collaborative exercise in which one student took their partners writing and translated it directly into Korean. Each sentence had to be translated word for word and nothing was added to or taken away from the text and remained as is. Then, the translated text was returned to the original writer to be read. Once the reading of the translation was finished, the students were asked to respond to the translated version. The students were also asked to write their responses to their partner’s writing by asking questions that checked to see if their partners writing was clear as well as what they liked most in the paper. The last task for the students was to see if there were areas that needed improvement and to check their partner’s grammar in the writing (Kim, 2010). The purpose of this series of questions was to help the students realize and understand that writing is a communicative undertaking (Kim, 2010). This activity ended up being quite helpful for the students because it helped them to look at their writing more objectively, which they were not doing without the aid of their L1. The students were able to work with a partner, fix grammatical mistakes in their writing as well as improve their grammar through peer-editing and feedback. Another idea was suggested by Katatani (2004) in which teachers hand out a Japanese translation of the text that will be read at the beginning of class. By doing this, the teacher will not take up the majority of the class time doing grammar-translation. This would then allow time for more communicative activities. My co-worker and I have made a similar handout at our school. We give the handout with the vocabulary for a unit at the start of the unit, and the students are then to translate it for homework or on their own time. We have not handed out Japanese translations, however this would be useful for larger classes, as it would free up time and let the students focus more on the communicative aspect of the language. 59 Scheffler (2013) reported a study in which students worked in pairs on four sets of disconnected sentences and translated them from Polish to English, each of which dealt with tense and aspect. During the activity, the students used their L1 to discuss grammatical and lexical issues. The comments that the students made about the activity indicated that they found such a collaborative translation activity beneficial. Some of the students said that it was easier for them to learn the grammar by talking about it with a partner as opposed to reading it. Students were also happy that they could practice speaking while practicing grammar simultaneously. Students also mentioned that being able to talk about grammar was more useful for them than writing sentences. It is clear that the students enjoyed working together to figure out the grammatical problems in the L2. This activity is a practical activity that combines grammar-translation, task-based activities as well as consciousness-raising. The functional-translation method is a method introduced by Weschler (1997). This method emphasizes helping students to convey and understand the meaning of ideas that are the most useful to them. According to Weschler, it is a combination of the best parts of traditional grammar-translation and the best parts of communicative language teaching. There are four key areas of the functional-translation method: (a) the goal of the method, (b) the type of language being translated, (c) the materials used to apply the method and (d) the classroom procedures. The goal is for the students to learn English that they want to learn efficiently and in an enjoyable manner. The type of language used in the syllabus will be based on the needs of the students and be relevant to their needs. The materials will be created specifically for each task. Weschler mentioned that communicative techniques and activities need to be used in the classroom and should be the focus of the classes, not teacher-centered lectures. This is a useful way to combine parts of grammar-translation and communicative language teaching into one class. Although this was written almost 20 years ago, this type of teaching has become more common amongst teachers, especially in English classrooms where there is no Japanese teacher of English (JTE). However, in regular English classes taught by a JTE, this method would likely not be used as the teachers are focusing on entrance examinations in which grammar and vocabulary are the primary concerns. Conclusion Although grammar-translation and yakudoku tend to be repetitive and non-communicative methods of teaching English, there are ways in which teachers can incorporate them into task-based and communicative teaching. Grammar-translation and yakudoku can be beneficial and easy to integrate into communicative tasks in which students can work together or as a class, to work out grammatical problems or learn certain grammar (Weschler, 1997; Kim, 2011; Scheffler, 2013). These adaptations, as well as the idea by Katatani (2004) to give learners a handout with the grammar already on it, are ways in which grammar-translation and yakudoku can be incorporated into class without dominating the class. Fotos (2005) mentioned that there are ways to use an eclectic combination of activities with grammar, vocabulary and translation activities that can be retained while doing communicative activities. These combinations of activities contain ample uses of target L2 structures and vocabulary, which allows exposure to target structures and provides opportunities for negotiated output in the target language. When considering this, there can be short activities in which the students practice the grammar in a communicative way, practice reading by having sustained silent reading (SSR) or let students read graded readers so that they can continue improving their reading skills outside of class. As we have seen, there are many alternatives to grammar-translation and yakudoku that benefit learners more than listening and repetitive translation. Even teachers that are preparing students for entrance exams can take 20 minutes out a lesson and let the students use the L2 in a more communicative way. This allows students to use the language they have learned to produce meaning-focused output. This alleviates students’ demotivation and boredom and they will undoubtedly get more out of what they are studying if they can put it to practical use. References Brown, H. D., & Lee, H. (2015). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy (4th ed.). White Plains, NY: Pearson Education. Fotos, S. (2005). Traditional and grammar translation methods for second language teaching. In E. Hinkel (Ed.), Handbook of research in second language teaching and learning (pp. 653-670). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Gorsuch, G. J. (1998). Yakudoku EFL instruction in two Japanese high school classrooms: An exploratory study. JALT Journal, 20(1), 6-32. 60 Hawkins, S. J. (2015). Guilt, missed opportunities, and false role models: A look at perceptions and use of the first language in English teaching in Japan. JALT Journal, 37(1), 29-42. Hino, N. (1988). Yakudoku: Japan’s dominant tradition in foreign language learning. JALT Journal, 10(1 & 2), 45-55. Howatt, A.P.R. (1984). A history of English language teaching. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. Katatani, K. (2004). Wakayu sakiwatashi jugyo no kokoromi [A trail of handing out Japanese translation first in English class]. Tokyo, Japan: Sanseido. Kikuchi, K. (2009). Listening to our learners' voices: What demotivates Japanese high school students? Language Teaching Research, 13(4), 453-471. Kim, E. (2011). Using translation exercises in the communicative EFL writing classroom. ELT Journal, 65(2), 154-160. Law, G. (1995). Ideologies of English language education in Japan. JALT Journal, 17(2), 213-244. MEXT. (2008). Chugakkou gakushu shidou yoryo kaisetsu gaikokugo hen [Explanatory comment for the new study of course guideline for foreign languages in junior high schools]. Retrieved from http://www.mext.go.jp/component/a_menu/education/micro_detail/__icsFiles/afieldfile/2011/01/ 05/1234912_010_1.pdf. Morita, L. (2010). The sociolinguistic context of English language education in Japan and Singapore. International Journal on Multicultural Societies. Retrieved from http://www.japanesestudies.org.uk/discussionpapers/2010/Morita.html. Morita, L. (2014). English, language shift and values shift in Japan and Singapore. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 13(4), 508-527. Nagy, I. K. (2015). Translation in ESL classes. Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Philologica, 7(3), 87-107. Nishino, T., & Watanabe, M. (2008). Communication-oriented policies versus classroom realities in Japan. TESOL Quarterly, 42(1), 133-138. Scheffler, P. (2013). Learners' perceptions of grammar-translation as consciousness raising. Language Awareness, 22(3), 255-269. Watanabe, Y. (1996). Does grammar translation come from the entrance examination? preliminary findings from classroom-based research. Language Testing, 13(3), 318-333. Weschler, R. (1997). Uses of Japanese in the English classroom: Introducing the functional-translation method. Kyoritsu Women's University Department of International Studies Journal, 12, 87-110. 61 Options for Preserving an Extensive Reading Program at a Changing Secondary Institution Lydia Eberly Overview I am fortunate to work at a secondary school that has a well-established extensive reading program. However, upcoming curriculum changes have made it impossible to continue the ER program in its current form. In this paper, I describe the existing curriculum and anticipated changes, discuss the merits of ER that make it worth continuing, and explore some of the options for how the ER program could be implemented in the future. The Current Situation I teach at a private girls' secondary school in Japan that combines junior and senior high school. Currently, students are divided into three courses of study: The Super Science (SS) course, the Super English (SE) course, and a more generalized course. However, beginning with next year's incoming seventh graders, a number of major changes are being made to the school's entire curriculum. In an effort to reduce the achievement gap between the students in the general course and those in the specialized courses, the three-course system is being restructured so that there will be only two courses, one emphasizing science and one focusing on the humanities. The latter, called the Global course, is intended to incorporate many of the features of the former SE course. One of the highlights of the Super English course has been the extensive reading program. Every morning, before homeroom and the beginning of regular classes, there is a ten-minute period of time that is meant for ER. All of the students in the school are supposed to read during this time. Each of the SE classrooms is equipped with hundreds of English-language books, including both graded readers and unmodified texts for young native readers. Students choose books freely, and are encouraged to select books they find interesting and can read easily. If a book is too difficult or boring, they should put it back and find another. They are explicitly told not to use a dictionary, and that they should skip over any unfamiliar words. In this way, the ER program closely follows Day and Bamford's (2002) ten principles for extensive reading. The students record their progress in an "Extensive Reading Logbook," and over the six-year curriculum some students have been able to read more than one million words. Unfortunately, the ER program is not continuing in its current form. The reformed curriculum includes an increased number of class hours each week, and in order to compensate for this, the morning ER time is to be eliminated. While the administration and English faculty alike have expressed a willingness to continue the ER program, there has yet to be much detailed discussion about how it will be implemented in the future. A number of questions remain to be answered. The Benefits of Extensive Reading Before discussing how the ER program should be preserved, the first question to address is if ER is a worthwhile endeavor. A growing body of research indicates that the answer to this question is a resounding yes. Extensive reading is known to have a positive effect on vocabulary acquisition. According to Day and Bamford's (2002) principles, learners should be reading easy texts in which almost all of the vocabulary is familiar to them. If the learners understand 95% of the language used, they can understand the meaning of unknown words from context (Nation, 2013). However, beyond acquiring new vocabulary, a more important benefit of extensive reading might be the opportunity to improve existing vocabulary knowledge. Through ER, learners can encounter a word many more times than they would through intensive reading alone. Each encounter improves their grasp of vocabulary that they have seen before, enriching their knowledge about the words' meaning and usage and increasing the fluency with which that knowledge is retrieved. Fluency development is a critical component of second language acquisition that is often neglected in the classroom (Nation, 2009). Nation suggested that a fluency development activity should be meaning-focused, involve language that is almost entirely familiar to the learner, and incorporate some pressure to perform at a high rate. ER meets all of these criteria. Through an ER program, learners can develop their reading fluency and improve the rate at which they read. Numerous empirical studies (e.g., Beglar, Hunt, & Kite, 2012; Iwahori, 2008) have demonstrated this. 62 In addition to increased reading fluency, ER can also lead to improved reading comprehension. Reading is a complex cognitive process that can place an enormous burden on working memory (Grabe & Stoller, 2011). If information is not processed quickly enough, it fades from memory, interfering with comprehension. Thus, fluent reading is crucial for reading comprehension. But the benefits of ER are not only limited to reading. Experiments have shown that ER leads to improvement in a range of language uses and areas of language knowledge, increasing overall proficiency (Nation, 2013). Not only is ER important for language acquisition, but it also has affective benefits as well. Extensive reading is also referred to as "pleasure reading." An ER program should emphasize the enjoyment of reading (Day & Bamford, 2002), and making learning enjoyable is an important factor in maintaining learner motivation (Dörnyei, 2001). Intensive reading that focuses on difficult texts can be tiring and discouraging for learners. Over time, this can erode their self-confidence and decrease their motivation for learning. Reading easy, enjoyable texts can help restore that motivation. Takase (2007) writes that ER "may help many students regain the self-confidence and interest in English that they possessed when they first began studying" (p. 13). In summary, ER has been shown to have significant positive effects on vocabulary acquisition, reading fluency and comprehension, general language proficiency, and language-learning motivation. This suggests that the ER program at my school is worth saving. How, then, can the ER program be implemented in the future? Options for Preserving Extensive Reading Option 1: Encouraging Voluntary Extensive Reading If there is to be no more time provided for the sole purpose of extensive reading, one option is to encourage students to read voluntarily on their own time. One member of the English department has suggested stocking an unused classroom with a supply of books and converting it into an Extensive Reading Room, which would be open to students during designated hours. For students who might wish to bring books home, a collection of graded readers and English children's books is already available in the school library. Promoting voluntary reading is an option that can result in significant benefits for the students who choose to participate, judging from the success of the graded reader group in Tanaka and Stapleton's (2007) study. While most of the students in the experimental group read only assigned simplified texts created by one of the study's authors, learners who felt confident in their ability to read those texts were encouraged to read graded readers. Eighteen students in the treatment group, or 18.6%, chose to do so. The results showed that the students in this group demonstrated significant improvements in reading comprehension and reading speed when compared to a control group that did not do any ER. While the graded reader group's results are encouraging, the low number of participants in the group is worrying. Takase (2007) found that the two most influential factors in high school students' motivation for ER were their intrinsic motivation for L1 reading and their intrinsic motivation for L2 reading. When students do not possess such self-motivated interest in reading, it might be difficult to persuade them to spend time on ER. Robb (2002) pointed out that "in institutionalized settings in many parts of Asia, where the priorities of the students favor extra-curricular activities . . . over learning, simple encouragement will not be effective with a large number, and perhaps the majority, of one's students" (p. 146). This presents a conflict with one of Day and Bamford's (2002) ten principles for ER: that "reading is its own reward" (p. 138). The theory behind this principle is that learners should enjoy L2 reading in the same way that they enjoy reading in their native language. It should be a complete experience, not merely a means to some other end. Yet Robb (2002) stated that students are unlikely to read unless there is some external mechanism to hold them accountable. Jeon and Day (2015) suggested that the pressures of the examination system can have an effect on secondary student's motivation. While they might be able to cognitively benefit from ER, they might not be motivated to participate in it when it doesn't have a direct impact on their grades. Thus, while in an ideal world, learners would participate in ER willingly simply for the pleasure of reading, the reality is that many students will require some form of external motivation. This supports Jeon and Day's conclusion that "adopting ER in the form of an extracurricular activity . . . could function to trigger ER but making ER a part of the curriculum is necessary to create ongoing motivation for students" (p. 306). Thus, creating an Extensive Reading Room and encouraging students to use it of their own accord might be effective for a minority of students who have the time and willingness to engage in ER on their own, but it is unlikely to result in significant benefits for the majority of students. Anecdotal 63 evidence for this can be found in the fact that even though ER materials are currently available in the school library, they are used only rarely, and by a small number of students. Encouraging voluntary participation is likely to be a relatively easy option to implement, but an option that integrates ER into the curriculum is more likely to be successful. Option 2: Requiring Extensive Reading Outside of Class If students are likely to benefit from engaging in ER on their own, but are unlikely to do so voluntarily, a simple solution is to make ER mandatory. Assigning ER as homework gives students external motivation for reading: they must do it, or their grades suffer. While this would be a violation of the principle that reading should be for pleasure, it can be an effective compromise that encourages maximum participation in the ER program. Iwahori's (2008) study of ER in a Japanese high school employed such a method. The students were assigned to read graded readers as homework over a seven-week period. As additional motivation, they were given a goal: to read 28 books over the seven weeks. According to the author, this was a "challenging, but feasible number for the students to achieve. Therefore, the number was determined with the hope that the students would feel more confident in themselves and in their reading abilities after achieving success" (p. 77). Setting specific goals that are challenging yet achievable can be a valuable tool for motivating learners (Dörnyei, 2001). Attaining such a goal can give learners a sense of accomplishment, enhancing their sense of self-efficacy and making them more willing to risk attempting further challenges. In this way, ER as a homework assignment can enhance the students' internal motivation in addition to providing external motivation. Before and after the seven-week study period, Iwahori (2008) measured the participants' performance in reading rate and general language proficiency. Statistically significant improvements were seen in both. While this study does have some limitations (such as a relatively small sample size, a short treatment period, and the lack of a control group), it does show that ER as homework can have a positive effect on learners' reading fluency and general English proficiency. One issue that arises when students are required to read outside of class is that of accountability. In order to verify the amount of reading completed, participants in Iwahori's (2008) study were asked to complete a simple book report, consisting of the title of the book, a rating of how well they liked it, and a brief comment in Japanese or English. This is similar to the information my students currently keep track of in their extensive reading logbooks. These simple forms of self-reporting are easy for students to complete and for teachers to monitor. However, without being required to add original information that directly responds to the text, students can easily exaggerate their reading achievements (Robb, 2002). Another option for verifying reading achievement is to require students to answer comprehension questions about the books they have read. Unfortunately, this method poses significant logistical challenges when teachers must monitor a large number of students reading a wide selection of books. Online extensive reading programs such as xreading.com can provide teachers with a way to monitor many learners at once, but require a certain level of technological and financial resources. Another problem with teachers being unable to directly monitor students' reading at home is that it makes it more difficult for teachers to provide learners with necessary support. Tanaka and Stapleton (2007) found that commercial graded readers were too difficult for many of the participants in their study. In response to this problem, the instructor created custom materials which were distributed to the students, and spent the first five to ten minutes of class practicing oral reading of the materials so as to help improve the learners' phonological awareness. This approach limits the students' ability to choose their own reading materials, violating another of Day and Bamford's (2002) principles, but does provide some much-needed scaffolding for learners who struggle on their own. In summary, requiring ER outside of class can be motivating for students and can lead to fluency development and increased language proficiency, but makes it difficult for teachers to monitor student progress and provide support when needed. An easier way for teachers to keep an eye on learners' progress might be to allocate time in class for extensive reading. Option 3: Requiring Extensive Reading in Class Having some time in each class period set aside for ER would most closely approximate the current ER program, in which there is a designated ten-minute ER period every morning. In all grades and all courses, students will have at least five 50-minute English classes each week. Taking the first or last ten minutes of a few periods each week could be a way to maintain the benefits of extensive reading afforded by the current curriculum. 64 Fujita and Noro's (2009) study of Japanese high school students used a procedure that could be used as a model. Once a week, a collection of graded readers was brought to the classroom, and the participants selected books and read for the first ten minutes of the class period. Although ten minutes per week stretches the definition of "extensive," the results were that students encountered a much larger quantity of text than they would have otherwise. The average total number of words read by the participants was 2517 words, which was equivalent to five or six lessons in their regular textbook. The more proficient readers were able to read 1000 words, or an entire simple text, in one sitting. The results of the posttest and student questionnaires demonstrated that even a treatment as short as this can be an effective method for increasing students' reading speed and motivation, although there was no demonstrated increase in reading comprehension. The lack of improvement in reading comprehension is likely attributable to the short length of the treatment. One of the findings of Nakanishi's (2015) meta-analysis of ER research was that a longer length of instruction period is better for improving students' English proficiency. Grabe (2009) wrote that "there is now considerable evidence from many sources to demonstrate that reading extensively, when done consistently over a long period of time, leads to better reading comprehension as well as improved abilities in several other language areas" (p. 328). Macalister (2015) suggested that a new expansion of the core principles of extensive reading might be to have a regularly scheduled period of time for it. Within a six-year secondary institution, the most effective way to implement an ER program consistently and over a long period of time might be to integrate ER into regular English lesson throughout the students' entire six-year career. The main obstacle to implementing such a program is likely to be administrators and the teachers themselves. Nakanishi (2015) pointed out that junior and senior high schools are part of a compulsory education system in which teachers much usually follow designated textbooks and syllabuses. In order to prepare students for exams, teachers are likely to feel pressured to cover the entire assigned textbook within the school year. In this situation, they might be reluctant to relinquish even a small part of their class time to ER activities. Wiggins and McTighe (2006) criticized the coverage approach for subjecting students to a barrage of information without allowing them to come to meaningful understanding of the significance of what they are learning. The coverage approach to language teaching leads to students spending hours on grammar exercises without developing any useable skills. A balanced curriculum should include opportunities for a variety of different approaches to learning, including extensive reading. Conclusion Of the three options for continuing the extensive reading program discussed in this paper, I would most strongly advocate for the third. Implementing ER in class is the most effective way to ensure that the majority of the students are reading consistently, with monitoring and support available. However, the most important consideration is that the extensive reading program is worth continuing, regardless of its exact form. The benefits of extensive reading for reading fluency, comprehension, and motivation have been well documented. At a time when these benefits are becoming increasingly well-known and ER programs are being implemented at more and more institutions, to eliminate an established ER program would be extremely shortsighted. The key to the successful implementation of an ER program is the enthusiastic support of the teachers who are in charge of it. "Students who are led by more skillful and enthusiastic teachers might be better guided and be more motivated than students whose teachers are less skillful, unmotivated, or reluctant" (Jeon & Day, 2015, p. 306). Teachers need to be educated about the effectiveness of ER and how they can guide their students to become successful independent readers. Administrators need to be informed of the effectiveness of ER as well, and also of the fact that it takes time to see results. The benefits of reading simple books for fun might not be readily apparent to those who are used to traditional teaching methods. But as time goes on, the evidence demonstrates over and over again that ER is one of the most valuable uses of learners’ and teachers' time and effort. Even if it cannot continue in its current form, the extensive reading program at my school is well worth preserving. References Beglar, D., Hunt, A., & Kite, Y. (2012). The effect of pleasure reading on Japanese EFL learners’ reading rates. Language Learning, 62, 665-703. Day, R. R., & Bamford, J. (2002). Top ten principles for teaching extensive reading. Reading in a Foreign Language, 14, 136-141. 65 Dörnyei, Z. (2001). Motivational strategies in the language classroom. Tokyo, Japan: Cambridge University Press. Fujita, K., & Noro, T. (2009). The effects of 10-minute extensive reading on the reading speed, comprehension and motivation of Japanese high school EFL learners. Annual Review of English Language Education in Japan, 20, 21-30. Grabe, W. (2009). Reading in a second language: Moving from theory to practice. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Grabe, W., & Stoller, F. L. (2011). Teaching and researching reading (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge. Iwahori, Y. (2008). Developing reading fluency: A study of extensive reading in EFL. Reading in a Foreign Language, 20, 70-91. Jeon, E.Y., & Day, R. R. (2015). The effectiveness of core ER principles. Reading in a Foreign Language, 27(2), 302-307. Macalister, J. (2015). Guidelines or commandments? Reconsidering core principles in extensive reading. Reading in a Foreign Language, 27(1), 122-128. Nakanishi, T. (2015). A Meta-Analysis of Extensive Reading Research. TESOL Quarterly, 49(1), 6-37. Nation, I. S. P. (2009). Teaching ESL/EFL reading and writing. New York, NY: Routledge. Nation, I. S. P. (2013). Learning vocabulary in another language (2nd ed.). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Robb, T. (2002). Extensive reading in an Asian context–An alternative view. Reading in a Foreign Language, 14, 146-147. Takase, A. (2007). Japanese high school students’ motivation for extensive L2 reading. Reading in a Foreign Language, 19, 1-18. Tanaka, H., & Stapleton, P. (2007). Increasing reading input in Japanese high school EFL classrooms: An empirical study exploring the efficacy of extensive reading. The Reading Matrix, 7, 115-131. Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J (2006). Understanding by design (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. 66 A Proposal for Introducing Extensive Reading in English Classes at JCMU Using Xreading Samuel Sorenson Extensive reading has experienced increased popularity over recent years as an indispensable way of exposing EFL learners to a large amount of comprehensible input. ER has seen much of its popularity in input-poor locations such as Japan, as it serves to expose students to a large amount of input that they would not be exposed to otherwise (Rao & Babu, 2016). Yamashita (2015) has noted that most ER research has been done in foreign language contexts such as Japan because people in such contexts are aware of this lack of L2 input and see ER as a way of addressing this problem. Additionally, Yamashita has argued that another reason for ER’s popularity in Japan is due to its ability to motivate students by creating a need to use the L2 in ways that Japanese English language learners traditionally have not been able to through grammar translation and traditional intensive reading approaches. Most ER programs encourage students to read graded readers outside of regular class time. Graded readers are books written for English language learners that feature more common and high-frequency vocabulary words than texts written for native speakers. As the name suggests, these books are graded according to lexical level making it easy for even beginning English language learners to read and understand their contents (Brinkman, 2005). Due to the fact that graded readers feature few complex language structures and little unknown vocabulary reading these texts has been shown to build learners’ confidence and improve their reading ability (Day & Bamford, 1998). Bamford and Day (2004) made a list of principles used to guide the implementation of ER programs. However, some of Bamford and Day’s principles have been challenged by other researchers, and definitions of what ER is, have varied (Mori, 2015). Despite these discrepancies, most experts agree that reading done in an ER program should be done individually and silently, and that students should read easy texts in which they are familiar with around 95% of all the vocabulary found within the entire text (Grabe & Stoller, 2002). A high percentage of familiar vocabulary allows learners to read texts quickly without having to rely on a dictionary. Another common rule of ER programs states that students should have the freedom to choose what they want to read from a variety of options, with teachers orienting and guiding their selection of texts in order to ensure that students are not reading materials that are either too easy or too difficult for them (Gobel & Kano, 2014). Finally, there is an agreement among researchers that ER should be carried out over a long period of time and that students should read as much as possible during this time (Jeon & Day, 2015; Nakanishi, 2015). Regarding the amount read during an ER program, Beglar and Hunt (2014) suggested a minimum goal of roughly 200,000 words or more a year, while Susser and Robb (1990) suggested around two hours of reading a week. However, regardless of yearly goals, it has been shown that students react well to smaller and more frequent goals from month to month in order to keep them reading at a steady pace (Milliner & Cote, 2015b). Following the principles outlined above I argue in this paper that an extensive reading program should be implemented as a part of the existing English language program at the Japan Center for Michigan Universities. In this paper, I describe the teaching context at the Japan Center for Michigan Universities, suggestions for how extensive reading can fit into JCMU’s program objectives, the pedagogical efficacy of ER and the underlying cognitive processes it has been shown to benefit, followed by an introduction to the online reading service Xreading, as well as the practical matters regarding how such a program can be introduced. Teaching Context The Japan Center for Michigan Universities (JCMU) is located in Hikone City, Shiga Prefecture and was established as part of a sister state relationship between Shiga and Michigan. JCMU was founded with the goal of fostering international understanding and friendship between Japan and the United States. In addition to a study abroad program for international students studying Japanese, JCMU also offers a wide variety of English language study options such as community classes for beginner, intermediate, and advanced proficiency students of all ages; content-based classes focusing on English in the media as well as in social contexts; special seminars for local high school students; intensive language courses; and study abroad preparation programs for Japanese university students. 67 Students I have worked as a part-time teacher at JCMU for the past year teaching mostly adult English courses. These courses feature small class sizes of generally about five to ten students and meet on a weekly basis for one hour. Students sign up for these classes voluntarily and are usually motivated to improve their English for extrinsic reasons such as work, as well as intrinsic reasons such as an interest in foreign cultures and a desire to gain a better understanding of English in order to fulfill their own interests. Additionally, high school and university students also take these classes to gain more practice in a communicative learning context which they are often unable to experience in their traditional English classes. Most beginning students have studied English in Japanese junior high school, high school, and university contexts leaving them with some explicit knowledge of English grammar and vocabulary, but lacking in the ability to use that knowledge productively or in meaning-focused ways. These students are generally motivated to learn, but many lack the strategies and knowledge of available resources that can help them become better learners. Many students also tend to rely on traditional study methods outside of class that do little to improve their ability to use English communicatively. This leaves some students frustrated when they see little improvement in their English over time. Courses The weekly classes with which I have the most experience fall into two categories. The first is a group of courses divided into three levels based on student ability. These courses follow a communicative curriculum focusing on the four skills based on Cengage’s World English series of textbooks. The other category of courses is made up of two content-based courses. One of these courses focuses on English in the news and media and involves students reading news stories intensively and having discussions regarding issues brought up in these stories. The other course focuses on how English is used in natural contexts by giving students practice listening to authentic exchanges between native speakers and learning strategies to follow and participate in natural conversations with groups of native speakers. How students are placed in classes varies. For the levels-based classes, students generally sign up for the class that they believe is appropriate for their proficiency level. These students also receive guidance from instructors and other administration via informal interviews prior to registering for a class. Students are also recommended classes based on their scores in TOEFL, TOEIC, and STEP Eiken tests. The content-based courses are generally intended for advanced-intermediate to advanced students with TOEIC scores generally in the 600 and above range. Because these classes are voluntary, students are not given grades, meaning that these classes do not feature exams, evaluations, or mandatory homework. However, I generally make it my policy to give students an assignment to complete outside of class each week. In general, these assignments are then used the following week to do in-class activities. Students are aware of this and the vast majority of students complete the assignments and seem to appreciate the extra incentive to work outside of class to improve their English. This has reinforced my belief that, in general, these students want to get better at English, but simply lack opportunities to practice it outside of class. Available Facilities and Resources JCMU facilities feature a library with a wide variety of materials students can use to study. This library features a number of graded readers from a variety of publishers spanning a wide range of difficulty levels. All students enrolled in classes at JCMU have access to this library and are free to check out a limited number of books at one time. However, through informal discussions with students, I have learned that only a small number make regular use of these resources. Furthermore, of the students who did make regular use of the library, few of them were aware of the availability of graded readers until I took the time to direct their attention to them. One other unfortunate limitation of this resource is that while there are a variety of graded readers available there are currently not enough to sustain an ER program spanning every class at JCMU. Adding to this problem is the fact that in general there is only one copy available of each graded reader, meaning that students would likely have a difficult time accessing popular materials. JCMU Program Objectives Due to the fact that the courses I have experience teaching at JCMU are taken voluntarily it makes it difficult to put in place concrete goals and objectives for each course due to a lack of assessment options. None of the courses I have experience teaching have a unified curriculum. The three level-based classes follow textbooks, but each teacher is free to follow the contents as they see fit. For 68 the content-based courses each teacher is free to choose what materials are covered in class with only a limited amount of coordination between other teachers. Currently, the only goals in these courses are either vague and abstract, or simply undefined. The problem of a lack of clear goals and objectives has not gone unnoticed by the administration at JCMU, however. The director of JCMU has recently hired a new English language program coordinator with the hope of improving the courses offered. I hope to make it my own goal as well to work with the new coordinator to establish more concrete and principled goals and objectives when I begin teaching there full-time this August. It is my hope that we can work to develop principled curriculums based on goals and objectives which are reinforced through the pedagogical benefits of extensive reading. Pedagogical Benefits of Extensive Reading Research done in the field of SLA continues to show that ER has a number of cognitive benefits that help facilitate and improve language acquisition (Huffman, 2014; Nakanishi, 2015; Nathan & Stanovich, 1991; Robb & Kano, 2013). In addition to these cognitive benefits ER has also been shown to have a number of affective benefits that result in lower anxiety and higher motivation in students (Arnold, 2009; Chen et al., 2013; Fujita & Noro, 2009; Mason & Krashen, 1997; Milliner & Cote, 2015b; Yamashita, 2013). These benefits are discussed in the following sections. Cognitive Benefits of Extensive Reading The most decisively proven cognitive benefit of ER is that of increased reading ability as shown through increased reading speed and comprehension, as well as minor gains in vocabulary. Huffman (2014) showed that after just one semester of an extensive reading program students were able to improve their reading speed from an average of 110.59 words per minute to 131.33 words per minute. A study by Chen et al (2013) found that after only 10 weeks, students who had an extensive reading component to a language course exhibited larger gains in reading comprehension and vocabulary knowledge than students who took the same course without the ER component. In Fujita and Noro’s survey of major literature published on ER the authors found that on the whole ER results in improvements in both reading comprehension and reading speeds with reading speeds improving significantly over relatively short periods of time and comprehension improving slowly over more extended periods of time. Improvements in reading speeds show that as students carry out extensive reading they are becoming more fluent readers of the language. One of the benefits of this heightened fluency is that it frees up cognitive resources in working memory allowing students to focus their cognitive resources away from lower-level functions such as word decoding and begin focusing on things such as comprehending the text, forming opinions about it, and reflecting on it in ways similar to how good readers typically process texts while reading in their L1 (Nathan & Stanovich, 1991). The lightened burden on cognitive functions that comes as a result of more fluent reading has also been shown to help learners develop into more strategic readers. After carrying out an ER program with a group of university students studying German Arnold (2009) interviewed students and found through their reflections on the ER program that these students had seemingly implicitly become better users of reading strategies. Despite no explicit strategy instruction in this course, students shared that as they read more extensively they developed ways of dealing with unknown vocabulary by making inferences about possible meanings based on context. Students also shared that they became more aware of the processes of reading and exhibited other uses of strategies such as using background knowledge to help them anticipate and predict what they might encounter in the various texts they read. While the evidence that ER creates better readers has been shown to be incontrovertible, there is also anecdotal evidence that gains made in ER also transfer to the other three language skills of listening, speaking, and writing. Reasons for this might be that ER helps students reinforce previously-learned language forms and vocabulary that they might otherwise not have the chance to practice repeatedly without an ER program. Therefore, it is this idea of reinforcement and support that ER provides that led Nakanishi (2015) to state in his extensive review of the literature on ER that reading extensively has a place in any language curricula. Affective Benefits of Extensive Reading In addition to its cognitive benefits, ER has been shown to have the affective benefits of improving students’ language confidence and motivation. Students have been shown to enjoy the autonomy that ER offers them by allowing students to choose the texts they read based on their own interests (Arnold, 69 2009). Chen et al. (2013) also found that students who did ER for a semester ended up with a more positive attitude toward reading compared to those who did not do ER. Additionally, in a survey of high school students who participated in an ER program Fujita and Noro (2009) found that both students’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivation improved. Mason and Krashen (1997) found more encouraging results by showing that even struggling students developed from reluctant to eager readers after reading extensively. These findings show that through increased motivation developed via ER students might be more motivated to continue their study of English. ER has also been shown to build student confidence when it comes to reading extended texts (Rao & Babu, 2016) resulting in lower anxiety when faced with the task of reading (Yamashita, 2013). This is incredibly important because it is often the case that learners who have negative attitudes toward reading see reading as an unpleasant and difficult task (Day & Bamford, 1998). This negative impression of reading is likely due to the kinds of reading tasks most learners experience in L2 classrooms that focus on intensive reading of difficult texts as a method of grammar instruction (Huffman, 2014; Tomlinson, 2000). Students who are products of such classrooms rarely develop fluent reading skills, which results in negative attitudes towards reading with the end result being that poor readers read less, thus depriving themselves of the chance to improve (Stanovich, 1986). Baker (2008) asserts that the opposite of this is also true by noting that more confident readers read more thus becoming even more skilled learners. This highlights a need to expose our students to the kind of positive and confidence-building reading experiences that come with ER. Extensive Reading through Xreading Recently, there has been an increase in interest in online extensive reading and ER done through e-books. One of the disadvantages of traditional extensive reading programs is the initial investment required in order to establish a library of graded readers. Giving students the ability to read electronic texts through an online service solves this problem. Furthermore, research has shown that students respond positively to the convenience inherent in the ability to read graded readers via a computer or smartphone (Milliner & Cote, 2015a). Xreading is a service that allows students to choose from over 600 graded readers to read online via their computer or smartphone. A one-year license costs around $20 per student making it a cost-effective alternative to building an extensive library of graded readers. Additionally, all graded readers can be read by multiple students at the same time thus ending the problem of a student not reading because the book he wants is currently checked out. Furthermore, the service allows students to keep track of how much they have read and the speed at which they read it. Another benefit of Xreading is that many of the graded readers available to read also come with audio files so that students can listen along while they read. Such reading while listening has been shown to improve students’ ability to segment sentences resulting in a smaller burden on their working memory (Gobel & Kano, 2014). One other advantage of Xreading is that all graded readers are graded using a universal scale. This means that students can easily select a text that matches their level rather than having to consider the different rating scales put in place by different publishers of physical graded readers. Finally, through research conducted with high school students, Milliner & Cote (2015a) found that students preferred using Xreading over physical books, and that students who used Xreading were able to read more on average and resulted in more positive attitudes towards extensive reading than students who were only given access to physical graded readers. Implementing an ER Program Using Xreading at JCMU Extensive reading has several benefits that make it worth pursuing at JCMU. First, many of the students who take classes at JCMU show intrinsic motivation to learn due the voluntary nature of their participation in classes. Research has shown that students who are intrinsically motivated tend to react positively to ER programs and read more (Mori, 2015). Small class sizes and dedicated teachers similar to those present at JCMU have also been shown to predict more positive reactions from students towards ER (Robb & Kano, 2013). Furthermore, a large number of students enrolled in English classes at JCMU are adults. Research has shown that ER is even more beneficial for adults who are more cognitively mature than younger learners (Jeon & Day, 2015; Nakanishi, 2015). These factors make for an ideal environment in which to implement an ER program. 70 A Proposed Plan for Action Research Before implementing an ER program on a large scale, I believe the best approach is to gauge student interest, feasibility, and the pedagogical efficacy of such a program via a pilot program and action research. One way to approach this is to first survey students in order to determine students’ familiarity with extensive reading and whether or not they would be willing to pursue extensive reading outside of class. This survey translated into Japanese could be given to all students and the results used to decide if students would be interested in doing extensive reading. In addition to this survey, a small number of classes can be chosen to participate in an action research project. An example of a possible research method might be to have three groups of students. One control group in which students do no extensive reading, one group that is introduced to the concept of ER and given a goal of reading a certain amount of texts outside of class using only graded readers currently available in the JCMU library, and one more group that would differ from the second group only in that they are introduced to ER via Xreading and are allowed to read both physical graded readers as well as online texts using Xreading. All students will be given vocabulary levels tests, have their reading speeds measured, and be given a questionnaire measuring their attitudes towards reading at the beginning and end of the program. The two experimental groups will also be given a survey asking about their impressions of doing extensive reading at the end of the program. It is my hope that we can use these results to determine how we proceed regarding the implementation of an ER program at JCMU. Possible Problems and Limitations Most ER programs in place at universities include a component of post-reading comprehension tests to ensure that students truly did read and understand the texts they claimed to have read. These tests feature questions that would be easy for anyone who has read the text to answer and do not require that students read the texts trying to memorize every single detail (Brinkman, 2005). These types of tests are easily available to students using Xreading, but would require that students only reading physical graded readers register for a service such as MReader, thus further complicating the process of ER. One other possible problem is that of students not completing ER correctly. One of the most common ways students do this is by selecting reading materials that are too difficult for them. This problem is due to an assumption that if a text is not difficult then learning is not taking place (Day & Bamford, 1998). In Arnold’s (2009) account of an ER program he noted that some students even specifically sought out difficult texts. This problem can be avoided by giving students a vocabulary levels test such as the one developed by Nation and Beglar (2007) or using TOEIC scores to determine their vocabulary level using a model such as Hill’s (1997). Based on the students’ vocabulary level they can be given a guide to what level of graded readers they should read. Additionally, Xreading makes it possible to limit the level of books accessible, effectively solving this problem. One other major problem common in ER programs is a lack of proper explanation and introduction to students about the purpose of ER, how to do it, and its potential benefits (Gobel & Kano, 2014). This means that students should be given tutorials on how to use services such as Xreading and MReader. Furthermore, teachers should also be trained in how to use these services so that they can help students with any potential problems they encounter. Additionally, teachers and administration can help to make ER more appealing to students by setting up displays of newly purchased graded readers and making it easy to find graded readers in the library. Conclusion It is my hope that this paper serves to set in motion a push towards the implementation of an extensive reading program at JCMU. Implementing a new program in any educational context is a daunting challenge. However, I believe that JCMU provides an ideal context for ER and the cognitive and affective benefits of ER make it definitely worth pursuing. References Arnold, N. (2009). Online extensive reading for advanced foreign language learners: An evaluation study. Foreign Language Annals, 42(2), 340-366. Baker, T. (2008). Applying reading research to the development of an integrated lesson plan. English Teaching Forum, 1, 22-29. Bamford, J., & Day, R. D. (2004). Extensive reading activities for teaching language. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. 71 Beglar, D., & Hunt, A. (2014). Pleasure reading and reading rate gains. Reading in a Foreign Language, 26(1), 29-48. Brinkman, B. (2005). Developing and implementing extensive reading within a reading program. Journal of Bunkyo Gakuin University, Department of Foreign Languages and Bunkyo Gakuin College, 4, 175-188. Chen, C., Chen, S., Chen, S. E., & Wey, S. (2013). 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Reading rate gains during a one-semester extensive reading course. Reading in a Foreign Language, 26(2), 17-33. Jeon, E., & Day, R. R. (2015). The effectiveness of core ER principles. Reading in a Foreign Language, 27(2), 302-307. Mason, B., & Krashen, S. (1997). Extensive reading in English as a foreign language. System, 25, 91-102. Milliner, B., & Cote, T. (2015a). Comparing two approaches to extensive reading (ER) management in the Tamagawa ELF program: M-Reader and Xreading. Annual report of the Center for Teacher Education Research, Tamagawa University, 5, 115-123. Milliner, B., & Cote, T. (2015b). Mobile-based extensive reading: An investigation into reluctant readers. International Journal of Computer-Assisted Language Learning and Teaching, 5(4), 1-15. Mori, S. (2015). If you build it they will come: From a “Field of Dreams” to a more realistic view of extensive reading in an EFL context. Reading in a Foreign Language, 27(1), 195-135. Nakanishi, T. (2015). A meta-analysis of extensive reading research. TESOL Quarterly, 49(1), 6-37. Nathan, R. G., & Stanovich, K. E. (1991). The causes and consequences of differences in reading fluency. Theory into Practice, 30, 176-184. Nation, I. S. P., & Beglar, D. (2007). A vocabulary size test. The Language Teacher, 31(7), 9-13. Rao, C. S., & Babu, K. S. (2016). Importance of extensive reading in language learning. Language in India, 16(2), 251-260. Robb, T., & Kano, M. (2013). Effective extensive reading outside the classroom: A large-scale experiment. Reading in a Foreign Language, 25(2), 234-247. Stanovich, K. E. (1986). Matthew effects in reading: Some consequences of individual differences in the acquisition of literacy. Reading Research Quarterly, 21(4), 360-407. Susser, B., & Robb, T. N. (1990). EFL extensive reading instruction: Research and procedure. JALT Journal, 12, 161-185. Tomlinson, B. (2000). Beginning to read forever: A position paper. Reading in a Foreign Language, 13, 523-538. Yamashita, J. (2013). Effects of extensive reading on reading attitudes in a foreign language. Reading in a Foreign Language, 25(2), 258-263. Yamashita, J. (2015). In search of the nature of extensive reading in L2: Cognitive, affective, and pedagogical perspectives. Reading in a Foreign, 27(1), 168-191. 72 The Effectiveness of Graphic Organizers on the Reading Comprehension of EFL Students: A Proposed Syllabus Steven Wong According to Jiang and Grabe (2007), one of the major challenges L2 students face in academic settings is learning to comprehend increasingly more complex reading material, such as those from intensive reading text. It is especially challenging when the writing convention of L2 texts differs from that of L1 texts. An important component that can contribute to the student's reading comprehension is the awareness of discourse structure. In other words, the way texts are organized in a coherent manner by the reader is seen as an important part of a reader's overall comprehension (Jiang, 2012; Jiang & Grabe, 2007). Jiang and Grabe suggested that one method of training students to recognize discourse structure in a text is through the use of graphical organizers (GOs), which show the visual representations of the text. Grabe (2009) stated that GOs are a type of instruction that focuses on text structure and increases the readers' comprehension and learning. According to Jiang and Grabe (2007), the subject of GOs as instructional tools have been studied in L1 context and in L1 reading literature. The results from the research conducted thus far have been rather consistent; that GOs, by representing the discourse structure of a text, can facilitate not only reading comprehension, but also retention as well as the recall of the main ideas from the reading material. Specifically, GOs have shown to have an effect on reading comprehension if the students themselves construct graphic organizers; even if it is a partially completed graph, rather than those constructed by the teachers. The active process of constructing a GO provides students an opportunity to make deeper processing of the text, rather than studying already constructed organizers. Griffin and Tulbert (1995) found that comparisons between pre-reading and post-reading GOs have shown that graphic post-organizers have produced greater effects overall in readers' comprehension. Balajthy and Weisberg (1990) asserted that graphic post-organizers produced even greater effects on reading comprehension when combined with summarization training. Jiang (2012) concluded that pedagogical efforts also should be made to raise students’ awareness of these discourse structures. Thus, time needs to be allocated for the training of both discourse structure and GO usage before utilizing GOs as a post-reading task. This paper explores the possibility of the usage of graphic organizers in an EFL class and its effect on students' reading comprehension. It also provides a sample 14-week syllabus that incorporates training on recognizing discourse structures, and applying that knowledge to create one of three types of GOs as a post-reading task following intensive reading. L1 Research Jiang (2012) found that the majority of L1 research on graphic organizers consistently demonstrated the beneficial effects of GO in reading instruction. Jiang and Grabe (2007) argued that GOs are said to be beneficial. Jones, Pierce, and Hunter (1988) believed that “a good graphic representation can show at a glance the key parts of a whole and their relations, thereby allowing a holistic understanding that words alone cannot convey" (p. 21). Although the studies of the effects of GOs in L1 research have been relatively convincing thus far, it is unclear whether GOs have a positive effect on L2 learners. Jiang and Grabe (2007) find that recommendations to use GOs as part of reading instruction are commonly found in the L1 reading literature and textbooks for young readers, but less common in L2 contexts. To date, Jiang and Grabe (2007) acknowledged Tang (1992) as one of the few L2 studies that investigated the effect of GOs on reading comprehension. Tang, conducting an experiment with two groups of seventh-grade English ESL students finds in her research that the group that utilized graphic organizers did significantly better than the group that did not use any graphic organizers in a recall test. Tang concluded that using a GO to represent the structure of a passage increased the total amount of information recalled. In addition, the research showed that a majority of the students in the experimental group had positive attitudes towards GO usage, and believed it helped their overall reading comprehension. However, more studies in the L2 context are needed. Jiang and Grabe (2007) explained that as L2 learners acquire more language, they also encounter denser and more complex text, and thus need additional scaffolding approaches to facilitate their reading comprehension. It is therefore important to know if GOs can be an effective tool for L2 learners. 73 Although research in the L2 context is lacking, Grabe and Stoller (2011) described GOs as versatile tools that can be used in possibly many ways in L2 reading classes. Furthermore, they explained that GOs might be beneficial because they help students (a) develop text structure awareness, (b) discover relationships among ideas in a text, (c) note the significance of overt signal words, (d) and link new ideas with known content. Students can use GOs initially with teacher guidance, deciding “how different pieces of information in a text relate to each other as main ideas, supporting ideas, and informational details (Jiang & Grabe, 2009, p. 26).” They added that when instruction with GOs are carried out effectively, the L2 students can build a coherent representation of text meaning that can be discussed by the whole class because everyone has access to the same visual representation. Beneficial effects from reading comprehension might also be related to how the text is represented visually. Jiang and Grabe (2007) found that L2 students are expected to comprehend texts better when shown visually how information in the text is organized. Grabe (2009) described how graphic organizers such as Venn diagrams, matrices, and flow charts can create an important combination of text-structure awareness, recognition of main ideas, as well as imagery. The dual-coding model can offer an explanation to the effectiveness of GOs. In this theory, Sadoski (2009) argued that verbal and visual information represents linked but different cognitive processing systems that reinforce each other. The visual and verbal processing of reading input work in tandem to improve reading comprehension abilities. In other words, when visual representations of information match the information from the text, learning becomes more effective. Grabe (2009) proposed that GOs can be first taught as a strategy to L2 students and then practiced by applying graphic representations to organize text information. Such training must first include instruction to increase discourse structure awareness. He adds that discourse-based GO instruction can be a powerful way to raise discourse structure awareness, but it involves somewhat more specific demands on teachers because most textbooks and class readings do not include GOs that reflect the discourse structure of a text. Discourse Structure Jiang and Grabe (2007) described one of the major assumptions in reading research and instruction is that all texts have structures above the level of the sentence. Jiang (2012) defined these as discourse structures or basic rhetorical patterns in the text. These are essentially frameworks that writers use to convey messages in a coherent and structuralized manner. Trabasso and Bouchard (2002) pointed out that awareness of discourse structure is considered to be an important component in the reader's overall comprehension ability. Mohan (1986) found that good readers pay attention to the following four organizational features within the text during reading: (a) headings, subheadings, text boxes, topic sentences, (b) cues that signal either topic shifts or an introduction of a new topic, (c) pronouns, anaphoric cues, and other lexical items that indicate relationships between parts of the text, and (d) recognition of common genre features and their organizational patterns. Grabe and Stoller (2011) stated that good readers have discourse structure awareness, that is, they are able to (a) identify main ideas, (b) infer connections across parts of a text, and (c) recognize organizational patterns in texts. If GOs can facilitate reading comprehension, the issue then lies if whether all types of GOs are effective regardless of discourse structure. Jiang and Grabe (2007) acknowledged this problem, stating effective GOs can be dependent on the types of GOs that represent the specific discourse structures of a text. "GOs that do not represent the discourse structures of the text can be less effective than the ones that represent the discourse structures" (p. 37). Thus, a GO's overall effectiveness is correlated particular types of discourse structures. Fortunately, discourse structures are relatively few in number, recurring regularly across texts, and are often found in combinations (Jiang, 2012; Mohan, 1986). This finite number, along with their recurrences, allows teachers to explicitly teach these structures and its appropriate GOs. According to Jiang (2012), these structures include (a) comparison-contrast, (b) cause-effect, (c) problem-solution, (d) definition, (e) classification, (f) argument, (g) description, (h) procedure, and (i) narrative episodes. Jiang and Grabe (2007) state that these organizational patterns play important roles in "how readers read and writers write" (p. 35). Grabe and Gardner (1995) argued that when students become more knowledgeable about the finite and limited ways that texts are organized, they can better understand the coherence and logic of the presented information, and they will be able to find the main ideas in the text and distinguish them from information that is less important. This is significant because students can transfer this knowledge to not only create GOs, but also use it across other texts. 74 Koda (2005) stated that awareness of various discourse structures is a knowledge base that grows incrementally from increasing exposure and explicit instruction. Students need time and repeated exposure to develop their abilities in recognizing discourse structuring from the text. Furthermore, in Spiegel and Barufaldi's (1994) study regarding the effectiveness of GOs, they conclude that students need to actively work to fill in and complete GOs in order for them to be effective. For GOs to be ultimately effective in reading comprehension, a generous portion of time must be allotted for students to be trained through explicit instruction of discourse structure types, GO types, and completing GOs through practice. During discourse structure training, the goal is to identify a section(s) of a text and highlight the structure for that section (Grabe, 2009). According to Grabe and Stoller (2011), good readers are able to identify text markers or signal words that reveal the type of discourse structure, and provide clues about what is significant in a text. Instruction that helps readers identify these important text markers and their functions can be beneficial. In addition, only the most salient signal words, that is, those signal words that students are most likely to encounter in their texts should be explored. After noting overt signals, the students can recognize and identify the type of discourse structure. They can note keywords associated with the signals and begin filling-in the GO. Similar to Koda'(s (2005) suggestion, Jiang and Grabe (2007) also commented that "the instructional use of GOs for purposes of reading development is most likely to be an incremental process which benefits from long-term, consistent exposure" (p. 35). They found that much GO research only provided students with trainings as short as a few hours or a few weeks. Such a short exposure typically restricts the overall impact of the benefits of GO on students’ reading development. Citing Bean et al. (1986), they suggested a cumulative, long-term view of metacognitive instruction, and recommend that GO instruction should take at least 14 weeks. Grabe (2009) also stressed that the instruction must be consistent and continual. Instruction should also show the pervasiveness of discourse structure, thus not utilizing special texts that merely show discourse structure. Finally, after filling-in the GOs, the students are encouraged to transition the information to a writing activity, or explain their organization to their classmates and teachers. Text Types Jiang and Grabe (2007) stated that by carefully studying a set of texts, one can see different types of text structure. Purdue University's Online Writing Lab recognizes four modes of discourse: Exposition, Description, Narration, Argumentation or Persuasion (Baker, Brizee, & Angeli, 2013). Jiang and Grabe (2007) continued by explaining that in particular, there is an increasing need to recognize narrative and expository structures because educational research has repeatedly shown that students work with narrative and expository texts in quite different ways. Another reason, according to Prudchenko (2013) is because expository and narrative texts are two of the four most common discourse modes. This means that students will most frequently encounter these types of texts in their intensive reading. Jiang and Grabe (2007) described expository texts as communicating information by describing an event or object, presenting a sequence of steps, establishing a conceptual framework, or making an argument. Textbooks, essays, research articles, encyclopedia entries, manuals, and most news and magazine articles are typical examples of expository text. The purpose of narrative text is to entertain or to explore human situations, such as in biographies, tales, historical events, and fictions. According to the authors, narrative texts are used often for beginner L2 students in their early reading development and aims to improve comprehension by having students develop story structure schemas and generating anticipatory questions. Context At Kansai University Elementary School, a private elementary school affiliated with Kansai University located in Osaka, the students are exposed to graphic organizers starting from the first grade by utilizing critical thinking tools. Critical thinking tools are defined at Kansai University Elementary school as cognitive applications that can be used to solve problems. There are 19 applications codified in its taxonomy, of which, only six are used at the elementary school: (a) compare-contrast, (b) classification, (c) description, (d) relational, (e) inferencing, and (f) evaluation. These six critical thinking tools are taught during Muse Learning time, where students are presented problems and questions. They must then decide on a critical thinking tool to use, and formulate answers visually by using an appropriate GO. Table 1 depicts the six skills and their appropriate GOs. 75 Table 1. Critical Thinking Tools and Their Associated Graphical Organizers Compare-Contrast Classification Description Relational Inferencing Venn Diagram • Y-Chart • Bear Claw • Concept • Why-What • X-Chart Diagram Map Sheet • Pyramid • Fish Bone Diagram Chart Evaluation • PMI Chart Muse Learning time occurs during their Integrated Studies period (or known in Japanese as Sogo-no-jikan). The goal is for the students to transfer these critical thinking tools and GO usage, and apply them to their other school subjects (with the exception of English). Every classroom has large posters of GOs as well as small cut-outs of GOs students can use as scrap notes to work out problems. As they get older and progress in grade level, they learn more difficult critical thinking tools, as well as other GOs that are more cognitively challenging. That knowledge, in turn, is applied to solving more demanding problems in their subject classes. Students are to then use the critical thinking skills and GOs learned during Integrated Learning time and apply that knowledge to their subject classes. During Muse Learning time, students are presented with either a problem, such as city pollution, or a question such as Should children use smartphones? Each student is required to select a thinking tool and then is free to select a GO or a combination of GOs to fill-in and visually depict their solution. The student then shares his or her work with a partner before presenting it to the class. The student writes a final reflection essay about what he or she learned, or learned from other classmates. The teacher reads the reflection essays and provides feedback. It was assumed at the school, that because most of students do not have enough L2 knowledge, these tools and GOs could not be applied to English learning. However, certain critical thinking tools were applied in the Grade 5 and 6 English classes to examine if there was an increase in overall reading comprehension. The Grade 5 and 6 students use a junior high school seventh- and eighth-grade level English textbook respectively. The textbooks are part of the Sunshine series, and contains intensive reading texts with both exposition and narration text modes. In terms of reading, critical thinking tools can be thought of as strategies for discourse structure awareness. Much of critical thinking tools taught at the elementary school parallels and overlaps with the discourse structures listed by Jiang (2012): (a) comparison-contrast, (b) cause-effect, (c) problem-solution, (d) definition, (e) classification, (f) argument, (g) description, (h) procedure, and (i) narrative episodes. Although no data was recorded, an informal observation showed that having students think about discourse structure, identify overt signal markers, and use GOs resulted in an overall improvement in reading comprehension. The explanation is similar to the findings of other GO research described earlier in this paper (c.f. Balajthy, & Weisberg, 1990; Jiang, 2012). Additional explanations suggest that the students have already been exposed to critical thinking tools and GO usage during Muse Learning time. Therefore, using these tools and GOs during English class can have an additional motivating effect for these students. In order to truly understand if discourse structure awareness and GO usage have a positive effect on reading comprehension, a long study needs to be conducted. This paper presents a sample syllabus designed for the sixth-grade English classes at Kansai University Elementary school, with the additional purpose of collecting data for future research. Proposed Syllabus Description Based on Jiang and Grabe’s (2007) suggestion, this proposed syllabus lasts for 14 weeks; sufficient time to incorporate metacognitive instruction. There are two sixth-grade classes consisting of 31 Japanese students in each class. One period out of their four 45-minute weekly English classes is dedicated to creating GOs for a whole semester. The sixth-graders are chosen for this syllabus because (a) they have the most L2 knowledge, having learned English since the first grade, and (b) they have the most experience and familiarity with critical thinking tools and GO usage from Muse Learning time. The syllabus starts with a pretest during the first week. The second and third week focus on teaching discourse structure strategies, signal markers, and pronoun relationships. This is followed by a 9-week intensive training of three GOs in L2: the concept map, the Venn diagram, and the X-Chart/Y-Chart. Each type of GO instruction is allotted two weeks of training and one week consisting of a practice test. The thirteenth week calls for a posttest where the students read an intensive reading text and chooses a GO, or a combination of GOs, to visually represent the information from the text. The final week requires the students to complete a questionnaire and reflection sheet. Both qualitative data from the GOs and quantitative data from the questionnaire and reflection sheet are recorded to evaluate any improvements in the students' reading comprehension. 76 The classes are held in the English room. Students are provided with A4-sized intensive reading prints, as well as A4-sized prints of GOs, mini cut-outs of GOs used for scrap paper, and post-it notes. Students are asked to bring writing materials and highlighters if they wish to use as color enhancements, or to use for differentiating ideas. Finally, the class is equipped with an overhead projector and an interactive whiteboard (smartboard) for the individual or pair to present their work to the class. Course Goals By the end of this course, students will be able to improve their reading comprehension from intensive reading texts through an explicit instruction of discourse awareness, the opportunity of repeated graphical organizer use in the classroom, and repeated practice from weekly assignments completed at home. Jiang and Grabe (2007) summarized the course goal the best when they suggest that the assumption behind the instructional use of GOs for reading development is that students need continual exposure to and practice with GOs. Repetition in GO practice, displaying basic knowledge structures through discourse organization, should allow students to recognize discourse structure in new texts and apply this knowledge to reading comprehension. Allowing a longer time for training should also allow for the consistent repetition of general patterns, and lead to learning transfer effects. Week 1 Pretest The first week requires the students to read narrative text taken from Sunshine Book 1. They are then asked to individually summarize the passage using the GOs they were exposed to during Muse Learning time, without any explicit instruction on vocabulary, grammar, nor on the discourse structure. Sunshine Book 1 was used by the students in the previous year, thus they are familiar with text. However, it is possible that many might have forgotten the specific contents in the text, and therefore, can have some difficulty creating a GO. The students are free to select one of the three types of GOs taught in this course during the pretest. They can also choose to use post-it notes if they are expecting to rearrange the positioning of their answers on the organizer. The results of these tests are scanned and later compared with the posttest. The remaining time is dedicated to having students question, discuss, and understand the importance of this course; how GOs can benefit their English reading comprehension. This particular time is conducted in the students' primary language so that they can freely engage in the discussion. Contrasting the possible differences between Muse Learning time and this course are also discussed. The teacher can also make a Venn Diagram on the board to visually depict the differences. The objective of this lesson is to have the students recognize the importance of creating a GO in L2. Using their experience and background knowledge can also make learning in this course very motivating. Weeks 2-3 Discourse Structure Training The second and third week has the students learn about discourse structure, overt signal markers, and pronoun relationship training. According to Grabe and Stoller (2011), good readers are able to identify text markers that can reveal the organization of the text as well as search for clues about what is significant in a text. Knowing discourse markers can signal cause and effect, comparison and contrast, problems and solutions, conclusion, continuation, emphasis, examples, hedging, sequence, time, etc. They state that beginning learners can benefit from instruction that focuses on the identification and functions of these discourse markers. They suggest to use only the most salient signal words, or words that the students are most likely to frequently encounter. The authors also provide a description of how a discourse structure lesson should be taught: (a) students mark two types of discourse markers, (b) students discuss their findings, and (c) teachers provide scaffolding during the lesson. During the second week, an abbreviated list of Grabe and Stoller's (2011) list of discourse markers are handed to the students. It is abbreviated to provide only the most salient words to the sixth-grade students. Following Grabe and Stoller's (2011) suggestions, both the second and third week require the students to underline (or highlight in yellow) sequence markers, and circle (or highlight in green) contrast markers in their intensive reading texts. The students also draw rectangles around pronouns (or use a blue highlighter), and connect them with lines to the correct relational part of the text, which is also marked off in rectangles (or with a blue highlighter). Students work individually for part of the lesson, and then create pairs for discussion. The students are free to make notations of any contextual changes in L1 that resulted from the discourse markers. The teacher should also discuss the differences between narrative and expository texts, the discourse markers common to those text modes, and identifying the text mode from their readings. The teacher also can discuss common answers found 77 and provide any feedback. The objectives of the lessons are to provide opportunities to practice identifying discourse markers and to comprehend its significance in understanding the text. Weeks 4-12 GO Training The heart of the syllabus requires the students to practice with organizers in L2. Each of the three types of GOs is taught for three weeks: the concept map, the Venn diagram, and the X-Chart/Y-Chart. The objectives of these lessons are to have students practice with specific graphic organizers through repetition while being provided with scaffolding from the teachers. The first and second week has students individually identify the text type of a passage, look for discourse markers particular to the GOs, and then practice creating that organizer. For example, the concept map is relational, thus any text containing discourse markers that signal sequencing, continuation, cause-results, or time can be visually represented by concept maps. Venn diagrams compare and contrast information, so students can focus on comparison-contrast signals. Y-Charts and X-Charts allow students to classify three to four items respectively. Classification of information can be found in many exposition texts and requires students to identify text type. The students then pair up, discuss their answers, make necessary language corrections, and then present their GO to the class. The third week requires the students to create the GO individually from a longer intensive reading passage from Sunshine Book 2. Students also complete weekly assignments that are usually in the form of reading passages from stories or other texts. The purpose is to maximize time and repetition in identifying discourse markers and creating GOs. Week 13 Posttest The posttest is taken from a longer story from Sunshine Book 2, where the students are told to visually represent the text using one or more organizers of their choice. These posttests are scanned and compared to the pretest to determine if students made any overall improvements in reading comprehension. Week 14 Questionnaire and Reflection The last week has the students fill-out a questionnaire and reflection sheet in Japanese. Using a Likert-scale, the questionnaire asks if they believe their reading comprehension has improved, can they find discourse markers quickly, and do these strategies help them create better graphic organizers. The reflection portion also asks the students specific questions to what they have acquired, or did not acquire, and why. The objective of this lesson is to raise the students' meta-cognitive awareness and collect quantitative data for analysis. Conclusion Jiang and Grabe (2007) succinctly conclude that in order to develop students' overall reading comprehension, it is important to raise their awareness of text structure through explorations of discourse patterns with L2 texts. They also predict that GOs should be engaging for L2 learners as they are for L1 learners. However, despite the promising results from L1 research, further research efforts are necessary to demonstrate how much GOs have an impact on the way L2 students read texts. Furthermore, long-term impact of GOs on students’ reading development should also be considered. The authors add that "these efforts will lead to a better understanding of the overall effectiveness of GOs in reading comprehension, add to our current knowledge base regarding the impact of GOs, and have the potential to facilitate reading development" (p. 47). This paper attempts to take the first step in answering the call of further L2 research efforts by proposing a syllabus designed to seek the effectiveness of GOs. The call for further research reveals that currently, little is known about the benefits of graphic organizers in an EFL context. Yet, it also offers the exciting prospect of a potentially effective pedagogical tool that every L2 learner can use. This author intends to take the second step, by implementing the syllabus into the classroom, gather data for research, and come even closer to an answer. References Balajthy, E., & Weisberg, R. (1990). Transfer effects of prior knowledge and use of graphic organizers on college developmental readers’ summarization and comprehension of expository text. In J. Zutell & S. McCormick (Eds.), Literacy theory and research: Analysis from multiple paradigms: Thirty-ninth yearbook of the National Reading Conference (pp. 339–345). Chicago IL: National Reading Conference. 78 Barron, R. F. (1969). The use of vocabulary as an advance organizer. In H. L. Baker, J. Brizee, & E. Angeli, E. (2013, March 3). Essay writing. Retrieved from https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/685/01/ Grabe, W., & Gardner, D. (1995). Discourse analysis, coherence, and reading instruction. Lenguas Modernas, 22, 69-88. Grabe, W., & Stoller, F. L. (2011). Teaching and researching reading (2nd ed.). London, England: Pearson Education. Griffin, C., & Tulbert, B. (1995). The effect of graphic organizers on students’ comprehension and recall of expository texts: A review of the research and implications for practice. Reading and Writing Quarterly, 11(1), 73-89. Jiang, X. (2012). Effects of discourse structure graphic organizers of EFL reading comprehension. Reading in a Foreign Language, 24(1), 84-105. Jiang, X., & Grabe, W. (2007). Graphic organizers in reading instruction: Research findings and issues. Reading in a Foreign Language, 19(1), 34-55. Jones, B., Pierce, J., & Hunter, B. (1988). Teaching students to construct graphic representations. Educational Leadership, 46, 20-25. Koda, K. (2005). Insights into second language reading: A cross-linguistic approach. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Mohan, B. (1986) Language and content. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. Prudchenko, K. (2013). Differences in narrative vs. Exposition in a story. Retrieved from http://classroom.synonym.com/differences-narrative-vs-exposition-story-1690.html Sadoski, M. (2009). Dual coding theory: Reading comprehension and beyond. In C. Block & S. R. Parris (Eds.), Comprehension instruction: Research-based best practices (pp. 38-49). New York, NY: Guilford Press. Spiegel, G. F., & Barufaldi, J. P. (1994). The effects of a combination of text structure awareness and graphic post-organizers on recall and retention of science knowledge. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 31, 913-932. Tang, G. (1992). The effect of graphic representation of knowledge structures on ESL reading comprehension. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 14, 177-195. Trabasso, T., & Bouchard, E. (2002). Teaching readers how to comprehend text strategically. In C. C. Block & M. Pressley (Eds.), Comprehension instruction: Research-based best practices (pp. 176-200). New York, NY: The Guilford Press. 79 A Strategy-Focused EFL University Course Curriculum Eric Shepherd Martin This paper provides an outline of, and justification for, an EFL reading course for Japanese university students. The aim of the course is to help the learners become better readers of English texts and to motivate them to read more English material. Learners are taught explicit reading strategies, which they practice through textbook exercises and in-class reading passages. Learners also engage in extensive reading and speed reading exercises to develop reading fluency. The content, goals, and objectives of this course are intended to be universal enough to be adaptable for most EFL university reading courses for non-English majors. This paper first outlines the teaching context, including a description of the institution, students, and facilities for which the curriculum is intended. It also considers the constraints of the teaching situation. This is followed by a description of the goals and objectives of the course, in order to justify the content of the course curriculum as a means of achieving those goals. I also define the principles on which the course content is founded, so that the reader can better evaluate the rationale for the design of the curriculum. Finally, I describe the curriculum itself, and end with the assessment criteria for successful completion of the course. Teaching Context In this section I describe the institution and students for which this reading curriculum is intended. I also describe the classroom in which such a class is likely to be taught, and the materials that would be needed. Finally, I consider the constraints of the situation and ways to overcome them. The Institution This curriculum is intended for use in undergraduate universities in Japan. These universities could have any number of undergraduate students, and offer students a variety of majors. The course also can be altered to fit into a number of different institutions, including some high schools and junior colleges. As long as the students and teacher have access to the textbook, graded readers, and speed reading material, and as long as the students are of the appropriate level, then any institution could conduct this reading course. The Target Group of Students This curriculum is intended for university undergraduate students with lower-intermediate English proficiency in Japan. The students participating in this course will likely have graduated from public high schools, although many will have graduated from private and vocational high school, as well. According to the Japan Times newspaper, the Japanese government hopes that the average Japanese high school graduates’ English ability will be at an EIKEN Pre-2 (intermediate) English level, but as of 2016, the majority of sampled graduates performed at an EIKEN level 3 (lower-intermediate) level (Jiji, 2016). Therefore, it is assumed that the students taking this reading course will have lower-intermediate English reading skills. Some of these students will have had some experience traveling abroad, although most will not. Many students initially will not be highly motivated to perform well in the class. These students, therefore, need to be motivated to read, learn how to become better readers, and practice reading increasing amounts of text at faster speeds. The Course This course is meant to be an English L2 university undergraduate reading course. It is intended for lower-intermediate, or even high-beginner, students. It was designed with non-majors in mind, although students majoring in English could also join. This course uses the Basic Reading Power 1 (Jeffries & Mikulecky, 2009) textbook to teach students to use reading strategies. Students in the course also engage in speed reading in class, using material created by Quinn, Nation, and Millet (2007), and extensive reading outside of class using graded readers. Finally, students engage in deliberate vocabulary study of the Academic Word List (Coxhead, 2000) for homework. This course runs for one university term, or 15 weeks, with class held for an hour and a half per week. Due to the density of the Basic Reading Power 1 textbook, students only work through the first 80 half of each of the book’s four sections. They then have the option of finishing the textbook lessons the next term in a continuation of this reading course. The Available Facilities and Resources All classrooms should have a blackboard, chalk, and desks for 40 students. The institution should have copiers and paper available to teachers to print classroom material. Optimal classrooms have overhead projectors which teachers can use to work through the comprehension questions and textbook exercises with the students. The institution should also have a graded reader library for the students to use. If no such library exists, the university could allow students and teachers to use www.xreading.com, a website which contains an online library of graded readers and which tracks students’ reading progress. This could either be paid for by the university or by the students upon registering. The Goals and Objectives of the Course The students described above are high-beginner to intermediate Japanese learners of English for whom English learning is likely not a high priority. This next section considers the needs of these students, and outlines reasonable expectations (goals) for them, as well as specific objectives that should help students to achieve the desired course outcomes. Course Goals The general aim of this course is for students to improve their overall English reading ability and to become motivated readers of English. For these purposes, this course attempts to teach students reading strategies and to lead them to read a large amount of text more quickly over time. The aims of the course can be summed up into three goals. By the end of this course, students will be able to (SWBAT): • Learn to use reading strategies which they can consciously apply to English texts; • Read English faster than they previously could; • Comprehend English texts better than they previously could. First, students learn to use the reading strategies that are covered in this course and should begin to apply them independently to better understand new English texts that they read. They accomplish this by working through exercises in the Basic Reading Power 1 textbook with teacher and peer assistance. Second, students increase their English reading fluency. This not only saves students time, but, as Nation writes, “fluency develops when complex activities such as reading are made less complex by the fluent mastery of some of the subskills involved in the activity” (Nation, 2009, p. 65). As learners recognize and process English lexis and syntax faster, they should have more conscious processing resources, or “working memory” (Baddeley & Hitch, 1974) capacity, available for understanding and organizing the text as a whole. This should lead them to achieve the third goal and to comprehend more of what they read. Learning Objectives The goals above all can be assessed quantitatively to assure the teacher and the learners that they have met the course goals. For the goal of applying reading strategies: • SWBAT apply the strategies of predicting the content of text and checking predictions through in-class activities. • SWBAT check their comprehension through speed reading comprehension checks and extensive reading quizzes. • SWBAT reread and summarize information, practiced through two extensive reading book presentations. • SWBAT use a dictionary to identify unknown words. • SWBAT write word definitions with parts of speech, example sentences, and word meanings. • SWBAT use their written definitions to remember newly encountered words. • SWBAT rapidly read and process the 100 most common English words in text. • SWBAT generally comprehend texts while skipping unknown words and guess the meaning of words from context. Objectives one through three encompass a number of reading strategies which Grabe and Stoller (2011) claimed that engaged learners’ use. Objectives four through eight are taught explicitly in the Basic Reading Power 1 textbook. In both cases, students have opportunities to engage in all eight objectives in nearly every lesson, with the exception of objective three (rereading and summarizing), which students engage in through their extensive reading book reports twice in the term. In order to achieve the goal of reading faster: 81 • SWBAT rapidly recognize commonly occurring letter combinations, such as consonant clusters. • SWBAT rapidly recognize common kinds of phrases, such as phrasal verbs and adverbial phrases. • SWBAT quickly scan for information that they are looking for. • SWBAT engage in speed reading practice with the goal of raising their reading speed to 150 words per minute. • SWBAT will read 2,000 words of text in graded readers each week, with the goal of reading 24,000 words throughout the term. Objectives one through three are taught explicitly in the Basic Reading Power 1 textbook, which provides learners with ample opportunity practice reading strategies. The purpose of these exercises is to help students automatize their recognition of common letter and phrasal patterns in English. This should help students to read those common features more quickly when they encounter them, thus increasing overall reading speed. Speed reading and extensive reading are both used as forms of fluency practice. Nation (2007) defines fluency practice as practice in which the learner is familiar with all of the content that they are practicing, and in which the learner pushes themselves to complete a task more quickly than they could previously. The readings used for speed reading exercises were developed by Quinn et al. (2007) and only contain vocabulary found in the first 1,000 words of the General Service List (West, 1953), unless the words are otherwise explained in the text. Nuttall (2005) and Anderson (2008) have come to the consensus that 70% comprehension (judged by comprehension quizzes) demonstrates adequate comprehension of a speed reading passage. As long as learners are achieving 70% or higher on their quizzes, then they should otherwise concentrate more on reading quickly than achieving perfect comprehension. Engaging in extensive reading also fits with Nation’s definition of fluency practice, as long as 98% of the extensive reading material is already known by the reader (Hu & Nation, 2000), and as long as the reader continues to push themselves to read relatively quickly. In order to increase their comprehension ability: • SWBAT engage in focused and repeated reading strategy practice, which will be evaluated in term tests. • SWBAT engage in speed reading practice with an aim of achieving 70% or more comprehension with each task. • SWBAT engage in extensive reading with an aim of achieving 80% or more on each comprehension quiz taken. • SWBAT perform two oral book reports of two graded readers of their choosing. • SWBAT understand focused vocabulary found in the Basic Reading Power 1 textbook passages. • SWBAT pass weekly productive quizzes on 10 words from the Academic Word List with 80% accuracy. Macaro and Erler (2008) found that explicit strategy teaching in L2 reading classes has a positive effect on the comprehension of L2 learners, especially beginners. Nakanishi (2015) also found extensive reading to have a positive effect on reading proficiency based on a meta-analysis of 34 studies. The book reports allow students an opportunity to demonstrate deeper engagement with and comprehension of their reading than quizzes do, while explicit study of high-frequency vocabulary help learners to process those words more rapidly when they encounter them in text. My Principles for Teaching Reading and/or Writing My first principle comes from Nation (2009), which is to ensure that each lesson’s teaching makes future texts easier for learners. I believe that reading courses should largely consist of teaching reading strategies and frequent language to learners. Strategies, such as learning to skim, scan, and predict, and guess meaning, can be taught and applied to all texts that learners encounter. Similarly, focusing learners’ attention on vocabulary found in frequency lists, such as the General Service List (West, 1953) and the Academic Word List (Coxhead, 2000), lead them to learn the language that is most likely to occur in future texts. My second principle is that techniques in any language class should be intrinsically motiving when possible. According to Deci and Ryan’s (1985) Self-Determination Theory, the three facilitators of intrinsic motivation are competence, autonomy, and relatedness. The extensive reading component of the course is intended to act as a motivating factor for students. Through the use of graded readers, students are given autonomy in the selection of what they read. Hopefully they will find that they can 82 relate to most of the texts that they choose. Finally, extensive readers support reader competence as they read comprehensible texts without a dictionary (Jeon & Day, 2015). The last principle is to include both bottom-up (decoding) and top-down (general comprehension) techniques. Learners should develop microskills (lower-level processes), such as the ability to discriminate among distinctive graphemes and orthographic patterns of English, and to retain chunks of language of different lengths in short-term memory; and macroskills (higher-level processes), such as scanning, skimming, and recognizing cohesive devices in written discourse (Brown, 2007). The Teaching Units Now that the principles for the course have been described, this section outlines the content and sequencing of the reading course. The course is divided into two units: the first half (weeks 1-8), and the second half (weeks 9-15). In the first half, students begin using each of the four sections of the Basic Reading Power 1 textbook: 1) Extensive Reading, 2) Vocabulary Building, 3) Comprehension Skills, and 4) Thinking in English. In the Extensive Reading section, students read fables found in the textbook and are guided by the teacher to use reading strategies to understand the passages. The Vocabulary Building introduces students to high frequency vocabulary, and teaches students to use a monolingual English dictionary to understand and study vocabulary. In the Comprehension Skills section, students practice word recognition by focusing on automatizing their recognition of letters, words, and phrases. Finally, in Thinking in English, learners read sentences and practice using the context to predict the missing words. Students also engage in speed reading each lesson, study ten words from the Academic Word List for weekly vocabulary quizzes, engage in 2,000 words of extensive reading each week, give a presentation on one graded reader which they have read, and take a mid-term test. The second unit follows the same pattern, continuing where the first unit left off. In the Comprehension Skills portion, students finish their practice with orthography and begin focusing on scanning practice using exercises found within the text. In the Extensive Reading section, students begin to read “stories,” which are both longer and more complex than the fables that they read before. Rationale for Course Content and Sequencing The content of the course includes four main components: explicit reading strategy instruction and practice, speed reading, extensive reading, and vocabulary study. The content was selected in accordance with my principles of teaching L2 reading, outlined above. Reading strategies are useful for students because they are applicable to all reading contexts. Furthermore, Macaro and Erler (2008) found that strategy instruction not only leads to better readers, but also more motivated readers. Keer and Verhaeghe (2005) also concluded that students’ self-efficacy rises when students engage in explicit reading comprehension strategy instruction lead by the teacher and with chances for peer interaction. Extensive reading has been shown to have positive effects on L2 learners’ reading performance and motivation. Waring and Takaki (2003) found that extensive reading helped L2 learners to automatize their recognition of high frequency vocabulary, leading to increased reading gains. Nakanishi (2015) also found extensive reading to improve L2 readers’ reading proficiency, while Yamashita (2015) concluded that this partially could be due to the pleasurable feeling that extensive reading gives students. The speed reading material used in the course could also be counted as extensive reading material, but with a timed reading pressure established by the teacher in class. The vocabulary component of the course is used to help students begin to recognize the vocabulary that they are most likely to encounter in real-world texts, and to help learners begin to automatize their processing of those words. The Basic Reading Power 1 book exposes students to vocabulary found in the first 2,000 words of the General Service List. Under the assumption that students have encountered those lexical items before, the quizzes in the course focus, instead, on vocabulary from the Academic Word List, a frequency list of vocabulary often found in academic and professional texts, and which might benefit students in their future studies. Evaluation Criteria and Procedures This section details the criteria by which teachers can judge learner’s success, as well as the measures and procedures used for grade calculation. To assess whether or not students have met the goals of this course, the teacher must look at the amount of reading that students willingly engaged in, the gains that students made in both reading speed and comprehension, students demonstrated ability to use reading skills, and the students’ attitudes towards reading at the end. The weekly extensive reading homework 83 requirement for this course is set to 2,000 words per week, under the assumption that weekly reading homework can be completed in under an hour if students are reading 50 words per minute. Due to the amount of in-class reading, students engage in a large amount of reading throughout the course, regardless of how many graded readers that they read at home. However, students nearing, reaching, or surpassing the 2,000 word-a-week mark could be seen as displaying a desire to read English material. This would demonstrate that the goal of motivating learners to read had been achieved. Reading speed and comprehension ability are graded quantitatively in speed reading exercises, extensive reading quizzes taken at home, and through term tests. Students are asked to chart their reading speed on a graph after each exercise. Over time, their reading time should go down, which is visually represented to students and teachers on their graphs. Although the goal for the course would be set to 150 WPM, if students gained a 20% or 10% reading speed gain (depending on their initial proficiency), the goal can be might have been met. Learners should also demonstrate 70-80% comprehension on most reading tasks through multiple choice testing. Students could demonstrate their use of reading strategies in class, or through test questions targeting specific strategies, pulled from the textbook. A passing mark of 70% on these kinds of questions would demonstrate an ability to use these strategies, and the ability to answer short-answer comprehension questions regarding intensive reading passages would demonstrate the ability to apply reading strategies. Finally, a survey regarding students’ attitudes towards L2 reading, and towards their ability to perform reading tasks, could be given at the beginning and end of class. If the majority of students indicated increased self-efficacy and positive attitudes towards L2 reading of any amount, that would be viewed as a goal met. Evaluation Measures and Procedures Vocabulary quizzes and speed reading are administered at the beginning of each lesson, partially as a warm-up exercise, and partially to motivate students to arrive to class on time. Speed reading exercises are marked by students on a graph, indicating the number of questions that they answered correctly and the rate at which they read. Students receive full marks if they answered an average of 70 percent of questions correctly, and if they raised their reading speed by 20 percent (or were able to read at a consistent speed of 150 words per minute). Vocabulary quizzes require students to make sentences with the quiz vocabulary, and students receive points based on correct semantic and syntactic use of the vocabulary terms. For homework, students are required to read 2,000 words worth of graded readers each week. In order to prove that they have completed the readings, students complete multiple choice quizzes from the www.mreader.org website. Students receive full credit for a score of 80% or higher on the quizzes. Students also complete two book review presentations on two graded readers of their choosing. The purpose of this task is to encourage students to practice the strategies of re-reading and organizing what they have read to produce the reports. The presentations and review content are graded qualitatively by the teacher and by peers. The mid-term and final tests assess students’ abilities to use reading strategies, engage in strategies independently, and to comprehend texts with a limited amount of time to read them. Test questions come from exercise questions in the Basic Reading Power 1 textbook, and reading passages come from Quinn et al.’s (2007) speed reading passages and from the Basic Reading Power 1 textbook. The passages are modified to encourage students to use strategies in order to comprehend the material. For example, key words in the text are omitted and replaced by XXXXXX symbols, which encourage students to guess the missing word, or to otherwise use the reading context to answer comprehension questions. Test questions are primarily multiple choice, which Nation (2009) noted are useful in that students’ writing abilities do not impede their ability to display understanding of reading, as short-answer questions might. Conclusion By focusing on explicit reading strategy instruction, extensive reading, and speed reading passages, this course should lead lower-level EFL readers to improve their reading abilities. It is also hoped that this course leads more learners to continue reading English material voluntarily as a means of pleasure. References Anderson, N. J. (2008). Practical English language teaching: Reading. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Baddeley, A. D., & Hitch, G. (1974). Working memory. In G. H. Bower (Ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation: Advances in research and theory (pp. 47-89). New York, NY: Associated Press. 84 Brown, H. D. (2007). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy. White Plains, NY: Pearson Longman. Coxhead, A. (2000). A new academic word list. TESOL Quarterly, 34(2), 213-238. Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1985). Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior. New York, NY: Plenum. Grabe, W., & Stoller, F. L. (2011) Teaching and researching reading (2nd ed.). London, England: Pearson Education. Hu, M., & Nation, I. S. P. (2000). Unknown vocabulary density and reading comprehension. Reading in a Foreign Language, 13(1), 403-430. Jeffries, L., & Mikulecky, B. S. (2009). Basic reading power 1 (3rd ed.). White Plains, NY: Pearson Education. Jeon, E., & Day, R. (2015). The effectiveness of core ER principles. Reading in a Foreign Language, 27(2), 302-307. Jiji. (2016, February 2). English skills of Japanese students fail to meet government targets. The Japan Times. Retrieved from http://www.japantimes.co.jp Keer, V. K., & Verhaeghe, J. P. (2005). Effects of explicit reading strategies instruction and peer tutoring on second and fifth graders’ reading comprehension and self-efficacy perceptions. The Journal of Experimental Education, 73(4), 291-329. Macaro, E., & Erler, L. (2008). Raising the achievement of young-beginner readers of French through strategy instruction. Applied Linguistics, 29(1), 90-119. Nakanishi, T. (2015). A meta-analysis of extensive reading research. TESOL Quarterly, 49(1), 6-37. Nation, I. S. P. (2007). The four strands. Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, 1(1), 1-12. Nation, I. S. P. (2009). Teaching ESL/EFL reading and writing (1st ed.). New York, NY: Routledge. Nuttall, C. (2005). Teaching reading skills in a foreign language (2nd ed.). Oxford, England: Heinemann Educational Books. Quinn, E., Nation, I. S. P., & Millet, S. (2007). Asian and Pacific speed readings for ESL learners: Twenty passages written at the one thousand word level. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Oxford University Press. Waring, R., & Takaki, M. (2003). At what rate do learners learn and retain new vocabulary from reading a graded reader? Reading in a Foreign Language, 15(2), 130-163. West, M. (1953). A general service list of English words. London England: Longman, Green and Co. Yamashita, J. (2015). In search of the nature of extensive reading in L2: Cognitive, affective, and pedagogical perspectives. Reading in a Foreign Language, 27(1), 168-181. 85 Developing Word Recognition and Reading Pleasure Mulia Teguh Nguyen One goal of an extensive reading program is to develop the pleasure of reading in learners (Day & Bamford, 2002). However, the problem with the program discussed in this paper is that most learners enter it after having been in the second language (L2) learning environment for a while, and have experienced difficulties learning another language. While the language threshold hypothesis states that learners need to have a sufficient level of English knowledge to be able to use skills and strategies from the first language (L1) in reading (Clarke, 1980), by the time the learners reach that level, they might not be motivated to simply take the time to appreciate the pleasures of reading and its benefits. This syllabus focuses on developing a learner’s enjoyment to read in English, as well as develop reading abilities at its lowest levels. This is done by introducing learners to shared reading in the L2, along with developing learner’s phonics abilities. While phonics programs are available in Japanese schools in Osaka, it is not widely implemented. Thus, any elementary school (ES) that wants to implement such a program is left on their own of how to develop one. The task can be difficult as many teachers in ESs do not have the English teaching knowledge to develop such a program. This syllabus hopes to provide a program that can be easily implemented by these schools. This paper is divided into five sections. In the first section, I provide the context for which this syllabus was designed. I will look at the institution, students, and resources available that the schools have that shaped the design of the syllabus. In the second section, I state the goals of the course and how the syllabus plans to accomplish the goals. In the third section, I explain my principles to teaching reading, and how it is implemented in the course. The fourth section explains the teaching units of the syllabus and provides a brief outline of the course, and how it is supposed to be taught. The final section looks at how teacher can evaluate the learners to see if the goals and objectives of the course have been met for the course. Teaching Context The teaching context is important for a designer to understand. This allows them to fully realize what they are able to do, what resources are available to them, how the syllabus will integrate with the school’s other programs, and most importantly, what the learners are able to do. Knowing this information allows the designer to make informed decisions about the direction the syllabus takes. This section of the paper explains the institution that this syllabus is aimed at, the target group of learners, the existing course that the program will be implemented into, and the resources available to implement such a syllabus. These influenced how I designed the syllabus. The Institution This syllabus was designed for use in any public ES in Osaka city. Most ESs in Osaka city are coeducational schools, with enrollments ranging from 400 to 700 students. In the earlier grades of ES, class sizes tend to be smaller than in the later grades with the average class for the third grades being 30 learners. There is usually one home room teacher (HRT) per class. It is not uncommon for the HRT to not speak English. The schools would also have available to them, a Native English Teacher (NET) one day a week, with priority being placed on the fifth and sixth grade learners. Most ESs in Osaka do not have an English education coordinator. It is up to the HRTs to decide if and when they will have English lessons. Because English has to be taught to the fifth and sixth year students, the HRT for those grades have priority of the NET as well as any resources needed to teach English effectively to their learners. The Target Group of Students The target group of learners for this syllabus, will be the third-year ES students. The students will be 8-9 years of age, and are usually of mixed abilities. There is typically no segregation of learners with learning disabilities. These learners usually have a learning support teacher to help with them along with other learners in the class. Most students would have no prior English experience, with some learners attending English language schools on the weekend or after school. Learners who attend the English language school will 86 all have different English learning experience depending on the schools that they attend. It is important that the program cater for all the different language learning experiences in a classroom. The Course In ESs in Osaka, English lessons do not start until the learners enter the fifth and sixth grade. For the third year, they usually do not have any English lessons. So this course has to fit in with the already full third year schedule. The third-year teachers might not have access to the NET teacher. So, this syllabus must be designed to be so that a HRT can teach without being fluent in English. The course will be a 15-week course, comprised of 10-minute classes three times a week for phonics and one 45-minute lesson a week for reading enjoyment. The 10-minute lessons are designed to be used in between the lessons that the learners have, and can be flexible to anywhere the teacher sees fit. The only caveat is that the three 10-minute lessons cannot be completed on the same day and must be spread over the week. This is to provide learners with spaced repetition for the skills, to that learners can better retain the skills that they have practiced (Khajah, Lindsey, & Mozer, 2014). The 45-minute reading lesson can be completed anytime that suits the teacher during the week. However, it is more desirable if the lesson is done after the teachers complete the three phonics lesson each week. This allows teachers to fully take advantage of the phonics instruction they have received. For the 10-minute lessons, it is best that the learners start from the beginning. However, because there will be spaced repetition of phonics, a learner can join in anywhere in the first eight weeks of the program, and still be able to understand the lessons. The 45-minute lessons are connected to the 10-minute lessons, however, they are treated as standalone reading lessons. Learners are able to participate in those lessons without prior experience of activities that has happened before. The idea of the course is to provide learners with regular English contact. With regular repeated contact, teachers are able to track a learner’s progress with the language, as well as take their time in developing the learners reading skills. The hope is then that this course can. The Available Facilities and Resources The lessons will be conducted in the learner’s regular classroom. In the regular classrooms, the teachers will have access to the learner’s stationery, something that they will not have if they move to a different room, such as the multi-purpose room. Most classrooms will have a CD player for teachers to play audio. Some classrooms will have a small TV and DVD player in their rooms. However, the TV is usually small and is not suitable to show any words. Because it is mounted up in the corner of the room, it will be difficult for learners to move around it. Most school now have access to projectors for use in the classrooms. To have access to the projector, the teachers must book the projectors in advanced, along with a computer. The other option is for teachers to conduct the lesson in either the multipurpose room, or the English Communications room. These rooms come equipped with a radio, as well as a large touch screen TV. However, similar to the NET, these resources are prioritized to the fifth and sixth grades for their English lessons. In the library, some schools have access to English reading books, but not many. So many of the reading resources will need to be created and printed out by the teacher. In the staff room, the teachers have access to printers that can print up to A3 size in color and in black and white. If there needs to be bigger pints of the text, most ES have access to printers that can print large posters. Summary Facilities, resources, and individual learners change depending on the school. However, this syllabus was designed with all possible variables in mind to ensure that any institution that does implement the syllabus, will be able to do so without too much troubles. The Goals and Objectives of the Course Goals and objectives are an important part of any syllabus, as they provide direction to classroom teachers. Goals and objectives need to be both accessible and achievable for the participants engaging in the course. As the learners are young, the goals need to be easy for the learners to accomplish, while also being difficult enough for learners to feel as if they have accomplished the goals. In this section, I outline the course goals and the rationale behind choosing those goals. I also look at the objectives that help teachers determine if learners are on their way to accomplish the goals. 87 By the end of this course, students will be able to; Read and understand words from Fry’s top 300-word list This goal was chosen as it entails learners being able to complete the first and most essential lower level processes of reading. Researchers, such as Perfetti (1985) argue that word recognition skill is the key component of reading comprehension, and that the more words in the text a learner can identify, the higher the learners chance of being able to comprehend the reading. While learners need to be able to syntactically parse and apply semantic preposition to the text, they are not able to engage in those steps if they are not able to recognize the words. Being able to recognize a word entails learners being able to complete three processes. Firstly, readers need to be able to recognize the letters of the alphabet. Secondly, readers need to be able to connect a corresponding sound to the words. This process requires readers to not only know the letter-sound correspondence, but other rules to help them arrive at the correct phonemic representation of the word. Finally, readers need to be able to attach the appropriate meaning to the word that they have read. This process is rapid in proficient readers (Grabe & Stoller, 2011). It is therefore, important for any reading course, to help develop the ability of the learners to decode and understand the individual words quickly. To accomplish this goal, students will be able to: a. Correctly identify and name the letter of the alphabet To be able to decode a word in English, the learners need to be familiar with the English writing system. Learners need to be able to correctly identify the letter in order to link the corresponding sound to it. b. Correctly recall the sounds corresponding with the letters and letter combinations of a word from Fry’s top 300 word lists As part of the decoding process, learners then need to be able to link the letter with its corresponding sound. This entails that learners also need to know how letter combinations effect the sounds. Learners also need to know that certain letter combinations produce a different sound. Learners need to be able to identify the combinations and produce the correct sounds. For example, learners will know that the T will make a /t/ and H will make the /h/ but TH will make either /ð/ or /θ/. c. Correctly blend the phonemes together to say the words correctly Learners need to be able to combine the separate phonemes to produce the correct phonological representation of the word they have read. This is important for the learners to be able to do this as the wrong pronunciation of a word can affect motivation, later on when reading out loud. d. Correctly link the word with the meaning The final process of word recognition is the attaching of semantic meaning to the decoded text. Learners need to be able to associate the correct meaning to the word that they have just read to help them begin to understand texts. Comprehend a short text This goal links to the first goal of the course. While it is important for learners to be able to read the individual words on the page, they need to be able to connect the words together to be able to understand the ideas on the page if teachers want learners to enjoy reading. The ability to comprehend a text is an important factor in reading enjoyment (Nuttall, 1996). If learners are not able to understand what they are reading, or what is being read to them, this affects their motivation. When learners try to comprehend a text, they interact with it purposefully (Guthrie & Wigfield, 1999). This requires the learners to have motivation to interact with the text. Not being able to understand a text affects the learner’s motivation to engage with the text, and it affects the interactions that the learners have with the text. It is therefore important, if the teachers want the learners to enjoy reading, for them to increase the learner’s comprehension of a text. To accomplish the goal of learners being able to comprehend a text, the students will be able to: a. Recognize key words in a text and how to read them. Understanding all the words in a sentence is not required for a learner to comprehend a text. Learners need to notice the difference between a content word and a function word and how important the word is in comprehending the sentence. As the learners progress further in the course, the text will highlight the key words in a sentence. An objective for the course is for the learners to recognize the key words in a sentence that help them understand the sentence. b. Link key words together to get an understanding of the text. 88 Learners need to be able to link the key words together to help them create an understanding of what is occurring in the text. This can help the learner later on to then start connecting multiple ideas together to help comprehend the full text. Enjoy reading in English As stated earlier, reading comprehension is linked with reading enjoyment (Nuttall, 1996), if learners are able to comprehend a text, they will enjoy reading it more. Conversely, if learners enjoy reading, they put more effort into trying to comprehend the text. This goal was chosen as it ties in with a principle of Extensive Reading (ER) along with the previous goal of the course. ER states that the goal for the programs is for learners to enjoy reading (Day & Bamford, 2002). However, when learners get to the stage in their English education where they have the ability to read a lot of text, it can be difficult for them to be motivated to read English as they associate reading with learning. Fostering reading enjoyment earlier can therefore be beneficial to the learner as the focus is taken off the learning aspect of reading. By focusing on comprehending and interacting with the text, teachers can increase the learner’s enjoyment. To accomplish the goal of enjoying reading, the learners will be able to: a. Follow along as the teachers read the text While learners are listening to the teacher read the text, they need to be able to follow along with the text. This helps learners understand where in the text the teacher is up to, and can be motivating for the learner if they are also able to comprehend the text at the same time. b. Interact with an English text Interaction with the text is important part of enjoying reading. Many times, during reading class, learners just read a text and check for comprehension through translation. Learners are not asked to do anything else with the text. Having a learner just listen to or read a text can get boring for the learners. Interacting with a text involves learners being more of an active participant in the reading; it engages the learners in the reading process and helps foster motivation for reading (Kindle, 2013). Utilize the sound out the word strategy This goal was chosen as it ties in with the ability for learners to read a word. Readers in the L1 start reading with a large phonological word bank. While L1 learners might not have encountered a word visually, they might have encountered the word through aural input. Having the ability to the link the letters to the sound, and sound out any unknown spelling, can help the L1 learners create a connection from the written word to their aural representation they might already have, which can lead them to realize that they recognize the word (Grabe & Stoller, 2011). While L2 learners do not have a large phonological word bank that an L1 reader might have, being able to sound out a word is still important in the L2. Sounding out a word helps with the phonological representation of the word. Even without understanding the meaning of a word, being able to process the orthography and link it to a sound positions learners in the correct direction to recognize a word. The linking of letters to sounds is a reading skill that beginning L1 readers rely on to help them with their word recognition (Adams, 1990). However, in L2 language learning in Japan, little time is spent on developing the letter-sound correspondences in the L2 classroom. The inability to phonologically link a word to its orthography impacts reading speed and accuracy (Plotek et al., 2015). This can lead to learners not enjoying reading as Nuttall (1996) posited that there is a link between reading speed and enjoyment, in addition to comprehension. With the Japanese writing and sounds systems being different to that of English, it is therefore important for schools to focus on the phonics instruction to help learners build up the letter-sound correspondence to aid in their reading. Phonetic instruction is more helpful for younger learners than it is for adult learners (National Reading Panel, 2000). This is because at younger ages, readers rely heavily on the phonological encoding of a word to be able to process the printed text (Perfetti, Landi, & Oakhill, 2015). Even with limited vocabulary knowledge in the L2 many learners are able to connect a visual picture based representation of a word with its phonological representation. It is up to the teachers to help learners to start processing words orthographically, which phonics instruction can aide with. Because this syllabus is targeted towards learners in the third year of elementary school, building up a learner’s letter-sound correspondence is more beneficial as it helps learners start to build up word recognition as learners will likely encounter more unknown words in reading texts. Many of the objectives for this goal is similar to the goal of reading a word, the learners will be able to: 89 a. Correctly identify the alphabet and their corresponding phoneme This objective is similar to the objectives require for learners to read a word. Learners need to be able to identify the letters and be able to link a phonological representation to it. b. Correctly recall the sounds of the different letter combinations presented in Jolly Phonics Learners need to know that certain letter combinations produce a different sound. Learners need to be able to identify the combinations and produce the correct sounds. c. Make use of letter-sound correlations to produce an approximately correct pronunciation of an unknown word Learners not only need to produce individual sounds of the letters, but they also need to be able to combine the sounds together to produce a word. This is the step that allows learners to link the orthographical spelling of the word to their phonological representation if they have encountered the word before. If not, it allows the encoding of the orthographical spelling to the phonological representation, so that learners can recall and remember the word better for the next time they encounter the words. Summary While there are only five goals for this course, they are important in developing a learner’s reading abilities. Each highlight a key area in reading which a learner might not necessarily have the opportunity to develop in their English education. The development of reading strategy, understanding the purposes of reading, interacting with a text, and reading enjoyment. Principles for Teaching Reading Developing skills in the L2 takes a lot of time. The problem with many English courses in Japan is that they implement the use of a textbook syllabus. There is the expectation placed on the teachers to try to complete the contents of the textbook. This in turn means that teachers do not have the time to fully develop some skills required to function in the L2. This syllabus is influenced by my principles of the teaching of reading. The three principles that guided this syllabus are provide learners with a lot of varied input, provide learners with plenty of opportunities to practice and review, and provide interactive opportunities between the learners and the text. Provide learners with a lot of input At the earlier stages of second language education, it is important for learners to receive a lot of input (Krashen, 1975). This means that learners need to be exposed to a lot of English listening and reading texts. This helps the learners get used to the English sounds and orthography, as it is different to the Japanese ones. It also provides positive evidence on how to use the different English language features. Reading input with an aural component shows learners how English words look, their shape and spelling, and also the sounds of the words. Both of which is required if learners want to develop their word recognition skills. It also shows learners letter and sound combinations that are different to that of their own language, i.e. word features such as constant clusters, and open syllables. It is therefore important for learners to receive as much input as possible. Japanese learners being in a foreign language setting are at a disadvantage, as they might not get a lot of opportunities to receive input. The use of shared reading in the syllabus provides learners with not only written input, but the equivalent aural input. This provides learners with double the amount of input than just reading a text. The use of both inputs helps learners make connections between the sounds of the word and can increase the learner’s ability to learn a word (Webb & Chang, 2012a). Shared reading also allows teachers to help learners comprehend the text by asking them questions that focus their attentions to certain features of a text that they learners might have missed. Provide learners with plenty of opportunities to build fluency and review With most schools in Japan using a textbook syllabus, there is the expectation from other teachers, students, parents, and administration for the teacher to cover all the information that is in the textbook (Wiggins & McTighe, 2006). In their rush to complete the textbook, the learners are exposed to many language features once, before moving on to the next points. This is problematic as it decreases the learners chance to be able to retain and recall the information. Research has consistently found that learners who are exposed to or use space repetition are able to retain information for longer, as well as recall that information quicker (Khajah, Lindsey, & Mozer, 2014; Miles, 2014). It is necessary for a program that there be opportunities for learners to review, and recall information repeatedly, to strengthen the recollection of information. It is also good to help learners automatize key processes. 90 Word recognition happens rapidly in a proficient reader (Grabe & Stoller, 2011). However, for lower-proficiency readers, this happens at a much slower rate. For them to achieve rapid processing, they need opportunities to use the skills repeatedly so they can be automatized (DeKeyser, 2002). The problem with language learning classrooms is that learners are exposed of different skills and strategies a couple of times, yet they are not usually given enough practice for the skills to become automatized. This syllabus has learners repeatedly use the same reading routines so that access to certain actions, becomes automatized. Learners will repeatedly use the same sounding out exercises to help them automatize the different skill that they need to help with developing their reading. They are given many opportunities to recall words to help with the quick recognition of the words. With enough practice and repetition learners should be able to process words quickly and automatically, or be able to call upon the strategies to help them read unknown words. Provide interactive opportunities with text While learners should interact with each other, this principle deals with learners interacting with the text, rather than seeing it as an object. Having learners interact with a text means that learners are constantly having to monitor their comprehension of the text to be able to respond to the text appropriately. With classes that focus on input, there is a tendency for teachers to believe that learners comprehend a text because they are able to correctly answer the comprehension questions correctly. However, this belief is flawed as learners do not have to fully understand the text to be answer some of the comprehension questions (Swain, 1995). The type of interaction with the text should depend on text type. Eason et al. (2012) found that depending on the text genre and interaction that the teachers expected from the learners, comprehension of the text increased or decreased. They found narrative genre benefitted from interactions that directly linked to the information in the text, while expositions benefitted from interactions that required inferencing. If the text is linked to the appropriate activities, learners can develop a much deeper comprehension for the reading texts. The use of shared reading helps proving learner’s opportunities to interact with the text. At first, it is the teacher that mediates the interaction between the learners and the text. This allows teachers to provide learners with interesting, and varied activities to help learners enjoy these interactions. It is the hope that later, learners can find out their own way to interact with the text. Summary These principles are important when trying to develop reading skills in the L2. The three principles can be applied to many other areas of L2 language development as well, as these three principles are missing from many language programs in Japan. The Teaching Units The syllabus is a 15-week course, with two programs. The first program is a phonics instructional program, and the second is a fostering reading enjoyment program. They both run along-side each other and are used to complement each other. This section will focus on the teaching units of the course. It will look at the separate units, and the organizations of the learning units. It will provide a rational for the sequencing of the units and lessons. The syllabus is split into three units. Names and cry’s, Letters and sounds, and Sounds and Words. All the units are designed to flow from one to the next. Unit 1: Names and Cry’s The focus of the first unit is to familiarize the learner to the English alphabet and have learners distinguish the difference between the name of the letter, and the sound that it can produce. The goal by the end of the three lessons is that the learners know the orthography of the English alphabet, and understand that the Letter A is the name of the alphabet, but it produces a different sound when being read. The learners will be constantly reviewing the English alphabet throughout the whole course, so for this unit, learners only need to be aware of the difference between the name of the letter and the sound it produces. As the main goal of this unit to get learners aware of the differences between the names and the sounds of the letters, there is no shared reading for this unit. To help the learners recognize the alphabet, the unit will be getting the learners to sing the ABC song. They will sing the song in order and out of order, to help them recognize the different letters. Using songs, learners will also listen to the Meet the Phonics song by the Preschool Prep company. This song will help learners distinguish between the letters and the phonic. At the end of the unit the learners will be given a booklet styled in the same way as a Pokédex (a device form the game and TV 91 show Pokémon), called an Alphadex. The learners personalize it and it will be used throughout the second unit. Unit 2: Letters to Sound The focus of the second unit is to connect all the letters for the alphabet to their corresponding sound. This will take about 7 weeks to connect the two. The idea will be to introduce the phonics slowly, and to provide the learners with a lot of practice and repetition. The goal by the end of the unit is for the learners to be able to recognize and say the letter’s name and the sounds that they letter make. The main activity for this unit is the completion of the Alphadex. As learners are introduced to the new letter-sound correlation they draw a picture of the letter in the Alphadex, and provide katakana approximation of how the letter sounds. The teachers are encouraged to help learners write the katakana so the help them minimize the katakana pronunciation. Learners are asked to use the katakana as it allows learners to associate a sound to the letter, which learners can remember and produce. As learners practice the letter and phonics by doing various activities, they get a stamp in their booklets, once they have received their final stamp, the teacher would have deemed that they have mastered the letter-sound correlation. The goal if learners to master all of the phonics by the end of the 15 weeks. This unit also has a shared reading component. The shared reading books will have words that highlight the twelve phonics that are covered of the two weeks. To make it easier for the teachers to prepare stories, the vocabulary should be taken from the Jolly Phonics Word Bank. The first six phonics the learners should know, but the second six phonics the learners do not know. The teachers can encourage the learners to fill out their Alphadex with a guess of how they think the letter sounds, and it can be used when the learners are taught the second six phonics. In addition to the Alphadex, there is a list of shared reading activities that the teacher can have the learners complete while reading the story. Unit 3: Sounds to Words The focus of the third unit is to start having learners blend the phonemes together to sound out words. The goal of this unit is to help learners develop and try to automatize the sound out the word strategy. This is so the learners can utilize the strategy when they encounter reading difficulties. The main activities will be sound out the word focused activities to help learners develop the skill. This includes having learners read nonsense words, or providing learners with words that they have not countered before, in the hopes of getting them to use the sound it out strategy. The other main activity is the matching game. After they read the unknown word, the learners are tasked with trying to guess the meanings of the many different words they have just read. The book stories will highlight the same ones in the previous section, with the book still relying on the use of the Jolly Phonics Word Bank. However, teachers should also mix in words from the top 1,000 content words form from the General Service List (GSL) as they write their own stories if possible. This helps learners prepare for more common words that they will see when reading book. The last book for the session will be a common children’s book of the learner’s choosing. This is to provide teachers with the opportunity to evaluate the learners as they read. As stated earlier, the units were designed to flow from one unit to the next. While this might suggest that learners need to start the course at the beginning, the way that the lessons are set out with spaced repetition means that learners can join in anytime as the teacher are encouraged to continually review previous content. Rationale for Course Content and Sequencing The syllabus has two distinct parts: phonics instruction and shared reading instruction. The two complement each other and help learners develop reading skills in the L2. The phonics instruction helps the learners participate in the shared reading books, while the shared reading helps learners thinking about how to read the different words, and to help strengthen their word knowledge. For the phonics instruction, the sequence of the unit was to have learners practice word recognition from the lowest level first. In the word recognition process of reading, the first step for the learner is to decode the orthographic spelling of the word. They then attach a phonological representation, before attaching meaning (Adams, 1990). The course was designed to move the learners through the three stages of word recognition, where the last unit was not only decoding the text, but also adding in semantic meaning to the word. To help with the letter-sound correlation stage, I decided to use the Jolly Phonics groups for phonics instruction. While there are research that points to the benefits of phonics in the reading program (Hatcher, Hulme, Snowling, 2004; Stuart, 1999), they do not specify which program were the 92 best. They did however posit that including phonics instruction with the reading course increases the learners word recognition skills and that teaching phonetics, was more beneficial than not adding it to the course (Connelly, Johnston, & Thompson, 2001; Chard & Osborn, 1999). I chose Jolly Phonics because they state on their website that the first six phonemes of their program produced more content words than any other groupings they could think of. This was important to consider, as the shared reading books are closely tied to the phonics that they learn. The shared reading books use the word bank lists that jolly phonics provided, so that teachers could have a large bank of words in which to create their first book to best highlight the letter-sound correlation. To help cement the letter-sound correlations, I chose to use the theme of Pokémon. Pokémon is a TV show and game series that the learners all know at the age. In the TV show, the different Pokémon are synonymous with saying their name as a cry, however, in the games, their cries are completely different. It was this link between the names of the Pokémon and cries that I wanted the learners think of it in the same way, as using something that was familiar to the learners would motivate them (Dörnyei, 2001) to learn the differences between the two. The shared reading instruction is conducted differently to the phonics instruction. The idea behind the shared reading was to have learners listen to, and use the letter-sound correlations that they had leant in the phonics lessons. The books would be easy for the learners to follow, and use a lot of repetitions to get learners used to the listening and reading of the words. The activities in the lessons are up to the teacher. They are designed so that the teachers are able to use them with any lessons in the designated units, the teacher would just insert content of the lesson in to fit the activity. The rationale behind this was that teachers could use the same activity again if the learners enjoyed it, or vary the activities to keep lessons fun and exciting. Summary The two courses are designed to complement each other so that the learners build a strong connection between phonics and reading. This is done by highlighting the phonics learnt in the smaller lessons with the reading of the book. Enjoyment is fostered through the course with a variety of activities that can be used for both the phonics and the reading programs that has the learners. While motivation is kept up with the theme of Pokémon, along with the motivation to understand the reading text. Evaluation Criteria and Procedures Evaluation of the learners is an important part of any education program. It allows teachers to see where their learners are compared to what is expected from them. It also allows the teachers to tailor instruction to better help learners reach the goals of the course. In this section, I look at the evaluation criteria of the syllabus. I look at the criteria the teachers check the students against to determine if the learners have met the necessary conditions to reach the course goals. I also look at ways in which teachers can collect that information to measure the learner’s progress in the course. Evaluation Criteria It is important for students, parents, administration, and the teachers to be able to track the progress of the learners. However, as the learners that this syllabus is target at are young, I would use criteria that allows learners to show what they can remember as well as understand when it comes to the learner’s performance. In the goals and objectives section of this syllabus, each goal was stated, with clear objectives on how the course will accomplish its goals. The objectives can be used as criteria for teachers to determine to what extent the learners have achieved their goals. To do this, the objectives can be turned into a checklist so that teachers have a running criteria to understand if learners are developing the different skill. As the learners are young, I would evaluate the learners using a rating scale (Brown, 2009). Rating scales allow for teachers to observe the learners and make judgment of their overall abilities as they engage in various activities over the course and adjust accordingly. I would not use any other evaluation criteria to judge the learners on their performance in the different skills. Evaluation Measures and Procedures This syllabus is targeted toward the development of a learners reading abilities. Therefore, I am of the opinion that assessment in this syllabus should encompass more informal procedures. Teachers should not force learners to perform at such a young age, while performing complex task such as language learning. All evaluation measures should be conducted without placing too much anxiety on the learner. 93 For this syllabus, my main evaluation procedures would be to use classroom observations. Observations allows teachers to monitor and assess the learners without placing too much stress on the learner. This can have learners show more accurate work, as learners would not feel the anxiety that comes when they are aware of people looking at their performance on something (Brown, 2007). This allows teachers to get more information about their learners, and can help them if they notice something in their observations. Brown (2007) lists several possible areas of student performance that can be observed in the classroom. They include; interaction with other learners, student responses, evidence of comprehension, and evidence of learning. I would use observations as evidence that learners are attempting how to do the different skills taught. I would also couple the observations with checklists to help to what degree a learner might have accomplished a learning objective. To find out if the course has reached its goal of fostering reading pleasures in learners, I would use reflection sheets at the end of the reading lessons to have learners review their feelings on the reading. As the learners do not have a command of the English language I would have them comment on the lessons in Japanese, or fill out a reflection sheet in which they color in a face to determine their level of satisfaction with the lesson. The HRT will then tally the results to have a gauge of how the learners feel about the course. This reflection of the course helps teacher understand what areas that teachers need to improve on to help the learners enjoy reading in English. The final evaluation measure I would use the learners work as a portfolio. As learners will be doing various activities in the classroom, teachers can use the work to help evaluate the learners. For example, a big part of the phonics course is the use of the Alphadex. Teachers can use the Alphadex to monitor the progress of the letter-sound correlation. This is done by learners collecting stamps every time they complete an activity in class that was targeted towards the understanding of that phoneme. By looking at how many mastery stamps a learner has, the teacher can keep record of what the learners are remember for the phonics. All other work done in the class can also be added the portfolio of work done by the learners, such as worksheets, and activities that the learners have done as part of the reading classes. As the syllabus is one that is focused on developing skills, evaluation needs to be conducted in which learners are not put under pressure to perform. All the evaluation procedures ensure that teachers are getting the information about the learner’s abilities, while they are performing at their best. Summary The evaluation of the learner is important for teachers. it allows them to understand the level of the learners. For this syllabus this is done by informative methods, so to not put too much pressure on the learners to perform. This allows learners to show their reading abilities accurately. 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