| Research indicates that second language acquisition can be aided by explicit
language study (e.g., rule giving, consciousness raising, vocabulary work)
(Ellis, 1990; Schmitt, 1995), and meaningful language use (Brown, 1994;
Long, 1990) in interactive contexts (Pica, Young and Doughty, 1987; Swain,
1985). There is, however, strong evidence that the primary requisite for
significant acquisition is massive comprehensible input (Krashen, 1988;
Nation, 1997). Although many would argue that input alone is not sufficient
for gaining native-like fluency in a foreign language (Lightbown and Spada,
1993), few would deny its necessity. The key concept here is comprehension
or understanding - text must be slightly above students’ present level.
Graded readers, organized by level, are an excellent source for both reading
and listening. All of the major publishers offer graded readers with an
accompanying tape or CD. These can be supplemented by extensive listening
materials available on the internet. The aim of this research was to investigate
how students could do Extensive Reading (ER) and Extensive Listening (EL)
in English classes. The Pache grant was used to purchase CD sets of graded
readers (GR); that is, the graded reader and the CD accompanying it. Following
is a short description of the research to this point: |
| Reading I [MT], Reading II [MT] |
| ER was introduced into Reading I classes at the beginning of the first
semester of 2005, and continued through into the second semester Reading
II classes. Students read the graded readers outside of class, and were
required to complete their homework in a number of different ways: writing
sentence summaries, keyword summaries, character descriptions, changing
the story, writing a sequel. Students also reported on their graded readers
in class in a number of different ways: partner reporting, small group
reporting, or written reporting. In the second semester, some students
only read their graded readers, others could listen to recording of their
graded readers, and other students could do both. |
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| English Communication I [PP], English Communication II [PP] |
| Extensive Listening was introduced into the Listening Laboratory classes
from the first semester of 2005. Students listened to a recording of the
graded reader in the listening class, and finished reading it for homework,
verbally reporting on the book in the Communication class the following
week. Students also read aloud the conversations from each chapter. Students
listened and read, read only, or listened only, and student comprehension
measured. Initially, all students did the same book at the same time, but
in the second semester students could choose their own books, their own
pace, and their own listening/reading mix. Students completed two questionnaires
in the second semester of 2005 (approval was obtained from the Research
Ethics Committee). |
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| Together with Harumi Kimura and Mari Ohtake, a poster presentation entitled
“Hey, listen to this! Extensive Listening is fun” was given at the Japan
Association of Language Teachers 2005 Annual Conference, held at Shizuoka,
reporting on this project. |
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