Vocabulary development through reading: A comparison of approaches

<p>This thesis compares two approaches to extensive reading to determine the extent that they facilitate vocabulary development. The first approach is a traditional reading-only approach, and the second approach is a task-based approach which supplements reading with post-reading meaning-focused discussions. These two approaches are compared using a battery of tests, most notably a measure for productive knowledge of word associations. For years, scholars have believed that word associations have potential to reveal important information about a person’s language proficiency. One reason word associations are intriguing is that a large amount of a person’s lexicon can be assessed (Meara, 2009). This is possible because a large amount of data from the learner can be gathered in a short period of time. Another intriguing aspect of word association data is that it is one aspect of vocabulary knowledge that is not based on correct performance. This raises the question of an appropriate means of assigning value to the associations, a question which still hinders research to this day. Recent research has made progress in this area with a multi-level taxonomy (i.e., Fitzpatrick, 2007), creating a picture of the types of associations which exist in a learner’s lexicon. However, this taxonomy does not address the strength of the association. Wilks and Meara (2007) have attempted to tackle association strength through the use of self-report measures, whereby a test-taker reports strength of association on a four-point scale from weak to strong. This has left them with "...problems which we have not yet solved, notably a tendency for some test takers to claim that most associations are strong, while others appear to be very reluctant to identify strong associations..." (Meara, 2009, p. 80). In other words, the question of how to appropriately determine association strength is still unanswered. In the current study lexical development, in the form of word association knowledge, was measured using a multi-response word association test. Participants were assessed on their knowledge of 60 target words which occurred in five graded readers that they read over the course of the study. The learners first self-reported their knowledge of the 60 target words in terms of no knowledge, form knowledge, or meaning knowledge. The students provided up to five associations for each word that they reported at either the form or meaning levels. They did this once before reading the five graded readers, and again after finishing the graded readers. The associations provided by the students were analyzed using Latent Semantic Analysis, a method for computing semantic similarity between words (Landauer & Dumais, 1997). The associations a learner provided for each target word were assigned a similarity value representing how similar they were to the target word to which they were provided. The hypothesis was that the students who engaged in the post-reading discussion activities would show greater increases in associational knowledge of the target words than those students who did not participate in the discussions. The major finding from this thesis was that the students who struggled with a word during the post-reading discussion and were provided an opportunity to discuss the word with their group developed associational knowledge to a significantly greater degree than those students who did not encounter the words during the discussions. This emphasizes the facilitative role that meaning-focused output activities have on vocabulary development. In addition, the associational knowledge developed at the initial stages of word learning (i.e., from no knowledge to form knowledge), continued to develop from form knowledge of a word to meaning knowledge of the word, and was also developing even when words did not change in reported knowledge. This suggests a continual restructuring of the learners’ lexicon, exemplifying past research (e.g., Henriksen, 1999). Overall, the findings suggest that an extensive reading approach which includes opportunities for meaning-focused interaction has greater benefits for lexical development when compared to a traditional reading-only approach to extensive reading.</p>

Vocabulary development through reading: A comparison of approaches

<p>This thesis compares two approaches to extensive reading to determine the extent that they facilitate vocabulary development. The first approach is a traditional reading-only approach, and the second approach is a task-based approach which supplements reading with post-reading meaning-focused discussions. These two approaches are compared using a battery of tests, most notably a measure for productive knowledge of word associations. For years, scholars have believed that word associations have potential to reveal important information about a person’s language proficiency. One reason word associations are intriguing is that a large amount of a person’s lexicon can be assessed (Meara, 2009). This is possible because a large amount of data from the learner can be gathered in a short period of time. Another intriguing aspect of word association data is that it is one aspect of vocabulary knowledge that is not based on correct performance. This raises the question of an appropriate means of assigning value to the associations, a question which still hinders research to this day. Recent research has made progress in this area with a multi-level taxonomy (i.e., Fitzpatrick, 2007), creating a picture of the types of associations which exist in a learner’s lexicon. However, this taxonomy does not address the strength of the association. Wilks and Meara (2007) have attempted to tackle association strength through the use of self-report measures, whereby a test-taker reports strength of association on a four-point scale from weak to strong. This has left them with "...problems which we have not yet solved, notably a tendency for some test takers to claim that most associations are strong, while others appear to be very reluctant to identify strong associations..." (Meara, 2009, p. 80). In other words, the question of how to appropriately determine association strength is still unanswered. In the current study lexical development, in the form of word association knowledge, was measured using a multi-response word association test. Participants were assessed on their knowledge of 60 target words which occurred in five graded readers that they read over the course of the study. The learners first self-reported their knowledge of the 60 target words in terms of no knowledge, form knowledge, or meaning knowledge. The students provided up to five associations for each word that they reported at either the form or meaning levels. They did this once before reading the five graded readers, and again after finishing the graded readers. The associations provided by the students were analyzed using Latent Semantic Analysis, a method for computing semantic similarity between words (Landauer & Dumais, 1997). The associations a learner provided for each target word were assigned a similarity value representing how similar they were to the target word to which they were provided. The hypothesis was that the students who engaged in the post-reading discussion activities would show greater increases in associational knowledge of the target words than those students who did not participate in the discussions. The major finding from this thesis was that the students who struggled with a word during the post-reading discussion and were provided an opportunity to discuss the word with their group developed associational knowledge to a significantly greater degree than those students who did not encounter the words during the discussions. This emphasizes the facilitative role that meaning-focused output activities have on vocabulary development. In addition, the associational knowledge developed at the initial stages of word learning (i.e., from no knowledge to form knowledge), continued to develop from form knowledge of a word to meaning knowledge of the word, and was also developing even when words did not change in reported knowledge. This suggests a continual restructuring of the learners’ lexicon, exemplifying past research (e.g., Henriksen, 1999). Overall, the findings suggest that an extensive reading approach which includes opportunities for meaning-focused interaction has greater benefits for lexical development when compared to a traditional reading-only approach to extensive reading.</p>

What Makes a Good Graded Reader: Engaging with Graded Readers in the Context of Extensive Reading in L2

<p>It is widely accepted in the ESOL field that Extensive Reading is good for ESOL learners and there are many studies purporting to show that this is true. As a result, the publication of Graded Readers in English today is a major commercial concern, although David Hill (2008, p. 189), former director of the Edinburgh Project on Extensive Reading, in his most recent study of Graded Readers, comments that they are being produced 'in a hostile climate where extensive reading is little valued, practised or tested.' However, anecdotal evidence from teachers and researchers claims that learners do not read anywhere near the recommended one Graded Reader a week prescribed by Nation and Wang (1999, p. 355) to provide the necessary amount of comprehensible input for increasing vocabulary. If these claims and Hill's comments are true, there may be a mismatch between the kind of reading material produced for learners of English and the nature and teaching of the texts currently recommended by teachers and librarians. Such a situation would not only be a huge waste in terms of resources; it could also lead to the alienation of generations of English learners from a potentially valuable means of improving and enjoying language learning. My study investigates this discrepancy by looking at the perceptions of the main stakeholders in Graded Readers, namely the publishers, the judges and academics, the teachers and the learners, to see how they differ and why. As each population is different, the methodologies used in the study are various, making for an approach described as 'bricolage' (Lincoln & Guba, 2000a, p. 164). At the heart of the study are five case studies of learners, set against the backdrop of data gathered from all the stakeholders. As the results indicate that the purpose of the reading appears to govern the perceptions of the individual learner, I found Louise Rosenblatt's (Rosenblatt, 1978) Transactional Theory of Reading Response was an appropriate framework within which to interpret the data.</p>

What Makes a Good Graded Reader: Engaging with Graded Readers in the Context of Extensive Reading in L2

<p>It is widely accepted in the ESOL field that Extensive Reading is good for ESOL learners and there are many studies purporting to show that this is true. As a result, the publication of Graded Readers in English today is a major commercial concern, although David Hill (2008, p. 189), former director of the Edinburgh Project on Extensive Reading, in his most recent study of Graded Readers, comments that they are being produced 'in a hostile climate where extensive reading is little valued, practised or tested.' However, anecdotal evidence from teachers and researchers claims that learners do not read anywhere near the recommended one Graded Reader a week prescribed by Nation and Wang (1999, p. 355) to provide the necessary amount of comprehensible input for increasing vocabulary. If these claims and Hill's comments are true, there may be a mismatch between the kind of reading material produced for learners of English and the nature and teaching of the texts currently recommended by teachers and librarians. Such a situation would not only be a huge waste in terms of resources; it could also lead to the alienation of generations of English learners from a potentially valuable means of improving and enjoying language learning. My study investigates this discrepancy by looking at the perceptions of the main stakeholders in Graded Readers, namely the publishers, the judges and academics, the teachers and the learners, to see how they differ and why. As each population is different, the methodologies used in the study are various, making for an approach described as 'bricolage' (Lincoln & Guba, 2000a, p. 164). At the heart of the study are five case studies of learners, set against the backdrop of data gathered from all the stakeholders. As the results indicate that the purpose of the reading appears to govern the perceptions of the individual learner, I found Louise Rosenblatt's (Rosenblatt, 1978) Transactional Theory of Reading Response was an appropriate framework within which to interpret the data.</p>

INCIDENTAL LEARNING OF COLLOCATIONS FROM MEANINGFUL INPUT

This longitudinal study investigates the effect of mode of reading on the incidental learning of collocations and factors that affect learning. One hundred Vietnamese pre-intermediate learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) were assigned to either an experimental group or a control group (no treatment). In 9 weeks, the experimental group read three graded readers containing 32 target collocations in three counterbalanced reading modes: reading-only, reading-while-listening, and reading with textual input enhancement (i.e., underlining). Learning gains were measured by a form recall pretest and delayed posttest. The results showed that reading mode had a significant effect on incidental collocation learning. Reading with textual input enhancement resulted in significantly higher learning gains than the other reading modes. Reading-while-listening was also more beneficial for collocation learning than reading-only. Learners’ prior vocabulary knowledge and congruency of collocations were significant predictors of the learning gains.

Extensive Reading with Authentic Materials

This paper describes an action research project on modifying an extensive reading (ER) program by replacing graded readers with authentic materials in its final semester. This was done in response to low student engagement with ER in previous semesters. Twenty-one second year university students were introduced to authentic materials via the instructor, then shown how to self-select for level-appropriate materials of interest. The paper details the environment in which this occurred. Student feedback responses suggest that the assignment improved student engagement and ultimately provided a meaningful learning experience. 本論は、グレーデッドリーダーを正規の教材の代替として利用する多読（ER）プログラムの導入に関するアクションリサーチプロジェクトについて説明する。 これは、前学期に学生のERへの関与が少なかったことに対応して行われたものである。大学 2年生 21人を対象に、インストラクターを通じて正規の教材が紹介され、次にレベルに適した興味のある教材を自己選択する方法が示された。 学生からのフィードバックによると、当該課題は学生の関与を改善し、最終的に有意義な学習体験を提供したことを示唆している。

Measuring the effects of repeated exposure to children’s graded readers

The present study presents an instructional procedure developed in an attempt to enhance incidental learning through graded readers in class, the Multiple Incidental Exposures (MIE) procedure, and compares it to a more common procedure involving reading and doing the exercises, which is referred to as Traditional Explicit Practice (TEP). Participants were 44 Catalan/Spanish students (aged 10–11 years) taking the fifth course of primary education in a school in Catalonia. Participants belonged to two intact classes that were randomly assigned a condition: MIE group ( n = 23, n = 15 males, n = 8 females) and the TEP group ( n = 21, n = 12 males, n = 9 females). The MIE group was first told the story by their teacher, then read and listened to the graded readers twice (first collectively and later on individually), to be followed by a True/False activity and a jigsaw reading task. The TEP group read and listened to the story collectively once and then performed a series of traditional explicit exercises very similar in format to those included at the end of the graded reader. Participants were administered a vocabulary test, a grammar test and a perception of pronunciation test following a pre- post-test design. A questionnaire on the participants’ attitudes was also administered on the post-test. The results show that while the TEP procedure is more effective for grammar learning, the MIE and TEP procedures are equally effective in terms of vocabulary and pronunciation. In terms of enjoyment and perception of learning, both groups showed comparable results.

IMPACT OF EXTENSIVE READING ON SOPHOMORE ENGLISH MAJORS’ READING COMPREHENSION DEVELOPMENT AT DALAT UNIVERSITY

This paper reports on an extensive reading program utilizing graded readers and the Moodle Reader for sophomore English majors at Dalat University. The main purpose of the study was to determine the impact of such a program on student reading abilities and to explore their attitudes toward the program. Data were collected from pretests, posttests, and questionnaires. Findings indicated that the extensive reading program was largely responsible for the higher mean gain on the posttest made by the experimental group, and that the majority of students expressed positive opinions toward the program. The paper concludes by putting forward some pedagogical implications on the implementation of such a program with English language students and lecturers in their courses of reading.

O ensino de literatura em aulas de inglês

O principal objetivo deste estudo é analisar como a versão facilitada do conto “A queda da casa de Usher” reconfigura aspectos literários ligados ao Gótico, apontando como os elementos fundamentais dessa tradição encontrados no texto original foram preservados, simplificados ou eliminados no texto facilitado. Os resultados sugerem que o texto literário facilitado consegue redefinir os elementos fundamentais do gótico apesar da simplificação linguística. Alguns traços da estética gótica de Poe transbordam o texto literário, irradiando-se para outros componentes do graded reader, tais como as ilustrações e as atividades pedagógicas. Observa-se, portanto, que a multimodalidade do graded reader é fundamental para o êxito na reconfiguração de alguns aspectos marcadamente literários do texto-fonte. Conclui-se que professores de inglês podem considerar o uso efetivo de graded readers para promover o letramento literário em aulas de inglês.