ERIC Number: EJ1232433
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2019-Oct
Pages: 5
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: EISSN-1539-0578
EISSN: N/A
Response to Aka: Supplementing Extensive Reading with Bi- & Multi-Modal Input
Stephens, Meredith
Reading in a Foreign Language, v31 n2 p291-295 Oct 2019
Aka (2019) conducted an year-long large-scale study demonstrating that Japanese high school students who undertook extensive reading performed better than a control group who undertook grammatical instruction. Those showing the greatest gains were those of lower and intermediate proficiency. The students' achievement was measured in terms of language knowledge and reading ability. The purpose of the study was to investigate whether reading skills would improve through extensive reading, rather than listening skills. According to Aka (2019), one advantage of extensive reading is that it presents a vastly greater amount of vocabulary than that is found in Japanese school textbooks. The extent of input is clearly important, but so is the quality. This paper argues that the mono-modal input mode of extensive reading programs neglects critical features for reading comprehension, such as intonation, which could be provided with bi-modal input. [This is a response to the article "Reading Performance of Japanese High School Learners Following a One-Year Extensive Reading Program" (EJ1212809).]
Descriptors: Second Language Learning, Second Language Instruction, High School Students, Foreign Countries, Comparative Analysis, Reading Achievement, Teaching Methods, Reading Programs, Grammar, Reading Skills, Vocabulary Development, Reading Comprehension, Intonation, Linguistic Input, Pragmatics, English (Second Language)
Reading in a Foreign Language. National Foreign Language Resource Center, 1859 East-West Road #106, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI 96822. e-mail: readfl@hawaii.edu; Web site: http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/rfl/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Opinion Papers; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: High Schools; Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Japan
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A