The effects of oral repeated reading on reading rate, comprehension and pauses for the learners of Japanese as a foreign language

Eriko Fujita, Purdue University

Abstract

Oral repeated reading, which was proposed based on automaticity theory (LaBerge and Samuels, 1974), has been widely used with struggling first language (L1) English readers. Studies show that it is effective in improving reading rate and comprehension on practiced passages and that the effect was transferred to unpracticed passages (Dowhower, 1987; Herman, 1985). However, there is little such research on the second language (L2) readers (Taguchi,1997; Taguchi & Gorsuch, 2002; Taguchi, Takayasu-Mass, & Gorsuch, 2004; Taguchi and Gorsuch, 2008; Blum, Koskinen, Tennant, Parker, Straub and Curry,1995); moreover, no study has investigated the effect of this method for Japanese as second or foreign language readers yet. However, due to the uniqueness of the Japanese writing system, it is speculated that L2 Japanese learners will need more practice in letter-decoding skills. Thus, this method, which intends to increase the automaticity of letter-decoding, may be effective for learners of Japanese as a second/foreign language. The present study examines the effect of oral repeated reading on reading rate, comprehension, and the number of wrong pauses of novice-high to intermediate-low level learners of Japanese as a foreign language for practiced and unpracticed passages. Twenty-seven students who were enrolled in JPNS 202 in fall 2012 at a Midwestern university were assigned to one experimental and one control group. Both groups recorded their readings and answered comprehension questions as pre- and post-tests for five practiced passages and one unpracticed passage. Only the experimental group received oral repeated reading training as online homework for five practiced passages between the pre-and post-tests. The results indicate that both groups improved in all three factors (reading rate, comprehension, number of wrong pauses) on both practiced and unpracticed passages. However, on the practiced passage, the improvement was more significant in the experimental group than the control group on all the factors. The experimental group showed a partial transfer effect for the reading rate, with more significant transfer effect for the reduction of wrong pauses. On the other hand, the transfer effect on comprehension was not as significant as the other factors. It is concluded that this method was an effective way to improve the three factors: reading rate, comprehension, and reduction of wrong pauses on both types of passages: practiced and unpracticed passages, though the degree of transfer varied with the more significant effect for the reduction of wrong pauses.

Degree

M.A.

Advisors

Wei, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Foreign language education|Language

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