How many words should elementary EFL learners read extensively and from which readability levels

• NISHIZAWA Hitoshi

• YOSHIOKA Takayoshi

• NAGAOKA Miharu

Abstract

The effect of a 2.5-year long extensive reading (ER) program was examined in this paper. The subjects were 129 students in a kosen or a college of national institute of technology (NIT), who had been learning English as a foreign language (EFL) for three years before the ER program, and their English proficiency stayed in elementary level. They attended the ER program for 2.5 years, took a 45-minute weekly ER lesson for 75 weeks, and read 298 thousand total words of easy-to-read English texts in median. The effect of reading a large amount of English texts was examined by comparing the average TOEIC scores among seven student-groups, which had different total words read by the members. Only the average score of the most-read group, whose median words was 601 thousand words, was significantly higher than the average scores of the other less-read groups. We suggest that kosen students should read more than 600 thousand words to recognize the benefits of ER in the TOEIC and ER programs in kosen should have longer duration than three years so that the target amount becomes feasible for many students. Reading logs of nine students, who had read around 420 thousand words, suggested that the students who had read more number of easier books, especially the easiest graded readers (of 300 or fewer headwords), scored higher in the TOEIC, but ones who had read more difficult graded readers (of 300 – 1,000 headwords) scored lower. The most recommended books for elementary EFL learners were the easy-to-read books: the easiest graded readers and further easier picture books such as Oxford Reading Tree series. We would also recommend the elementary EFL learners to read 200 thousand words, almost a third of the suggested 600 thousand words, from these easy-to-read books.

Journal

• Journal of National Institute of Technology, Toyota College

  Journal of National Institute of Technology, Toyota College 50 (0), n/a-, 2018

  National Institute of Technology, Toyota College

Keywords

• Extensive reading
• elementary EFL learners
• Total words
• Readability

Details

• CRID: 1390282681328209024
• NII Article ID: 130006317408
• DOI: 10.20692/toyotakosenkiyo.50-1
• ISSN: 24242276
• ISSN: 02862603
• Text Lang: en
• Data Source:
  • JaLC
  • CiNii Articles
  • KAKEN
• Abstract License Flag: Disallowed