group, there should have been beneficiaries.
Thus, Miyasako (2005) investigated into possible beneficiaries of oral reading practice in the experimental group, exploring the effects of English language ability, oral reading ability and the amount of oral reading practice on the improvement of English language ability for the experimental group. This study reports and discusses the investigation.
6.2.1 Purposes
The purposes of this study that reexamined the experimental group in Miyasako's study (2002) were to investigate into: (a) whether oral reading practice improved English lartguage ability of the Japanese senior high school students; and (b) what characteristics students who might have improved English language ability had concerning English language ability, oral reading ability and the amount of oral reading practice.
In order to accomplish the purposes research questions were addressed as: (1) who improved English language ability more, senior high school students with higher or lower English language ability?; (2) who improved English language ability more, senior high school students with higher or lower oral reading ability?; and (3) who improved English language ability more, senior high school students with a higher or lower amount of oral reading practice?
62.2.1 Participants
The participants of the experimental group in the three-month study (Miyasako, 2002) were 36 first-year students who had sporadically practiced oral reading in class at a senior high school in Okayama in the school year 2001. 0urjudgment oftheir English proficiency was in the range of elementary to pre-intermediate levels after their studying English as a foreign language for over three years.
6.22.2 Instruments
Oral reading ability, English language ability and the amount of oral reading practice of the participants were measured with the following instruments. Oral reading ability was evaluated, in the pre- and post-tests, with the same analytical measurement that was used in Study 1 of the previous chapter. Specifics of the tests were: (a) the oral reading materials
were passages used in the past STEP pre-second grade examinations; (b) the evaluators were
two Japanese EFL teachers with over 15 years teaching experience (Speamian-Brown
consistency coefficients were .908 and .824 for the pre- and post-tests respectively); (c) the evaluating criteria were pronunciation, intonation, pause making and delivery, its full marks being 20 with 5 points for each component (Appendix G).
English language ability was gauged with standardized T#-scores of Benesse Shinken Moshi. Two editions of the test were administered in October and January for the pre- and post-tests respectively. This nationwide test is arguably a valid measure of English language ability for senior high school students. For example, T-scores ofthe non-mark type Shinken Moshi in October, 2002 for mainly third year students had a significant correlation with their self-marked scores of Standardized Preliminary Examinations for University (so-called Center Test) in 2003, a supposedly valid measure of English language ability for university applicants (r == .726, p < .Ol, n = 275). Thus, Shinken Moshi is supposed to have functioned
as an acceptably valid measure ofEnglish language ability for the participants.
The amount of oral reading practice was measured based on the frequency of oral reading practice logged in the participants' oral reading journals, which were recorded from the onset to the end of winter vacation for about two and a half months. The amount was counted as the frequency with which the participants read aloud 150- to 200-word texts in the stages (d), (e) and (g) shown in section 6.2.2.3 below, whether in class or out of class.
62.2.3 Treatment
Oral reading was practiced for 15 to 20 minutes in the 65-minute course of English I three times a week for three months, which made the total amount ofpractice in class about 450 minutes. The reading material consisted of the fust five lessons of the coursebook, Spectrum English Course I (Kirihara Shoten, 1998), which the students had already studied.
The material was divided into twelve sections of 150- to 200-word texts, each of which was allotted a day, with twelve days making a cycle. Oral reading out ofclass was practiced on a voltmtary basis.
The basic procedure in class was devised based on Kunihiro (1999 & 2000) as follows:
(a) listen to the tape once without looking at the text; (b) listen to the tape once looking at the text; (c) read the text silently once checking comprehension with the translation; (d) read aloud each sentence of the text after the tape, i.e., paced reading, at least once; (e) read the text aloud simultaneously with the tape, i.e., parallel reading, at least once; (D optionally try
shadowing; and (g) read the text aloud at least twice.
In stages (d), (e) and (g) the participants individually read the text aloud as frequently as possible in the periods. Stages (a) to (c) were omitted after one month, and instead the time allotted for stages (d) and (e) was increased. In the middle of the third month, the students preferred new material to read aloud, and that was fuIfilled by using some other lessons ofthe
coursebook. Tliis procedure was adopted because it was compatible with our assumption about oral reading practice conceming the enhancement ofphonological coding, which might consequently lead to other assumed ftmctions, i.e., the development of grammar and vocabulary.
6.2.2.4 Analysis
The analyses were administered in the following manner. First, the participants were divided into upper, intermediate and lower groups based on their oral reading ability and English language ability as measured in the pre-tests and on their amount of oral reading practice as measured by the frequency recorded in their oral reading journals. The participants above 55 and below 45 as measured by T-scores of the pre-tests were respectively assigned to groups of upper and lower English language ability and oral reading ability.
Similarly the participants with T-scores above 55 and below 44 in the oral reading frequency were respectively assigned to groups ofupper and lower amount oforal reading practice.
One reason for adopting T-scores 55 and 45 as the criterion for grouping the participants was that the normal distribution, which Shinken Moshi had with about 400,OOO examinees, should provide 310/o of the population for the score above 55 and below 45 respectively.
Another was that the findings of this study might be applicable to other senior high school students all over Japan with the same ranges ofEnglish language ability.
The reason for adopting T-score 44 instead of T-score 45 for the group of lower amount of oral reading practice was to make the data balanced. In the case of the lower group having the participants with their T-scores below 45, the numbers were 7 and 15 for the groups of upper and lower amount of oral reading practice respectively. ln the adopted case of the lower group having those with their T-scores below 44, the numbers were 7 and 8 for the groups of upper and lower amount of oral reading practice respectively, which was
balaneed.
Second, independent two-way repeated-measures ANOVAs were performed between the groups of upper and lower English language ability, oral reading ability and amount of oral
reading practice. The analyses were performed to examine who improved English language ability during the experiment, students with higher or lower English language ability, oral
reading ability and amount oforal reading practice.
6.2.3 Results
62.3.1 Descriptive Statistics
Table 6.1 shows the means of English language ability and oral reading ability for the participants in the pre-tests and the amount of oral reading practice for them in the oral
Table 6.1: Means ofEnglish Language Ability and Oral Reading Ability in Pre-Tests and Amount ofOral Reading Practice in Journal Record
Group n Score
Mean SD
T•-score
Mean SD
English language ability"