奈良教育大学学術リポジトリNEAR
TOWARD THE IMPROVEMENT OF READING ABILITY IN ENGLISH
著者 Sato Hideshi
journal or
publication title
奈良教育大学紀要. 人文・社会科学
volume 20
number 1
page range 31‑39
year 1971‑10‑30
URL http://hdl.handle.net/10105/2879
TOWARD THE IMPROVEMENT OF READING ABILITY IN ENGLISH
Hideshi Sato
Department of English, Nara University of Education, Nara, Japan
The aim of this paper is to discuss some ways and means of efficient silent reading in Japanese schools with the result of an experiment with speed reading in my sophomore class, giving a reappraisal of the Reading Method.
1. REAPPRAISAL OF THE READING METHOD
In my last paper written for the Bulletin of Nara University Educational Institute (No. 7) I put emphasis on teaching oral reading as a preparatory step to silent reading, which is the end of all reading activities. We all admit that listening and speaking are the primary activities at least in the initial stage of learning a foreign language, even more so because modern means of communication have given added importance to the spoken word. Since, however, the major part of communication is still carried on by means of the printed page, reading remains a basic linguistic skill.
The Reading Method advocated by A. Coleman in 1930's seems to have been outshone by the Oral Approach introduced by C.C. Fries in 1950's. It seems clear that the trend of English teaching in Japanese secondary schools for the past twenty years has been defi- nitely towardthe oral approach. Everyeffort has been made by those who prepared text- books basedon the Course of Study stipulated by Education Ministry and by those who have been teachingEnglish in secondary schools to stress the oral-aural aspect of English teach- ing. In no other period in Japan's history have we shown such keen interest in the study of spoken English as since the past war. In spiteof the ardor and enthusiasm forthe study of English, however, very little improvement has as yet been made manifest. Why is it so?
There are many factors in it. The very inadequate teacher training system, a considerable decrease of teaching hours as compared with those of prewar days, still too large a class and very strict requirements stipulated by the Course of Study, often resulting in artifici- ally-made text-books, to cite only a few.
We are clearly in the age of reappraisal and exploration. Today most teachers in Japan take it for granted that English should be taught in the order of listening, speaking, read- ing and writing. It is true that there is even a dogmatic statement that the students should never read anything which they have not already spoken. M. West aptly mentions this situation as follows:
"This of course is nonsensical for there are many thousands of words in the Bible which
32 TOWARD THE IMPROVEMENT OF READING ABILITY IN ENGLISH (Sato) we have never spoken and never will speak, yet we read it The truth of the matter is that after the initial stage the teaching of reading and the teaching of speech tend to become, and should be, divorced. The two vocabularies are fundamentally different." 1}
I am convinced that there is very little reason to believe that there is anything sacro- sanct about the order: listen, speak, read and write in a foreign language acquisition, or about inductive learning being more efficient than deductive learning. Particularly this is the case when we are dealing with high school students and adults who have learned to learn in certain ways.
Language is essentially a vehicle for ideas. We equip the students with an additional tool of cross-cultural communication as well as interpersonal effectiveness. Fundamentally, our ultimate goal is to acquaint them with the foreign people and their culture. Since most Japanese students have few opportunities to communicate personally with English-speaking peoples, one of the best ways of attaining this aim is through teaching them to read English effectively and efficiently as soon as possible. Indeed one of the fundamental problems facing English teaching in Japan will be the balance between reading and speech instruct- ion.
My argument leads me to re-evaluate A. Coleman's method of teaching reading in a
foreign language. He lists what he considers essential elements in an effective method of teaching reading.
(1) pronunciation on a phonetic basis (2) oral work in early stages of study
(3) attainment as speedily as possible of an adequate recognition vocabulary of high- frequency words
(4) extensive reading
(5) progressive elimination of the habit of translation
(6) some grammar analysis although only a recognition knowledge is required (7) spoken use of the foreign language in the classroom0'
Sanseido's Dictionary of English Language Teaching (p. 488) points out that Coleman quite neglected oral work in the classroom.We find by the above-mentioned list that this remark is wrong.
2. ORALWORK IN THE EARLY STAGES AND TEACHING OF SOUND-SYMBOL
ASSOCIATION
Oral work in early stages of English study is essential, even though we aim at efficient silent reading. Considering the tremendous differences between the sound and structural systems of Japanese and English and the great difficulties which confront the Japanese students in learning English, it is most desirable to give preliminary oral drill without textbooks before the written form of the language is introduced. Since the first term, whichhasapproximately 50class hours,startsinApril in Japan and ends in July, at least half of the term should be devoted to preliminary oral drill. Then the written form can be introduced to the students before the summer vacation so that they may have some
materials to review during the holidays.
During this first period of instruction all basic features of the sound system and the structural system should be introduced and practiced orally. After this preliminary oral drill period, the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing should be practiced conc- urrently. It goes without saying that in the preliminary oral drill period all the sound seg- ments and the basic covering patterns should be introduced and practiced within a strictly controlled vocabulary.
The following are some of the examples for drilling them in American Engligh Intona- tion with special emphasis on contrast. The teacher lets the students listen to the oral reading of the following short sentences one by one. Each sentence is read twice; one is read in the right intonation and stress, the other wrong. The students are asked to choose the right one. It is essential that this kind of training in intonation pattern should be given as profusely as possible during the Junior High School course.
1. His name is Ben, her name is Lucy.
2. My car is green, his car is blue.
3. Your shoes are black, my coat is green.
4. I don't want apples, I want oranges.
5. I put the book on the table, not on the chair.
6. George doesn't want coffee, George wants tea.
7. I am a teacher, you are a student.
8. My father is a doctor, your father is a dentist.
The importance of teaching intonation patterns in a foreign language was convincingly
elucidated by Prof. Howell of the University of Minnesota at the COLT TESTING SEM-
INAR on April 1st, 1971. He pointed out that there is general agreement that spoken language is the primary sign system for human communication. Written language is very definitely a form derived from spoken language. Intonation and stress patterns are charac- teristic of all spoken utterances. When reading and writing are learned after speaking, in the normal fashion, a native reader probably perceives an intonation pattern even when reading silently.
I assume that reading should begin as soon as the students have had sufficient practice in hearing and speaking. Through reading the experiences of the reader are extended, his power of thinking is stimulated. The ability to read quickly and accurately is usually an excellent index of intelligence. There are many reasons for retardation in reading of Japa- nese students. Some are based on physical factors. Others are psychological. Our students approach English with certain reading and learning habits that are already well established in the process of reading their mother tongue. Some of these habits are directly related to the nature of learning to read English. Therefore, our task is to build upon the already acquired reading habits of the pupils and improve them, in addition to helping develop those new habits which the structure and spelling of the English language demands.
The primary aim in beginning reading is to lead the students to associate the spoken
34 TOWARD THE IMPROVEMENT OF READING ABILITY IN ENGLISH (Sato)
word with the printed symbol. This task of sound-symbol association is a formidable one for Junior High School students in Japan, without the mastery of which they cannot hope to acquire the skill of silent reading, let alone oral reading. One solution might be an approach taken by C. C. Fries to build up automatic responses to a limited number of contrastive shapes within patterns consisting of three letters each. For example, the follow- ing twelve letters can form the sequences of at least thirty-five words, most of which will be found in the talk of five-year-old native children.0"
ATHMFCSB RPDN
A AT HAT MAT FAT CAT BAT PAT RAT SAT AN CAN DAN
FAN MAN MAP PAN RAN TAN NAP AM DAM HAM MAM RAM
SAM TAM BAD DAD HAD MAD PAD SAD TAD TAP
Our students should be first taught that in the word spelled h a t with the sequence of phonemes /hast/ and the letters h and a and t do stand in the sequence of the pho- nemes/h//se//t/.And then later they should be taught that in the word spelled h a t e
the sequence of phonemes is /h/ /ei/ /t/. Each of these two word-patterns consists of three phonemes in the sequence indicated /hat/ and /heir/. These two patterns should not be taught simultaneously. It would cause confusion on the part of the students about the phonetic value of the letter a. In learning to read, therefore, our students must first of all develop habits of high-speed recognition response to the identification features of
the spelling-patterns that represent the word-patterns that he knows.(4)
3. ELIMINATION OF TRANSLATION AND PARAGRAPH READING
For many years past the main trend in teaching English in Japan has centered around the Translation Method. As long as translation is the characteristic feature of English class- work our students cannot expect to acquire quick responses from the printed page,conse- quently reading speed and accuracy cannot be hoped for. Many students, even teachers, are given to understand that a foreign language can be fully understood only by transposing it into our mother tongue. Those who are listening to an English lecture or seeing a play in New York have no time to translate to themselves. Reading instruction should be done just as listening instruction. Direct understanding of English without the medium of our mother tongue should be our final goal in reading instruction. Reading instruction is mean- ingless to the students who are taught solely by the Translation Method. It often happens that they do not understand the meaning of their own translation, which is, as it were, quite a riddle to him. Otto Jespersen made a very pertinent remark on the demerit of translation.
"We get no further than to a nodding acquaintance with the component parts of the foreign language, so that we know them pretty well by sight and can repeat their names, but we do not become quite intimate with them, we do not live together with them, they do not become flesh of our flesh and blood of our blood. If something difficult is to be learned, the very first essential is to be much occupied with it; therefore the first condi- tion for good instruction in foreign languages would seem to be to give the pupil as much
as possible to do with and in the foreign language; he must be steeped in it, not only get a sprinkling of it now and then; he must be ducked down in it and get to feel as if he
were in his own element, so that he may at last disport himself in it as an able swimmer.
But what is most characteristic for the prevailing methods is that the translation with its accessories swallows up so much time, that there is none left for this free disporting in
the foreign element."(5)
Let us confirm then that translation is only one way of identification. It may give mean- ing, but it does not teach. Students can not get rid of the time-wasting habit of always assoiciating English with Japanese, and it actually hinders full comprehension. Many teach- ers contend that translation exercises help the students train logical thinking, meaning it is a kind of brain drill. But I presume that brain drill should be done most effectively in mathematics and other subjects. In the English class, especially in high school levels the
mother tongue should occupy in the background. Gatenby points out that "as a skill, the proper time for practising translation is when an equal command of both languages has been obtained."-1" If his comment is justified, how unhappy are those senior high students and prep school hopefuls who are trained only in translation day after day! Since English
teaching in Japan emphasizes recognition by translation, much emphasis is put on translation in English testing. It is true that language testing tends to follow or reflect language teach- ing. Our teaching of reading in high schools and colleges should be geared to the grasp- ing of central ideas of a paragraph, which should lead to speed reading in the end.
We would do well to teach our students that most paragraphs have a topic sentence which states the main idea of the paragraph. This sentence usually has two important parts: awordor phrase which names the topic and a word or phrase which controls the top-
ic. A couple of paragraphs followed by some question items are given below.
What reasons would you give in saying that paragraph A is better than paragraph B?
Circle the letters.
a. There is no topic sentence in paragraph A.
b. The sentences in paragraph B are not clearly related to the topic sentences.
c. The details in paragraph A are related to the topic sentence.
d. There are no specific details in paragraph A.
e. The details in paragraph A support the topic sentence.
f. Paragraph B is too short.
A. Swimming can be dangerous for the inexperienced swimmer.
He does not know how far he can swimso if he drifts away from the shore he may not
be able to return. He often doesnot know that the currentcan take him away from the
shore and then he must fight it if he is to regain the beach. Sometimes he sunbathes and gets very hot and then runs to cool off in the water. The shock of the cold water may cause his legs or arms to become stiff and make it impossible for him to swim.
B. Swimming can be dangerous for the inexperienced swimmer. Near my house there are many nice places to swim. I like swimming very much but I am nota very good swimmer
36 TOWARD THE IMPROVEMENT OF READING ABILITY IN ENGLISH (Sato) yet. The water is very deep in the pool where I usually go so it is impossbile to touch the bottom with my feet. Sometimes I feel afraid because the water is so deep.
* # *
Read the following paragraph carefully, and answer the questions below.
What has happened to the American male? For a long time, he seemed utterly confident in his manhood, sure of his masculine role in society, easy and definite in his sense of sexual identity. The frontiersmen of James Fenimore Cooper, for example, never had any concern about masculinity; they were men, and it did not occur to them to think twice about it. Even well into the twentieth century, the heroes of Dreiser, of Fitzgerald, of
Hemingway remain men. But one begins to detect a new theme emerging in some of
these authors, especially in Hemingway: the theme of the male hero increasingly preoccu- pied with proving his virility to himself. And by mid-century, the male role had plainly lost its rugged clarity of outline. Today men are more and more conscious of maleness not as a fact but as a problem. The ways by which American men affirm their masculinity are uncertain and obscure. There are multiplying signs, indeed, that something has gone badly wrong with the American male's conception of himself. Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.,
"The Crisis of American Masculinity."
1. Underline the topic sentence. Circle the key word.
2. Find all the repetitions of the key idea in the supporting sentences.
3. Find as many pronouns as you can. Notice how the pronouns keep pointing back to the keyidea.
4. Find as many conjunctions as you can. Notice how the conjunctions tie theideas togeth- er.
5. Find as many directive words and phrases as you can. Notice how these words and
phrases keep the paragraph idea flowing smoothly.
In testing the students' reading comprehension, multiple-choice items might be one of the best ways, though it is quite a time-consuming task to make them up. If the test passage is very brief, translation type is convenient, yet it involves difficulties in marking since it requires the examiner's subjective judgment.
According to David Harris, the individual test passage should be kept brief, adding that passages of between 100 and 250 words are about the proper length.(7) Reading tests should generally include materials of various types and styles. Therefore we can not evaluate the
students' over-all ability in reading if the test passage is too long. Examining all the test passages for comprehension in college entrance in 1971, we find a more than 600-word test passage, which is surely too long. There seems to be a general consensus among test writers that a 100-word passage with four items would usually be regarded as quite satis-
factory.
4. AN EXPERIMENT WITH NORMAL SPEED READING IN A GENERAL EDU-
CATION PROGRAM
I have experimented for the past year with Sophomore students of Nara University of
Education to have them attain appropriate reading rate with maximum understanding.
Preliminary findings showed that many of them read with the same slow speed, whether the given passage is easy or not. I told them on the first day of speed reading class that effective reading requires words should be recognized immediately, not pieced together bit by bit. Starting with this, I enumerated the following lists of factors in their hindrance of speed reading.
( 1 ) word-for-word reading habit ( 2 ) mental translation
(3) lack of concentration
(4) too difficult a reading material ( 5 ) frequent regresssions of eye-movements
(6 ) small eye-span (7) lack of vocabulary
( 8 ) lip-reading habit (subvocalization) ( 9 ) too long fixations (eye-stops)
(10) Last but not least, the amount of reading is deplorably limited.
Since the correlation between speed reading ability in English and that of the mother tongue is reported to be very high, I advised them to apply the speed reading technique to their reading of Japanese books, magazines and newspapers. The desirable English read- ing speed of Japanese college students might be between 200 to 250 wpm. The reading speed of my class under experiment averaged 85 in May and 130 at the end of October, though there is a wide discrepancy in reading competence between individuals.
The procedure was taken as follows.
(1) Preliminary practice in Normal Speed Reading (From April to the Beginning of May) word->phrase^sentence-^paragraph-»a set of paragraphs
(2) Reading of a paragraph was started with the one written within 150 words in accord- ance with Harris's book.C8)
My students were required to read the editorial of the Mainichi Daily News kept in file in the school library at least twice a week, handing in its summary in Japanese every Monday. In reading the paper I discouraged them to use the dictionary. Many of them
enjoyed reading HAYAKAWA COLUMN appearing on Mondays. This exercise was kept
up all through the program.
(3) From May through October 0. Henry's American Scenes (1,000 word level, Ladder Edition) adapted by Elinor Chamberlain was used. The students were not allowed to take the text home, nor to consult the dictionary during the class. The retold stories comprise 15 pieces ranging from 1320 to 3000 words, viz. six to ten pages.
(4) Results:
The figure outside the brackets shows reading speed wpm and the one inside indicates comprehension rate. The questions were-true false and multiple-choice type. For the end- term examination, written tests were administered.
38 TOWARD THE IMPROVEMENT OF READING ABILITY IN ENGLISH (Sato)
S tu d e n t1 9 5 ( 6 .2 ) 1 2 0 ( 6 . 4 ) ,1 4 0 ( 6 .4 )
1 3 0 ( 6 .2 ) 1 6 0 ( 6 .3 ) 1 4 0 ( 5 .8 ) 1 4 0 ( 6 .3 ) 2 1 0 2 ( 5 . 0 ) 1 4 0 ( 5 . 5 ) 1 3 8 ( 5 . 8 )
7 2 ( 6 . 8 ) 8 0 ( 7 . 5 ) 9 0 ( 7 . 5 ) 8 5 ( 7 .4 ) 8 4 ( 7 .6 ) 6 6 ( 5 . 0 ) j 6 8 ( 5 . 3 ) I 7 0 ( 5 . 5 )
1 2 2 ( 6 . 5 ) ￨1 4 0 ( 6 . 8 ) 1 6 0 ( 6 . 8 )
6 5 ( 5 . 5 ) 7 5 ( 5 .4 ) 1 7 0 ( 6 . 9 ) 1 8 0 ( 7 . 5 ) 1
Comments:
Many students have shown considerable progress in both speed and comprehension in
the course of six months, but others stay almost the same. The student with an asterisk*
demands special attention, as his comprehension rate is very high in spite of his slowness in speed. This is a type of slow-but-steady man.
5. SOME FINAL REMARKS
From the experiment my students learned to adapt their speed of reading to the type of material and the purpose for which they were reading it. Indeed better readers tend to adjust their rate according to their ability to comprehend, whereas poorer readers read easy and difficult material at the same rate regardless of their purpose. Since reading, as in listening, is an activity in which we receive communication from someone who is actively giving it, many people often regard it as an entirely passive activity. That is never the case. Catching the ball is just as much an activity as pitching or hitting it. The art of reading is the skill of catching every sort of communication as well as possible.
It should be maintained that every procedure in the classroom be contered around the reading activity, which reinforces three other skills.
NOTES
(1) M.West: Teaching English in Difficult Circumstances p. 17 Longmans, 1966
(2) A.Coleman: A New Approach to Practice in Reading a Modern Language M.L.J. Vol. 15 (Nov. 1930) pp. 101-118
(3) C. C. Fries: Linguistics and Reading p. 126 Holt, Rinehart and Winston' Inc., 1962 (4) ibid., p. 170
(5) Otto Jespersen: How to Teach a Foreign Language pp. 47-8 George Allen and Unwin, Ltd.
(6) E.V. Gatenby: Translation in the Classroom in ELT Selections 2 p. 70 Oxford Univ. Press 1967
(7) David P.Harris: Testing English as a Second Language p. 60 McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1969
(8) ibid., p.60
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Henry Sweet: The Practical Study of Languages (1899), Reprinted by Oxford University Press, 1964
H. E. Palmer: The Principles of Language Study (1920), Reprinted by Oxford University Press, 1964
I. A. Richards: How to Read a Page (1942), Reprinted by Beacon Press, 1959
C.C. Fries: Teaching and Learning English as a Foreign Language, The University of Michigan Press, 1945
C. C. Fries: Linguistics and Reading, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1962
S. I. Hayakawa: Language in Thought and Action, Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1949 P. Gurrey: Teaching English as a Foreign Language, Longmans, 1955
R.D. Altick: Preface to Critical Reading, Henry Holt and Company, 1956 M. West: Teaching English in Difficult Circumstances, Longmans, 1960 Albert Harris: How to Increase Reading Ability, Longmans, 1961
1. Morris: The Art of Teaching English as a Living Language, Kenkyusha, 1962 Nelson Brooks: Language and Language Learning, Harcourt, Brace and World, 1964 Robert Lado: Language Teaching, McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1964
E.Fry: Teaching Faster Reading, Cambridge at the University Press, 1965 James Brown: Efficient Reading, D. C. Heath and Company, Boston, 1967
Wilga Rivers: Teaching Foreign-Language Skills, The University of Chicago Press, 1968 Frank Grittner; Teaching Foreign Languages, Harper and Row, 1969
(1971^6 ^10B3M)
