The most common word in the English language is the definite article `the`.  Here is one idea I use for getting over the basic concept of the usage of the definite and indefinite articles.

The teaching of the 'the': theory

The teacher starts by explaining that the original meaning of 'a/an' was 'one' and that we use it when we talk about something that belongs to a particular group. When we ask for 'a …', we are asking for anything that fits into that group and we are usually not concerned with which one. The group could be, for example, pens, ballpens, red ballpens, marker pens, black marker pens or small black marker pens. If the request is for a marker pen then any of the pens in the marker pens, black marker pens or small black marker pens groups would fit the request. The teacher then explains that 'the' means a specific thing that both speaker and listener are clear about. It is like an arrow pointing to a unique thing. If we stay with pens, and there is one small black marker pen, it is unique in the sense that it is the only one there at that time, though there are of course millions of other small black marker pens around the world. Because in that particular situation there is only one, we use 'the'.

The teaching of the 'the': practice

Students are given ten pens: three short marker pens (red, green and black), three long marker pens (red, green and black), three ballpens (red, green and black) and a correction pen (see illustration). They work in groups of six to ten (six for a more advanced group, ten for a slower group). This gives them the chance to watch others in action but is not too long a wait between turns (see Table 1). The first student (S1) requests one of the pens from the second student (S2).  If the request does not make it clear which pen is asked for (S2 ) should ask, "Which … pen?"  The response from (S2), either the giving of a pen or a "Which … pen?", should, depending on whether it is right or wrong, get a thumbs up or thumbs down from the rest of the group. To add a little extra interest, it could be explained to the group at the beginning that a thumbs down meant death in ancient Rome.  After the thumbs up or thumbs down (S2) asks (S3) for a pen and so on around the circle.  After the group starts to get the hang of it extra rules can be added, such as, each turn must alternate between an 'a … pen' request and a 'the … pen' request, or three strikes and your out.  The student who is out should be made to sit down rather than executed, as the screams can be distracting for other classes.

Imagine! A first-year language student is trying to read aloud a written text. She is seeing a white surface (the paper) with black patterns (the letters). She is producing sounds: She is trying to transform written language into proper spoken language.

Her articulation of syllables and words is often acceptable. However, we observe most likely also the following:

1. She speaks with a monotonous voice (no remarkable intonation and no stress on keywords).
2. She pauses between individual words.

Pronunciation is an integral part of spoken language: Intonation and stress make up the melody of language. This melody is important for memorization and retention. This melody carries emotions. But this melody is destroyed from the beginning: It collapses through the removal of intonation and stress,　through unnatural pauses between words. Our right hemisphere - being responsible for music - becomes idle. So become the classmates of our reading student. We can easily imagine, that some of them will fall asleep as well.

Who is to blame? It is the gap between the spoken and the written language: The written language hides some essentials of spoken language, which should be visible. It also shows some features, which should be hidden for the beginning learner.

The ups and downs of spoken language (about one octave in Japanese, English or German) are invisible in the ordinary writing style: The sentences are flat, and so is the voice of the student. The beginner student is completely absorbed in decoding and producing the visible items (letters and words). Therefore, the invisible items (intonation and stress) receive no attention. However, the beginner can see the spaces between words, and so she will often pause. Last not least: The teacher will often not correct the missing items. He is too busy with correcting the primary task, which is to read the visible.

Let me rewrite the first paragraph! I will try to visualize stress and "real" pauses and to hide "false" pauses:

Im agine!  Af i r s t-yearl a n guagestudent  
istryingtor e a dal o u d  aw r i ttentext. 
S h eiss e eing aw h i t esurface  (thep aper)
withb l a c kpatterns (thel e tters). 
S h eisproducings o u n d s: 
Shet r i e s totransf o r m  w r i ttenlanguage
into propers p o kenlanguage.

I don't want to say that the writing style above is better than the ordinary writing style. To my own opinion, it's inconsistent and ugly. But the point is:

I have to get rid of the following unspoken assumption: "The ordinary writing style is best, even for first-year students."

I should deeply mistrust my own aesthetic sense: It is biased through decades of exposure to ordinary writing.  (In the judgment of an alternative writing style we should trust students more than teachers. We should trust beginners more than intermediates. We should trust experiments more than introspection.)

At the beginning, a slower learning of the reading skill might be acceptable. It can be accepted, if the alternate script accelerates the development of the listening skill. It should be accepted, if the alternate script speeds up the overall learning of the language.  (Look at math: Exponential growth might start quite slowly. However, in the end it beats any other mathematical function, e.g. linear or quadratic growth.)

The task is defined: Find a new writing style which bridges the huge gap between spoken and written language. This style is likely to be more efficient for the student's language acquisition.

Figure 1 gives an idea, how this style could look like: Intonation of spoken utterances is expressed through the ups and downs of sentence shapes. Stressed syllables (e. g. of keywords or their parts) are emphasized through larger characters.  Auditory pauses are represented through wider gaps between phrases or words (e. g. in the lower three lines).  This script (so-called Prosodic Writing) has been used in German and English language classes (Rude 2003): Students were able to read with more intonation and stress.  The dialog of Figure 1 was taken from a German textbook and is shown with a glossary in Figure 2 (Kind 1983, p. 20).  Figure 3 shows the same dialog in a version which can be sung (Kind 1983, p. 19).  The song version does not represent pitch movements found in natural speech.  However, the rhythm of the spoken version is partially preserved in the rhythm of the tune.

Do it yourself! You can create your own writing style, which fits your needs.  You can use your preferred symbols (Roman characters, IPA characters etc.) and code (symbolic, geometric, colorful etc.).

Fig. 1: Prosodic Writing of a German dialog (back)

[Coming soon!]

Fig. 2: Original dialog and glossary [Kind 1983, 20] (back)

[Coming soon!]

Fig. 3: Song version of the same dialog [Kind 1983, 19] (back)

Cited in this article:

Kind, Uwe (1983). Eine Kleine Deutschmusik. Berlin and Munich: Langenscheidt. 

Rude, Markus (2003). An Intuitive Visual Code for Intonation, Stress and Rhythm of Language? The Proceedings of JALT 2002 Waves of the Future). Swanson, Hill (eds.).

Note to self

January 2004 at the end of the last semester:

Next year, I’m going to make students help me remember their names.  How am I supposed to remember 450 names a year?  Especially, foreign names.  Especially foreign names of people I only see once a week. And especially, foreign names of people who, when I see them once a week generally get little chance, are too shy, or don’t make the effort to communicate with me or get to know me.  I can remember their faces; that’s easy. But after the feature association trick starts to wane or there are two or even 3 people in the class who look similar, or have the same first names, how am I supposed to remember all those names?  I couldn’t remember that many names of Australians if I met them.

I remember how frustrated I felt.  And how unfair the expectation of the students seemed to be.  You know, there’s usually a time in the semester when you make a mistake with a name and then the joke, “Eh, mata boku no namae wakaranaino?”  It was usually said in jest, but I always felt that there was some expectation of me to actually remember all the names.   I sometimes even felt that my memory was getting worse because I couldn’t remember the students names.  I needed more than just a name on a piece of paper. 

So, then I had this GREAT idea. This is the technological age, isn’t it?  I’ll use technology to help me remember the names.  Yeah, that’s it!  I’ll take digital photos of all the students and stick them in my folder and on the way to every class I’ll go through the photos and revise the names.  Sure that’ll help.  And help it did.  For about 40% of the photos.  But then some students changed their hairstyles, and I mean really changed their hairstyles. And some students looked so different in the photos that I couldn’t even recognize them. So, the photos were a little helpful, but not as helpful as I had hoped.  In fact, having the photos gave me even less excuse for not remembering the students’ names.  Which then made me feel even more foolish and embarrassed when I couldn’t remember their names.  In hindsight, I feel that for the photos to be most effective I really needed to sit down and study the photos and then test my memory.  BORING!!! ONE WAY!!! NO WAY!!!  That is not what I want to do.  I still do, however, want to remember all my students’ names.  You may disagree, but I think it is part of my responsibility as an educator to remember the names of my students.  After all, how can I help someone to learn if don’t know what they are interested in, what they like to do, what they react to, basically, who they are?  So much of English teaching for me happens through communicating with the students about who we are.  So I really need to know who they are, which includes their names.

Back to square one. How can I remember all their names, including the people who are shy, or whatever, and I get the least contact with?  Well, almost by accident my friend (C.C.) told me, in a phone conversation the day before classes started, about one activity for remembering names (which his friend told him and he was going to use).  Got it? 

It goes like this

Make two circles, an inner and an outer (you just thought about belly buttons didn’t you?!).  Either circle, but probably not both, move one person in a designated direction each turn.  When you get to your new partner, it goes something like this:

Inner)             Hi!  My name is Paul.

Outer)            Hi Paul.  My name is Christopher.

Inner)             Nice to meet you, Christopher.

Outer)            Nice to meet you too, Paul.  What do you do?  Where do you live?

※  Any and all other questions that you think of may be appropriate for this exercise.

After you finish with one partner, you move on to the next, but before you start with the next partner, you turn to look at your previous partner and repeat their name and the information you just exchanged with them.  The fun and the interest start when you get to about the 6th person.  The challenge becomes addictive and people really try hard to remember. 

I did this in every class.  I suggested (told) everyone that our challenge would be to remember everyone’s first names in this class.  By the end of the third week, almost all of us had 80% of the names remembered.  I even had one student who remembered everyone’s first and family names.  In the 5th week we did an activity that required everyone to use the first names of the people they interacted with.  And there were of course people who had forgotten some names, but I told them a polite way to apologise for forgetting and re-ask someone’s name.  Then in the 7th week we had a pop quiz.  I gave out a photocopy of a proof sheet of the class photos and we, me included, had to write the names under the photos.  I got about 97% and so did most of the students. The names we couldn’t remember we had to then go and again, apologise for forgetting the name and ask again.  Everyone is anticipating the next test now.  It’s turned into a fun class challenge instead of a boring individual chore. 

So what else have we gotten from this?  Well, actually, personally I have had an interesting experience because I’ve been remembering names of past students from last year and the year before without even consciously trying.  Is there a universal name-remembering centre of the brain that keeps all the names tucked away for safekeeping?  Did Chomsky mention this?  Anyway, whatever it is, I have certainly had a very positive result from this. 

How about the students?

Well in a recent (June 14th 2004) survey of 2 classes, 80% said that they enjoyed the class because they could meet a lot of new friends; 50% said that one of their favourite activities was the name remembering activity; 70% said that the atmosphere of the class was very comfortable.  Here are some quotes from the students in reply to the question Do you have any favourite class memories / activities etc?

• “Remembering class member’s names is useful for me and I can make friends”
• “I think this class is very friendly, so I enjoy it”
• “The class’s atmosphere is sociable and friendly, (by the grace of remembering names).”
• “My favourite class activities is remembering names…”
• “My best impressive action was remember other’s names”   (This one comes from on of the quieter students in the class.  This was a quite a surprise for me.  He is shy and hesitant in class, but from this quote I can see he really wants to get over his shyness a bit.  So, now I know more about him, I can capitalize on opportunities more accurately when I’m working with him. )

In conclusion

I attribute a lot of the open communication in my classes to the successful experiences we all had learning each other’s names.  The fact that we all learnt each other’s first names and something about each other changed us from a room full of strangers into a group with a common purpose.  And I really feel that I am a part of that group and not an outsider (with an inner).  We can all appreciate the challenge in remembering each other’s names and in learning and practicing English.

This is the first year I’ve really focused so much attention and time on remembering names.  It has been such a good experience that I intend to give it a permanent spot in the “New Class Activity” repertoire.  

So, what is in a name?

A recent quote from an ASCD Infobrief*:

“Nobody can be so amusingly arrogant as a young man who has just discovered an old idea and thinks it is his own."   — Sydney J. Harris

Murphey’s immediate reaction: It IS his/her own!

Quoteback:

“Nobody can be so depressingly pedantic as an old sage who laughs at a young mind courageously grappling with a new idea and condescendingly scrapes it out of their hands with the razor of the past, leaving a soul bleeding with inconsequence and the vicious message “hands off” emblazoned on their future paths.”     — Tim Murphey

N.B. I like Sydney Harris’s writings very much.  I use them with my students.  But critical thinking should be applied to even our most beloved people in the world.  My fear in his quote above is the pedagogical consequences of reacting to such an impression.  We are continually re-discovering old ideas in our new thoughts, we are re-constructing the world.  However, I believe we are each doing it with slight differences that may make a difference, and thus, these should be encouraged rather than discouraged.  I am not going to tell a child to stop walking because we have already done that and it is old-hat.

 * Infobrief is the quarterly policy publication of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD).  – Ed.

A review of Questionnaires in Second Language Research Construction, Administration, and Processing by Zoltan Dörnyei (2003).  Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 156 pages.

When I first began my MA research, I knew I wanted to create several questionnaires for my research. I created one questionnaire before reading this book.  After reading it, I changed the questionnaire dramatically.  I got rid of my 5-point scale; I created multiple-item scales; I pre-tested the questionnaire on several people; I divided questions into the three categories of factual, behavioral and attitudinal; and I answered the questionnaire several times myself to get a feel for the kinds of answers I would get.  Now I am in the analysis stage with my first questionnaire and I am still learning from this book.

Dörnyei introduces useful and effective research instruments for researchers. It is the first summary in the second language research field to focus on the question of how to produce and utilize questionnaires. Although questionnaires are easily constructed, they can spoil research when poorly designed. 　

The book consists of four chapters. In the first chapter, Dörnyei explains that there are three types of respondent data: factual, behavioral, and attitudinal.  He explains why questionnaires are used and what kinds of questionnaires are best suited for particular situations.  The author says that one questionnaire can collect a huge amount of information quickly and processing the data can also be relatively straight forward.  Despite this, however, the author believes that “most questionnaires applied in second language research are somewhat ad hoc instruments, and questionnaires with sufficient and well-documented psychometric reliability and validity are not that easy to come by in our field” (p. 7).  By ad hoc he means insufficient instruments, and just like in everyday life where not every question elicits the right answer, it is all too common in scientific investigations to come across questionnaires that fail.　

In the second chapter, several important features are noted in the construction of a questionnaire because careful and creative questionnaire construction can motivate people to give relatively truthful and thoughtful answers.  The author suggests that the maximum length of a questionnaire should be no more than 4-6 pages long and not take more than half an hour to complete.  Multi-item scales, having several items ask more or less the same question in different ways, is highly advised, as well as using a six-point scale to keep respondents from sheepishly following the middle in a 5-point scale.  Open questions should be placed at the end rather than at the beginning.  Exploratory data gathered from informants, such as notes taken during talks and brainstorming in focus or discussion groups can be valuable qualitative data.  For beginners it is also OK to borrow questions from other questionnaires, citing your source of course.  Negative constructions (e.g. I don’t dislike not talking to …”), double-barreled questions, and items that are likely to be answered the same way are avoided.  It is also unethical to force students or others to fill out a questionnaire against their will.  Furthermore the author added that “by patiently going through the careful editing procedures we can avoid a great deal of frustration and possible extra work later on” (p.65).

In the third chapter, Dörnyei describes various strategies to administer questionnaires so that respondents will give you the data you need for your study.  He focused on the issues of confidentiality, anonymity and other ethical responsibilities, because respondents are normally willing to spend time and cooperate with you, if it is a serious investigation.  The author listed five basic researcher ethnical principles related to the respondents and summarized below:

1. No harm should come to the respondents.
2. Privacy should be respected.
3. Subjects should have knowledge of use of the data.
4. Parental consent should be given when necessary.
5. Confidentiality should be respected.

In the fourth chapter, the author discusses processing questionnaire data. Questionnaire data is most usable if it is stored in a computer file, but this chapter does not elaborate on statistical or qualitative techniques of data analysis.  The author recommended two things to be done before we get down to the actual coding.  One is that each questionnaire must be given a unique identification code.

This book also makes a strong case for basing questionnaire design and processing on scientific principles, rather than merely on the researcher’s common sense. He mentions,

If researchers have some interesting data obtained from language classes and want to use these data as the basis for making certain more general claims, it is not enough to merely quote descriptive statistics that support their observations.  (p.116)

The author states that this book does not cover statistical analysis, but still recommends that researchers use it to analyze questionnaire data. 

I highly recommend this book to researchers, especially graduate students, who want to know how to make reliable and valid questionnaires for their research.

A review of Young Learners by Sarah Phillips (1993).  Series editor Alan Maley, Oxford University Press, 182 pages.

I would like to introduce Young Learners by Sarah Phillips.  Sarah Phillips trained as an English Language teacher at the Bell School, Norwich, and took her MS in ELT in Edinburgh University.  She has held various teaching posts in Europe and is currently teaching at university in Spain.

This book is for teachers of young learners, which means this book is for children from the first year of formal schooling (five or six years old) to eleven or twelve years of age.  However, as any children's teacher will know, it is not so much the children's age that counts in the classroom as how mature they are.  So although a recommended age range is given for each activity, it should be taken as a guide, not a hard and fast rule.

As English becomes more and more accepted as an international language, it is increasingly included in primary school curricula, where it is often taught by non-native speakers.  Although they are trained primary school teachers, they may not be trained language teachers.  There are also more and more private language schools that provide classes for young learners.  Their teachers are often native speakers who have not had specific training in teaching children. The years at primary school are extremely important in children's intellectual, physical, emotional, and social development.  They go through a series of stages, progressively acquiring skills that are thought necessary by the society they live in.

One of the aims of this book is to provide information and activities that will meet the needs of these two very different groups of teachers.  The author hopes that there will be at least something for everyone, and that the second aim of this book, to provide teachers with ideas and techniques that they can use when designing supplementary activities for their own classes, will be achieved. 

This book is made up of 10 chapters: Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing, Vocabulary and Grammar, Games, Songs and Chants, Creative Activities, Video, and Putting It All Together.  Each activity gives its age (A = 6-8 years old, B = 8-10 years old, C = 10-12 years old), level (beginners, elementary, pre-intermediate) and the approximate time (a rough guide to how long the activity will take), which will be very useful for the teachers.  What is the most helpful about this book is that there are photocopiable worksheets available, about 30 pages.  As for this book, teachers may make photocopies of the worksheets for their own use, but they must note that copyright law does not normally allow multiple copying of published materials.

The peculiar circumstances of university teachers in Japan, the majority of whom are “part-time” teachers, has frequently come up in recent discussions with friends and colleagues.  The conundrum of the part-time university teacher in Japan is that, while you may have the desire to develop and engage in professional relationships with a supportive community of colleagues, this desire can be deterred and pre-empted by a number of factors.  First there are the challenges that come of any community-building project; issues of time, personality, and group dynamics are often hard enough to navigate.  But in Japan, the part-time university teacher is faced with even further obstacles.  We move from school to school daily, if not hourly, with often twice the class load of our “full-time” colleagues.  We plan lessons on the Yamanote line.  We develop materials and syllabus while on holiday in Laos.  Sometimes we pass each other in the teacher’s room.  And sometimes, almost accidentally, we do manage to form professional bonds, sharing materials and lesson plans, sharing ideas and educational philosophies, visiting each other’s classes, etc.  And then, before you know it, the year ends … we’re off to Sri Lanka … and when we return, the deck’s been reshuffled, schedules have changed, and we are left feeling once again divided and conquered.  In such circumstances, despite best intentions, a teacher can become hesitant to engage too deeply in any professional community.  Lunch?  Sure.  Collaborate on a research project?  Well, if we can finish it before exams … and if you write it up while I’m in Phuket.  Sound familiar?

There are, of course, other ways to hunt down professional support, share professional ideas and get professional input.  There are professional journals, special interest groups, public seminars and workshops.  There are conferences sponsored by professional organizations.  There are also online support groups, paid and free.  In many online discussion boards, such as those found at Dave’s ESL Café (http://www.eslcafe.com), teacher’s can discuss a variety of topics, swap lesson ideas and materials, and network for job opportunities.

As valuable as these resources may be, however, they are no substitute for close communities built by teachers who are familiar with each other’s circumstances and are able to give consistent, personalized support and feedback.  Such communities give teachers a safe environment where they can develop the supportive and inspiring relationships which motivate individual teachers to grow as professionals.  Part of this may be due to the way such communities encourage us to experiment with collaborative methods of reflective teaching.  But when community building is impeded, for one reason or another, collaboration can become burdensome and impractical.  Teachers are often challenged to find ways to expand and sustain their communities.

One method of reflective teaching that has been employed in supportive teaching communities as described above is that of collaborative journal writing.  Journal writing in itself can be a valuable tool for professional reflection and development.  As Richards and Lockhart (1996) note, teacher journals may serve two purposes:

1. Events and ideas are recorded for the purpose of later reflection.
2. The process of writing itself helps trigger insights about teaching.  Writing in this sense serves as a discovery process.  (p. 7)

Collaborative journaling is when colleagues share their journals with each other, regularly interacting and discussing the ideas that evolve.  Collaborative journaling has the added bonus of motivating and encouraging discipline, which many teachers find they lack when keeping private teaching journals.  (Richards and Lockhart (1996) give examples of teaching journals and some advice on focus and structure for collaborative journals.)  Teaching journals (private and collaborative) are often used as ethnographic data, analyzed as documents of a teacher’s development professionally and personally.  Such studies, known as diary studies, are frequently published in educational journals (Bailey 1990).  As it is difficult to gauge the directions natural discussions will take, it is also difficult to predict the major themes of such studies.  An extensive journal can generate a wealth of ethnographic data.

Given the circumstances of many university teachers in Japan, and given the power of electronic communications to effectively span time and distance constraints, we have been investigating the use of online resources in creating and maintaining small communities of teachers through the use of collaborative journaling online.  A great tool for our purposes has been the discussion board services of Nicenet (http://www.nicenet.org).  Nicenet “is a volunteer, non-profit organization dedicated to providing free services to the Internet community. Nicenet's primary offering, the Internet Classroom Assistant (ICA), is designed to address the pedagogical needs and limited resources of teachers and their students” (from their “Our Philosophy” page on the Nicenet website).  With Nicenet, teachers are able to establish discussion boards that allow any number of teachers to participate by logging on with a password.  The system facilitates online discussion with easily created discussion threads, to which individuals can post messages and replies.  Our concept is that teachers who choose to join a collaborative journal group will regularly post journal entries and engage in discussions that are specific to their individual circumstances.  A Nicenet discussion board has already been established for this project where our goals are spelled out as follows:

We are interested in exploring the feasibility, challenges and benefits of collaborative journaling online with small groups of teachers who are working in similar contexts and teaching similar courses, but who are not necessarily geographically or temporally accessible to one another, in other words, teachers who have conflicting schedules or who do not work in the same institution or even the same area.  There are two primary aspects of this project:

1. To explore the idea of collaborative journaling and collaborative journaling online.  We will do this by examining some literature that treats the subject and discussing it as a group and by reflecting on the process as we participate in an evolving, online collaborative journal.
2. To participate in an online collaborative journal.  A small group (or small groups) of teachers will commit to keeping a journal of one or more of their classes for an extended period of time, posting selected parts of their classroom journal online weekly, and responding regularly to other teachers’ postings.  

Using the Nicenet discussion board format will allow participants to open up new topic threads as they come up in discussion.  One of our primary goals is to make this project doable.  A commitment from participants is desirable, but we need to be understanding of life (as it tends to interrupt our best intentions).  We want to find a way to engage in this experiment that is rewarding without being overly burdensome.  We want to avoid burnout and flagged interest.  It seems to us that some balance of structure and flexibility will be key to making this an efficient and meaningful endeavor.  These points we can explore more fully as we go along.  

Are you a reflective teacher?  Have you always wanted to keep a teaching journal but lacked the discipline?  Are you interested in participating in an online journaling experiment?  All university teachers in Japan who may be interested are invited to join the project.  This includes non-native speakers of English or even English speaking teachers of languages besides English.  Likewise, full-time faculty as well as part-time teachers are invited to participate.  The constraints experienced by part-time teachers ultimately affect all potential participants in the teaching community.  We think it is a good idea to limit collaborative journals to smaller groups in the name of encouraging full participation within the group, but how many is in a small group (four, five, ten?) may depend on the group itself.  New groups are easily established, and interested participants are invited to browse our journal in progress, whether to join us or possibly create a new group.  For further information about the project and how to get involved, please contact one or both of the teachers below:

Christopher Carpenter: chris @ dokkyo .ac .jp

Joseph Sheehan: haneisuru @ hotmail .com (remove spaces from addresses)

Cited in this article

Bailey, K.M. (1990).  The use of diary studies in teacher education programs.  In J.C. Richards and D. Nunan (eds.), Second Language Teacher Education (pp. 215-26).  New York: Cambridge UP.

Richards, J.C. and Lockhart, C. (1996).  Reflective Teaching in Second Language Classrooms.  New York: Cambridge.

Last year, two teachers at Dokkyo University experimented for the first time with individualized reading when they attempted to incorporate a version of extensive reading into their classes.  We had some successes and some failures, and we gained many ideas for future reading classes.  We are both part-time teachers at Dokkyo.  It was a mere coincidence that we had both been assigned reading classes in the new interdepartmental Zenkari English program (English 111 and 211) and both had an interest in extensive reading.  As we were offered little in the way of guidelines concerning content or structure (besides, it’s a reading class), we decided to experiment.  Our collaboration in these classes was very loose and manifested itself primarily in mutual encouragement, sharing of materials and ideas, and trouble-shooting difficulties as they arose.  We did not attempt to create a singular, synchronized program, and our respective classes were probably very different.  Still, we shared enough over the year to feel that our combined reflections could be of interest.

What is extensive reading?

First, let’s take a quick glance at the concept of extensive reading.  In the most basic terms, to read extensively, as opposed to intensively, is “to read widely and in quantity” (Bamford & Day, 1997).  In intensive reading, the goal is generally to practice discrete and isolated reading skills while analyzing challenging, often authentic, target language texts.  Extensive reading, on the other hand, generally utilizes simplified or graded readers, at the level of the learner or slightly above.  Graded readers are books developed specifically for language learners.  The vocabulary and grammar are controlled to be appropriate for learners at various stages.  Content may vary from young adult and adult novels to short stories to history and other non-fiction subjects.  Learners are encouraged to read large amounts of high-interest text and to focus on the general meaning and their own understanding of the text while focusing less on discrete grammatical and vocabulary items.  Ideally, extensive reading can heighten motivation and confidence (Day & Bamford, 1998), build vocabulary knowledge (Nation, 1997), develop automaticity of word recognition in reading (Stanovich, 1991), and through exposure to high quantities of comprehensible input (i + 1), even develop other areas of linguistic competence such as writing, speaking and listening (Krashen, 1993).  Extensive reading is reading for fluency and reading for “enjoyment.”

Extensive reading is nothing new in English language teaching, but it no longer seems to enjoy the currency it once had.  In the 80s and early 90s, enthusiasts like Elley (1991) and Krashen (1993) helped to publicize a series of “book flood” programs in Southeast Asia that had shown very positive results.  This led to a brief period of enthusiasm for extensive reading.  Later researchers would qualify the value of extensive reading as part but not all of what learners need to develop reading competence in a foreign language (Carrell & Grabe, 2001).  This research, however, also emphasized the value of what extensive reading does give learners.

Still, it seems that extensive reading hasn’t taken hold in all regions or all institutions.  Indeed, at the beginning of last year (2003) when we both first started working at Dokkyo University, there wasn’t even a collection of graded readers on campus.  In informal conversations with other teachers and faculty on campus, we found lots of interest but little actual experience in extensive reading.  For that matter, neither of us had any experience in an established program, thus our adventure in extensive reading has been, for us, quite exploratory and filled with unmapped terrain.  The following is a brief account of our adventure.

What is individualized reading?

To meet the conditions for extensive reading, learners must be reading, consistently and quickly, large quantities of text at or slightly above their level of proficiency.  This facilitates the incidental acquisition of vocabulary and of grammar structures and the development automaticity in word recognition necessary for truly fluent reading in a second language (Nation, 1997).  At Dokkyo University, students take up to 15 courses at a time and meet in these classes once a week for 90 minutes.  As our classes progressed, we came to feel that this situation challenged the viability of an extensive reading program, making it difficult if not impossible for most students to meet the ideal conditions and attain the maximum benefits of extensive reading.  Still, individualized reading, where learners select their own reading materials, experience success in reading in the target language and read large quantities of text (even if not with the speed and consistency of a genuine extensive reading program), may be a valuable and motivating experience for university students who have possibly never read widely in the target language other than when studying for or taking a test.  We use the term “individualized reading” to distinguish our courses from what we see as being a genuine extensive reading program, but we believe there are parallel benefits in both types of reading.

What was the basic structure of your courses?

Together, we taught three reading classes in all (Paul taught 1, Christopher 2) offered as part of the Zenkari program.  The learners were all 1st or 2nd year non-English majors.  We planned for the extensive reading to be primarily an out-of-class element of our courses.  We both selected the Read All About It series (Oxford UP), as our primary in-class text for the intensive reading aspect of our course.  We would use student-selected graded readers for the extensive reading aspect of our classes.  Assessment was to be weighted heavily on homework, attendance and participation.  The syllabi were developed mostly around the in-class text, with the extensive reading aspect playing a supporting role.  Both teachers planned to allocate some class time for extensive reading activities, especially in the beginning of the year when we were first introducing it to our students.  As you will see, however, some of our first assumptions had to be adjusted, especially in regards to how much class time was spent with the graded readers.

What reading materials did you use?

One of the primary principles of extensive reading is that learners must have a choice of reading materials and an opportunity to find titles that capture their personal interests (Day & Bamford, 2000).  Therefore, it was essential that we present our students with a wide range of graded readers to choose from.  Serendipitously, just as we were discussing the logistics of using graded readers in our classes, we discovered that the Dokkyo’s Research Institute for Foreign Language Education was in the process of ordering a small collection of graded readers to be housed in the Institute’s Audio-Visual Library (3rd floor, Building 5), which now boasts almost 250 titles in 7 different levels from the Oxford Bookworms Series of graded readers.  This was certainly inspiring. 

Unfortunately, we realized that this collection would simply not be enough for the needs of three classes (105+ students), especially considering that most of our students would start in reading at level 1 or 2 and they would be sharing this collection with the regular patrons of the AV Library.  Furthermore, it was going to take more time for the books to be catalogued and shelved than we were willing to wait.  The individual graded readers come at a very reasonable price from most publishers (¥400-600 per title), so we decided the most ideal situation would be if the campus bookstore carried one or two full sets of readers for our students to browse through.  Unfortunately, the bookstore was unwilling to make an investment to keep such a selection in stock.  Ultimately, this meant that we would have to order the individual titles after our students selected them.  Obviously, this would take time, and indeed, it delayed the initiation of individualized reading in our classes until well into the first semester.

How did you assign learners to different reading levels?

Before the students could select titles of interest to them, they had to have an assessment of their reading level in order to know which level of graded reader was appropriate for them.  We decided to use the method of self-assessment suggested by Waring (1997) in which the learners read representative pages from readers at the various levels, timing themselves and identifying unknown vocabulary.  Warring suggests copying sample pages from a range of levels onto a large one page self-test sheet, giving the learners a fast and easy structure for identifying their level.  The target level is the level at which the learner can read between 80 and 100 words per minute, with no more than 3 unknown words per page.  The reading should be too easy rather than too difficult for the learner, especially at first.  This will help learners build confidence, fluency and speed for longer, more challenging texts as they advance in levels. 

After our students assessed their reading level, it was time to select a title they wanted to read.  We used the publisher’s summaries of the readers and an order list for Oxford Bookworms for students to look over.  When the books finally arrived, the students went to the campus bookstore and bought the titles they had selected.  We also introduced them to the AV Library for future use.  Therefore they had an option; when the students finished one book, they could either trade with another student in the class or go to the AV Library and check one out.

How much class time did you devote to the graded readers?

Initially we thought that the classroom time devoted to extensive reading would taper down as learners got used to the idea of extensive reading and got into the habit of using the readers.  However, we both found it valuable to commit more time to individualized reading in class than we had initially planned, whether it was sustained silent reading (SSR), sharing and talking about books in pairs or small groups for shared book experience (SBE), or teaching, practicing and reviewing vocabulary and structures for talking about books and stories.  For example, the students in Paul’s class read and discussed their readers every day of class for a minimum of 30 minutes.  On average, Christopher’s students spent a similar amount of time with individualized reading every other week.

The teachers used different methods for keeping track of student reading.  Christopher had students keep a reading log in which they recorded the dates they started and finished a book, the title, the author, and their opinion of the book.  He also had students complete short summaries of the books after finishing them.  He set a goal for his students to read at least three titles a semester.  Paul, on the other hand, kept track of pages read, rather than books read so the students could get credit for all the reading they had completed.  For example, if a student read 5 pages of a book and then found they didn’t like it, they could change books without disadvantage.  

How do you feel your classes turned out?

There were enough learners who genuinely “took off” with individualized reading that we had to feel the program was at least moderately successful.  These were the minority, but it was a significant minority and not just one or two outliers.  These students read beyond the book or page minimums we set and progressed rapidly up the levels.  In their writings we found true engagement and enthusiasm for their reading.  One of Christopher’s students wrote, “I didn’t read a [whole] book in English before.”  Another noted that she had enjoyed reading the adapted story of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and that “someday I want to read the originally novel.” 

On the other hand, it was a continual challenge to get many of our students to read outside of class.  It seemed that as many as half of the students in our classes made very slow progress, if any, in their out-of class reading.  Initially we planned to use sustained silent reading (SSR) followed by small group discussion in class (SBE) to jump-start the process of extensive reading.  As noted above, however, this became a recurrent element of our classes.  It seemed to be necessary maintenance for students who were not reading out-side of class. 

What about next time?

As the year went on, we realized that the students would benefit from more support in terms of talking about stories.  We developed materials that would help them talk and write about characters, settings, plots, etc.  This support was very valuable and probably should have been incorporated much earlier in the program.  In a future individualized reading class we would employ such materials sooner and think more in terms of the functions and structures needed to discuss stories.  Furthermore, we would choose a primary text for in-class activities that supports these objectives.

In general, our classes could have benefited from more structure.  For example, the page log system used in Paul’s class was very successful.  This gave a concrete point of reflection for the teacher and the students, a record of weekly progress and accomplishment.  We would incorporate more aspects like this into future classes.  Also, we would more explicitly introduce our students to the rationale of extensive or individualized reading.  We would do this as a way to emphasize the metacognitive aspects of the students’ learning.  Helping the students to understand the rationale and theory behind the course would hopefully increase motivation and participation.  A series of exercises demonstrating reading strategies the students can use with graded readers should accompany this metacognitive discussion early in the course.

Conclusion

Overall, we found the experience of incorporating individualized reading into our classes very positive and informative.  As extensive reading and to a lesser extent individualized reading address precisely the issues that confront university level language learners in Japan, we hope that some consideration is given to implementing such a program at Dokkyo University.  In the mean time, we encourage other teachers to experiment with individualized reading.  It can be a truly rewarding experience for a teacher to see a non-English major student take-off with the language.  After four or five years of studying TOEIC vocabulary, it’s a wonder that the language can come alive for anyone.  But there can be magic and wonder in a story.

Cited in this article

Bamford, J., & Day, R. R. (1997). Extensive reading: What is it? Why bother? The Language Teacher, 21 (5), 6-8.

Carrell, P.L., & Grabe, W. (2001). Reading. In N. Schmitt (Ed.), An introduction to applied linguistics. London: Edward Arnold.

Day, R. R., & Bamford, J. (2000). Reaching reluctant readers. English Teaching Forum, 38(3), 12-17.

Day, R., & Bamford, J. (1998).  Extensive reading in the second language classroom. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP.

Elley, W.B. (1991).  Acquiring literacy in a second language: The effect of book-based programs.  Language Learning 41, 375-411.

Krashen, S. (1993). The case for free voluntary reading. Canadian Modern Language Review, 50 (1), 72-82.

Nation, P. (1997). The language learning benefits of extensive reading. The Language Teacher, 21 (5), 13-16.

Stanovich, K.E. (1991). Word recognition: Changing perspectives. In R. Barr, M.L. Kamil, P.B. Mosenthal, & P.D. Pearson (Eds.), Handbook of reading research, Volume II (pp. 418-452). New York: Longman.

Waring, R. (1997). Graded and extensive reading -- questions and answers. The Language Teacher, 21 (5), 9-12.

Do your students know about the Chatroom?  Do you?  Do you have students who wish they had more opportunities to practice free conversation in English, French, German, Spanish or Chinese?  Then please remind them of the best thing to happen at Dokkyo since the Dok+a bee - the CHATROOM!

Every evening, Monday through Friday, the Research Institute for Foreign Language Teaching sponsors free, small group conversation sessions in English.  French, German, Spanish, and Chinese are also offered on regular schedules.  All Chatrooms are 45-minute sessions, starting at 4:45 and 5:30.  They are open to all Dokkyo students on a voluntary, first-come/ first-serve basis.  Officially, sessions are limited to the first eight students who sign up. 

The Chatroom is meant to provide a relaxed environment where students of all proficiencies can come, meet other students, and have fun discussions in their favorite foreign language.  Each night different teachers moderate the discussions.  Discussion topics vary and students are asked to bring their own ideas and give as much input as possible.  There are no grades, and students can sign up on the day of the Chatroom they wish to attend.  Students should go to the Research Institute office on the 3rd floor of Building 5 for more information and to sign up for today’s Chatroom!!!

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