What Knowledge Do Learners Need Before Starting Extensive Reading?

Rob WARINGNotre Dame Seishin University

ERF World Congress, Sept 4th, 2011. Kyoto

Assumptions

There is a threshold of knowledge needed before students can read extensively:

linguistic – very basic words, grammar etc.alphabeticunderstanding of book and text structureunderstanding of how text flows

We could call this ‘bootstrapping’ knowledgeIn addition, learners need to understand why they need to read extensively

Definition of ER

ER involves reading with a primary focus on the message to practice the skill of reading

The following are preferred but not essentialfaster is better than notreading more is betterreading enjoyably is better

Occasional reading speed bumps are to be expected

No clear line between IR and ER

INTENSIVE READING EXTENSIVE READING

Language development

MAIN FOCUS Content, message, story

Careful READING Holistic

Slower SPEED Faster

Dense with unknown words

TEXT DENSITY Few unknown words

Awareness raising SKILLS Practice of the skills

This implies …

Initially, the reading can only be intensive to some degree until the automatic recognition of given words and phrases is reached.

Before starting to read, students need some level of awareness of:-form-meaning relationships (/æpl/ is rendered apple )-how letters represent sounds (phonics)

Automatic recognition of a given word will be hampered by unknown co-text – slowing the building of automaticity

Therefore, it’s essential that initial reading material is highly controlled to build automatic sight recognition of the core ‘kick-start’ vocabulary quickly

Bootstrapping

Learning the code (probably individually and discrete)learning a kickstart oral vocabularylearning how letters refer to soundsdecoding how letter combinations worketc.

Combining phasecombining the discrete items into larger unitscontextualizing items

Automatizing phase – e.g. controlled practiceautomatizing that knowledge so it becomes less consciousautomatizing from the small to the large

Then on to Extensive Reading

Sequential or concurrent bootstrapping?

One approach is to do all this concurrently-learning the code, combining, automatizing in one class

and ER in another at or about the same time-this is good for consolidation and making connections-does it overload learners?

Another is to deal with each separately initially (possibly sequentially) and bring in ER later

-easier to manage / teach-less load on the students-possible forgetting if little reinforcement and few

connections are made

Furukawa (2008)

A concurrent approachfrom 7th grade in cram school80 minutes normal class; 80 minutes ER for 48 weeks30,000 books to choose from, 2000 CDs, 100DVDs

By 9th grade they had read 670,000 words and outperformed students 2 years older also attending cram school on the reading and listening aspects of the ACE test after controlling for the same time in classesER made the difference

Bootstrapping what knowledge and skills?

Minimum linguistic knowledgewords, phrasesgrammatical alphabetical / phoneticknowledge of how sounds match meanings and written words

TextualText shape: sentences, paragraphs, speech Direction: left to right text, left to right page order etc.Text type: story book vs alphabet book vs text bookBook structure: Cover, body, etc.

Bootstrapping what knowledge and skills? 2

Story / Plot StructureBeginning, Middle, EndTold in time orderPlausible eventsSense of narrativeetc.

Metalanguage of reading (probably in L1)reading speed, automaticity, repeated reading, parts of speech

(noun, verb, adjective), basic grammatical terms (subject, object) etc. etc.

Learning the code: Don’t start with the alphabet

Words follow the alphabetic principle that letters are used to represent speech sounds (phonemes)We don’t use the alphabet for reading – reading is sound based- i.e. – phonic: /kæt/ not C-A-T /ai/ not E-Y-EThe alphabet is used for spelling (for writing) not pronouncing / readingWriting is usually the last skill to be learnt in EFLSo introduce the alphabet later when they start to writeNo need to confuse them with two systems for sounds and letters early on

Bootstrapping the sound-letter code

Systematic Phonics (hat + e = hate ; b oo k = book)Focus on underlying patterns for dealing with unmet

wordsBut:

Often very mechanical, and repetitiveLots of memorization and behavioristic learningTries to protect children from mistakesTemptation to keep on teaching phonic elements when

the kids want to / are ready to readCan lead to boredom

Active Phonics

Uses game play, movement and activity and makes children think more than traditional systematic phonics

Children should sound out words

Order of presentation: Vowels, consonants, Vowel consonant combinations, longer words with basic vowels etc.

Start with regularly spelled words, irregulars later

Problems with phonics

It probably involves some one-to-one teaching / monitoringStudents / parents may not understand the reason the students are ‘delaying’ reading

Bootstrapping the vocabulary

EFL Children don’t have the huge benefit of oral vocabulary L1 Children do.

Students probably need an oral vocabulary of about 200 words before picking up their first book to read it

These can be learnt contextually by listening to stories being told with very easy picture books e.g. Oxford Reading Tree

Or de-contextually through flashcards and games etc.

A bootstrap vocabulary

Function wordsabout at for from into of with to he I it she some they we what where you there this down in on and but a/an the not out whyreally very ok

Content wordsangry big every good happy sorry goodbye here yes no please now be do have ask come get give go know listen look play say see show take tell thank think want watch run start talk wait walk day friend man name

A bootstrap vocabulary 2Some of these words are probably known orally or as loanwords by 10 year-olds

a.m. address afternoon air America apple April arm august bag ball banana bank baseball bath bathroom beach bed beef bicycle bike bird black blue boat body book boy boyfriend bread breakfast brother brown bus cake car cat cheese chicken chocolate class classroom clock coffee cola computer cup dad dance December dictionary dinner doctor dog door dress ear eight eleven English eye face father February first fish five floor flower food football fork four Friday fruit game girl girlfriend glass golf green hair hall hamburger hand hat head home homework hotel hour house hundred ice inch internet January jeans juice July June key kilo kilometer knife lamp leg lemon madam march meal meat menu mile milk minute miss Monday money month moon morning mother motorbike mouth movie Mr. Mrs. music newspaper night nine November October office orange paper park pasta pen pencil phone pizza rain red restaurant rice river salad sandwich Saturday school sea second September seven ship shirt shoe shopping sir sister six skirt snow soccer sport station steak store student study sun Sunday table taxi tea television ten tennis thousand three Thursday today tomato tomorrow train tree Tuesday two water Wednesday white word world yellow yesterday

Building automaticity / sight vocabulary

Recognition games (find the odd one out)Discrimination games (find cat in a jumble of words)Once they’ve read a text once:

Repeated readingsReading 10% fasterTimed readingsRace your partner(all with comprehension)

Bootstrapping Grammar

Grammar isn’t the basis of language – meaning isThe grammar of a sentence often emerges from the properties of the main verb and its meaning

(human subject) give (something one can give) to (someone) She gave a birthday present to her boyfriend

*Happiness gave a walk to a fish

(human subject) give (someone) (something one can give) She gave her boyfriend a birthday present

*Happiness gave the fish a walk

Bootstrapping Grammar 2

There are a very few grammatical patterns that need teaching explicitly:- word order- tenses- relative clauses

Most of the rest is basically lexical or grammaticalized lexis (and messy!)-If patterns, not only but also, etc.-prepositions-comparatives and superlatives, as ____ as -for, since, during, while-conjunctions etc.

A lot of grammar is late acquired, so why focus on it so early? (e.g. articles)Grammar awareness comes after massive exposure so at the bootstrapping stage, it’s best to avoid discussion of grammar except possibly basic word order.

The above suggests

To bootstrap initial knowledge there should be some focus on:intentional learning – e.g. word games, phonics gamesincidental learning – assisted graded reading; reading

along, buddy reading

Later intentional reinforcement can be added – early unassisted graded reading, repeated readings, fluency work

It should be fun, not serious work.

Then they can move on to early teacher-selected and self-selected unassisted reading

Which materials to start unassisted reading with?

Many teachers say they can’t do ER because their students aren’t ready linguistically – thus they need this threshold knowledgeMost EFL Graded Readers are said to be too difficult for absolute beginners – even the level 1 books

Foundations Reading Library (from 75 headwords)Building Blocks Reading Library (from 170 headwords)Penguin Readers / Bookworms, etc. (from 200/250 headwords)

It’s likely beginners can only read these intensively (i.e. main focus on language forms not meaning)Many reading series jump through the levels too quickly so we can expect some regress in speed as learners move up levelsThis implies learners should not stick with one graded reader scheme so they can smoothen out the gaps between levels.

The problem with Child L1 texts

Child L1 material:assumes an oral vocab of several hundred wordsisn’t scaffolded as carefully as graded reader materials – thus learners may meet many rare wordsisn’t graded to match normal EFL courses and syllabusesis not always age appropriate

Phonics readers

These carefully control the spellings / sight/sound combinations students readBut often have unnatural and contrived language as there is a lot of alliteration (Sue sang seven songs)They are more like practice books than graded readers

The first reading experience:Knowledge-based approaches

Whole-word reading (memorizing book, dog, father as whole words)focuses on complete words not underlying patterns

Whole language reading (e.g. teacher reads to a class)learn by reading and working it out as you go, little analysisrequires a lot of oral exposure to see patterns

Reading aloudBased on memorizing whole wordsOften kids do not internalize the meanings / patterns, only parrot themIt doesn’t prepare them well to deal with unfamiliar wordsCan lead to passive students

What to do?Most Asian EFL languages are not orthographically transparent (one sound = one letter as in Spanish or Finnish) so some help in decoding the system can be helpful initiallySome children may not need phonic instruction as they can move to whole-language reading smoothly. Others will need some help. If in doubt – teach phonics – it will help even those who don’t really need it, but greatly help those who doTeaching phonics helps writing and spellingMove on to whole-language reading as soon as possibleLearning lists is a fast way to learn words. It is decontextual (whole word learning) and needs contextualizing as soon as possible

Affective considerationsLearners need to be emotionally engaged / drawn in by the texts or presentation so :

they can notice things e.g. wordsthey will be stimulated to want morethey can follow the story more easily

They need to feel success and achievementThe text / reading presentation should challenge them to think not just let the story wash over themIt’s not always necessary to be too clear when presenting, as it leaves a space into which the children can think. Clarity comes at the end.They need to link the new to the old so it can be internalizedYounger learners need to be free to learn the way they want and not forced into categories of ‘good’ ‘bad’ ‘fast’ ‘slow’ etc.We should encourage them to not worry about mistakes

The best approach for building bootstrapping knowledge?

There isn’t one ….The appropriate balance and sequence of learning / teaching the code, building an initial oral vocabulary and so on depends on:

the studentsthe class sizethe learning stylesresourcesteaching stylestime availablethe curriculumetc.

Thank you for your time

Contact

Rob Waringwaring_robert@yahoo.com

www.robwaring.org

What minimum Teacher knowledge / resources are necessary?

Knowledge of what ER is and its aimsAbility to read and pronounce English wellAppropriately leveled books / reading materials