Vocabulary selection in course books PEP lecture Aug 30th Beijing

Why Extensive Reading doubles your students vocabulary

KAPEEJanuary 22nd 2011

Dr. Rob Waringwaring_robert@yahoo.com

1A Typical Reading Text

Short textsMany difficult words Many exercisesDefinitions givenHow are students typically taught to read?From textbooks with short difficult textsDoing lots of exercises to practice the grammar and vocab, reading skills and strategiesTeacher leads the studentsAll students read the same teacher-selected materialAll students read at the same paceAll students read at the same difficulty levelThe text may or may not interest all learnersIts hard to develop fluent eye movements fluency and reading speed too many reading speed bumpsThis is called INTENSIVE READING

What is Extensive Reading?

The aim of Extensive ReadingTo recycle important and useful words and grammar time and time and time again to aid acquisitionTo provide massive fluent reading practiceTo build reading speedTo be enjoyable so they read moreTo build depth of knowledgeTo consolidate and strengthen partly known languageReading at the right level

Reading at the right level

Extensive Reading is easy because The students just read - Once the library is ready, theres little to doGet the students to manage the libraryOnline assessment if you wish - www.moodlereader.orgIt doesnt take much class time they can read at home

EASY is GOOD it builds fluency, speed and confidence

How do Intensive and Extensive Reading fit together?SlowReading speedHigh% of known vocabulary100%LowComprehensionHigh90%98%ReadingPain(too hard, poor comprehension,high effort,de-motivating)Intensive reading(Instructional level, can learn new words and grammar)Speed reading practice(very fast, fluent, high comprehension, natural reading, enjoyable)Extensive reading(fast, fluent, adequate comprehension, enjoyable)Course work and Extensive Reading work together Consolidating and deepening language knowledge Extensive Reading

Unit 1

Be verb

Unit 2

Simple presentUnit 3

Present continuousUnit 4

can

Unit 5

.

Introducing languageTypical learning from course booksRecycling rate in a typical 5 level course (225,000 total words)Occurrences50+30-4920-2910-195-91-4TotalDifferent words45620222546657513153,23915.31%6.24%6.95%14.39%17.75%40.60%100.00%Data from Sequences by Heinle Cengage40 function words (in, of, the, by etc.) accounted for 41.2% of the total words in the seriesIf we set acquisition at 20 occurrences, then we can expect students to know: (456+202+225=) 883 words by the end of three years receptively 200 words productively (typically productive is 20-25% of the receptive)This does not include the learning of collocations, colligations, idioms, phrases, multiple meanings, lexical chunks, sentence heads etc. Course book plus Extensive ReadingVocabulary gains by adding 1 graded reader per week50+30-4920-2910-195-91-4Total1,02328325053957013253,990Total25.64%7.09%6.27%13.51%14.29%33.21%100.00%76% improvement in learnt vocabulary (880 --->1556 words)More of the words in their course book reach the acquisition level (27% ---> 40%)Smaller % of unknown wordsThey will have a better sense of how the vocabulary and grammar fit togetherThey will have a better sense of collocation, and other deeper aspects of vocabulary acquisition as well as picking up phrases and so forth.

Data includes all of sequences plus foundations plus 11Pt and 65 GRs12What are graded readers?Graded readers are story books written for learners of English written at various difficulty levelsLevel 1 books have very few words and only the simplest grammarLevel 2 books have slightly harder vocabulary and grammarLevel 3 increases the difficulty and so onThe students progress through the levels reading books that mirror what they learnt in their course workGraded readers

Graded readers are GRADED

PhonicsEasy vocabMore difficult vocabEasy grammarMore difficult grammarNativebooks

When reading extensively, students should READIt is CRUCIAL that learners read at the RIGHT levelRead something quickly andEnjoyably with Adequate comprehension so theyDont need a dictionary

If they need a dictionary, its too hard and they will read slowly, get tired and stopTheir aim is fluency and speed, not learning new languageWe add the reading to our existing program, we dont replace it.

Be careful about using Native-level (L1) materials to build fluency

Native books, magazines etc. are too hard to read fluently for MOST Korean learnersChildrens books for natives are full of difficult words, phrases and conceptsNative children already know 5000 words and almost all the grammar BEFORE they start to readKorean children know almost no English words and no grammar before they start English. Native texts are NOT suitable.Dont confuse the final target (to read native texts) with the starting point and the way to get there.Extensive reading and young learnersRecent research shows :Young learners learn much faster if they have massive text input (i.e. story reading)Theres no advantage to starting English early if students dont have massive text supportExtensive reading leads to large increases in implicit knowledgeLearners starting ER early end up with higher natural English ability than students in intensive programs in High SchoolOur library

The library system

The leading causes of failure of ER programs are:

The reading is not requiredThe reading is not part of the curriculum done only by enthusiastic teachersTeachers and students don't understand the reasons why we do ERPoor visionPoor book management systems

When do they read?Class ReadingThey read a book together as a class, a few pages each class

Independent readingA silent reading time in class say 10-15 minutes per weekThey take a book home and read it for next week

Remember - if they need a dictionary, it will slow them down.

Some objections from teachers and schoolsNice idea but I have no time in my course.-> If you dont have extensive reading where will the students get the massive exposure they need?-> How else will they get the sense of language they need?

We dont have the money for this.-> Ask your schools to reallocate funds so this reading is done; ask for donations; get some free samples etc.

We have to go through our set curriculum.-> Speak with your course designers to build in graded reading. Re-allocate resources and re-set class hours

We have to prepare the students for tests.-> Research shows students perform better on tests if they have a general sense of language, not a deconstructed bitty one.Linkshttp://www.robwaring.org/er/

www.keera.or.kr

www.erfoundation.org/erc1/

First Extensive Reading World Congress Kyoto, Japan Sept. 3-6, 2011