Attacking a Weakness in the Mechanics of Reading : Improving Word Recognition by Brief Multiple Exposure to Words

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

After years of neglect, reading is making a comeback in EFL/ESL. For many years reading was viewed as the most valued language skill because many people around the world needed to be able to read English, even though they would rarely have a need or even an opportunity to speak it. The audiolingualists, however, coming to the fore at the end of World War Ⅱ when the value of actually speaking a foreign language had become clear, stressed speaking over reading. Communicative Language Teaching advocates continued this emphasis on speech. Reading is now again becoming viewed as a valid part of whole language study, which recognizes that the four skills are interrelated, and that extensive reading in English can improve speaking skills.
Kitao and Kitao (1995), reviewing the literature concerning EFL reading in Japan, note the feeling among Japanese that although their speaking is poor, they can read well. But Kitao and Kitao conclude this is a myth, pointing out that when a group of Japanese was asked to read an English passage and try to do it quickly, they read at only 105 words per minute(WPM), with 54% comprehension. Similar results have been obtained in Korea. Song(1999) gave several passages of English on the native speaking high school level to students at one of Korea's top universities, and reading speeds and comprehensions were similarly low.
We can look at these reading proficiencies in two ways, one that such reading can lead to test scores that gain admittance to prestigious universities and lead to promotion at work, and the other that such reading hardly qualifies as reading. A comprehension rate of 50% can lead to little reading that provides any information reliable enough to be useful in a practical manner. Further, the comprehension figures in these studies appear to have been uncorrected for guessing, and so are artificially high, according to Gough, Larson, and Yopp(1996). That is, in a study that determines reading comprehension by a four-choice multiple choice test, people who know nothing whatsoever about a particular language will score an average of 25%, so a raw score of 50% on a four-choice multiple choice comprehension test in actuality means comprehending, on average, only 37.5% of the material.
An additional issue is how to compare data derived from reading speed/comprehension studies. For capturing the tradeoff between speed and comprehension, Jackson and McClelland(1979) suggest the use of an Effective Reading Rate (ERR), or reading speed times percent correct on a comprehension test, and I suggest this be refined to include correction for guessing. Using the guessing-corrected ERR, it can be seen that the college students in the Japanese and Korean studies are effectively reading at about 10% the rate of American college students, who read normal material at 300-400 WPM with near-complete comprehension. Kitao and Kitao (1995) call for effort to increase reading speeds, by such methods as having students keep track of their speeds. This is commendable, but greater intervention is called for.
One of my research interests is ways of using computers for English teaching in ways other than Internet surfing and word processing. My primary research interest is the content course, specifically such a course based on computers, and the source of much of my information is my required two-semester advanced computer course taught in English. Preliminary studies I have conducted on Korean college students indicate an improvement in reading speed is derived from computer-based speed reading training, and that vocabulary learning is facilitated by regular use of flash-card software In addition, the computer can be utilized for improving reading mechanics at the decoding level, and this is the subject of the present study. I by no means claim that improved decoding skills will, with little other work, somehow cause students to become excellent readers of English, but I think the results can be worthy of the efforts. As the pioneer in reading E. B. Huey (1908) wrote: "Reading is the means by which the world does a large part of its work.... The slightest improvement either in the page or in the method of reading means a great service to the human race."
While I know of no studies on the decoding processes of L2 readers, the mechanics for poor L1 readers are quite inefficient (slow and inaccurate) (Sparks et al., 1997). Consequently, one area of possible value in EFL reading may be improving the accuracy and speed of getting the words into the brain at the very lowest level of the reading process, that is, the initial process of matching a written word with a word in the reader's memory. There are issues here that are greater than the issue of reading speed. As the process of word recognition becomes more automatic, short-term memory once required for storing decoding information becomes free for processing on a higher level, resulting in higher comprehension. Anything that helps the efficiency of the reading process should be utilized, and at the very least the experience of working toward quick and accurate word recognition could be valuable in increasing awareness that speed of decoding is an important ingredient of reading proficiency.
Awareness is a potent agent for improvement. It is common for English teachers, especially those teaching in a non-English-speaking country, to discover that students have little awareness of problems, just as Kitao and Kitao (1995) report that the Japanese, while they are poor readers, think they are good readers. In addition to the awareness that there is a problem, there is also a more positive awareness, and that is of the possibilities. Whatever the specifics, awareness is necessary for self-directed improvement.
This paper looks at the use of tachistoscope software for brief presentation of English words (flashing measured in milliseconds), under a variety of regimens, to improve reading in English.