Development and Promulgation of Extensive Reading-Extensive Listening Approach in the Classroom

2007 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 18520426
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Foreign language education
• Research Institution: University of Electro-Communications
• Principal Investigator: SAKAI Kunihide University of Electro-Communications, Department of Electro-Communications, Associate Professor (80092609)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): HAUSER Eric University of Electro-Communications, Department of Electro-Communications, Associate Professor (30361827) ; KANEKO Katsumi University of Electro-Communications, Technical Section, Technical Specailist (90377036)
• Project Period (FY): 2006 – 2007
• Keywords: Extensive Reading / Extensive Listening / shadowing / tadoku writing / tadoku listening / tadoku speaking

Research Abstract

The present project is an extention of the present author's previous project whose focus was on Extensive Reading and was awarded the present grant from 2003 to 2004.
The new emphasis has been on Extensive Listening, in and out of the classroom, using CD materials and films on dvd's. The basis guidelines had been established at the end of the academic year 2006 ; Don't focus on details, Skip over words and passages you don't understand, and Stop listening if the material doesn't suit your taste or level. The students started reading picturebooks for kindergarten children, and went on to read several hundred books during the academic year 2008. They start to read English books without translating them into Japanese. Likewise, Extensive Listening also starts with recorded CDs of the easiest picturebooks, leading gradually to upper levels. As in Extensive Reading, each students listen to materials of their own choice with a portable CD player.. Some of the more advanced students achieved reading speeds of around 150 words per minute, thanks to the recording and the text. Since average UEC students would not reach 50 words per minute when they simply read an English book, this is a significant step toward reading without translating into Japanese.
As for promulgation, since the joint-publication by the present author of Reading One Million Words in the Classroom in March 2005, Extensive Reading has been gradually spreading to junior and senior high schools and universities around Japan. The present author has traveled widely giving lectures and workshops and observing actual classes conducting Extensive Reading