Setting restriction on extensive reading

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K00919
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 02100:Foreign language education-related
• Research Institution: Dokkyo University
• Principal Investigator: Nakanishi Takayuki 獨協大学, 経済学部, 教授 (10406019)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 英語教育 / 英語多読 / extensive reading

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Principles of extensive reading stipulates that instructors let students choose what they want to read. Thus, instructors do not exercise any control over the difficulty level of students’reading materials. This study is a continuation and follow-up of Nakanishi (2018) which examined whether any restriction set on student choice of reading materials causes different degrees of extensive reading outcome.
Two-hundred-six third-year Japanese university students participated in the four-year study. Each year, students were divided into two groups. The first group (free-reading group) was permitted to read easier books, whereas the second group (restricted-reading group) had to choose books of at least 1,000 words. The findings revealed that both groups read a similar number of books over the same period of time, however, the restricted-reading group read more words than the free-reading group which was tantamount to the results of Nakanishi (2018).

Free Research Field

英語教育

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究から、今後の多読研究に関して何が必要なのかの示唆を得ることができた。まず、多読の実際の効果を検証できること、そして、多読研究において、異なる分析手法を英語教育の分野に広めることができるということでも研究の意義は大きいと考える。
さらにもう一歩進め、多読の語数比較、負荷、制限がどのような影響を教育に与えるのかを把握できるという点も本研究の学術的意義と考える。多読が教授法の一つとして研究結果から確証を得ている中で、現状は学生に本を自由に選択させている。つまり、多くの現場で本のレベルに対するコントロールはされていない。この多読の根本に疑問を投じた研究であり、今後の研究につながるものと考える。