Nurturing L1 Reading Habits: Developing Japanese Reading Habits through English Extensive Reading Practice

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24653233
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Educaion
• Research Institution: Hokkaido Information University
• Principal Investigator: Araki Yoko 北海道情報大学, 医療情報学部, 准教授 (90511543)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 生涯教育 / ヤングアダルト文学 / クロスオーバー文学 / 児童文学 / 英語教育

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study, which includes a 2-year “in-class” experiment targeting 1st and 2nd year Japanese university students whose majors are not in English, indicates that it is not an easy task to foster their L1 reading habits through L2 extensive reading practice in their English classes. Encouraging students to read popular contemporary North American YA literature and its translation, in particular, presents difficulties while crossover literature (the classics and literatures which appeal to a wider range of readership) garners more readers. Questionnaires and interviews conducted for this study also give researchers valuable information on university students’ reading habits in the mid-2010s. For example, students who attempted to read English books other than graded readers often had developed their reading habits in their primary and secondary schools; the business of their daily life prevents self-claimed book lovers from readings for their own general interests.

Free Research Field

英語圏文学