2013 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Mobile system to monitor extensive reading
| Project/Area Number |
25370643
|
|---|
| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
|
| Research Institution | Fukuoka Women's University |
|---|
Principal Investigator |
|
|---|
| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
W・R PELLOWE 近畿大学, 工学部, 講師 (30330327)
LAKE J 福岡女子大学, 文理学部, 講師 (60610235)
|
|---|
| Project Period (FY) |
2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
|
| Keywords | 多読 / リーディング速度 / 読解 / リーディング難易度 / 語彙文法 / 文章分析 / ラッシュ分析 / リーディング力 |
|---|
| Research Abstract |
The MOARS Extensive Reading module was pilot tested in the first semester of 2013 and introduced operationally in the second semester. This provided weekly progress reports to teachers about the number of books read by individual students and also provided research data about the difficulty of books for program administrators. The MOARS database worked as planned and no difficulties were experienced.
The MOARS research data was analyzed using many-faceted Rasch measurement (MFRM) to find the difficulty of popular books. Samples of these books were scanned and converted to text files for analysis to determine the features that contribute to reading difficulty. Text scanning is complete but analysis of the texts will take until the end of 2014.
Diagnostic tests were developed and administered in 2013. A 200 item vocabulary and grammar test was developed and used as a placement test and a 100 item version used as a post-test to measure gains in lexico-grammar knowledge. Reading speed and comprehension tests were adopted from Quinn and Nation (1974) and administered as pretests and posttests. Gains in reading ability were analyzed using MFRM.
|
| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
Pilot testing of the MOARS system was very successful and no problems were encountered with the diagnostic tests. This provided a very large quantity of data about student reading ability and book difficulty. Scanning of sample texts was completed in March 2014. However, we were required to move offices to a new building in March 2014 and one co-researcher (Lake) moved to Fukuoka Jogakuin University in April 2014. It took about 1 month to transfer all our equipment and set up the new offices, so we could not conduct any analysis from mid-March until mid-April. Data collection was completed before March 2014 and restarted in April 2014, but we were unable to continue with analysis during the period when we were moving offices because it took time to set up the computer systems in the new offices. This delay is not serious and we expect to complete the data analysis before April 2015, as planned.
|
| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
The main focus in 2014 will be identification of text features that contribute to reading difficulty. Samples of text have been scanned, but these need to be manually checked for scanning errors before they can be analyzed. This is expected to take until August 2014. There are several existing methods of estimating text difficulty, focusing on the frequency of vocabulary and length of sentences. These will be compared with students' reports about text difficulty to identify the most accurate method of estimating book difficulty. Once this is completed, publishers' reading levels will be compared to identify suitable reading levels for graded readers from different publishers.
Preliminary results from this will be presented at the Pacific Rim Objective Measurement Symposium in China in August 2014, at the JALT International Conference in Japan in November 2014, and at the Japan Language Testing Association in September 2014.
|
Research Products
(8 results)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
[Presentation] Holster, T. A., Lake
Author(s)
Monitoring extensive reading using mobile phones
Organizer
Pacific Rim Objective Measurement Society Conference 2013
Place of Presentation
National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
