Improving Students' Reading Skills and Speed with Computers

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Improving Students' Reading Skills and Speed with
Computers

• Kenji Kitao
• Doshisha University

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Introduction

• Problems in reading
• Reading without understanding meanings
• Slow reading
• Not understanding overall meaning

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• Reasons for slow reading
• No intention to read faster
• Habit in replacing English words into Japanese
  words
• No training for understanding English passages
  without translating it into Japanese

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• Training for reading faster
• Effective training for faster reading using
  computers
• Developing web-based fast reading programs using
  javascript in 2003
• Time reading English passages
• Calculate words per minute
• Checking comprehension with multiple choice
  questions
• Record results
• 114 passages?from 100 to 1000 words

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2004

• Reorganizing passages 128?100?700?50 words
  interval
• Graded Speed Reading Program (GSP) total words
  43,518
• comprehension questions 610
• Available on the Internet
• http//muse2.doshisha.ac.jp/kkitao/library/student
  /reading/easy/100/index.htm
• Record sheet

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• Advanced English class
• Wpm more than 150?even 300 or above
• CAI classes
• Wpm more than 100?150 or above

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• GSRP
• How to make reading materials for faster reading
• What are they like?
• Students feedback

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Reading and Training in Reading

• Understanding meanings which authors intend
  through letters accurately
• College students are required to understand
  abstract readings and complex arguments
• From the communication view, reading easy
  passages fast and understand overall meanings

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• Students are used to read slowly.
• Students read with replacing English words with
  Japanese words.

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• It is possible that reading slowly and replacing
  words make reading more difficult
• If you replace words, you pay attention to that
  word only.
• If you read slowly, it is difficult to connect
  what you are reading now with what you have read

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• In order to increase reading proficiency, reading
  a great deal of easy passage without translation
• Without replacing words
• Without using a dictionary
• Reading from the beginning to the end
• Used to read extensively
• Guessing meanings from the context
• Trying to read only main ideas and overall
  meanings

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paragraph

• Basic unit of English for communication is
  paragraphs
• Its structure
• One main idea in one paragraph
• Topic sentence, which includes a main idea
• If we teach paragraphs, students can understand
  main ideas and understand overall ideas.

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Problems

• Students usually read short difficult passages
  slowly, and they used to read English slowly.
• They have to use a dictionary a lot since there
  are many difficult words.
• They have to do a lot of work while they read,
  they may not understand the passage itself.

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• Reading will be more interesting if students
  understand overall meanings without translation
  and understanding main points.

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Teaching faster reading and computers

• I have tried various ways to teach faster
  reading.
• Timing reading with a paper copy made reading
  faster and comprehend better.
• Just let students read faster each time they read
  made them read faster.

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• If I taught structures of English, particularly
  paragraphs, and how to read faster, they could
  read faster.
• We timed each time, and students read many
  passages, they improved reading speed a great
  deal.

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• My method of timing.
• (Prof. Asaos Method to Time Reading)

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• It is not easy to train reading faster with paper
  materials.
• It is not easy to time students reading speed
  since their reading speed is so different.
• Students timing is not accurate.
• It is not easy to get accurate records no matter
  how you time.

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• Computers are effective for reading faster.
• Computers have functions to time, calculate and
  record the results.
• It is easy to time and record Individual
  students reading time.
• Students enjoy reading on the computer screen as
  If it were a game.
• Individual students can read with their own pace.

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• We developed vast amount of faster reading
  materials which we used since 1988.
• They could time reading and score comprehension
  questions, as well as they could keep records.
• These were very successful for improving reading
  skills and reading speed.

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• Webs are easier to handle, and they are easier
  for students to practice reading English.
• We provide web based reading materials with
  JavaScript.
• We provide many easy reading materials.
• We emphasize overall meanings and main points in
  readings.

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• Using stop watch program of JavaScript
• Click start to when start reading and click
  stop when finish reading
• Measure the time between those two actions
• Dividing the number of words by the time they
  spent
• Providing a program to calculate WPM
• Showing WPM

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• Using Hot Potatoes to make reading comprehension
  questions
• Multiple-choice questions
• sample

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Developing Faster Reading Materials

• passages
• short 500 words or less
• Easy reading low readability (less than 9)
• Easy vocabulary (JACET3000 word or less)
• Or it is difficult to read

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• Whether students have knowledge about the passage
  or how much familiarity they feel
• Many passages which include Japan, Japanese
  culture and differences between Japanese and
  American cultures
• Less abstract passages and more concrete passages
• Make materials attractive to everyone with
  English-speaking countries, various topics, etc.

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Feedback from students

• Students In practicum read 114 readings in 2003.
• That was outside of the class.
• Students spent 1-2weeks for each group (one group
  Is 100 words.)
• Students read with pleasure outside of the class.

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• Students kept records and wrote comments in
  English after they read.
• We sometimes had discussion over passages they
  read.
• Basically this was individual work rather than
  class work.

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• Students wrote overall feedback of this faster
  reading exercises after they finished all
  readings.
• You can see their feedback at
• Easy Readings
• http//muse2.doshisha.ac.jp/kkitao/library/student
  /project/easy2.htm

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• There were six groups, 100 words, 200 words, 300
  words, 400 words, 500 words, and 600 or above
• Students reading speed were so different among
  individuals.
• Starting WPM was 50 or 200
• All students could read with WPM 150 and some did
  with above 300.

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• Students learned skimming and scanning, and that
  made them read faster.
• It is effective to read from shorter passages to
  longer passages.
• Students learned what were important in passages
  through reading comprehension questions.
• There is no strong correlations between reading
  comprehension and reading speed.

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• More than vocabulary or readability levels
• Familiarity with topics and contents
• How much interest they show
• Are more important for reading speed.

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• Readings about history were difficult for the
  students.
• They did not know much about them.
• They had to remember the year.
• There were many peoples names and places.
• Students thought that readings about Japan or
  those written by students were good for faster
  reading training.
• Students showed interests in English-speaking
  countries.

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• Students were not much interested in readings
  shorter than 200 words
• Students thought that readings longer than 500
  words were difficult.
• Readings about 400 words were adequate for those
  students.

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• Students preferred to read silently, rather than
  with the tape.
• Students thought that pictures increase the
  motivation to read and make easy to understand
  readings.

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• Readings in TOEIC or similar ones are not good
  reading materials for faster reading like this.
• Charts or tables are not good materials for this
  type of training.
• Students are interested in English-speaking
  countries, and let them read 100-200 word
  readings from short to long about US, UK,
  Australia and Ireland. They showed much interest.

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• The aim in 2004 was to read more than 150 words
  per minute.
• All students achieved that aim, and we tried to
  improve reading comprehension. ?
• Very few students read more than 200 words per
  minute.
• It is important to teach students to read faster
  in order to improve their reading speed.

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Conclusion

• Possible to practice faster reading with pleasure
  with simple web-based programs suing Javascript
• Possible to show the reading speed since their
  reading is timed and wpm is shown to them
• Possible to show reading comprehension with the
  results of reading comprehension exercises
• More fun to read on the screen rather than on the
  paper, and students can read without using a
  dictionary
• Not much burden to read much on the screen

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• Providing variety of readings (contents and
  literary forms)?
• From shorter to longer
• From lower to higher levels in readability
• More to less familiar contents
• More to less concrete readings
• Easy to more difficult vocabulary
• Program which include above principles are
  effective to increase reading speed and
  comprehension.
• Important to make effort to make students read
  much readings with pleasure in order to increase
  their reading skills and reading speed.

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Further Study

• Students may get bored with same types of work.
• Variety of exrcises
• At a certain time, automatically changed to the
  comprehension questions (sample)
• Setting wpm at the beginning of reading (sample)
• Reading by phrases (sample)
• Reading with taped sounds
• Reading by paragraphs

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• Which reading is most effective?
• Which combination of readings are effective?

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Reference

• ???? ? (1992) ??????CAI????????????????? ????
  ???????????
• ???? (2004)???????????? ???? ?????????????????????
  ??????????????????????(2002?2003) ?
  ?????????????????? pp. 103-111

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• ??S.?????????? (2004a) ?????? ???????? ???
  ????????????????
• ??S.?????????? (2004b) ?????? ???????? ???
  ????????????????
• ???? ?????????????????CAI??????? ??? ???????????

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The End