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Extensive Reading for University Conversation Classes

Extensive Reading for University Conversation Classes. Kyle Quinn Andong National University KOTESOL Presentation Sunday, October 21 st , 2012 2:25-2:50 . Extensive Reading. The Library. Oxford Graded Readers

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Extensive Reading for University Conversation Classes

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  1. Extensive Reading for University Conversation Classes Kyle Quinn Andong National University KOTESOL Presentation Sunday, October 21st, 2012 2:25-2:50

  2. Extensive Reading

  3. The Library • Oxford Graded Readers • Students mostly read Starter books (250 headwords) and Stage 1 books (400 headwords), with a few students dabbling in Stage 2 books (700 headwords) • I’m not paid or associated with Oxford in any way, I just happened to use their level tests and graded readers. Cambridge, MacMillan, and Penguin (and maybe others?) also make well regarded graded reader series

  4. The Library

  5. The Students • University Freshmen Conversation class • Three 50-minute classes a week, 15 weeks • Reading Group Students read for about 25 minutes once a week (about 17% of class/week) • Non-Reading • Took 2 tests at each the beginning and end of the semester (Oxford Bookworms Level Test)

  6. The Test

  7. Students in the Reading Group First/Second week of March 2012: Students took the Oxford Level Tests- Starter Test 1 and Stage 1 Test 1 (Scores recorded) For the next 13 weeks students read silently in class once a week for about 25 minutes per session. First week on June: Students took the Oxford Level Tests- Starter Test 2 and Stage 1 Test 2 (Scores recorded) The Reading Group included 222 students in 12 different classes

  8. Students in the Non-Reading Group First/Second week of March 2012: Students took the Oxford Level Tests Starter Test 1 and Stage 1 Test 1 (Scores recorded) For the next 13 weeks students engaged in regular conversation classes (No in class reading time) First week on June: Students took the Oxford Level Tests Starter Test 2 and Stage 1 Test 2 (Scores recorded) The Non-Reading Group included 106 students in 7 classes

  9. The Results

  10. The Results

  11. Statistically Significant? • Probably Not (But I’m not at all confident in my statistical analysis) • Data analysis in a 2 tailed, type 2 T Test resulted in a t-score of 0.000000185 for the Starter Test data, and 0.000000000124 for the Stage 1 Data • Using an alpha score of 0.05 and my df (degrees of freedom) of 326, my data falls well below the threshold for statistical significance (which would be a t-score of about 1.9) • It would be awesome if someone better qualified could do some data analysis (My Excel sheets are available to anyone interested)

  12. In 2001, Stephen Krashen reviewed 53 Extended Reading studies. The table below shows the number of studies classified by impact. My Study: about 13 weeks

  13. Statistical Notes • Students who didn’t take all 4 tests were excluded from the study • Some suspected cheating on the tests • Some suspected lack of effort on the tests • Outliers were not excluded from the study

  14. Benefits of Reading • Students responded really well to reading • Loaned books to students wanting more practice in English • Teacher training curriculum • Discussion based night classes • Other teachers have started ER programs in their classes

  15. Extensivereadingstudy.wordpress.com • The Raw Data • The Powerpoint presentation • Background Information • List of all the books, with recommendations • Oxford Bookworm App reviews • I’m happy to provide results/data, advice, and recommendations to anyone interested

  16. Further Research • Expand original study (what I just presented on) to include TOEIC scores • Use TOEIC scores to compare the current semester’s students • Track students from the original study to gauge the effect on TOEIC scores after 10 months • Results will be posted to the blog

  17. Q&A

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