Reading 2012: Curriculum revision project

1. Reading 2012: Curriculum revision project Committee: Professor Yamanouchi, Chair M. Tamai-Allen, J. Dias, P. Robinson, G. Strong, M. Wakabayashi, T. Yokotani, T. Tomiyama

2. Rationale for the project: 1) Part of a series of measures to improve English Dept programs to coincide with the move to the Shibuya campus 2) More coordination between Reading teachers in terms of their texts, activities, and grading 3) Differentiating Reading I from Reading II

3. Rationale for the project: 4) A broader view of reading instruction incorporating new methodology, reading strategies, and vocabulary instruction, in addition to teaching translation 5) Implementing tasks and activities in the classroom and utilizing new media for reading 6) Encouraging students of different abilities and strengths, including returnees, to work cooperatively on several tasks 7) Incorporating input from teachers, faculty, and students to better meet the needs, interests and desires of students

4. The Revision Process: A Needs analysis • Survey of Reading I and II teachers

5. Reading 2012: New Freshmen and Sophomore courses • Recommendations of texts • Suggested tasks and activities (e.g., introducing a vocabulary component) • More guidance on student assessment

9. 2011: Piloting SAMPLE classroom tasks and activities • E.g., a translation task by a group of students of mixed ability • E.g., reading and commenting on an online or PDF document

10. READING I & II • 9 Reading I classes (For Freshmen) • 9 Reading II classes (For Sophomores) • All but one of these classes are taught by PT Japanese instructors. • 15 teachers are responsible for these classes, including one full-time faculty member. • Nearly half of the Reading teachers are veterans, having taught these courses for 8 years or more. • Half of the teachers either have taught in, or are currently teaching in, the IE Program—most of them responsible for IE Active Listening.

11. Student Reading Survey: Some Results • 396 students participated: * 70% freshmen / 30% sophomores * 75% female / 25% male * 15% have spent more than 3 years abroad * 61% were currently enrolled in Reading I 36% were currently enrolled in Reading II 3% were either taking both or neither of them

12. Student Reading Survey: Some Results Method of entering the university (of the 354 students who answered the question).

13. Student Reading Survey: Some Results Self-assessment of ability according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages * 90% of students (N=340) considered themselves to be, at least, at the B1 level—roughly equivalent to 550 - 785 points on the TOEIC. They agreed with the statement: 自分の専門分野や興味のあるテーマについて、簡単な読み物であれば、十分に理解できる。 * Nearly 40% of students (N=148) felt that they were, at least, at the B2 level—roughly equivalent to 785 - 945 points on the TOEIC. They agreed with the statement: 様々なジャンルの読み物を、独力で読みことができる。語彙力はある程度あるが、使用頻度の低い慣用句はまだ習得していない。

14. Student Reading Survey: Some Results Self-assessment of ability according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages * About 5% of students (N=18) assessed their level to be, at least, at the C1 level—roughly equivalent to 945+ points on the TOEIC They agreed with the statement: 自分の専門外の長くて複雑な読み物でも中身を詳細に理解できる。 * About 5% of students (N=21) thought that they were at the highest level, C2, which is native-like ability. They agreed with the statement: 意味や文体の微妙な違いを味わい、幅広い分野にわたって、長くて複雑な読み物が理解できる。

15. Student Reading Survey: Some Results Percentages of time spent reading ONLINE – in English and Japanese. Over half of the students are doing more than 35% of their reading online—both in English and in Japanese.

16. Student Reading Survey: Some Results Data showing percentages of students who enjoy reading certain genres vs. wanting to use those genres in their reading class (out of N=376 responding). What students enjoy reading, is not necessarily what they want to study in their reading course, and vice versa.

17. Student Reading Survey: Some Results What are students reading ONLINE…. Data in percentages, out of 379 respondents Wikipedia, email, blogs, social networking sites, and online news were the most popular aspects of the Web/ Internet for our students. Online news was the only one that was accessed (marginally) more in English.

18. Student Reading Survey: Some Results Do you use some type of MOBILE DEVICE (e.g., iPad, iPhone, e-book reader, etc.) for reading e-books, long documents, or PDFs? 392 respondents

19. Percentages of all respondents who say they use some type of MOBILE DEVICE (e.g., iPad, e-book reader, etc.) for reading e-books, long documents, or PDFs.

20. Student Reading Survey: Some Results How much time do you spend each week reading e-books (or other long documents) on your mobile device? 121 respondents

21. Student Reading Survey: Some Results What sorts of activities and tasks have you done in your Reading class? • Two respondents said: • a variety of activity, like IE core • dictation with a partner 375 respondents

22. Student Reading Survey: Some Results Materials that students are using in class and percentages of students who would like to use those items in class. 371 respondents

23. Student Reading Survey: Some Results How do you feel about the level of difficulty of the materials? 371 respondents

24. Reading Survey: Comparing Ts & Ss How do you feel about the level of difficulty of the materials?

25. Student Reading Survey: Some Results Some general findings: • Although reading is often regarded as our students’ strongest skill, 80% were either not at all confident about their reading ability or only a bit confident. • 53% like reading in English and 72% in Japanese; 39% like reading in both languages, and 15% don’t like reading in either language.

26. When reading in Japanese, 57% spend less than an hour per week on pleasure reading, with about 42% of those students spending less than 30 minutes. • When reading in English, more than 75% spend less than an hour per week on pleasure reading, with about 52% of them spending less than 30 minutes.

27. Expectations of full-time faculty for student time spent reading in English each week For the courses that require the most and least reading. (N=21)

28. Student Reading Survey: Some Results Do you feel that your reading class helps you to be a better reader? 62% of students feel that their reading class either helps them or “helps greatly.” 371 respondents

29. Student Reading Survey: Some Results Comments offered by students when asked about how much the course helped them: Positive or neutral comments I can change my way of reading. It taught me how to read newspaper articles. I could read "real" English. It maintains my English at a certain level. We can know answers of others. Negative comments The class is too quiet. Translates into Japanese every time for everything. The teacher's voice is not clear so that I cannot understand what (s)he said. We just translate the texts which is boring and not helpful.

30. A minority of the students (43%) are either “satisfied” or “extremely satisfied” with the course. 22% of the students are either “dissatisfied” or “extremely dissatisfied” with it, and the remainder are “neither satisfied or dissatisfied.” However…

31. Student Reading Survey: Some Results About 65% of students feel that it prepares them well (or very well) for English reading in other courses.

32. Student Reading Survey: Some Results When asked about the greatest difficulties they have when reading, students brought up the following… • Vocabulary (79 out of 170 respondents mentioned this) • Grammar • Long sentences • Slang and idioms • Slow reading speed • Lack of sufficient background knowledge • (e.g., “Historical or scientific articles I'm not familiar with.”

33. Survey of reading instructors : Some Results Between Jan. 13th and 25th 2011, 12 of the 15 reading instructors responded to an online survey that we asked them to fill out. Numbers of respondents teaching each of the courses

34. Survey of reading instructors : Some Results The Use of English in the Reading Courses

35. Survey of reading instructors : Some Results Average ratings for time spent doing various activities in the reading classes (out of 6; with 6 being the most time spent and 1 the least).

36. Survey of reading instructors : reading material

37. Survey of reading instructors : reading material What full-timers are using in their classes

38. Student Reading Survey: Some Results Materials that students are using in class and percentages of students who would like to use those items in class. 371 respondents

39. Survey of reading instructors Identifying and Sharing current Good Practice What techniques do you introduce to students in your reading course to help them read more easily? • Explain, in English, special or difficult words in the text (using information from the internet and reference books). • Create a family tree of the characters in a story. • Show the passage of time in a story using a flow chart. • Use study guides in English and giving brief information about the background of reading texts. • Demonstrate how to use dictionaries—English-Japanese and English-English, including O.E.D. • Have students read other works by the same authors; teacher gives hints about the meaning and students try to paraphrase.

40. Survey of reading instructors: Vocabulary Teachers and students agree on the importance of vocabulary enrichment. Some teachers are already doing the following… • Giving vocabulary quizzes in each class (3). • Utilizing English-English dictionaries as often as possible. • Encouraging the students to read more and more. • Having students guess the meaning of words from the context. • Relating new words to familiar ones (telling them the origin and structure of new words).

41. Survey of reading instructors: Perceptions • Impressions that teachers have about what students enjoy about the reading class • Discussion of a text in small groups • Reading newspaper articles which deal with popular or hot topics (2) • Hardly ever doing English-Japanese translation • Reading how society works and what human nature is really like • When they find materials which are interesting or when presentations are good, they seem to be enjoying themselves. • English grammar • Listening to English songs and translating them

42. Student Reading Survey: Dreaming What students said they would do if THEY were teaching the reading course: • I wouldn't let students do what can be done out of class during class. Students should search meaning of words and phrases before class. • I'd try to use more than one author. I wouldn't use a collection of stories by one author, in case students didn't like that author. • I would give the students an interesting book and make them read a lot. • If I were to teach a reading course, I would not assign students to translate from English into Japanese. • I would rather use set a theme at the start of the class and use materials that are related to the selected theme. Not random. • I would teach skills that help students when they read books. (like skimming, scanning, and so on). • I would use a projector.

43. Student Reading Survey: Dreaming What students said they would do if THEY were teaching the reading course: Teaching Style “Instead of having a passive learning style, I would have a discussion-based class where students could exchange opinions and go deeper into the text. I would at least make the classes a little more creative.” Teaching Content “Since we already have other classes that use English-American literatures, the reading class should use academic materials, newspapers or news magazines. In this way, students can learn more technical terms. Also students will show more interest in what happens in the world.”

44. Student Reading Survey: Dreaming How ONE student said (s)he would teach the course… I would not spend more than half the class translating text books to Japanese because English terms and sentences cannot be accurately translated and doing that changes the meaning slightly. It might be better for students whose English level is not top notch, but they have to be pressured more to keep up rather than the course itself being soft for them. As for exams, all my teachers in the 1st and 2nd grade has given us questions that we cannot do unless we memorize the passages from the textbook we use in class. I think this is the most ridiculous part of the course. Memorizing an English passage does not improve your English, and it should be done more like a iBT TOEFL exam where we are given a long difficult passage that we've never read in class and answer questions about that passage in a certain amount of time. The level of vocal used in that passage and the skills to take tests should be covered in class. At least that's how a TOEFL preparation school teaches a Reading class. (182 words) Demonstrates the strong interest some students have in making improve- ments to the course and their willingness to offer constructive criticism.