David Coulson coulson@fc.ritsumei.ac.jp English word reading development through second and tertiary education in East Asian countries coulson@fc.ritsumei.ac.jp
Written Word Recognition Ability “WWR”: ability to recognize isolated words correctly and effortlessly ESL reading; goal of 300 words/sec (Grabe, 2009) Japanese university students often read at 180 words/sec ≈ 11yo L1 English children (Carver, 1992) Word superiority effect + automatized skill
Relationship of WWR to reading Rapid WWR frees attention for other tasks e.g. van Gelderen et al. (2004) found a remarkable level of correlation In reading, basic vocabulary constitutes a high proportion of all reading texts.
Cross-linguistic effects Reading in L1 creates specific processes Korean uses alphabetic principles Japanese have less phonemic skill L2 readers commonly apply L1 processes Japanese apply orthographic processing in L2 reading (e.g. Wade-Wolley, 1999)
Grain size in writing systems (Wydell & Kondo, 2003)
Approaches to WWR testing Slower rejection of implausible strings in L1 literacy e.g. shrnld vs hgjcpl Adams (1990) Finding 3-letter items e.g. baicer in dyslexia research Bruck (1990) Syllable recognition e.g. wgfbackvcb & nonsense string processing e.g. thatboywentlast vs whatbuywantland Adams (1990) Item detection e.g. DANSONODEND (Lambert,1959); vmwpdreamkosy (Coulson, 2011)
Word Recognition Index (WRI) (Jacobson, 1995) Designed for rapid L1 dyslexia testing boygomeet >> boy/go/meet 120 items/180secs ouccnemhhe >> ouc/cnemh/he 80 items/90secs An index is calculated ((Wch-Lch)/Lch)×100 A WRI of over 50 indicates automatic reading Strong test-retest correlation in learners (r=0.73)
Subjects A high-level 6-year JHS & SHS in Niigata 608 students A medium-ranked high school in Korea 220 students 12 native speakers of English (ESL teachers)
Results of word recognition age 12-18 in Japan
Results of word recognition age 12-18 in Japan
Results of word recognition age 12-18 in Japan
Results of word recognition age 12-18 in Japan
Results of word recognition age 12-18 in Japan
Results of word recognition age 12-18 in Japan
Results of word recognition age 12-18 in Japan
Results of word recognition age 12-18 in Japan
Results of word recognition age 12-18 in Japan
Results of word recognition age 12-18 in Japan
Results of word recognition age 12-18 in Japan
Results of word recognition age 12-18 in Japan
Results of word recognition age 12-18 in Japan
Onset of decrease in word decoding after JHS 2nd yr
Comparison of high schools in Japan and Korea WRI
Comparison of high schools in Japan and Korea
Comparison of high schools in Japan and Korea
Educational Implications The importance of ER is seriously underestimated in Japanese secondary education We do not ask 12 yo L1 children to sit TOEFL The value of ER may be misunderstood in ESL Advanced graded readers should not be viewed as superior practice or training WWR fluency development must be appreciated
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