Effectiveness of Read-aloud Instruction on Motivation and Learning Strategy among Japanese College EFL Students

Abstract

Poor English performance among Japanese college EFL students has often been explained by grammar-translation and lecture-memorization instruction. This study investigated the effectiveness of a recently designed teaching method, namely, "The read-aloud instruction package," which consists of four major activities: Slash/chunked reading practice (S/CRP), repeated read-aloud practice (RRAP), cloze test, and simultaneous read-aloud and write-out practice (SRAWOP). The study also examined how EFL college students' motivation to learn English and their choice of EFL learning strategies changed after intensive three-month' instruction using these methods. Thirty-two participants with an elementary level of English proficiency completed a pretest and posttest using the TOEIC Bridge®, Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) and a motivation survey. Results indicated that the participants' score on the posttests on the TOEIC Bridge® improved significantly, but no change was found in their motivation. As to EFL learning strategy, the study found that the participants used more mental processes but less learning with others strategy after the instruction. The article discusses some possible explanations of the effectiveness of the read-aloud instruction package from cognitive and neuro-linguistic perspectives.

The Impact of Reading Strategy Instruction on Reading Comprehension, Strategy Use, Motivation, and Self-Efficacy in Chinese University EFL Students

“…The questionnaire results revealed that after the explicit reading strategy instruction, there were no significant differences in changes in students’ reported reading motivation and reading self-efficacy. These results were congruent with the observation in a number of previous studies that reading strategy intervention did not impact on students’ reading motivation and self-efficacy significantly (e.g., Antoniou & Souvignier, 2007; Lau, 2016; Lau & Chan, 2007; Shinozuka et al, 2017).…”

“…In the L1 reading context, Guthrie et al (1996), Guthrie et al (2000) had confirmed that the concept-oriented reading instruction (CORI) could boost participants’ intrinsic motivation. Shinozuka et al (2017) study of a 3-month reading strategy instruction with 32 Japanese freshman students, however, demonstrated no significant changes in students’ motivation after the reading strategy instruction. In Shinozuka et al’s study, a modified version of reading motivation questionnaire (Narita, 1998) adapted from Gardner and Lambert’s (1972) Motivation Questionnaires Battery was used to measure learners’ motivation before and after the reading strategy instruction.…”

“…First, as motivation belongs to a comparatively stable construct (Meece & Miller, 1999), a short duration of reading strategy intervention like the one implemented in the current study may not bring about considerable changes in reading motivation and self-efficacy. This interpretation finds an echo in Shinozuka et al (2017) results that Japanese university EFL students’ motivation hardly changed after 3 months’ reading instruction. It may be that obvious motivational or attitudinal transfer effects of reading strategy intervention only happen in intervention studies which last more than one year (Brown et al, 1996; Deshler & Schmaker, 1993).…”

Non-English Major Students’ Perception of Factors Influencing English Proficiency in China

“…Language learning strategies are generally defined as the EFL learner's consciously chosen tools for active, self-regulated improvement of language learning (Shinozuka, Shibata, & Mizusawa, 2017).There are a number of ways to categorize types of learning strategies (Gan, Humphreys, & Hamp-Lyon, 2004;O'Malley, Chamot, Stewner-Manzanares, Kupper, & Russo, 1985). O'Malley and Chamot (1985) divide language learning strategies into three main kinds.…”