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論文
The Benefits of L1 and L2 "Big" Reading:
A Practical Theory
Joseph Poulshock(Senshu University)

１．Introduction"The benefits [of] extensive reading… are so compelling that it will be inconceivable forteachers not to make it an important feature of their teaching" (Renandya, 2007, p. 133).
"Adding an extensive reading program to a language course is the most important
improvement that a teacher can make, and if this was the only improvement made, theteacher could still feel very satisfied about that" (Nation, 2013, p. 18).
"Those who read a lot will enhance their verbal intelligence; that is, reading will make themsmarter" (Cunningham & Stanovich, 1998, p. 7).
When young people fail to read a lot, (and when educators fail to effectively promotereading), these young people may squander many benefits, not just the benefits of verbal
intelligence. But they may also diminish their ability to learn critical thinking, to advancetheir careers, and to sufficiently manage their own health care (Seidenberg, 2017). Big
readers, however, experience significant benefits over those who do not read big. These
include cognitive, social, and linguistic benefits. In this paper, I state a theory about why
this is the case, especially for the linguistic benefits of L1 and L2 big reading. Though
the focus is theoretical, the results are practical. That is, when we read big, we acquire
language because we receptively retrieve lexis and grammar through spaced repetition andinterleaving -- as we comprehend meaningful messages.
２．Defining Terms
To unpack this claim, we need to define: (1) big reading BR, (2) receptive retrieval RR, (3)spaced repetition SR, (4) interleaving IL, and (5) comprehending meaningful input CMI.
(1) What is big reading? Most commonly, we use the term "extensive reading," but otherterms are also used, such as "book flood" (Elley, 2000) and "free, voluntary reading,"(Krashen, 2011). However, in this paper, "big reading" refers to a special class of extensive

reading, which begins after a reader has read at least 300,000 words (Nishizawa, 2010).
After reading 300,000 words, students begin to feel at ease in reading English. They

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Joseph Poulshockincrease reading speed, understand English directly without translating back to the L1, andthey attain measurable gains on the TOEIC and similar tests (Mason, 2011).
To read 300,000 words in one university term, a student needs to read about 20 minutes
every day. The same goes for reading 1,000,000 words in a year. Both these scenarios
require readers to read around 150 words per minute for about 20 minutes per day. Native
speakers may average around 240-300 words per minute (Seidenberg, 2017), so if they read
20 minutes per day, they can read about 2,000,000 words in one year.
(2) With receptive retrieval (RR), we see or hear a word, phrase, or structure, and we recall
its meaning, or we successfully parse a grammatical function.
(3) With spaced repetition (SR) or spaced practice, we retrieve or recall data after a spaceof time. Some forgetting sets in, so our brains must work harder to recall data. Spaced
repetition works better than massed repetition (cramming) for retention.
(4) When we interleave (IL), we mix topics or data sets, so our brains work on different
topics, instead of learning one topic and then moving to the next. For example, we mix
the practice of a set of ukulele songs until we master them all, instead of practicing andmastering a song at a time. We mix the study of grammar points instead of studying one
point at a time. Interleaving requires more effort to retrieve data, and we remember betterand longer if we do it (Brown et al., 2014)(5) When we comprehend meaningful messages, we are reading texts at the right levelof difficulty. To compute our ability to comprehend, we can use the concept of vocabulary
coverage. What percentage of the words in a text do we need to know to comprehend it?
Students and teachers often say to me, if they know 70% of the words in the text, then they
can read it. But this is impossible. The threshold for reading a text (without a dictionary) is
about 98% coverage. Even as a native speaker, I need to know about 98% of the words in atext to understand it.
This level of coverage fits with Krashen's (1985, 2001) comprehension hypothesis, which
can be summarized as follows: "We acquire languages by understanding messages." But
if we read big, we don't just comprehend messages, we comprehend a massive numberof messages, and this is where the big benefits are. That is, we need access to "big data"(Seidenberg, 2017) for our brains to do the necessary computation to get the benefits of big
reading.

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３．The Claim and Its Implications
With these definitions in mind, let's revisit our claim. When we do big reading, we acquire
language because we receptively retrieve lexis and grammar through spaced repetition andinterleaving -- as we comprehend meaningful messages.
Abstractly, we can represent this theory as follows:
BR x CMI x (RR) (SR) (IL) = Language Acquisition
First, regarding receptive retrieval (RR) , when we comprehend big linguistic data, we
receptively retrieve a broad array of lexical and grammatical elements as we read.
There are many factors related to retrieval, including the distinction between receptive andproductive retrieval. For example, it's probably better to learn vocabulary "receptively first
and then productively later" (Nation, 2012, p. 479). First, receptive retrieval is easier than
productive retrieval, and second, if we don't know the general structure of language, wecannot easily use productive word knowledge.
But the point is this. Big reading satisfies a key factor for acquiring grammar and lexis
because through big reading our brains process massive amounts of grammar and lexis --through receptive retrieval .

Second, big readers do receptive retrieval with spaced repetition (SR) of high frequency
grammar and lexis. We can contrast spaced repetition (spaced practice) with massed
repetition (massed practice), which we call cramming.
Massed practice may work for cheap, short-term gains, like passing a test, but learners
generally soon forget what they study during massed practice. Massed practice is common
in grammar drilling if the drills are not recycled and spaced. Spaced repetition is betterfor long term retention. And here's the key point about big reading: big readers naturally
experience spaced repetition of grammar and lexis as they read. That is, as they read, theymeet grammar rules and word forms that are naturally repeated and spaced out in manytexts and contexts.
We need to note how big reading differs from the traditional grammatical syllabus. If agrammatical syllabus is done poorly, we teach one grammar point and move to the next -without spaced repetition and recycling. If we teach the grammatical syllabus well, we dospaced repetition and recycling of grammar, but probably not enough for learners to acquire

the grammatical points through our teaching. Our students will forget unless they havespaced and repeated opportunities to comprehend and use the language.

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With big reading, even though we may acquire grammar and lexis through spaced repetition,
we need to note that this is different than remembering the content of the texts that we read.
If we want to remember the content of the texts we read, we had better do self-quizzing on
the material, using productive retrieval (Brown et al., 2014).
However, we are talking about acquiring the intrinsic and underlying "linguistic content"of texts -- not the "message content." When we read millions of words, we will experience
spaced repetition of a broad array of lexical and grammatical items. And our brains may benaturally inclined to statistically acquire these linguistic patterns (Seidenberg, 2017).
On average, learners will tend to incidentally acquire a word when they meet it about 10
times. According to Waring (2007), if a learner reads 42,665 words, she will likely meet eachof the top 500 words about 10 times. If she reads 85,329 words, she will likely meet each of
the top 1000 words 10 times, and if she reads 231,250 words, she will likely meet each of the
top 2000 words 10 times. Thus, through a natural kind of spaced repetition, she can acquire
the top 2000 high frequency vocabulary words.
The principles of spaced repetition may cease to apply (or work differently for) mid or low
frequency words because these words are not repeated as often, and the spaces between
them may be too far apart. However, Elgort and Warren (2015) found that lexically proficientlearners were better at learning more vocabulary. In other words, there may be a so-called"Matthew effect" (Stanovich, 1986) where the lexically rich get lexically richer . Thus, thevariable richness of a learner's web of vocabulary knowledge may predict how efficiently
or even quickly she learns new words. That is, the more words a learner knows, the more
quickly she learns new words, and therefore, with mid or lower frequency words, the reader
may need to meet them fewer times because of her existing lexical proficiency.
Besides vocabulary, as we read, we meet a multitude of grammatical rules depending on theirfrequency statistics. With higher frequency grammatical rules, readers may acquire them
partly through spaced repetition, though perhaps less so with the lower frequency rules.
Nevertheless, in general we can see that big reading satisfies the criteria of spaced repetitionof lexical and grammatical items for language acquisition .

Third, big readers also naturally interleave (IL) different grammatical rules and word forms
as they read. Big readers don't drill on the present tense, then the present continuous tense,
then the present perfect tense, and then all the other tenses and grammar rules in serial
order. Rather as they read, they meet numerous tenses, rules, words and their morphologicalrules as these structures are mixed and interleaved.

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In theory, then, big reading satisfies three basic principles of learning: spaced repetition(SR), receptive retrieval (RR), and interleaving (IL). But the fourth factor, comprehending
meaningful input (CMI), allows readers to experience these principles in a most meaningful
way. That is, readers experience SR + RR + IL as they comprehend meaningful and sometimes
even compelling messages. With big reading, we are not doing dry and abstract language
study; we are engaging with meaningful messages, which are matched to the level of ourstudents, and this is a quintessentially communicative and purposeful activity.
４．Time on Task
Besides the theoretical fits, big reading also satisfies the principle of time on task (TOT).
Recently, I heard a teacher say, "I don't expect my students to really learn English in my classes.
They simply do not have enough time to make significant improvements."
This point of view may be true, but I find it to be too pessimistic, especially because of thepotential of big reading. Nevertheless, it might be helpful to shed light on the issue of TOT bycomparing native English speakers and EFL learners, specifically in Japan.
Mary is a typical 18-year-old native speaker of English. If we estimate that from birth she has
experienced 8 hours a day of immersion in English, then at 18, she has over 50,000 hours ofEnglish immersion. Ken is a typical 18-year-old university student in Japan. From junior highschool to his first year of college Ken has experienced about 850 classroom hours of English
instruction. If he did his homework, we could double the number.
The point is this, when he reaches university, Ken hasn't studied English for six years. Rather
he has studied for 100 real days. Realistically speaking, Ken is doing well with his 100 days of
English instruction, and we shouldn't expect six years of English ability in those 100 days.
But the challenge is this. How can we increase Ken's time on task? Study or living abroad is
ideal. But in an EFL setting, big reading gives students the chance to (a) maintain their English
after they study abroad and to (b) enter an English-speaking world through books and stories
and thus acquire and maintain English as they do big reading.
５．The Grading of Texts
Thus far, we can see that the theory for language acquisition through big reading is the samefor both L1 and L2 readers. However, for L2 learners to comprehend input, they need to use
graded texts. By giving our learners graded texts, we are directly applying Krashen's theoryof comprehensible input.
When discussing graded texts, we often hear the objection that our students need "authentic
materials." Waring's (2017) response is helpful. He asks if we would make a beginning16

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piano student try to learn Rachmaninoff's most difficult piano concerto or if we would ask a
4-year-old to read Harry Potter.
That is, just as native speakers read books at appropriate levels, so should second language
learners. Moreover, we can also challenge the idea of "authentic texts." Though EFL learners
use texts that are graded and simplified, these texts still convey authentic meaning. They
tell authentic facts and stories, so in significant ways, graded texts are also authentic texts .

When we grade texts, we can control for vocabulary, grammar, and readability. If we aresimplifying a text, we replace the low or middle frequency vocabulary words with highfrequency words. Because the top 2000 words of English cover 80% of English texts, we canassume that our learners need to learn these words first. In a natural English speaking
environment, we can assume that learners will generally acquire these top 2000 words first
because they would meet them 80% of the time. But if we create an artificial environment
where learners learn middle or low frequency words first, then they will have systematic
gaps in their most basic and important vocabulary knowledge.
However, when we grade texts, we replace the words that students need to learn laterwith the words they need to learn first. Fortunately, for grading texts, we have excellent
vocabulary profiling software, the most popular of which we can find at <www.lextutor.ca/
vp/comp/>. The basic steps for profiling the vocabulary of a text are as follows:
1. Paste the text into the profiling form.
2. Click the Submit Window button.
3. View the vocabulary profile of the text.
4. To remove proper nouns and names, click on the words that are red; then click
RE-VP to profile the text again.
Let's compare an unsimplified and a simplified text. The story is a public domain text byJames Baldwin entitled the "King and Carl." It's a children's story, so the unsimplified
version is easy. Eighty-nine percent of the words are in the top 1000 words of English. These
are the blue words in the text, (see the presentation slide) and around 96% of the words arein the top 2000 words of English. These are the green words. As a reference, when we lookat a typical text written for adult native speakers, we will see that 80% of the words are in
the top 2000, so this text is 16% "easier" than a typical text for adult native speakers.
However, in the simplified version, we see that 95% of the words are in the top 1000, andalmost 100% of the words are in the top 2000. If our students know all the words in thesimplified text, then we can use it for fluency development, such as speed reading, because
we cannot practice speed reading when we must deal with many unknown words. If ourThe Benefits of L1 and L2 "Big" Reading

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students know about 98% of the words, then they will likely be able to guess unknown
words from context, and thus the text would be at the right level for extensive reading.
In short, there are three key points regarding the profiling of texts for language learners.
First, when we profile a text, we get an objective measure of its lexical difficulty, andthus, we can see if the text is appropriate for the level of our students. Second, even if we
do not simplify the text, the profile shows us which words might be difficult for students
and which words we might pre-teach (though we don’t want to get bogged down in a longand ineffective pre-teaching session). Third, the profiling software helps us simplify texts.
Depending on our target level, we can exchange out mid or low frequency vocabulary withthe high frequency words our students need first. Thus, profiling texts helps us apply thecomprehension hypothesis when we prepare texts for our students. Profiling grammar ismore difficult than profiling for vocabulary. When we profile for grammatical frequency, wemust manually check each sentence for its grammatical constructions and then compare
the grammar with a scale, such as the common European Framework. We can more quickly
check for grammar by using a readability profiler, such as the Flesch-Kincaid, which isa part of the spell-checker in Microsoft Word. Thus, as we increase the readability, we
will probably use shorter words and sentences, which will help us to naturally simplify
grammar.
６．Conclusions
I teach English to Japanese undergraduate students. Today my students face anincreasingly globalized job market, where knowing English can benefit them greatly.
However, even if they spend a semester or year abroad, they will need to continue tomaintain and grow their English ability upon returning to Japan.
Big reading provides an easily accessible English environment that learners can carryin their pockets or backpacks. And, as mentioned above, big reading brings more thanlinguistic benefits. It can also benefit their socio-intelligence, for we know that reading
fiction benefits empathy and emotional intelligence (Mar et al., 2009), and that reading, in
general, makes us smarter (Cunningham & Stanovich, 2003).
But here is the main problem. We talk about doing extensive reading (ER), but often ourstudents really don’t do it. That is, most learners in ER programs never even cross the "bigreading" 300,000-word threshold. And some researchers (Carney, 2016 and Storey, et al.,2005) claim that ER doesn’t help students increase scores on standardized tests like the
TOEIC, but these researchers fail to emphasize that subjects in their studies did not readextensively (i.e., read over 300,000 words).

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Therefore, I would like to propose that we change our terms and our educational culture.
For example, when learners follow the principles of ER, maybe we can say that they areattempting extensive reading. But when they have crossed the threshold of 300,000 words,
then we can say that they have "read big."
Regarding educational culture, I would like to propose that universities and university
departments set big reading goals. For example, "during the first two years of life atuniversity, students will read at least 1,000,000 words in English." Along with these goals,
I also suggest that universities and researchers in Japan do large scale extensive reading
studies that involve hundreds (or even thousands) of subjects who have read millions ofwords.
Reading a million words in 2 years is a challenging goal for university students in Japan,
but it is also a reasonable goal. At least it is doable and realistic. Even if a reader reads at
the relatively slow rate of 125 words per minute, in 2 years, she can read a million words in
11 minutes per day of reading.
However, to help our students reach this goal, we will also need to work on other goals: (1)attain consensus among educators and administrators about L1 and L2 reading goals andbenefits; (2) systematically promote the holistic benefits of both L1 and L2 reading on our
campuses; and (3) to help them succeed, we may need to teach students the evidence-based
psychological principles such as the "growth mind-set" (Dweck, 2007) and "grit" (Duckworth,2016).
If we teach this positive psychology as an integral part of a "one-million-word challenge," it
may also benefit our students in other ways, both personally and academically. And as many
students meet the challenge, in their 3rd and 4th years, they can serve as role-models andstudent assistants, supporting new students and recommending texts, stories, and books tothem.
All in all, this proposal fits our broader needs. We need to revive reading in our universities,

not just for language education -- but for lifelong learning . If our students do not become
big readers, they risk being linguistically, intellectually, and economically devoured by thecompetition. But if we create an educational culture where our students read big, (at least
1 million words for English L2 readers and a bounty of great books for L1 readers), then we
will better fulfill our calling to help these young people thrive in the world today.

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