LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』30(2)Stories of Teaching and Learning Practices㰢綗٬䷷罫㲔饧‫ס‬䡗Ⱶ鐶٬㜊䷴鐶“Bridging today’s course requirements and tomorrow’s autonomous learning”:
Reading aloud as a means to develop fluency and memory

Takeshi Ishikawa
Tokyo Keizai University
itakesh@tku.ac.jp

INTRODUCTION

Before applying to university, I was torn between whether to major in English or sociology, and chosethe latter and to study English on my own. As a self-taught English learner, I pulled out all the stops
and tried every strategy I could think of. As a result, I have come to believe that reading aloud, alongwith extensive reading, is one of the most effective ways to develop English proficiency. After getting
into teaching, I was very shocked when I was once asked by a student in the English Department thisquestion: “Ondokutte nandesuka (What is reading aloud)?” I couldn’t believe that, after having learned
English for at least six years, he had never been briefed on what reading aloud was, let alone practiced
it. As a matter of fact, not many other students were familiar with reading aloud either; however, byincorporating reading aloud into my class, I was able to increase their motivation for English andimproved their ability to have a conversation in English. These experiences led me to the belief that
English teachers should not only teach the content of the course, but also introduce varieties of waysof learning that students can choose from to help them become autonomous learners. Although it is
up to the students whether to adopt/adapt these strategies, I believe that it would be wrong not to
expose them to diverse learning strategies. Who, as an English teacher, would not want their students
to continue to learn English after graduation?
This year, I was to teach a course on reading, listening to, and discussing English texts about social
issues, and the course had two requirements: giving a final presentation and getting good scores on
TOEIC vocabulary tests. Getting students to present with confidence is easier said than done, and so
is having them study for weekly vocabulary quizzes. After careful consideration, I decided to set asidea weekly learner-training segment to help students successfully complete those course requirements
and thereby open their eyes to strategies that can pave the way for sustainable, autonomous learning.
Learning strategies, such as cognitive, metacognitive, memory, affective and social strategies, refers to“a range of specific learning techniques that make learning more effective” (Dörnyei, 2001, p. 95) andlearning strategies training “aims to make everyone more capable of independent learning” (Dickinson,
1992, p. 13). Research indicates a tight relationship between the amount of teacher support of student
autonomy and an increase in student autonomy (Noels et al., 1999).
The learner-training segment for my class was twofold: one was an introduction to reading aloudand practice. Some researchers dispute the effectiveness of reading aloud, casting doubt on theclaim that it contributes to improved pronunciation in spontaneous speech because the controlled
texts usually edit out all the redundant features of natural conversation (Celce-Murcia et al., 1996).
However, Gibson (2008) contends that there is no evidence that some texts’ unspontaneous speech
is transferred to learners’ speech and that as long as a long text, instead of a short unnatural one, isused with sensitivity, reading aloud helps students learn prosodic features of the English language.
Herman (1985) actually found that as a result of repeated reading, the improvement in fluency, was

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STORIES OF TEACHING AND LEARNING PRACTICEStransferred to previously unread materials. Birch (2002) and Underhill (1994) claim that reading aloudtexts is useful in giving students feedback on their decoding skills and comprehension. Stanovich (1991)
also suggests that connecting a letter and its sound helps learners improve pronunciation and learn
new words. Among some types of reading aloud, Kuhn and Stahl (2003) support assisted repeatedreading, in which students read aloud a text repeatedly with help from the tape-recorded model, as it
can provide scaffolding. As someone who has improved his English proficiency by reading aloud, I haveto wholeheartedly agree with the benefits of reading aloud as pointed out by these researchers.
In response to the doubts about the effectiveness of reading aloud, I would say that students who
are not good at speaking English are likely to fall into a vicious cycle: they do not practice speaking
because they feel reluctant (e.g., they are not confident about their pronunciation); their proficiency
never improves; and they still remain poor at speaking English. It is true that the texts used for reading
aloud are usually not authentic ones and that reading aloud training can be boring; however, with someingenuity, these shortcomings can be remedied by the following:• letting students know that real conversations are not exactly like written English read aloud• teaching students how to use fillers• telling students that English speech is acquired through physical exercise (The mouth muscles
used in English and Japanese are different)• giving the students an opportunity to apply their improved pronunciation in their conversation
with partners toward the end of the class
As for the possibility of boredom, what I did are these:• dividing the training part into several short segments (repeating, overlapping, eye-shadowing,
and shadowing)• having students hold the script up while looking at their partner’s face and having them read
aloud to each other with emotion while making eye contact• providing more than one type of text (e.g., conversation texts and monologue texts) so thatstudents did not have to keep using the same one.
These are exactly the techniques that were incorporated in this class.
As I planned to introduce reading aloud in this way (so that it would help students utter words withconfidence and memorize TOEIC vocabulary), there was another issue that needed to be covered:
students’ anxiety toward the final presentation. According to Horwitz et al. (1986), foreign language
anxiety has three components: 1. anxiety related to communicating with people that is attributed tolearners’ incapabilities to appropriately state their thoughts; 2. anxiety of being negatively evaluated bysociety that stems from the desire to look good to others; and 3. test anxiety, anxiety of being evaluatedacademically. With these in mind, I paid close attention to the following in this class.
Firstly, to reduce the first type of anxiety, the standard presentation structure was explained in detailorally and on an Internet bulletin board, together with three elements of a presentation, namely,
delivery, visual aids, and presentation script (the teacher explained about what to say at what stageof the process). Secondly, to alleviate the second type of anxiety, yet another training session wasincorporated that took place at the end of each class throughout the midpoint of the semester andbeyond: a pair presentation session that is expected to make students feel comfortable speaking out
by starting with an audience of only one person (for the first few weeks, students were allowed to lookat the standard presentation structure shown on the screen). And again, to lessen the third type ofanxiety (one student actually mentioned the pressure from the teacher to perform well), I reassured thestudents that their presentations would not be evaluated harshly. When I was in university, I was too
shy to speak in public. Therefore, I made these plans assuming that there must always be some shy
students in a class.

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LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』30(2)LEARNING FROM STUDENTS ABOUT HOW THEY CAN DEVELOP A SERIOUS
ATTITUDE TOWARD LEARNING NEW TECHNIQUES AND CONCEPTS

I decided to do this action research to prove that my belief that knowledge of learning strategies
helps students and is applicable in the field of university education. There were 28 sophomores
enrolled in my English conversation class this year. Half were women and half were men. The classmet once a week. The conversation course is elective and this particular class is a group of students
who score between 400 and 500 on the TOEIC test. The purpose of the class is to read, listen to anddiscuss social issues. There are two requirements in this class: 1. a TOEIC word test that takes place
every week, and 2. a poster presentation on a social issue (e.g., food loss) of their choice as the final
exam. Many of the students at this university are characterized by the fact that they do what they are
told, but are not good at doing something on their own initiative; in other words, they want to do theirbest in English, but would like to be pulled along by their teachers if possible. In light of this reality, I
decided to introduce training to promote independent learning among students.
In the first class, a questionnaire consisting of five Likert-scale items measuring motivation, attitudes
and habits of English learning was administered (see Appendix). Then, a lecture (with fun, visuallyattractive slides) was conducted about the following in order to incorporate stress and rhythm into
students’ speaking: 1. the difference between Japanese and English prosody (syllable-timed language
vs. stress-timed language), 2. the distinction between content words and function words (and how
to stress the former and unstress the latter), and 3. how (introduction of repeating, overlapping,eye-shadowing, and shadowing) and why (e.g., to make their speech comprehensible to others) it isbeneficial to read aloud.
The point here was that I introduced the reading aloud with enthusiasm and humor to motivate
students who find reading aloud tedious. The students were to practice reading aloud using
excerpts from the TOEIC test (dialogues and monologues from the Listening Section Part 3 and Part4) at the beginning of each week’s class. Introduced at the same time was the practice of reading
aloud example sentences containing words that would be on the following week’s test. What wasemphasized here was that the purpose of listening to and reading aloud the sample sentences fromthe TOEIC vocabulary book was not only for a short-term goal of getting good scores but also, andeven more importantly, for a long- term goal of improving their overall English proficiency.
Then, a few weeks later, I introduced the basics about how to give a good presentation. Whatwas explained in detail was the standard presentation structure and what to do at each stage(Introduction, Body, and Conclusion) as well as body language and how to create visual aids. The
students were to practice three-minute pair presentations on the day’s topic from the class textbook
at the end of each week’s class. For the first three weeks, students were allowed to look at thestandard structure shown on the screen. In the practice, the audience of one was asked to giveapplause before and after the presentation, and give mostly positive feedback to the presenter (withsome feedback on negative points to help improve the performance). The students listened intently
to every explanation on reading aloud and making presentations.
At the end of the course, students were asked to complete a second questionnaire (identical to thefirst with additional questions) to see how the students’ attitudes had changed.

EXPLORING STUDENT RESPONSES

It is always good to see changes in students.
Analyzing the results of Question 9 about change in attitude toward presentation, 16 of the 28
students selected “I was not confident in the beginning, but now I am” in their presentation ability
with 11 of those 16 having presentation experience, indicating that their lack of confidence was due
to a lack of proper knowledge about presentations; This is based on the fact that all the students
said instruction on standard presentation structure was useful.

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STORIES OF TEACHING AND LEARNING PRACTICES

To my delight, seven students, who did not like English due to lack of vocabulary, came to like English
more than before precisely because they became accustomed to memorizing vocabulary by the useof reading aloud.

CHANGES IN STUDENT CONFIDENCE, ABILITY AND BEHAVIOR

The following are comments from students who have become more confident in their presentation
skills and whose home study has changed to include reading aloud more often than before.
“Reading aloud gave me a chance to realize where to put the accent when speaking.
Also, I was happy to learn the structure of the presentations.” - Yasuyuki (pseudonym)
It is assumed that what worried Yasuyuki at the beginning of the course was that he did notunderstand the flow of the presentation and that he was anxious about his pronunciation.
To some, assisted reading aloud has led to a change in their pronunciation.
“By trying to pronounce English aloud and then listening to the audio on the CD, I wasable to notice that some parts of the English are not pronounced in native speakers’
speech and that some sounds are connected to each other. I was inspired to read
English out loud more often from now on.” - Takaki“I got used to TOEIC level speed. Not only by listening to native speakers’ pronunciation
but also imitating them, I can notice the difference from my own pronunciation. I spoke
too fast during my final presentation, and it was then that I realized the importance of
intonating my speech” - Eiichi
Generally speaking, a lot of students tend to procrastinate and have a hard time starting what they
believe they should do to improve their English proficiency (such as reading aloud), but some havethe courage to take the first step. Akiko is one such example.
“I knew that reading aloud was important for developing listening skills, but as a resultof my hard work in reading aloud during the semester, I was made aware that it was
effective for listening. I had not been able to learn English effectively because I did notknow how to, but now that I know how to learn English (e.g., reading aloud), I feel more
motivated about learning English. - Akiko
Other students went out of their way to give specific, vivid examples of changes in their attitudes
toward English in their daily lives.
“The many opportunities to speak in English, including presentations, made me realized
the joy of communicating in English. I started listening to Western music and naturallycame into contact with English more often. I had not had many opportunities to present
in front of others, but through this course, I learned the structure of a presentation andwhat is important when presenting, which I was able to apply in practice. The at-homeclassroom atmosphere allowed me to present without being overly nervous. I was able
to give my presentation in a loud voice so that others could understand. - Kaoru“I had never done much reading aloud before and was very reluctant at first. At the
beginning of this course, I learned the importance of reading aloud, and I started toread aloud on my own. I still have some resistance to reading aloud together in class,but I feel that it has become easier to memorize words since I started reading aloud.
Before taking this class, when I met foreigners, I relied on a translator and did not try
to talk to them. However, recently, when foreigners come to my part-time job, I am able
to go talk to them myself. I want to make it a habit to speak English more. As for givinga presentation, I initially was not confident at all, but through weekly presentation

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LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』30(2)practice, I gained some confidence. I was very nervous when giving the final
presentation, but I was glad that I could speak English better than I expected. - Ayano
As Ayano mentioned, some admitted that reading aloud contributed to them memorizing new words.
As for the TOEIC vocabulary test given at the beginning of each week, it was a pleasant surprisethat most students received perfect or near-perfect scores. The test was a fill-in-the-blanks test of
example sentences, with no Japanese translation provided, and was a test where students who had
repeatedly read sentences aloud would have an advantage.

WHAT I HAVE LEARNED FROM THIS ACTION RESEARCH

Learning strategy training was introduced for two purposes: One was for students to address
immediate course requirements, and the other to help them improve their sustainable home learning.
In terms of types of learning strategies, I introduced different kinds: 1. cognitive strategy (reading
aloud in unison by the use of repeating, overlapping, eye-shadowing and shadowing); meta-cognitive
strategy (understanding the difference between Japanese and English prosody and why knowing
it helps improve students’ English proficiency); memory strategy (memorizing new words from the
TOEIC vocabulary book by the use of assisted reading aloud); social strategy (reading aloud a
dialogue in pairs facing each other; pair presentation practice; peer feedback); and affective strategy(presentation practice with an audience of only one person; allowing presenters to refer to thepresentation structure shown on the screen during a pair presentation practice).
I would also like to note that a pattern (in this case the standard presentation structure) for the
purpose of scaffolding seems to be necessary in learning, and even more so when it is done in aforeign language. I must confess that because their first small presentations were so badly done, I
initially regretted having set the poster presentation as the criterion for the final evaluation. However,I appreciate the hard work that the students put into the final presentation.
In the second questionnaire, quite a few students commented favorably on different activities
covered in class. Some discussed the usefulness of reading aloud itself, while others noted its
effectiveness as a strategy for memorizing vocabulary. Some stated that reading aloud helped themwith their speech during presentations. Some said they would not have felt confident without adetailed explanation of the structure of the presentation. In reality, the amount of time that can bespent with students is limited. With so much to do in the classroom, there is not much time to impartknowledge about useful learning strategies to students to help them improve their out-of-classlearning, much less to help them to continue to learn English in the future. What is encouraging isthat the students saw this strategy training as a chance to improve their learning. To illustrate this,when asked what in-class activities they thought would be useful for their future English learning, 20
out of 28 students responded “learning how to read aloud.” While it is impossible to track their futurelearning, it is pleasing to see that their motivation has improved, at least at this stage. I believe thatbeing exposed to students’ desire to improve is what gives teachers more energy to move on to thenext step, more than anything else.
If I were to imitate the famous saying, it would go like this: “We should not only give them fish, butalso teach them how to fish.” Unfortunately, a short time after graduation, most students will haveforgotten most of what their teachers said and the details they learned (Sad, isn’t it?). But if there is atleast one thing they have adopted in terms of independent study methods, isn’t that good enough?
This is just an aside, but a student who had been absent from the middle of the course suddenly
showed up only on the last day and asked to give a final presentation, saying she knew she would
not receive a credit. I was impressed with her eagerness and glad to think that her courageousdecision was probably attributed to the good atmosphere the whole class and I had created. At times
like this, I am glad I became a teacher.

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STORIES OF TEACHING AND LEARNING PRACTICESREFERENCES

Birch, B. (2002). English L2 reading: Getting to the bottom. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Celce-Murcia, M., Brinton, D., & Goodwin, J. (1996). Teaching pronunciation: a reference for teachersof English to speakers of other languages. Cambridge University Press.
Dickinson, L. (1992). Learner Autonomy 2: Learner training for language learning. Authentik.
Dörnyei, Z. (2001). Motivational strategies in the language classroom. Cambridge University Press.
Gibson, S. (2008). Reading aloud: a useful learning tool? ELT Journal, 62(1), 29-36.
Herman, P. A. (1985). The effect of repeated readings on reading rate, speech pauses, and word
recognition accuracy. Reading Research Quarterly, 20, 553-565.
Horwitz, E., Horwitz, M. & Cope, J. (1986). Foreign language classroom anxiety. The Modern
Language Journal, 70(2), 125-132.
Kuhn, M. R., & Stahl, S. A. (2003). Fluency: A review of developmental and remedial practices. Journalof Educational Psychology, 95(1), 3-21.
Noels, K. A., Clément, R., & Pelletier, L. G. (1999). Perceptions of teachers’communicative style andstudents’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Modern Language Journal, 83(1), 23-34.
Stanovich, K. (1991). Changing models of reading and reading acquisition. Lawrence Erlbaum.
Underhill, A. (1994). Sound Foundations. Heinemann.
Takeshi Ishikawa teaches at Tokyo Keizai University. He holds an M.S.Ed. in TESOL from Temple
University. He has written papers on diary exchange, reading aloud training, and e-learning. His
research interests include learner autonomy and learning strategies training.

APPENDIXThe Questionnaire (translated from Japanese)
1. I like learning English.
o Strongly agree o Agree o Slightly agree o Disagree o Strongly disagree
2. I think I would like learning English more if I had more vocabulary.
o Strongly agree o Agree o Slightly agree o Disagree o Strongly disagree
3. I think reading aloud helps me memorize words.
o Strongly agree o Agree o Slightly agree o Disagree o Strongly disagree
4. I will incorporate reading aloud when learning English vocabulary.
o Strongly agree o Agree o Slightly agree o Disagree o Strongly disagree
5. I read aloud when learning vocabulary at home.
o Very often o Often o Sometimes o Rarely o Never
6. I read aloud English passages at home.
o Very often o Often o Sometimes o Rarely o Never(Question 7 and below were added to the second questionnaire.)
7. Please circle all that apply regarding your English presentation experience prior to taking this course.
A. I had no experience at all.
B. I had some experience. (Please also fill in the blanks below)
C. I had considerable experience. (Please fill in the blanks below.)
D. I had a lot of experience.
I gave a presentation(s) about () in [junior high school/high school/university].

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LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』30(2)8. Looking at the following items related to the class, please select the ones (multiple responses
allowed) that you think helped your poster presentation performance. If there are other factors, pleaselist them in parentheses below.
A. Explanation on presentation organization (Greeting, Background Information, What, Overview, Body1,transition, etc.)
B. Knowledge of English speech (rhythmic differences between Japanese and English, etc.)
C. Reading aloud practice using TOEIC sound sources (e.g. eye shadowing)
D. Pair presentation practiceE. Listening tips segment in the textbook “Global Issues”
F. One month of preparation time
G. Class atmosphere
H. Others ()
9. Has your awareness of presentation been changed compared to before taking this course? Pleasecircle one that comes closest.
A. I was not confident at first, but now I am confident.
B. I was confident at first, but now I am not.
C. I was confident and still am.
D. I was and still am not confident.
Please write a supplementary explanation about it.
[]
10. Please write frankly what you thought about the final presentation (preparation, presentation on theday, etc.).
11. What do you think will be useful for your future English study? Please select the ones (more than one
answer is acceptable). If there is anything else, please write it in parentheses.
A. The knowledge I have gained about English speech (rhythmic differences between Japanese andEnglish, the notion of differentiating between content words and function words, sound connections,etc.)
B. The knowledge I have gained about methods of practicing reading aloud (e.g. eye shadowing).
C. The experience of giving presentations and the confidence gained from them.
D. Listening to and reading aloud example sentences of TOEIC English vocabulary.
E. Discussions in English.
Others ()
Q 12. Please write about your impressions and findings regarding reading aloud.
Q13. Please describe any changes in your overall English learning (motivation, habits, etc.) during thefirst semester.

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