Development of English Reading Skills and School-based Reading Education in Korea

Professor Lee, Byungmin ( 이 병 민 )Seoul National University

English Education

Kyunggi Provincial Office of Education, Foreign Language Education Conference, NEW Teaching, New Learning, 2013. 11. 2

Is there any school-based English curricu-lum?

• A variety of curriculum at school exist– National Curriculum– National English curriculum– Public school English textbooks– English instruction at each class– English examinations at school– A variety of entrance examination– A goal of parents’ English education toward their chil-

dren– English programs at private institutes

Which one is the most influential to Whom?

• National English curriculum?

• English textbooks?

• School-administered English examinations?

• English tests in Korean College Scholastic Test?

• Or, a parent’s expectation toward their children’s level of English performance

Depending on school level

• One, KCSAT

• The other, parents’ expectations on English education

• Or the textbooks

Then, what do our schools do to develop our students English reading skills?

What is Reading in English?• Is it simple or complicated?

– It is very complicated and demanding– It is highly cognitive-loaded mental activity– Students should learn various levels of knowledge to read the text in

English fluently– Phonological, orthographical, word recognition, morphological

recognition, suppressing irrelevant meanings of the word, syntactic parsing, semantic mapping, building of propositional meaning, hold-ing information in working memory, inter-sentential inferencing, ac-cessing background knowledge, constructing a coherent meaning or map of meaning of the text

– Integration of some lower-level processes & some higher-level pro-cesses

A Fluent Reader?

• An automatic and unconscious lower-level processing of textual information

• A strategic and conscious higher-level process-ing of textual information

Strands of Early Literacy Development, Reading Assessment, 2012: 19

School-based English Reading Instruction

• Translation practices

• Grammar explanation

• Structural analysis

• Exclusively using the textbooks

• Sometimes, KCSAT preparation packages

School-Based English Reading Program

• Too much accuracy-oriented reading instruc-tion

• What about fluency or speed? Or Automatic processing of information?

• How fast or fluently can students read and un-derstand the texts in English?

The Expected Difficulty of English Reading Curriculum

• 이런 정도의 글은 읽는 것이겠죠 .

• N. Korea issues threats as U.S. leads exercises• ABOARD USS GEORGE WASHINGTON (AP) — A nuclear-powered U.S. supercarrier led an armada of warships in exer-

cises off the Korean peninsula Sunday that North Korea has vowed to physically block and says could escalate into nuclear war. U.S. military officials said the maneuvers, conducted with South Korean ships and Japanese observers, were intended to send a strong signal to the North that aggression in the region will not be tolerated. Tensions on the Korean peninsula have been particularly high since the sinking in March of a South Korean naval vessel. Forty-six Korean sailors were killed in the sinking, which Seoul has called Pyongyang's worst military attack on it since the 1950-53 Korean War. The military drills, code-named "Invincible Spirit," are to run through Wednesday with about 8,000 U.S. and South Korean troops, 20 ships and submarines and 200 aircraft. The Nimitz-class USS George Washington was deployed from Japan. "We are showing our re-solve," said Capt. David Lausman, the carrier's commanding officer. North Korea has protested the drills, threatening to re-taliate with "nuclear deterrence" and "sacred war. "The North routinely threatens attacks whenever South Korea and the U.S. hold joint military drills, which Pyongyang sees as a rehearsal for an invasion. The U.S. keeps 28,500 troops in South Korea and another 50,000 in Japan, but says it has no intention of invading the North. Still, the North's latest rhetoric carries extra weight following the sinking of the Cheonan. Capt. Ross Myers, the commander of the carrier's air wing, said the exercises were not intended to raise tensions, but acknowledged they are meant to get North Korea's attention. The George Washing-ton, one of the biggest ships in the U.S. Navy, is a potent symbol of American military power, with about 5,000 sailors and aviators and the capacity to carry up to 70 planes. "North Korea may contend that it is a provocation, but I would say the op-posite," he said. "It is a provocation to those who don't want peace and stability. North Korea doesn't want this. They know that one of South Korea's strengths is its alliance with the United States. "He said North Korea's threats to retaliate were be-ing taken seriously." There is a lot they can do," he said. "They have ships, they have subs, they have airplanes. They are a credible threat." The exercises are the first in a series of U.S.-South Korean maneuvers to be conducted in the East Sea off South Korea's east coast and in the Yellow Sea closer to China's shores in international waters. The exercises also are the first to employ the F-22 stealth fighter — which can evade North Korean air defenses — in South Korea. South Korea was closely monitoring North Korea's military but spotted no unusual activity Sunday, the Defense Ministry said. North Korea, which denies any involvement in the sinking of the Cheonan, warned the United States against holding the drills." Our mili-tary and people will squarely respond to the nuclear war preparation by the American imperialists and the South Korean puppet regime with our powerful nuclear deterrent," the North's government-run Minju Joson newspaper said in a commen-tary Sunday headlined, "We also have nuclear weapons." The commentary was carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. The North's powerful National Defense Commission issued a similar threat Saturday, saying the country "will start a retaliatory sacred war." Its Foreign Ministry separately said Saturday that Pyongyang is considering "powerful physical mea-sures" in response to the U.S. military drills and sanctions. Though the impoverished North has a large conventional military and the capability to build nuclear weapons, it is not believed to have the technology needed to use nuclear devices as war-heads. North Korea has been in increasingly difficult diplomatic straits since the Cheonan incident. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced Wednesday, after visiting the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas, that the U.S. would slap new sanctions on the North to stifle its nuclear ambitions and punish it for the Cheonan sinking. On Friday, the European Union said it, too, would consider new sanctions on North Korea. The George Washington had been expected to join in exercises off Korea sooner, but the Navy delayed those plans as the United Nations Security Council met to deliberate what action it should take over the Cheonan sinking. The council eventually condemned the incident, but stopped short of naming North Korea as the perpetrator. In Seoul, meanwhile, about 150 anti-war activists rallied Sunday near the U.S. Em-bassy, chanting slogans such as "We are opposing the drills!" and "Scrap the South Korean-U.S. alliance!" The activists said the training would only deepen tension in the region. The rally was peaceful and there was no reports of clash with riot po-lice. 

Lexile Features of the Text

• 1360 Lexile

• 791 words

• Mean sentence length 19.29

• Mean Log word frequency 3.01

How fast should you read the text?

• A total of 791words • The total time is 7 minutes 10 seconds• 113 words per minute• How fast is it?• How about our Korean students from el-

ementary to high school?

• President Obama used this morning's meeting of his Middle Class Task Force to, naturally, unveil new plans to help the middle class -- and to echo his pledge to "fight" for their interests. "We're going to keep fighting to renew the American Dream, and keep it alive, not just in our time, but for all time," Obama said. At another point, while sit-ting next to Vice President Biden (the task force chairman), Obama said that "Joe and I are going to keep on fighting for what matters to middle class families.“ All he told, Obama used the words "fight" or "fighting" four times in a seven-minute speech. The president and aides have been in a metaphorically battling mood since last week's Democratic loss in the Massachusetts Senate race. Obama used more than 20 variations of the word "fight" in his Ohio town hall Friday; expect some more political pugilism during Wednesday night's State of the Union address. The election of Republican Scott Brown in Massa-chusetts also gives the GOP the power to block an Obama-backed health care bill in the Senate, putting his signature domestic initiative in doubt. That's one reason Obama is refocusing his efforts on jobs and the economy. The middle class package Obama discusses today in-cludes increasing the tax credit for child care, easing student loan payments.

What about the text from USAToday

• Results Lexile measure 1280L

• Mean Sentence Length 21.90

• Mean Log Word Frequency 3.45

• Word Count 219– http://www.lexile.com/analyzer/

What about English Tests in KCSAT?

Most people have a vase or two in a cupboard, but lots of things can be turned into stylish con-tainers for a flower arrangement, so before you rush out to buy anything, look around your own home. For instance, goldfish bowls look stunning filled with flower heads or petals, magnifying their contents. Wine, milk, mineral water, or olive oil bottles look particularly good with one or two stems in them. Try a collection of bottles in various shapes and sizes, lined up on a shelf or grouped on a table. An old teapot which has lost its lid becomes an ideal container for a bunch of roses picked from the garden.

Reading Difficulty(Year 2010)

• Results Lexile measure 1330L

• Mean Sentence Length 22.20

• Mean Log Word Frequency 3.35

• Word Count 111

Some scientists have shown the practical power of looking at the world through ‘could-be’ eyes. When a group of students were shown an un-familiar rubbery object and told, “This could be a dog’s chewy toy,” they were later able to see that it might also be of use as an eraser when they made some pencil mistakes. In contrast, students who were told that it was a dog’s chewy toy did not find its alternative use. Another group of students watched a video about physics after being told, “This presents only one of several outlooks on physics. Please feel free to use any additional methods you want to assist you in solving the problems.” On tests of factual comprehension, these students performed no differ-ently from students who had watched the video with a different introduc-tion: “This presents the outlook on physics. Please use the method you see in the video in solving the problems.” But when they were faced with questions that asked them to use the information more creatively, the ‘could-be’ students performed much better than the others. Just a simple of language seemed to invite the students to process and store in-formation in a much more flexible format, and thus be able to look at it and make use of it in different ways.

Reading Difficulty

• Results Lexile measure 1210L• Mean Sentence Length 21.60• Mean Log Word Frequency 3.61• Word Count 216 개 .

2010 KCSAT

Lexile Mean Sentence Length

Mean Long Word Frequency * Word Count

20 990L 17.43 3.77 12225 1280L 19.83 3.27 11926 930L 16.89 3.86 15228 1340L 25.83 3.61 15531 1370L 22.00 3.23 13235 1240L 20.00 3.38 14037 1180L 18.38 3.38 14739 1300L 24.40 3.60 12241 1050L 16.88 3.55 13542 1320L 24.00 3.52 12043 880L 13.91 3.62 15344 870L 14.38 3.71 11545 1210L 21.50 3.60 172

46-48 1060L 17.16 3.56 32649-50 1180L 22.33 3.74 201

2009 KCSAT

Lexile Mean Sentence Length

Mean Long Word Frequency * Word Count

20 1110L 18.86 3.61 13225 1200L 23.00 3.75 13829 1150L 17.67 3.38 15932 1320L 22.33 3.39 13434 920L 13.89 3.52 12539 1390L 24.67 3.40 14840 1090L 16.11 3.36 14541 990L 15.50 3.55 12444 1180L 18.00 3.34 12645 1540L 24.33 2.99 146

46-48 1180L 22.13 3.73 33249-50 1220L 21.70 3.59 217

2008 KCSAT

Lexile Mean Sentence Length

Mean Long Word Frequency * Word Count

20 1150L 19.83 3.60 119 23 1370L 23.33 3.34 140 26 900L 11.78 3.26 106 33 1200L 17.83 3.27 107 34 880L 14.11 3.65 127 36 1200L 18.50 3.34 111 38 1200L 18.86 3.38 132 39 1400L 27.50 3.57 110 42 1270L 23.40 3.60 117 45 1500L 30.00 3.48 150

46-48 990L 17.81 3.81 285 49-50 1150L 19.00 3.52 209

The Number of Words in KCSAT

Year Number of Words

2007 3,5302008 3,7802009 4,1242010 4,052

   

Time to Read the KCSAT& Reading Speed(Test Time: 50 minutes)

Year Number of words(Reading Once) 50 words/min 100 words/min 130 words/min

2007 3,530 70 35 27

2008 3,780 74 37 29

2009 4,124 82 41 32

2010 4,052 80 40 31

Time to Read the KCSAT& Reading Speed

(Test Time: 50 minutes)

Year

Number of Words

(Reading Twice)

50 words/min 100 words/min 130 words/min

200 words/min

2007 7,060 140 70 54 35

2008 7,560 148 74 58 37

2009 8,248 164 82 64 41

2010 8,104 160 80 62 40

A Fluent Reader

• Automatic and unconscious recognition of words in the printed text

–When 1st graders read a text of 100 words, they had 224 eye fixations.

–When the 12th graders read a text of 100 words,

they had 96 eye fixations

Source: What research has to say about reading instruction (2011: 35)

“About Three Fixations per Second”

Reading Fluency• “Automatic Word Recognition” & Prosodic Oral Read-

ing”

• When people read a text, most words are fixated on, but function words like ‘the’ and ‘of’ are fixated on much less than content words.

• 90 fixations per 100 words (Nation, 2009; Grabe, 2009: 289). – A fluent reader reads and fixates almost every word in the text.

Reading Fluency• Fluent Native speakers

– 250-300 words per minute– 3 fixations per second = 180 fixations per minutes– 180 words plus some skipped words (a, the, of, highly frequent

words, etc.) means that they read more than 200 words per minute

• Non-native speakers– 100 words per minute

• What about Korean student readers of English?– Approximately ????? words per minute

Reading Fluency• 3-5 fixations / second * 1.2 words = 3.6 - 6 words per second

– 6 words per second *60 seconds= 216 - 360 words per minute. – If regressions are considered, it goes to more than about

200 words per second.

• 2 fixations / second * 1.2 words = 2.4 words per second– 2.4 words * 60 seconds = 124 words per minute

• 1 fixation / second * 1.2 words = 1.2 words per second– 1.2 words * 60 seconds = approximately 60 words

School Textbook-based English Reading Instruc-tion and the Amount of Exposure to the Text

The amount of reading at schools based on only Textbooks

Year Number of Pages4 years of

Elementary School ?

Middle 1 4 pages*12 Lessons=48 pagesMiddle 2 5 pages*12 Lessons=60 pages

Middle 3 6 pages*12 Lessons=72 pages

High school 1 6 pages*12 Lessons=72 pages

High school 2 7 pages*12 Lessons=84 pages

High school 3 8 pages*12 Lessons=96 pages

Total 432 pages plus something

The reading difficulty of Textbooks Goes Up too Fast.

Reading Difficulty of 1st Middle School

Textbook Lexile Mean Sentence Length

Mean Long Word Frequency

A 304L 6.39 3.61

B 180L 5.50 3.65

C 379L 7.13 3.62

D 381L 7.48 3.72E 295L 6.61 3.64

Reading Difficulty of 2nd Year Middle School

Textbook LexileMean Sen-

tence Length

Mean Long

Word Fre-quency *

A 628L 9.92 3.61B 501L 8.82 3.70C 536L 9.14 3.68D 538L 8.87 3.64E 474L 8.18 3.65

Reading Difficulty of 3rd Year Middle School

Textbook LexileMean Sen-

tence Length

Mean Long Word Frequency

*A 852L 13.30 3.57B 718L 11.60 3.66C 858L 12.97 3.52D 720L 11.32 3.64E 631L 10.11 3.59

Reading Difficulty of 1st Year High School

Textbook Lexile Mean Sentence Length

Mean Long Word Frequency

A 774L 11.95 3.56

B 1002L 15.38 3.45

C 737L 11.31 3.57

Reading Difficulty of 2nd Year High School

Textbook Lexile Mean Sentence Length

Mean Long Word Frequency

A 967L 14.73 3.46

B 858L 13.32 3.53

C 890L 13.07 3.45

Reading Difficulty of 3rd Year High School

Textbook Lexile Mean Sentence Length

Mean Long Word Frequency

A 946L 14.49 3.47

B 1026L 15.88 3.47

C 986L 14.76 3.44

Reading Difficulty of 1st Year High School

Lexile Mean Sentence Length

Mean Long Word Fre-quency *

Word Count

1 과 680L 10.65 3.63 5432 과 760L 12.49 3.73 5623 과 670L 11.23 3.76 5844 과 810L 12.17 3.55 5845 과 660L 10.57 3.67 7086 과 1010L 16.16 3.57 6957 과 910L 12.50 3.35 6508 과 900L 12.98 3.44 7279 과 760L 11.59 3.59 53310 과 560L 9.22 3.67 78411 과 1190L 17.34 3.25 55512 과 380L 6.46 3.46 949

< 표 1>

Reading Difficulty of 2nd Year High School

Lexile Mean Sentence Length

Mean Long Word Frequency * Word Count

1 과 650L 10.21 3.63 694

2 과 990L 14.93 3.48 657

3 과 630L 9.95 3.63 1075

4 과 1080L 17.60 3.55 704

5 과 900L 14.30 3.62 672

6 과 750L 10.68 3.46 801

7 과 1140L 17.85 3.43 821

8 과 1230L 17.67 3.18 813

9 과 1130L 16.22 3.27 730

10 과 1170L 17.88 3.35 715

Reading Difficulty of 3rd Year High School

Lexile Mean Sentence Length

Mean Long Word Frequency * Word Count

1 과 1040L 17.15 3.61 703

2 과 860L 12.28 3.44 737

3 과 880L 13.57 3.58 733

4 과 1140L 17.30 3.37 744

5 과 930L 15.32 3.68 1057

6 과 970L 14.65 3.49 747

7 과 1030L 15.93 3.49 701

8 과 1180L 15.23 3.03 731

9 과 930L 14.74 3.60 781

10 과 1140L 16.74 3.31 88711 과 800L 9.90 3.19 90112 과 930L 14.26 3.54 670

Reading Difficulty of Major English Newspapers

Major Newspapers Reading DifficultyUSA Today 1200L

Chicago Tribune 1310LWall Street Journal 1320LWashington Post 1350LNew York Times 1380LAssociate Press 1310L

Reuter 1440L

Source: http://www.dillon2.k12.sc.us/teachers/Lexile%20information/Lexiles%20SCASL.ppt#362,4,Newspapers

So, they should be fluent

• At least more than 100 words per minute

• They should read texts in an extensive way.

• Then, they can develop their reading fluency and speed as well as accuracy

Reading Development by Grade in the US

English Reading Development in a Korean Middle School

Level 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Total

N 2 1 5 3 4 8 4 2 0 29

% 7 3 17 10 14 28 14 7 0 100%

ERIK 을 활용한 학생들 읽기 능력 진단    1) 학급당 , 학년별 ERIK 테스트 실시 결과 가 ) 2 학년 6 반 (N=29 명 )         

2nd Year Middle School, 2nd Semester, ( 박수진 , 2010)

Level 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Lexile - - 200L-400L

300L-500L

500L-700L

650L-850L

650L-850L

750L-950L

ERIK Level ( 이병민 , 2009)

3rd Year Middle School, 2nd Semester, ( 박수진 , 2010)

Level 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Total

N 2 2 4 4 4 5 3 4 3 31

% 6.5 6.5 12.912.912.916.1 9.7 12.9 9.7 100%

English Reading Abilities of High School Students in Seoul

• How well do high school students read a chap-ter book in English from Magic Tree House?

• 38 students read the text and graded them based on the ERIK scale

A- or Above, for appropriate level of reading comprehension

Reading Comprehension and their academic achievement in English

Level A+ A A- B C D F Total

2 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 4

3 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 3

4 2 3 1 2 4 0 1 13

5 0 0 1 0 3 4 1 9

6 or lower 0 0 0 0 1 3 2 6

Missing 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 3

Total 4 6 5 3 8 7 5 38

About 23 students can’t read and understand the text appropriately.

56

English Reading Exposure

강원도 강릉시 M 초 6 학년 A 학생 : 170 분 (2 시간 50분 )

월요일 영어교육방송을 들었다 (40 분 ) 화요일 영어수업 (30 분 ) 수요일 영어만화 (25 분 ) 목요일 영어 동화 Hansel & Gretel 을 읽다 (5분 ) 금요일 학교에서 영어 드라마를 보았다 (15 분 ) EBS 영어교육방송을 들었다 (30 분 ) 토요일 영어 CD 를 들었다 (30 분 ) 일요일 없다

제주도 서귀포시 B 초 5 학년B 학생 : 90 분 (1 시간 30 분 )

월요일 전치사 공부 학교 (40 분 ) 화요일 없다 수요일 구몬영어 (10 분 ) 목요일 원어민 교사와 듣고 , 말하기 , 쓰기 공부 . 나는 10 분 정도 말했다 . (40 분 ) 금요일 없다 토요일 없다 일요일 없다

57

English Reading Exposure

서울 봉천동 S 초 6 학년 C학생 :80 분 (1 시간 20 분 )

월요일 없다 화요일 학교 수업 (40 분 ) 수요일 없다 목요일 학교 수업 (40 분 ) 금요일 없다 토요일 없다 일요일 없다

경기도 안성시 원곡면 W 초 6 학년 D 학생 : 140 분 (2 시간 20분 )

월요일 집에서 듣기 (30 분 ) 화요일 없다 수요일 학교 영어 (80 분 ) 목요일 없다 금요일 없다 토요일 집에서 듣기 (30 분 ) 일요일 없다

58

English Reading Exposure

서울 대치동 A 초 6 학년E 학생 :885 분 (16 시간 )

월요일 학교 원어민 수업 (40 분 ) MP3 영어노래 듣기 (40 분 ) 학원 독해 (SAT) 60 분 학원 독해 (Extensive Reading) 60 분 학원 CNN 듣기 60 분 화요일 등교전 영어책 읽기 15 분 수요일 등교전 영어책 읽기 15 분 해석숙제하기 60 분 듣기 숙제하기 60 분 단어외우기 30 분 듣기 (AP News) 60 분 읽기 (extensive reading) 60 분 목요일 등교전 영어책 읽기 15 분 금요일 학교 원어민 수업 (40 분 ) 듣기 (AP News, CNN) 60 분 읽기 (extensive reading) 60 분 읽기 (extensive reading) 60 분 토요일 영어책 읽기 80 분 (Charlotte's Web) 일요일 없다

59

English Reading Exposure

서울 대치동 대곡초 6 학년H 학생 :1,030 분 (17 시간 16 분 )

월요일 학교 원어민 영어 수업 (40 분 ) Tuck Everlasting 읽다 (60 분 )화요일 영어 단어 외우기 (40 분 ) 영어 학원 (180 분 ) 영어 에세이를 썼다 (90 분 )수요일 영어 책 읽기 Tuck Everlasting 읽다 (120 분 ) Harry Porter and Goblet of the Fire읽음 (60 분 )목요일 영어 학원에서 수업 (180 분 ) Harry Porter and Goblet of the Fire 읽음 (90 분 )금요일 학원가는 도중에 외국을 만나 길을 가르쳐줌 (10 분 )토요일 피아노 학원에서 외국인 남자애가 와서 소개해 줌 (20 분 ) Harry Porter and Goblet of the Fire 읽음 (60 분 ) 일요일 Harry Porter and Goblet of the Fire

How should School-Based English Instruc-tion be conducted?

What is the role of English Education at School?

How can English teachers help students improve their English reading abilities?

Skilled Readers

• Skilled readers are more readily able to inte-grate broader arrays of relevant elements from the text base and bring wider and deeper knowledge to the task of constructing a situation model. Skilled readers are also more motivated and engaged readers, reading more actively and more voluminously, thus further develop-ing their knowledge and skill (Guthrie, 2004: 55)

That’s why I suggest ‘extensive reading program’ and the impor-tance of ‘the amount of extra pleasure reading’ that students should

be engaged in.