3-Minute Drill for ER

*Presentation at the JALT Pan-Sig on May 18, 2013, at Nanzan University, Nagoya Japan.

3-Minute Drill

Research supports the claim that extensive reading (ER) helps improve all language skills. Yet in spite of the research, teachers still experience problems when they try to put ER into practice.

One serious problem is getting students to do the “extensive” part of ER. If we are lucky, students may enjoy the reading part, but to make real linguistic gains, they need to do the extensive part. And just how can teachers motivate students to read more?

Students may read more if required to read for at least 3 minutes daily. This “three-minute drill” serves as a prompt for students to read for more than three minutes, but the key is for them to read for at least 3 minutes daily.

This study looks at a group of 79 Japanese university students who practiced the three-minute for the last 40 days during the fall term of a two term academic year. Reading word count totals for the fall term were compared with the spring term when students did not do the drill. The researcher theorized that students would read more during the fall when they did the drill.

The data is correlational. Other explanations exist for why students might read more when doing the drill. But this study indicates that the three-minute drill may increase reading. This success supports the need for more research and discussion about how to improve this technique that may increase student reading and thus help improve their linguistic skills.

Note: Due to the availability of data, this presentation varied slightly from the original proposal given to the Pan-Sig. During 2013, other variations of this research deal with different data sets, comparisons, and variations of the 3-Minute Drill. 

Screen-Agers

The BBC reports about a study that says that young people today read more on screens than with printed books. But. . .

Younger children who read printed books as well as used computers were more likely to have higher reading levels than those who only read on screen, the study said. Although this gap did not apply to those children who used tablet computers or e-readers.

Story Grammar

What are the characteristics of a good story? What is it about a good story that hooks us? That is, what is the grammar (structure) of a good story that compels us to follow it, read it, or watch it past our bed time or train stop? What elements of story help create a flow experience where we get lost in story?

How can we use and research story grammar in language arts? If the elements of story grammar are present in spoken, sung, performed, or written texts, will that help learners acquire language more efficiently than when story grammar elements are absent?

If growing readers learn of story grammar, can it help them more easily experience deeper flow when they read? Can second language researchers experiment with story grammar to see if readers remember more, enjoy more, or experience more flow when texts employ story grammar?

The following questions may help us better find the elements of story grammar in stories.

  1. Who is the main character (the protagonist)?
  2. What is the main character’s goal or quest?
  3. What trouble or conflict impacts the main character’s goal or quest?
  4. How does that trouble change the main character on the inside?

There are many good books that deal with story grammar. Here are two. The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human by Jonathan Gottschall and Wired for Story: The Writer’s Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers from the Very First Sentence by Lisa Cron.

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CV

Joseph Poulshock, CVWith over 20 years experience in higher education and over 80 refereed articles, chapters, and conference presentations, Dr. Joseph Poulshock has produced a creative teaching portfolio and a readable body of research that supports some of the most promising and current aspects of language education, including language learning with music and song, high-frequency vocabulary acquisition, and extensive reading. Click here for CV.

 

Recent Publications

Here are some recent publications. See the CV for the full list.

Poulshock, J., & Menish, M. (2011). Media English Dialog Interactive Activities with Information Gaps. Extensive Reading in Japan, 4(2), 12-15.

Media English Dialog Interactive Activities with Information Gaps

Poulshock, J. (2011). Practical Critical Realism for Liberal Arts in Language Education. Journal of Critical Realism, 10(4), 465-484.

Poulshock, J. (2011). Practical Critical Realism for Liberal Arts in Language Education. Journal of Critical Realism, 10(4), 465-484.

Poulshock, J. (2010). Extensive Graded Reading in the Liberal Arts and Sciences. A paper published in the Journal Reading in a Foreign Language, October 2010, Volume 22, No. 2. pp. 304–322.

Extensive graded reading in the liberal arts and sciences

Poulshock, J. (2009). Graded liberal arts and sciences for language education. In A. M. Stoke (Ed.), JALT 2009 Conference Proceedings pp. 344-351.

Graded Liberal Arts for Language Education

Mori, K., Poulshock, J., & Tuzi, F. (2008). Testing high frequency vocabulary online. In A. M. Stoke (Ed.), PAC7 at JALT 2008 Conference Proceedings pp. 879-887.

Mori, K., Poulshock, J., & Tuzi, F. (2008). Testing high frequency vocabulary online. In A. M. Stoke (Ed.), PAC7 at JALT 2008 Conference Proceedings pp. 879-887.

Poulshock, J. (2006). Language as a precursor to the evolution of morality. In Cangelosi, A., Smith, K. and Smith A. (Eds.), The Evolution of Language: Proceedings of the 6th International Conference. World Scientific Publishing Company, 275-282.

Poulshock, J. (2006). Language as a precursor to the evolution of morality. In Cangelosi, A., Smith, K. and Smith A. (Eds.), The Evolution of Language: Proceedings of the 6th International Conference. World Scientific Publishing Company, 275-282.

Poulshock, J. (2004). The leverage of language on altruism and morality. In Clayton, P., & Schloss, J. P. (Eds.), Evolution and ethics: Human morality in biological and religious perspective. Grand Rapids: Michigan: Eerdmans, 114-131.

Poulshock, J. (2004). The leverage of language on altruism and morality. In Clayton, P., & Schloss, J. P. (Eds.), Evolution and ethics: Human morality in biological and religious perspective. Grand Rapids: Michigan: Eerdmans, 114-131.