College and University Effects of 300,000 words of ER on English proficiency more

Thu, Aug 10, 14:25-15:45 Asia/Tokyo

The current study aimed to identify the effects of 8 months of ER on English proficiency. The participants were university students in Japan who took the same compulsory English class and were required to complete 150,000 words of ER per semester. To examine the effects of ER, the TOEIC Listening and Reading test was employed for measuring general English proficiency, and a self-paced reading task was carried out to measure participants’ reading speed and comprehension. Measurements were obtained at three time points: the beginning of the spring semester, the end of the spring semester, and the end of the fall semester. Our results found significant differences between time points both on the total scores of the TOEIC test and in reading speed (WPM). We concluded that 8 months of ER enhanced learners’ reading speed as well as overall proficiency.