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How long have you been doing ER? What are the main ways your ER work/program has evolved? Reasons for those changes?
I began ER in 1984. My ER program changed every two to three years. I did a lot of things that everyone is talking about now.
| * | First I did not even know whether students would read a book in English. Students sat in class quietly and read in class, and I also read graded readers with the students in class. Students read books in class and they were happy and their reading competence improved. |
| * | I compared how effective two ER teachers were, one who knew the theory and the other who did not know the theory. The students in the class of the teacher who knew the input theory read more and did better on the final exam. Teacher's knowledge of the theory is important. |
| * | Next, I wondered whether some other things might increase the power of ER. So, I added cloze exercises for developing reading comprehension skills, but I found that cloze exercises did not increase the efficiency of ER. |
| * | Then I added retelling of the story in order to improve speaking skills, but that did not work. Students could not retell in English. They used a lot of Japanese. |
| * | Students' writing improved in the ER course, so, I added summary writing in English, hoping that writing ability will improve even more, but it did not. Students reported that they spent more time in writing summaries than reading. |
| * | Then I added correction on summary writing, thinking that correction would help students write more accurately, but it did not. Students did not like to be corrected. |
| * | I had students make a vocabulary notebook, thinking that they will remember more words, but it did not help. |
| * | So, I dropped everything and went back to the basics- input alone. I have written reports on these studies (www.benikomason.net) |
My experience is that these output activities were a waste of time. I did not understand the power of reading alone before, but now I do. In fact, I am thinking about abandoning story-listening now.
Why are you considering abandoning story-listening?
Students like to listen to stories, but it is distracting them from reading. At the end of the story, they sometimes spontaneously clap their hands. That pleases me, but students seem to misunderstand. They still must read books at home, but they don't. Story-listening is meant to be an activity leading students to reading, not distracting them from reading. I do not really want to abandon story-listening. I need to find a way to encourage students to do more reading at home.
If you drop the story listening, will students spend in-class time reading, as well?
It is possible, and story-listening could become homework. Story listening is very effective for increasing vocabulary size. I was hoping that students would learn close to 1000 words in one year from listening to stories.
A reason I hesitate to have students read in class is that I am not sure now that they will do it. As you know, the nature of college students has recently changed drastically. Research shows that about 7% of children at elementary schools have learning disabilities. They do not stop having disabilities suddenly when they enter college. I cannot make sure that they will receive CI if I allowed them to have free time to read. I am afraid that half of them will play with their cell phones. I want to make sure that students receive comprehensible input either aurally or visually in class.
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