Results

Cloze test. As shown in Table 4, both extensive reading groups made better gains than the comparison group on the cloze test (F = 3.80, df = 2/111, p < 0.025). The difference, however, was only significant for the English response group (protected t = 2.74, df = 106, p < 0.01); the difference between the Japanese response group and the comparison group was not statistically significant (protected t = 1.09, df = 106, ns). There was, however, no significant difference between the two extensive reading groups (t = 1.071). (The protected t-test, also known as the Fisher LSD test, is appropriate for multiple comparisons when the ANOVA F is significant and the total number of groups involved is not large; see Welkowitz et al., 1982.)

Reading comprehension. On the reading comprehension test, both extensive reading groups were significantly better than the comparison group, and were not significantly different from each other (F = 4.127, df = 2/106, p < 0.025; English response vs comparison: t = 2.09, df = 106, p < 0.05; Japanese response vs comparison: t = 2.72, df = 106, p < 0.01; English response vs Japanese response: t = 0.33, ns).

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