Teaching particular languages English

Abstract

This article reports the results of a national survey of limited English proficient (LEP) student enrollment (K-12 and adult) conducted in the winter of 1988-89. The survey found that (a) although there are many students enrolled in the nation's schools who are reported as LEP, there may be three to six times as many who are in need of specialised instruction and (b) there continues to be considerable variation in identification criteria as well as in reporting procedures used by the states. Thus, the term 'limited English proficient' does not yet have uniform significance nationwide. Reading has been taught by the translation pro-cedure in EFL situations such as Japan, but today there is a trend towards the use of ESL-type ' skills building' text books and procedures and, to a much lesser extent, towards extensive reading. There is a considerable difference between these two procedures, not only for teachers and learners, but also for the allocation of institutional resources. Despite this, there is little useful research comparing them. This paper examines previous research on extensive reading, and then describes an experiment comparing the improvement of reading comprehension by Japanese college freshmen taught by either a skills-based or extensive reading procedure. The results suggest that extensive reading may be at least as effective as skills-building, with the important advantage that is more interesting for the learners. a second language in an academic setting. Data from the case study suggest the need for new paradigms to research issues of the suitability of early French immersion for all children.