Is light reading enough to fully acquire academic language? The bridge hypothesis

The Bridge Hypothesis states that pleasure reading acts as a bridge between conversational and academic language, providing the competence that makes demanding texts more comprehensible. In two studies, D. Gardner argues that pleasure reading does not play a role in helping children understand academic texts, but a close look at the data shows that Gardner's evidence actually supports the Bridge Hypothesis.&nbsp

REMARKS ON LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND LITERACY: LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND TEACHING, FREE READING, "TEST-PREP" AND ITS CONSEQUENCES, THE USE OF THE FIRST LANGUAGE, WRITING, AND THE GREAT NATIVE SPEAKER TEACHER DEBATE

This paper reviews the arguments for comprehensible input (the"comprehension hypothesis" and discusses some of itsapplications to beginning and intermediate language teaching,including free voluntary reading as a bridge from conversationalto academic language. The comprehension hypothesis providessome guidance on the proper use of the first language in secondlanguage teaching and helps explain what writing can andcannot do. Finally, the comprehension hypothesis contributes tothe Great Native Speaker Teacher debate: We want teachers (1)to understand language acquisition, (2) to understand languagepedagogy, and (3) to speak the language well. My point is thatnumber (3) alone is not enough, even if the teacher is a nativespeaker.Keywords: comprehensible input, language acquisition,TPR, Natural Approach, TPRS, shelteredsubject matter teaching, free voluntary reading,writin

BARRIERS TO ADVANCED HERITAGE LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

Speakers of heritage languages do not universally achieve advanced levels in the language. We present evidence that three barriers are responsible: (1) lack of access to comprehensible, interesting reading material in the heritage language. (2) The use of traditional language teaching methods in heritage language classes, and (3) the reactions of elders who scold young heritage language speakers for their “errors.”

COMMENTARY: CAN FREE READING TAKE YOU ALL THE WAY? A RESPONSE TO COBB (2007)

Cobb (2007) argues that free reading cannot provide L2 readers with sufficient opportunities for acquiring vocabulary in order to reach an adequate level of reading comprehension of English texts. In this paper, we argue that (1) Cobb severely underestimates the amount of reading even a very modest reading habit would afford L2 readers, and therefore underestimates the impact of free reading on L2 vocabulary development; and (2) Cobb’s data show that free reading is in fact a very powerful tool in vocabulary acquisition

DO EFL STUDENTS LIKE GRADED READERS?

Graded readers are widely used in English as a foreign language programs, but we have little information about whether students find them interesting. In this study, 14 to 16 year old students of English as a foreign language in Taiwan were asked to evaluate the readers they had read. Overall, 41% found the books to be interesting, and 24% did not, but only 4% strongly agreed that the books were interesting. This is an encouraging result, but if our goal is to help students find truly compelling reading material, we will have to look elsewhere for additional reading material.Keywords:   Graded readers, English as a foreign language, reading material

PLEASURE READING IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE AND COMPETENCE IN SPEAKING, LISTENING, READING AND WRITING

Positive and significant correlations ranging from .34 to .51 were found between self-reported pleasure reading (books, newspapers and magazines) and self-reported competence in speaking, listening, reading and writing English, among teachers in Korea whose responsibilities included teaching English as a foreign language.This result confirms the comprehension hypothesis, which claims that understanding what we hear and read is the cause of language development

The Case for Pinyin: A Suggestion

I present the following hypotheses: Providing students with comprehensible and interesting reading material in pinyin will result in improved acquisition of oral/aural Mandarin. This additional competence in Mandarin will make texts written in Hanzi more predictable and easier to understand, resulting in improved acquisition of Hanzi. If these predictions are confirmed, it means more rapid acquisition of Mandarin and more efficient acquisition of characters

Read-alouds: let’s stick to the story

It has been claimed that when readers interrupt stories during read-alouds to point out aspects of print, children make better gains in print awareness, and eventually read better. I question these claims and as well as the usefulness of interrupting stories in this way. Short-term gains are not evident for all aspects of print awareness; comparisons also make gains, and children exposed to print universally acquire print awareness. Also, long-term gains are small and have not been proven demonstrated for real reading for meaning. Finally, interrupting stories to reference print runs the risk of taking the focus away from the story, and disrupting the pleasure and positive impact of read-alouds, which could have negative consequences for literacy development

A short paper proposing that we need to write shorter papers

Our current journals in language education are full of long papers. A typical journal might have, at most, five major papers. Sometimes we have to write long papers, but most of the time, it is unnecessary: The papers often contain long introductions more suitable for doctoral dissertations or review ‘state of the art’ papers apparently designed to provide evidence that the author is well-read. They also have long conclusions, with a repetition of the findings and the author’s detailed and lengthy speculations about what the results might mean for theory and application