How fast should Japanese high school students need English passages? －Analysis of the National Center for University Entrance Examinations－

The current study aimed at identifying how fast Japanese high school students should process English sentences by analyzing the English section of the National Center for University Entrance Examinations (NCUEE). Two types of formulae were devised to estimate reading and listening comprehension speed at which students need to be able to process in the NCUEE. The NCUEE administered from 2006 to 2016 were analyzed. The results showed that the students need to read approximately from 100 words per minute (WPM) to 130 WPM. The passages for the listening comprehension questions in the NCEUEE are read at 159 WPM on average. These estimates are beyond the current English proficiency levels of most Japanese high school students. Further efforts should be made to develop students’ processing efficiency in Japanese high school English classes