A study of the English non-textbook reading of fourth graders in Korea revealed that about 80% had done at least some reading, confirming that there is enthusiasm for English reading. About half, however, had read only five books or fewer. Non-readers said that the reason they did not read in English was the difficulty of English texts. Those who read more did better on a test of English spelling and vocabulary

Cho, K. S. (Kyung)

Krashen, S. (Stephen)

Park, E. J. (Eun)

Neliti

Reading In English By Children In Korea: Frequency, Effectiveness, And Barriers

Cho, Kyung Sook

Park, Eun Jin

Krashen, Stephen

eJournal Unika Atma Jaya (Universitas Katolik Indonesia)

Sook Cho, Kyung , Eun Jin Park, and Stephen KrashenReading in  English by Children in Korea:Frequency, Effectiveness, and Barriers18READING IN ENGLISH BY CHILDREN IN KOREA:FREQUENCY, EFFECTIVENESS, AND BARRIERSKyung Sook ChoBusan National University of Education, Busan, KoreaEun Jin ParkSeomyung Elementary School, Busan, KoreaStephen KrashenUniversity of Southern California (Emeritus) Los Angeles, U.S.A.AbstractA study of the English non-textbook reading of fourth gradersin Korea revealed that about 80% had done at least somereading, confirming that there is enthusiasm for Englishreading. About half, however, had read only five books orfewer. Non-readers said that the reason they did not read inEnglish was the difficulty of English texts. Those who readmore did better on a test of English spelling and vocabulary.Keywords: English non-textbook reading; Enthusiasm forEnglish reading; English texts; English spelling andvocabularyINTRODUCTIONResearch clearly supports the “power of reading.”  Study after studyhas shown that free voluntary reading, or reading because you want to, is themajor source of reading ability, writing ability, vocabulary, spelling, and theability to handle complex grammatical constructions.  Studies confirmingthese relationships include correlational studies, case histories, andexperiments, and have been done with children, adolescents and adults, forboth first and second language development (Krashen, 2004).It has been suggested that free reading may be the cure for “Englishfever.” Because of the growing importance of English world-wide, the desireto acquire English as a foreign language has also increased dramatically.Studies in English as a foreign language confirm that free voluntary readingcan make a powerful contribution to English ability among children (e.g.Indonesian Journal of English Language TeachingVolume 4/Number 1  May 200819Cho & Kim, 2004; Cho & Kim, 2005) as well as among older students(Mason & Krashen, 1997; Lee, 2007; Liu, 2007).The purpose of this study is to determine to what extent children inan EFL situation engage in reading of non-textbook material, and to whatextent they are enthusiastic about reading. In addition, it was important todetermine why some children do not read more. Finally, the study alsoattempts to confirm the relationship between reading and literacy.METHODSubjects were 626 fourth grade students of English as a foreignlanguage enrolled in eight different elementary schools in the Busan area inKorea, from a wide range of socio-economic backgrounds.All students were asked to fill out a short survey in Korean dealingwith their English reading habits and attitudes toward English reading.Details of the questionnaire will be presented below along with the results.In addition, students took an English vocabulary/spelling testconsisting of 29 items.  The test consisted of ten words which students wereasked to translate into Korean, nine items in which children were asked tochoose four words with a different meaning from the others (e.g. yesterday,piano, tomorrow, today), and ten items asking children to provide thecorrect spelling of an English word. For the spelling part of the test, theKorean translation was provided, and children only had to provide onemissing letter of the target word, e.g. pen_il.   Reliability for each portion ofthe test was high (Cronbach alpha = .87 for first 19 items, alpha = .89 for thelast ten items (spelling). The two sections of the test correlated highly witheach other (r = .8) and were thus combined into one measure for the initialanalysis.  The mean score for the test for the entire sample was 14.27 (sd =8.55), (49% correct), indicating that there was no danger of a ceiling orfloor effect.Students were categorized as readers or non-readers depending ontheir answer to the following question: "Have you ever read books inEnglish other than textbooks?” A substantial 77% of the subjects (485/62)had done at least some reading in English, and 23% (141/626) had not.Not surprisingly, the two groups differed in their responses to aquestion about attitudes toward reading, with the reading group showingmuch more enthusiasm (Table 1). Combining categories 1 and 2, and 4 and5, the difference between the groups is highly significant (chi square =111.26, p < 1001).  It is encouraging that over 90% of the readers and 87%of the entire sample were at least moderately interested in reading inEnglish.Sook Cho, Kyung , Eun Jin Park, and Stephen KrashenReading in  English by Children in Korea:Frequency, Effectiveness, and Barriers20TABLE 1“How interested are you in reading in English?”Degree of interest in readingReaders Non-Readers totalN(%) N(%) N(%)1. I really want to read inEnglish 132(28.0) 7(5.1) 139(22.9)2. I want to read in English 167(35.5) 21(15.4) 188(31.0)3. moderate 141(29.9) 59(43.4) 200(32.9)4. I do not want to read inEnglish. 25(5.3) 30(22.1) 55(9.1)5. I don’t want to read atall 6(1.3) 19(14.0) 25(4.1)(translated from Korean)Despite their enthusiasm, the readers had not read that much in English.As presented in Table 2, half the subjects reported having read five or fewerbooks in English. There were, however, a few dedicated readers in English,reporting having read more than 21 books.TABLE 2Amount of reading in Readers GroupNumber of books Number of Subjects %1~5 250 52.46~10 72 15.111~15 51 10.716~20 38 8above 21 66 13.8Total 477 100To allow correlational analyses, responses were quantified on a 1-5scale, with those who indicated “want to read really” receiving a score of 5.Responses related to amount of reading done were quantified in the sameway, with those reporting the least reading given a score of one.   AsIndonesian Journal of English Language TeachingVolume 4/Number 1  May 200821expected, interest in reading and amount of reading done were highlypositively correlated with each other, r = .662.Those in the non-reading group were asked the reasons for theirabstention from English reading, choosing from the reasons listed in Table3. The most frequently mentioned reason was the perception that Englishbooks were too difficult. Only 12.7% said they did not have enough accessto English books.TABLE 3Reasons for having no reading experienceN %1.  No interesting books available 16 12.72.  English books are difficult to read 61 48.43. Teachers & parents never introduced me interestingbooks in English. 16 12.74.  not interested in English 30 23.85.  others 3 2.4Total 126 100Correlations between scores on the vocabulary/spelling test andamount of reported reading were run for the reader group only, as non-readers reported too little reading to produce meaningful results.  Thecorrelation between the amount of reading done and performance on thevocabulary test was r = .575, which is statistically significant, positive, andsubstantial.  Similarly, those with greater interest in reading did better on thevocabulary/spelling test (r = .541). In agreement with the correlationalresults, the reader group did significantly better on the vocabulary/readingtest than the non-reading group (mean of reader group = 16.28, sd = 8.21;for non-reader group,   mean = 7.37,  sd = 5.56; t =  14.84; df = 624, p <.0001).Sook Cho, Kyung , Eun Jin Park, and Stephen KrashenReading in  English by Children in Korea:Frequency, Effectiveness, and Barriers22SUMMARY AND DISCUSSIONAbout 80% of fourth graders had done at least some reading inEnglish other than textbooks, and those who had read in English showedsignificantly more enthusiasm about English reading than those who hadnot.  About half of the readers had read only five or fewer books. Whenasked why they did not read in English, about half of the non-readersresponded that English books were too hard. Fewer than 13% said that therewere no interesting books available to them. Readers did better on avocabulary/spelling test than did non-readers, and among the readers, therewas a significant positive correlation between the amount read andvocabulary/spelling test scores.The results confirm that there is some enthusiasm for reading inEnglish: about half the entire sample had a clear interest in reading inEnglish, and very few students were strongly negative: only 9% of the entiresample said they were not interested in reading in English (Table 1, item 4)and only 24% of the non-readers said they were not interested in English atall (Table 3, item 4).Some of the enthusiasm for English reading might have been due toactual experience reading: The correlation between the amount read andreading enthusiasm was quite high (r = .662), which suggests that morereading resulted in more enthusiasm. This correlation also could beinterpreted as showing that those who liked reading more sought out morereading material. Most likely, both directions of causality exist.The desire to read in English could also be due to the tremendousemphasis on the acquisition of English as a foreign language in Korea, or“English fever.” Additional research can confirm whether fourth graders areinfluenced by English fever as much as their parents are.It is also possible that the children’s enthusiasm for reading inEnglish is simply a reflection of the interest children have for reading ingeneral.  Table 4 compares the results of this study with the results of asurvey done in England in which a question similar to the question posedhere was asked of 422 primary and secondary school students concerningreading in their first language, English (Clark & Foster, 2005). The resultsare nearly identical. In both studies, few children expressed no interest inreading, and over half were clearly enthusiastic.Indonesian Journal of English Language TeachingVolume 4/Number 1  May 200823TABLE 4Responses to “How much do you enjoy reading”? (England) and“How interested are you in reading in English?” (Korea)England Koreavery much 22.30% I want to really 22.90%quite a bit 28.70% I want to 31%a bit 38% moderately 32.50%not at all 13.20%England data from Clark and Foster (2005)An important difference between the study described in this paperand Clark and Foster (2005), however, is that in this study, difficulty oftexts was considered to be the major barrier to reading. In the Clark andFoster study, this was not the case: When asked if they would read more “ifI found reading easier”, only 18% of the reluctant readers said they would.An obvious reason for difference between the two studies is that thestudents in this study had far less competence in English, being EFLstudents in grade four.An aspect of this study that deserves more attention is the findingthat about half of the non-readers said that books in English were “toohard.”  It could be the case that in at least some cases, this is a perceptionand not reality: Non-readers may be unaware that comprehensible texts areavailable to them and/or may have incorrect ideas about reading, e.g. theymay think that readers need to know every word when reading in English.A brief exposure to interesting and comprehensible texts and a briefexplanation of reading strategies may be enough to solve this problem andcreate enthusiastic readers (Cho & Krashen, 2002). It could also be the casethat the children are right: Texts available for free voluntary reading inEnglish are too hard, a situation that can be improved.The positive correlation found between the amount of reading doneand scores on the vocabulary/spelling test does not establish that reading isthe cause of vocabulary and spelling development, because correlation doesnot determine causality. It is, however, consistent with previous resultssupporting this hypothesis (Krashen, 2004).To return to the research questions posed in the introduction, thisstudy has demonstrated that some reading in English is clearly taking placeamong school children in Korea, and that there is considerable enthusiasmfor reading.  The perceived difficulty of texts appears to be the biggestbarrier to reading. Finally, two different analyses confirmed that morereported reading was clearly associated with better scores on an EnglishSook Cho, Kyung , Eun Jin Park, and Stephen KrashenReading in  English by Children in Korea:Frequency, Effectiveness, and Barriers24vocabulary and spelling test, consistent with the results of experimentalstudies done both in Asia as well as elsewhere.THE AUTHORSKyung Sook Cho is Professor of Education at Busan National University of Education,Korea. Her articles have been published in International Journal of Foreign LanguageTeaching.Eun Jin Park teaches at Seomyung Elementary School, Busan, Korea.Stephen D. Krashen is Emeritus Professor of Education, the University of SouthernCalifornia. He  is best known for his work in establishing a general theory of second-language acquisition, as the cofounder of the Natural Approach, and as the inventor ofsheltered subject matter teaching. He is the author of numerous books, includingCondemned Without a Trial: Bogus Arguments Against Bilingual Education (1999), EveryPerson a Reader: An Alternative to the California Task Force Report on Reading (1997),and Under Attack: The Case Against Bilingual Education (1997), all available fromHeinemann.REFERENCESCho, K.S. & Krashen, S. (2002). Sustained silent reading experiences amongKorean teachers of English as a foreign language: The effect of asingle exposure to interesting, comprehensible reading. ReadingImprovement 38 (4), 170-174.Cho, K.S. & Kim, H. J. (2004). Recreational reading in English as a foreignlanguage in Korea: Positive effects of a sixteen-week program.Knowledge Quest, 32 (4).Cho, K.S. & Kim, H. J. (2005). Using the newspaper in an English as aforeign language class. Knowledge Quest, 34 (2), 47-49.Clark, C. & Foster, A. (2005). Children’s and young people’s readinghabits and preferences:  The who, what, why, where and when.London: National Literacy Trust.Krashen, S. (2004). The power of reading. Portsmouth, NH: HeinemannPublishing Company.Lee, S.Y. (2007). ‘Revelations from three consecutive studies on extensivereading’. RELC Journal, 38 (2), 150–70.Indonesian Journal of English Language TeachingVolume 4/Number 1  May 200825Liu, C. K. (2007). A reading program that keeps winning. In Selected Papersfrom the Sixteenth International Symposium on English Teaching.English Teachers’ Association/ROC. Taipei: Crane PublishingCompany.Mason, B., & Krashen, S. (1997). Extensive reading in English as a foreignlanguage. System, 25, 91-102.

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Reading in English by children in Korea: Frequency, effectiveness, and barriers

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