Researching the effects of reading for pleasure in English on adult esl learners' acquisition of English
Maclin, Margorie J.
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Permalink
https://hdl.handle.net/2142/125904
Description
Title
Researching the effects of reading for pleasure in English on adult esl learners' acquisition of English
Author(s)
Maclin, Margorie J.
Issue Date
2003
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
Davidson, Fred
Department of Study
Linguistics
Discipline
Teaching English as an International Language
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
M.A.
Degree Level
Thesis
Keyword(s)
Teaching English as Second Language
Reading
Language Learning Activities
Proficiency Correlations
Language
eng
Abstract
Many experts in the field of second language acquisition believe that reading for pleasure in a second language facilitates learning of that language, that it may be even more valuable to the learner than direct instruction. Little empirical evidence exits, however, to imply the effectiveness of pleasure reading for adult second language learners. This study was conducted as a first step in searching for such evidence. A web survey was designed and run with 70 English as a Second Language learners, international graduate students at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, to identify all their English language learning activities (including three pleasure reading activities) and the amount they had engaged in each. The amount they had engaged in each activity was then correlated to proficiency, and the correlations compared. For the EFL period, the correlations of the three pleasure reading activities were weaker than or comparable to the correlations of most other communicative activities, but stronger than the correlations of almost all form-based activities. For the ESL period, correlations for the three PR activities were stronger than those for almost all other activities, either communicative or form-based.
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