EXTENSIVE READING
Before going further into this column please consider the following extracts from the book, The Oxford University Press
Guide to the 'Why' and 'How' of Using Graded Readers
Satoko’s Reading Problem
“Why is it that after 6 or even 10 years of study in school, most Japanese learners of English still cannot read well?”
To illustrate the above problem, here is a real-life story. This is a conversation between a teacher and Satoko, a university student, at the school's graduation party. Can you recognize something in this story?
Teacher: Congratulations, Satoko.
Satoko: Thank you very much.
Teacher: You majored in literature, I think. Is that right?
Satoko: Yes, American Literature.
Teacher: That's great. Which author did you enjoy the most?
Satoko: Umm, well we concentrated on Steinbeck.
Teacher: I see. And which of his books did you read?
Satoko: Well, I only read one book......
Teacher: Oh, really? Just one book?
Satoko: There were so many difficult words. I had to spend hours looking
them up in the dictionary, and my book is covered in translations.
But I still couldn't understand it well.
Teacher: Wow that sounds like a lot of work.
Satoko: Actually, I also read it in Japanese in order to understand it. Well, I
had to, or else I couldn't graduate.
Teacher: How long did it take to read the English version?
Satoko: Well, we started in my junior year, and we translated about 4 or 5
pages a week so we could understand it in detail. I guess it took
about two years, but even then we didn't finish it. We spent the first
6 months just on the first chapter.
Teacher: One book in two years! I see. Can you understand it better now
after all that work translating it?
Satoko: No, I still can't say I understand it very well.
Teacher: So, now that you've graduated and you have a bit more free time,
are you going to read more American Literature in English?
Satoko: No way! It was far too difficult. I'm never going to pick up another
English book in my life. I'll watch the movie instead!
When children learn to read in their mother tongue, they are gently taken in stages from reading very simple books to reading more difficult material later. This is also necessary for people learning second languages such as English.
This is not only happening in Japan
We want to establish “Extensive Reading Clubs” in schools. It is possible to set up clubs in private schools. It is possible to setup clubs in English medium schools. But in government school? In Tamil medium schools? |
We have to publish books and have to distribute to our rural side school students at the cost of free. For practical purposes we identified lot of books from our enriched literature. One among is “Paramartha Guru Stories”. These stories were written by “Veeramamunivar”.
We are working to publish this book with the help of industrial houses. Language should be simple with lot of illustrations. Such efforts will definitely induce reading habit of our children. There are a lot of stories in our language like “Thenali Raman Stories”, “Panchathantra Stories”. Our initial efforts will give us enough confidence to go on further.
