Evaluation of ESL Reading Materials in an Extensive Reading Program

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Evaluation of ESL Reading Materials in an
Extensive Reading Program

• Barbara Pinter
• Montclair State University
• Applied Linguistics
• 2003.

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Background

• Fluency First Program
• The Curriculum
• My Experiences

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Studies Related to Present Paper

• I.S.P.Nation (1997)
• The Language Learning Benefits of
  Extensive Reading.
• The Language Teacher Online 21.5.
• Nagy and Anderson (1995)
• How Many Words are There in Printed
  School English?
• Reading Research Quarterly. 19304-330.
• Hazenberg and Hulstijn (1996)
• Defining a Minimal Receptive
  Second-Language Vocabulary for Non- native
  University Students An Empirical Investigation.
• Applied Linguistics. 172. Oxford
  University Press.
• Harlech-Jones (1998)
• ESL Proficiency and a Word Frequency
  Count. ELT Journal. 371.

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Research Questions

• Is there an increasing level of difficulty in
  terms of vocabulary among the four texts?
• Do the vocabulary contents of the texts prepare
  the students for their further academic studies?
• By the statistical analysis of the texts, can we
  determine the suitability of such texts for ESL
  Reading courses? Are these tools helpful in
  curriculum development?

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The Novels

• Level 9 Sarah Plain and Tall by Patricia Mac
  Lachlan
• Level 10 The Invisible man by H.G. Wells
• Level 11 The light in the forest by Conrad
  Richter
• Level 12 Sleeping with the Enemy by Nancy Price

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Tools and Methodology
Computer Programs Used in the Research

• OCR FineReader 6.0 Professional

• VocabProfile

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VocabProfile

• This lexical text analysis program takes any
  text and divides its words into four categories
  by frequency
• the most frequent 1000 words of English
• the second most frequent thousand words of
  English, i.e. 1001 to 2000
• the academic words of English
• the remainder which are not found on the other
  lists.

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Word Lists

• Michael West 1953. General Service List of
  English Words
• Averil Coxhead 2000. A New Academic Word List

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Results and Discussion

• Length
• Types
• Tokens
• Word families

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Length
Types, Tokens and Number of
Word Families Handout 1
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Types and Tokens
Handout 2
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Tokens and Their Distribution on the Word Lists
Number of running words read before a
new word Handout 3
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Types and Their Distribution on the Word Lists
Number of
unique words read before a new word
Handout 4
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Word Families I.
Handout 5
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Word Families II.
Distribution of word families of all four texts
according to the word lists
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Academic Word Families
Handout 6
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Conclusion

• Order of books
• Content and Vocabulary
• Choice of Materials
• Package of Tools

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Future Research

• Nation (1997)
• Two factors determining the necessary amount
  of reading are (a) the frequency level of the
  learners vocabulary, and (b) the length of time
  that the memory of a meeting with a word is
  retained.
• Analysis of word repetition in the reading
  materials and the evaluation of the students
  vocabulary knowledge