On-Line and Off-Line Reading English Rates : differences according to L1 native-language, Gender, and Age

1
On-Line and Off-LineReading English Rates
differences according toL1 native-language,
Gender, and Age

• PAUL KAWACHI
• OPEN EDUCATION NETWORK
• kawachi _at_ open-ed.net

2
Overview
Rationale , Introduction Aims
Methods , Results Discussion Conclusion
s Implications Proposals for Ways
Forward Further Studies / Information
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Rationale (1)
What barriers may inhibit successful
course completion - English as a
second language ?

Woodley Ashby 1994 p20
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Rationale (2)

• Asians appear to be slower at interacting in
  computer-mediated communications
• Mason 1998 Globalising
  Education p85 p141
• This Study set out to understand if, how, and
  why
• non-native-English distance education Asian
  students
• are at any disadvantage due to their having to
  use
• English as a Second Language

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Introduction (1)

• Reading Rates vary
• during
  task , from-task-to-task
• according to Cognitive
• (
  aptitude , schema , strategies )
• and Affective factors
• ( motivations ,
  efferent / aesthetic )
• And can be classified into
• various modes

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Introduction (2)

• The Academic Reading Modes

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Aims

• to measure R-1a reading English rates for
  authentic on-line and off-line current distance
  education texts
• to identify and explain any differences according
  to L1 native-language, Gender, and Age
• to identify and propose ways forward to
  accommodate any differences

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Methods (1) , (2), (3)

• (1) Reading Tests Timed Readings On-Line,
  and Off-Line
• 
  
• (2) Other Instruments Extended ASI,
  Factor Analyses
• 
  
• (3) Respondents Total 850, from
  Different Cultures

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Methods (1)

• Use Authentic distance education Texts
• 
  

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Methods (2)

Other Instruments a) 76-item
Extended-version, and Japanese-Extended-version
of the Approaches to Studying Inventory
(EASI, J-EASI) for
Factor Analyses to detect approach in reading
tasks and overload b) 86-item Questionnaire
on Intrinsic Motivation (QIM)

to detect cognitive and affective changes with
age c) Various Templates for Structured
Interviews
to triangulate,
validate and explain findings
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Methods (3)Respondents

Ethnicity Gender Age Total

Japanese , English ( Britain, USA, Can, Aus, NZ
) , Chinese ( mainland, HK, Taiwan ) , Indian ,
Others male , female 18.83 80.83 years
old 850 respondents ongoing 100 s
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Pre-Reading Questionswere given to elicit and
stimulate a deep approach to learning

• 
  

Email Q1 Q2 Q3 Book Q1 Q2
Q3 Web Q1 Q2 Q3
What is the main point the teacher is saying to
me ? How successful was my Report ? What should I
do now ? What does the title
industrialization of teaching mean ?
what is the new content to be learnt What forms
of industrialization of teaching have I seen in
my own education system ?
personal relevance Why do I agree
or disagree with the writers view ? can
I successfully assimilate this content What are
the mean features described ? What are the
relationships among these features ? How do these
features relate to other works I have read ?
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Different ways of learning

• Alone
• Group

Independent ( self-pacing, private indept
from any institution ) Individual learning
( S ? content interaction ) Cooperative (
connected ) there is a knower in the
group and interactions proceed through
content delivery and sharing favoured for (
old ) foundational knowledge
acquisition Collaborative there is no
knower in the group and interactions
proceed through critique and hypotheses
testing favoured for ( new ) non-foundational
knowledge co-construction
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Dilemma from the perspective of a
culturally-distant student

Distance Education Institution / Tutor
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Results (1)The two Factors from the EASI

• 
  

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Results (2) The EASI and J-EASI showed a
second Factor IIassociated with Overload
Factor II ITEM
LOADING

• 
  

Fear of Failure 0 . 5 1 Use of
Strategies - 0 . 3 5 Globetrotting
0 . 5 0 Improvidence
0 . 6 9
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Results (3)Overload was clearly identified
in Asiannon-native-English studentsin
contrast , English-native students show a
monotonic increase

• 
  

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Results (4)The best-fit plt0.001 Curve for
Japanese men with the upper and lower Curves
being the confidence range for 98 inclusion

• 
  

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Results (5)Similar Curves with this
characteristic shapewere found with other
data

• 
  

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Results (6)These Curves are for 98
inclusion

• 
  

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Articulation RatesDifferent numbers of
phonemes are needed for a same expression

• 
  

Jpn Watashi-wa paarti-ni ikimasu ga, anata
dou shimasu ka ? Eng I am going to the
party, how about you ? Chi Wo chu yen
hoi, ni chu ma ? Jpn Watashi-wa
Satomi-ga ano-hito ni atta no o shite iru. Eng
I know that Sally has met that man. Chi
Wo tsu tao Lee ze göuun. Jpn
Fukuyama-san, o-haiyo gozaimasu ! Eng
Good morning, Mr Thatcher ! Chi Wei,
ni tjao !
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Density of Ideas

• Chinese with 1300 phonemes available
• produces 70 ideas / minute
• English with 400 phonemes available
• produces 40 ideas / minute
• Japanese with 70 phonemes available
• produces only 25 ideas / minute

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Language Implications

• The exercise of using ideographs for conveying
  meaning strengthens the linguistic neural
  pathways to and from the visual-spatial right
  cerebral hemisphere, developing prowess and a
  right-brain dependency.
• This induces a preference to high-context
  low-content interactivity. The derived Japanese
  culture has the worlds highest
  context-dependency.

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Useful Definitions
High-Context Communicative-intent
Transaction in which
the Intended Meaning is not
explicit in the words or
is not visible, and
must be intuited by the Receiver
from
pre-existing knowledge High-Content
Communicative-intent Transaction in which
there
is a High Density of Ideas or
of Words of
Significant Meaning English is a low-context
high-content language - with writer
encoder responsibility


for conveying meaning Japanese is a
high-context low-content language - with
reader decoder responsibility


for discerning meaning

• 
  

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Results (7)There were gender differences

• 
  

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Results (8)There were gender differences

• 
  

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Results (9)There were gender differences

• 
  

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Conclusions

• The R-1a reading English rates increase from 40
  wpm for 1920-year-olds, to a peak of 110225 wpm
  at about 40yo
• Cognitive and affective factors were the
  underlying cause for the observed differences
  L1-language-differences for cross-cultural
  differences, approach including motivations and
  anxiety for gender differences, and schema for age

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Discussion Very few studies have reported
non-native-Englishacademic reading R-1a rate
for difficult text

• 
  

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Implications

• Literature data have generally been derived from
  students aged 19 or 20 years old or not-given,
  and been slow at 40 wpm. This rate increases into
  middle-age to a peak at about 40 years old.
  Therefore workload for older adults can use a
  faster rate at 110 225 wpm, but a slow rate of
  about 65 wpm is needed for oldest adults.
• The actual rate depends on L1, Gender, and Age.

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Summary

• Men and Women think differently and
• read at different rates
• Individuals read at different rates
• depending on their age
• Different cultures read at different rates
• because of their different native-languages

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Proposals

• in the immediate-term
• Reduce core reading content, elicit students own
  learning context(s), increase use of mathemagenic
  in-text questions, and initiate the intrinsic
  motivations to learn in each student
• in the mid-term
• Develop hyper-reading techniques with added links
  to more content giving reasons for those who
  prefer collaborative left-brain knowledge
  acquisition, and to more content giving examples
  for those who prefer cooperative right-brain
  knowledge acquisition
• in the long-term
• Further studies to understand the (a) cognitive,
  and (b) affective factors underlying these
  differences in reading rates

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Further Studies

• (1) To investigate the correlative importance
  of
• schema activation , a standard
  textbook produced
• in various languages is used to
  confirm or deny
• that different students read at the
  same rate in
• ideas-per-minute in their respective
  native language.
• (2) To investigate affective factors , a new
  questionnaire
• on levels of the intrinsic
  motivations to learn is
• developed , and loadings from Factor
  Analysis are
• correlated with their respective
  Reading Rate.

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Further Information

• This Paper with Appendices is freely available on
• CD-ROM
• with full details, data, tables, and figures
• or by
• EMAIL
• kawachi _at_ open-ed.net
• Thank you
• Paul Kawachi