Effects Of Timed Reading Approach On Chinese College Students' English Reading Rate:A Mixed Methods Study

Foreign language reading serves as the fundamental channel for foreign language acquisition and for information gathering.Improving the reading ability of students is one of the important objectives of foreign language teaching.The construct of reading ability has two dimensions:reading comprehension and reading rate(or speed)(Grabe,2009;Kame'enui&Simmons,2001;Perfetti,1985).But,foreign language teaching in China has long been emphasizing comprehension but ignoring the training of reading rate to some degree.The slow reading rate has been a common problem among EFL learners.Substantial research on reading rate indicates that EFL learners read far more slowly than English native speakers(e.g.,Fraser,2007;Nation,2005;Cushing-Weigle&Jensen,1996;Segalowitz,Poulsen&Komada,1991;Haynes&Carr,1990;Oller&Tullius,1973).Fluent native English readers read at a rate between 250-300 words per minute(wpm),while EFL students only read at 80-120 wpm(Grabe,2009),only equivalent to the level of English native speakers in third or fourth grades.Such slow reading rates have caused negative effects on foreign language learners and users.Some studies show that Chinese overseas students can hardly complete the required course readings;and Chinese learners and professionals have low efficiency in reading foreign literature(e.g.,Fraser,2007;Grabe,2004;Raymond&Parks,2002).Therefore,how to improve the English reading rate of students should be an important issue in foreign language teaching.Previous research in L1 context has advanced many feasible reading rate teaching approaches for English native speakers,including Oral Reading,Repeated Reading,Extensive Reading,Paced and Reading(Breznitz,2006;Rasinski,2003;Kuhn&Stahl;2003;National Reading Panel,2000;Samules,1979,2006a,2006b).However,in EFL context,reading rate instruction has received insufficient attention.Especially in China,only a very few empirical studies have been conducted in this research line,and they were mainly published in the 1980-90s.Considering the significance of reading rate for EFL learners and the scarcity of related studies in China,this study investigated Chinese college students' English rate and how to improve their reading rate.In view of the effectiveness of Timed Reading approach(e.g.,Cushing-Weigle&Jensen,1996;Chung&Nation,2006;Chang,2010),this study focused on examining the effects of this approach on Chinese college students' English reading rate.Timed Reading activities require students to read under time pressure and with intensive concentration,which is a well-recognized reading rate teaching approach.78 non-English major freshmen from a key university participated in this study.This study combined the quantitative and qualitative research methods and adopted a pre-post and control-experimental research design.Four stages have been followed.First,the pretest was administrated in control and experimental groups to measure students' reading rate and comprehension.Second,Timed Reading treatments were conducted in experimental class in which students spent 15 minutes of class sessions on Timed Reading practice;students in control class only received conventional college English instruction and no reading rate intervention was involved.Third,the posttest was administrated in the control and experimental groups.Fourth,a semi-structured interview was conducted to experimental group.Students' perceptions on Timed Reading treatments and the reasons for their fast or slow improvement were a alyzed qualitatively.Three findings have been revealed.First,before the experiment two classes of 78 college students read at an average rate of 116 wpm(113 wpm for control group and 118 wpm for experimental group),which is in line with previous studies(Chang,2010;Grabe,2009;Gu,Li&Zhang,2009).Second,the reading rate of experimental group improved 38%(from 118 to 163 wpm),while that of control group improved 27%(from 113 to 143 wpm).Results showed that the experimental group with Timed Reading treatments made bigger improvement in reading rate(with comprehension being higher than 75%).Statistical analyses revealed that there was no significant differences between groups before treatments(t =-1.254,p = 214).However,after treatments,the reading rates of two classes were significantly different(t =-2.698,p =0.009).This study showed the effectiveness of Timed Reading in improving Chinese college students' English reading rate.The results were aligned with those reported in previous studies(Cushing,1990;Cushing-Weigle&Jensen,1996;Chung&Nation,2006;Chang,2010).Third,the qualitative analysis of the responses in the semi-structured interview revealed the following findings:1)regarding awareness of the importance of reading rate,college students in general showed a low level;2)as to attitudes to Timed Reading approach,students expressed positive comments on such intervention;3)regarding reasons for fast or slow improvement,students mainly attributed their improvement to the intensive concentration due to the time pressure inTimed Reading.Students with marginal gains of reading rate thought that the major reasons were their limited vocabulary knowledge,reading quantity,and the difficulty in adjusting to the training mode;4)concerning likes and dislikes of the Timed Reading approach,most students preferred the concentration due to the time pressure in Timed Reading.Meanwhile,they expressed negative comments on anxiety and pressure involved in this approach,caused by interference from peers and unfamiliarity to the approach;and 5)regarding suggestions to this approach,they advised that strategy training sessions should be incorporated into Timed Reading approach.Theoretically,this study has enriched the research on foreign language reading and provided empirical materials with Chinese college students as participants.It may contribute to a further discussion of the two dimensional quality of the construct of reading ability.Pedagogically,this study is beneficial to raise teachers' and students'awareness of reading rate and has enriched the reading teaching strategies for teachers.Methodologically,this study has experimented the readability formula and Vocabprofile software in the selection and difficulty assessment of reading materials.