Extensive Reading in English as Foreign Language by Adolescents and Young Adults: A Meta-Analysis

Stephen Krashen (2007)

International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching 3(2): 23–29. (2007) Also in: Free Voluntary Reading, S. Krashen, 2011. Libraries Unlimited

A review of studies of extensive reading adolescents and young adults studying English as a foreign language revealed a strong and consistent positive effect for both tests of reading comprehension and cloze tests. Students provided with more access to reading (titles per student) did significantly better on tests of reading comprehension, but there was no relationship between access and performance on cloze tests.

Despite the consistently positive results of extensive reading programs, there still seem to be doubts as to its effectiveness: Study after study says it works, but very few language programs have adopted it. This paper takes another look at the research, focusing on studies of extensive reading using adolescent and adult students of English as a foreign language. Older students of English as a foreign language (EFL) students are an appropriate group to study for both practical and theoretical reasons. Mastery of English is, of course, crucial for nearly all activities that involve any kind of international communication. Also, focusing on foreign language removes one potential confound, the easy availability of English outside the classroom.

   There are two goals of this meta-analysis. The first is to determine whether free reading has an overall positive effect. The second goal is to determine the factors that contribute to the overall effect. We will be able to accomplish the first goal and take some steps toward reaching the second goal.

   The studies examined here were all published in professional jour- nals or conference proceedings. Studies were done in Taiwan (Yuan and Nash 1992; Sims 1996; Sheu 2005; Hsu and Lee 2005, 2007; Lee 2005a, 2006; K. Smith 2006, 2007; Liu 2007), the Philippines (Lituanas, Jacobs, and Ranayda 1999), Japan (Mason and Krashen 1997), and Yemen (Bell 2001).

   In all studies, time was set aside for self-selected reading. Studies in which a significant percentage of reading was assigned are not included here (e.g., Lee 2005b; Lao and Krashen 2000), and only studies that included reading tests (see below) are included.

Two kinds of reading tests were considered, cloze tests and tests of reading comprehension. The impact of extensive reading was determined by computing effect sizes. The usual formula for the effect size is the mean of the experimental group minus the mean of the comparison group, all divided by the pooled standard deviation, based on posttest scores. This formula was used here, and when possible the effect of the pretest was taken into consideration by subtracting the effect size of the pretest from that of the post-test. The mean effect size for all studies is a measure of the overall impact of extensive reading.

   Data on two factors that could influence the impact of extensive reading was included in the analysis: Access to reading material and duration of treatment.

Access

For first language development, access to reading material has been consistently shown to be a predictor of how much students read and how well they read (Krashen 2004). In this analysis, book access was represented by total titles available to students, and the number of book titles per student.

Duration

Previous reviews have shown that longer SSR programs tend to be more effective than shorter programs (Krashen 2001). Duration is included here in terms of the number of weeks, months, or academic years the program lasted. This is a crude measure because it does not consider the amount of time set aside for reading each day or week.

   A number of other factors are undoubtedly relevant to predicting the impact of extensive reading programs, but their inclusion will await additional studies, when methods are developed for representing their contributions quantitatively.

Results

Table 1 presents data on access, duration of the program, and the results of cloze tests and reading comprehension tests.

Table 1 
Mean titles per student and effect size

	mean	sd	n
titles/S	17.5	32.1	18
Cloze	0.79 (.73)	0.46	13
RC	1.06 (.88)	0.87	9

n = number of studies
( ) = adjusted for sample size

Overall, extensive reading programs clearly produce positive effect sizes. All 13 effect sizes for cloze tests, and all nine effect sizes for reading comprehension were positive.

   For unknown reasons, sample size was negatively correlated with measures, with studies with fewer subjects producing larger effect sizes (for cloze tests, r = –.45, p = .11; for reading comprehension (r = –.81, p < .011). For this reason, weighted means were calculated, resulting in adjusted means of .73 for cloze tests and .88 for reading comprehension.

   Details of the studies, as well as notes on effect size calculations, are presented in table 2. In some cases, effect sizes were calculated for each experimental group in a given publication. This was not possible in other cases. Thus, the average values calculated here should be considered approximate. For studies with no results listed, it was either not possible to calculate effect sizes from the data provided or cloze tests or reading comprehension were not used as measures.

   In Liu (2007), sample size and titles per student were calculated on the basis of students and titles per class. More than one class was involved in these studies. The Liu (2007) effect size is an average calculated from five experimental classes and 12 comparison classes over four years.

   For Yuan and Nash (1992), the effect size in table 2 is the average of three methods of calculating the score (from the t-score of gains, comparison of mean gain scores, pre- and post-tests).

   The reading comprehension test used in K. Smith (2006) also included usage and listening, and was given five months after the course ended.

   In Sims (1996), two different experimental classes were used. The number of titles was estimated from the total number of books: 700 books were provided, and “most” were separate titles (Sims, personal communication).

Table 2
 Access, duration, and effect sizes

study	N	titles	titles/S	Duration	ES Cloze	ES RC
Yuan & Nash 1992	37	200	5.4	one year	0.38
Sims 1996	30	550	18.3	one year		0.81
Sims,1996	30	550	18.3	one year		0.65
Mason retakers	30	100	3.3	one sem	0.702
Mason Jr college	31	200	6.4	one year	1.47
Mason university	40	200	5	one year	1.11
Mason: response L1	40	550	13.75	one year	0.24	0.61
Mason: response L2	36	550	15.28	one year	0.63	0.48
Lituanas et al. 2001	30			6 months		1.7
Bell 2001	14	2000	142.9	one year	1.31	3.14
Sheu 2003	31	57	1.84			0.71
Sheu 2003	34	55	1.62			1.04
Lee 2005a	65	215	3.3	12 weeks	0.24
Hsu & Lee 2005	47	354	7.5	one year	0.58
K. Smith 2006	51	500	9.8	one year	0.47	0.39
Lee 2006	41	1200	29.3	one year	1.02
Hsu & Lee 2007	47	500	10.6	3 years
K. Smith 2007	41	500	12.2	one year	0.56
Liu 2007	46	450	9.8	one year	1.59

Effect size = Cohen’s d.

All effect sizes take pretests into account (ES post-test – ES pretest), except for Mason (Mason and Krashen, 1997) for reading comprehension which was based only on the post-test.

n = number of students in extensive reading group;  titles/S = number of separate book titles per student

Mason studies from Mason and Krashen (1997).

Mason: response L1 -  students wrote summaries in Japanese; response L2 - students wrote summaries in English

Number of titles in Mason, response in L1, response in L2 from Mason (personal communication)

Inspection of table 1 shows that there was little variability in duration in the studies in this sample. Most studies lasted for one academic year. Thus, duration was not examined as a predictor of effect sizes.

The relationship between total titles and titles per student was strong (r = .91). Thus, only titles per student was used in the analysis.

Titles per student was modestly correlated with cloze test effect sizes, and the correlation was close to statistical significance (r = .35, n= 13, p = .12, one-tail). Because of the influence of sample size, a multiple regression was done with sample size and titles/students as predictors (table 3). The relationship between access and reading comprehension was not significant in this analysis.

Table 3
 Predictors of effect sizes for cloze tests (13 studies): Multiple regression

predictor	b	se	t	p
n	0.016	0.014	1.13	0.142
titles/S	0.0009	0.0045	0.208	0.42

Adjusted r2 = .067
   n = sample size


title/S = titles per student

Eight studies provided data for both reading comprehension and titles per student. In contrast to the cloze test results, the two were nearly perfectly correlated (r = .95). Because of the influence of sample size on scores of reading comprehension, the impact of titles per student on reading comprehension scores was investigated using multiple regression, controlling for sample size. As presented in table 4, number of titles per student was a highly significant predictor.

Table 4
 Predictors of effect sizes for reading comprehension (8 studies)

predictor	b	se	t	p
n	0.021	0.015	1.42	0.11
titles/S	0.015	0.0033	4.51	0.003

Adjusted r2 = .91
n = sample size
titles/S = titles per student

According to these results, there is a strong impact of access: Setting the predicted number of students to the mean of the eight studies in table 2 (n = 33.3), doubling the number of titles per student (from 27 to 88) would increase the effect size for reading more than a third of a standard deviation (from .98 to 1.36).

Summary and Discussion

The clearest result of this study is that extensive reading is consistently effective. The average effect size for both measures was over .70. There were no negative effect sizes; the smallest effect size was .24.

The attempt to study factors contributing to successful extensive reading results has clearly only just begun. Data from eight studies using tests of reading comprehension showed that providing more titles per student had a substantial effect on the outcome of the study, but this relationship was not present for tests of reading comprehension.

It is surprising that even this much of a relationship between access and the effect of extensive reading was found, because so many other factors are probably at work.

First, access defined as titles per student, as noted above, is a crude measure. A modest number of books, if they are the right ones, can have a strong impact, and supplying large quantities of books will not help if the books are not interesting and comprehensible.

Also, as noted earlier, other factors undoubtedly play a role. These include

1. The duration of the program (Krashen 2001).

2. The length of time and frequency of each reading session, i.e., massed versus distributed sessions.

3. The extent of comprehension checking: Krashen (2007) has hypothesized that more frequent and more detailed comprehension checking will result in less interest in reading and less progress in literacy development.

4. Whether reading is encouraged by the use of read-alouds, conferencing, and discussion, all of which have empirical support (Krashen 2004).

5. Whether students are under pressure because of heavy academic loads and exams. Those in SSR programs do more pleasure reading on their own outside of class (Sims 1996), and it is likely that this contributes to the success of the program. Pressure from exams and other courses can reduce the amount of time students devote to reading. According to student reports, this was the case in Hsu and Lee (2007).

There are, at the moment, not enough studies to warrant a meta-analytic review of extensive reading studies done with children acquiring a second language. All studies using children that we have seen, however, have produced impressive evidence for “the power of reading” (Aranha 1985; Elley 1991; Elley and Mangubhai 1983; Cho and H. Y. Kim 2004; Cho and H. Kim 2005), with the exception of Williams (2007). 

Conclusion

This review provides more evidence that in-school self-selected reading works. It must be emphasized that effect sizes were uniformly positive and typically quite impressive. In-school self-selected reading is effective and its effects are robust


NOTE: After this paper appeared, an improved a method of calculating effect sizes that takes pretest scores into consideration was developed by Morris (2008):  Estimating Effect Sizes From Pretest-Posttest-Control Group Designs. Organizational Research Methods 11(2): 364-386. Morris concluded that his analysis "favored an effect size based on the mean pre-post change in the treatment group minus the mean pre-post change in the control group, divided by the pooled pretest standard deviation" (p. 364).

      References

Aranha, M. 1985. Sustained silent reading goes East. Reading Teacher 39(2): 14–217.

Bell, T. 2001. Extensive reading: Speed and comprehension. The Reading Matrix 1(1). http://www.readingmatrix.com/articles/bell/index.html

Cho, K. S., and H. Kim. 2004. Recreational reading in English as a foreign language in Korea: Positive effects of a 16-week program. Knowledge Quest 32(4): 36–38.

Cho, K. S., and H. J. Kim. 2005. Using the newspaper in an English as a foreign language class. Knowledge Quest 34(4): 47–49.

Elley, W. 1991. Acquiring literacy in a second language: The effects of book-based programs. Language Learning 41: 375–411.

Elley, W., and E. Mangubhai. 1983. The impact of reading on second lan- guage learning. Reading Research Quarterly 19, 53–67.

Hsu, Y. Y., and S. Y. Lee. 2005. Does extensive reading also benefit junior college students in vocabulary acquisition and reading ability? The Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference in English Teaching and Learning. Taipei: Crane Publishing Company, pp. 116–27.

Hsu, Y. Y., and S. Y. Lee. 2007. A three-year longitudinal study of in-class sustained silent reading with Taiwanese vocational college students. In Selected Papers from the Sixteenth International Symposium on Eng- lish Teaching, English Teachers’ Association—Republic of China. Taipei: Crane Publishing Company.

Krashen, S. 2001. More smoke and mirrors: A critique of the National Reading Panel report on fluency. Phi Delta Kappan 83: 119–23.

Krashen, S. 2004. The power of reading. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann and Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.

Krashen, S. 2007. Free reading in school: Three hypotheses. Paper presented at CELC conference, Singapore, May 2007.

Lao, C. Y., and S. Krashen. 2000. The impact of popular literature study on literacy development in EFL: More evidence for the power of reading. System 28: 261–70.

Lee, S. Y. 2005a. The robustness of extensive reading: Evidence from two studies. International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching 1(3): 13–19.

Lee, S. Y. 2005b. Sustained silent reading using assigned reading: Is comprehensible input enough? International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching 1(4): 10–12.

Lee, S. Y. 2006. A one-year study of SSR: University level EFL students in Taiwan. International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching 2(1): 6–8.

Lituanas, P. M., G. M. Jacobs, and W. A. Renandya. 1999. A study of exten- sive reading with remedial reading students. In Language instructional issues in Asian classrooms, ed. Y. M. Cheah and S. M. Ng. Newark, DE: International Development in Asia Committee, International Reading Association, pp. 89–104.

Liu, C. K. 2007. A reading program that keeps winning. In Selected Papers from the Sixteenth International Symposium on English Teaching, English Teachers’ Association - Republic of China. Taipei: Crane Publishing Company.

Mason, B., and S. Krashen. 1997. Extensive reading in English as a foreign language. System 25: 91–102.

Sheu, S. P-H. 2004. Extensive reading with EFL learners at beginning level. TESL Reporter 36(2): 8–26.

Sims, J. 1996. A new perspective: Extensive reading for pleasure. The Proceedings of the Fifth International Symposium on English Teaching. Taipei: Crane Publishing Company, pp. 137–44.

Smith, K. 2006. A comparison of “pure” extensive reading with intensive reading and extensive reading with supplementary activities. Inter- national Journal of Foreign Language Teaching (IJFLT) 2(2): 12–15.

Smith, K. 2007. The effect of adding SSR to regular instruction. In Selected Papers from the Sixteenth International Symposium on English Teaching, English Teachers’ Association—Republic of China. Taipei: Crane Publishing Company.

Williams, E. 2007. Extensive reading in Malawi: Inadequate implementa- tion or inappropriate innovation? Journal of Research in Reading 30(1): 59–79.

Yuan, Y. P., and T. Nash. 1992. Reading subskills and quantity reading. Selected Papers from The Eighth Conference on English Teaching and Learning in the Republic of China. Taipei: Crane, pp. 291–304.

Incubation: A Neglected Aspect of the Composing Process?

S. Krashen 
ESL Journal 4(2): 10-11. 2001

Remember when you were staring at the ceiling in elementary school, and the teacher asked you whether the answer was on the ceiling? Maybe it was.

In a discussion of possible therapies to remediate writing apprehension, Daly (1985) includes these suggestions:

"One potentially appropriate therapy for procrastination lies in teaching something akin to time management. The writer learns to go to a specific location each day at a certain time and do nothing but write: No distractions are permitted . . . What may be appropriate for (blocked writers) is ‘forced’ writing, where something must be put down on paper whether it is meaningful or not (e.g. writing whatever comes to mind, free-flowing brainstorming)." (p. 71).

In other words, procrastinators need to have a set time when they do nothing but write, and blocked writers need to do forced writing.

There is a problem with these recommendations. It denies what I think is one of the most important parts of the composing process: incubation, a term introduced by Wallas (1926) for the process by which the mind goes about solving a problem, subconsciously and automatically. Elbow (1972, 1981) refers to incubation as "cooking."

Incubation seems to happen best when we take a break from creative work. During this time, we need to do something completely different, something that does not involve conscious and deliberate problem- solving. Wallas suggests that "in the case of the more difficult forms of creative thought ... it is desirable that not only that there should be an interval free from conscious thought on the particular problem concerned, but also that that interval should be so spent that nothing should interfere with the free working of the unconscious or partially unconscious processes of the mind. In those cases, the stage of incubation should include a large amount of actual mental relaxation" (p. 95).

Examples of incubation

Wallas (1926) reports that he first heard of the idea of incubation from the physicist Helmholz. In a speech delivered in 1891, Helmholz described how new thoughts came to him: After previous investigation, "in all directions," .. " happy ideas come unexpectedly without effort, like an inspiration ... they have never come to me when my mind was fatigued, or when I was at my working table ... They came particularly readily during the slow ascent of wooded hills on a sunny day" (p. 91).

Einstein clearly knew about incubation: According to Clark (1971), Einstein would "allow the subconscious to solve particularly tricky problems. 'Whenever he felt that he had come to the end of the road or into a difficult situation in his work,' his eldest son said, 'he would take refuge in music, and that would resolve all his difficulties.'" (p. 106). Clark notes that for Einstein, "with relaxation, there would often come the solution" (p. 106).

Csikszentmihalyi and Sawyer (1995) interviewed nine "creative" individuals, all of whom had made creative contributions in their field, were 60 or older, and were still actively involved in creative work. All mentioned that insights occurred during idle time, and several mentioned that they occurred while they were doing something else, during a "repetitive, physical activity" such as gardening, shaving, taking a walk, or taking a bath (p. 348).

Mind on, mind off

This is not to say, of course, that hard work is unnecessary. Quite the opposite is true. Many studies confirm that high achievers put in a tremendous amount of work, far more than less accomplished colleagues. They engage in the "preliminary period of conscious work which also precedes all fruitful unconscious labor" (Poincare, 1924). This preliminary work is labeled "preparation" by Wallas, and as "wrestling with ideas" by Elbow (1972, p. 129). Wallas notes that the educated person "can 'put his mind on' to a chosen subjects, and 'turn his mind off' ...." (p. 92). The educated person knows how, in other words, to prepare and then incubate.

Of course, the "illumination" that is the result of incubation needs to be followed by more conscious work. Ideas that arise as a result of incubation need to be evaluated (Smith, 1994); our new insight may not be right.

Long and short incubation periods

Incubation sometimes requires a very long break: Feynman noted that "You have to do six months of very hard work first and get all the components bumping around in your head, and then you have to be idle for a couple of weeks, and then - ping - it suddenly falls into place ..." (Csikszentmihalyi and Sawyer, 1995, p. 350). Incubation can also occur with breaks of shorter duration. Piaget told Gruber (1995) that after he worked for a few hours, "he would go for a walk, not think about very much, and when he went back to his desk his ideas would be clearer ..." (p. 526). And it can also happen in very short breaks, a few minutes or even moments. In my experience, extremely short breaks are all that is necessary to solve many problems and loosen many blocks. In agreement with Wallas, I have found that these breaks work best when they are devoted to something fairly mindless: washing just a few dishes, filing just a few papers, or doing some light exercise.

The incubation phenomenon helps to explain why accomplished people need to put in so much time; it may be that not all of the time is "industrious." In fact, high achievers may actually take more time. C.P. Snow, cited in Clark (1971), noted that Churchill "was not a fast worker ... but he was essentially a non- stop worker" (p. 106); perhaps some of the "non-stop" working was staring at the ceiling. If high achievers appear to accomplish tasks more quickly than others, I suspect it is only because they put in so much more time.1

Scheduling incubation time and not being ashamed of it

Some of Csikszentmihalyi and Sawyer's subjects actually scheduled "a period of solitary idle time that follows a period of hard work ... many of them told us that without this solitary, quiet time, they would never have their most important ideas" (p. 347). One respondent actually began his interview with this statement: "I'm fooling around not doing anything, which probably means this is a creative period ... I think that people who keep themselves busy all the time are generally not creative, so I'm not ashamed of being idle" (p. 352).

Incubation and the composing process

The core of the composing process is using writing to come up with new ideas: As Elbow (1972) has stated it, in writing, meaning is not what you start out with but what you end up with. Incubation is thus an important part of the composing process and might be an essential component of revision; at least some writers need to take breaks, breaks ranging from a few moments to several weeks or months.2 I suspect, in fact, that one secret to coming up with good ideas through writing is understanding the importance of incubation, and realizing that the process entails patient revision, takes time, and often requires some time off-task.

For many writers, good writing can't be rushed. Forcing writers to sit without a break and write nonstop denies the possibility of incubation: As Smith (1994) notes, "composition is not enhanced by grim determination" (p. 131). In fact, in-class writing assignments and sit-down written tests actually teach students that incubation is not part of the composing process.

I suspect that this false belief is one of the causes of writing apprehension and writer's blocks. Blocked and fearful writers may be under the false impression that writing should always flow, and that hesitations are a sign of incompetence. Writer's blocks, however, may simply be signs that a problem has come up, and taking a break may help the subconscious solve the problem. This happens to me probably a hundred times a day: a problem with word choice, a discovery that I have contradicted myself, a vague malaise that the arguments are not in the right order, etc.. At least half the time, a very short break, even two minutes or less, is enough to solve the problem. And a solved problem often means new learning, a deeper understanding. In this sense, some "blocks" are good. (Note: I took five breaks in writing this paragraph, during which time I filed some papers, took some vitamins, and checked e mail.)

NOTE

1.     Thus, a high achiever may finish a task in one year, while an average achiever might take two years. But the high achiever might have put in more than twice the amount of time, working two and a half hours a day, compared to the moderate achiever's one hour a day. Sloboda (1996) calculated the amount of practice time music students in the UK devoted in order to reach certain levels of performance, as measured by the national system of music examinations. Those who became high achievers put in much more time practicing, but there was no evidence for a "fast track" for high achievers. All groups took about the same amount of practice time to reach a given level. High achievers reached the levels at younger ages but they practiced a lot more. In fact, "there is a nonsignificant trend for high achievers to practice more than low achievers to reach a particular grade" (p. 112).

2.     Smith (1994) points out that the kind of incubation discussed here may not be universal: "I cannot argue that the fallow period is essential, because a few writers seems capable of doing without it. They can write - at least by their own report - a certain number of words in a certain period of every day, and forget about writing the rest of the time ... But many other writers have written graphically about their need for silent periods" (p. 126).

References

Clark, R. 1971. Einstein: The Life and Times. New York: The World Publishing Company.

Csikszentmihalyi, M and Sawyer, K.1995. Creative insight: The social dimension of a solitary moment. In R. Steinberg and J. Davidson (Eds.) The Nature of Insight. Cambridge: MIT Press. pp. 329-361.

Daly, J. 1985. Writing apprehension. In M. Rose (Ed.) When a Writer Can't Write. New York: The Guilford Press. pp. 43-82.

Elbow, P. 1972. Writing without Teachers. New York: Oxford University Press. Elbow, P. 1981. Writing with Power. New York: Oxford University Press.

Gruber, H. 1995. Insight and affect in the history of science. In R. Steinberg and J. Davidson (Eds.) The Nature of Insight. Cambridge: MIT Press. pp. 397-431.

Poincare, H. 1924. Mathematical creation. Excerpts reprinted in Creativity, P.E. Vernon(Ed.). Middlesex, England: Penguin. pp. 77-88, 1970.

Sloboda, J. 1996. The acquisition of musical performance expertise: Deconstructing the "talent" account of individual differences in musical expressivity. In K. Ericsson (Ed.) The Road to Excellence: The Acquisition of Expert Performance in the Arts and Sciences, Sports and Games. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. pp. 107-126.

Smith, F. 1994. Writing and the Writer. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Second edition.

Wallas, G. 1926. The Art of Thought. Excerpts reprinted in Creativity, P.E. Vernon(Ed.). Middlesex, England: Penguin. pp. 91-97, 1970.

Heritage Language Development: Exhortation or Good Stories?

 Lao, C. and Krashen, S. 2008. Heritage language development: Exhortation or good stories? International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching 4 (2): 17-18.

Despite the well-researched advantages, not all young people are interested in continuing to develop their heritage language. Their apathy may be due to "ethnic avoidence," a preference for the new culture over the old (Tse, 1988), and/or it may be due to teasing by more advanced speakers in reaction to the young person's imperfect attempts to speak the language (Krashen, 1998). These barriers, plus a lack of input, have been hypothesized to be the cause of low heritage language proficiency.

We present here a case in which interest in the heritage language was stimulated in a 12-year-old boy, Daniel, who came to the United States at age eight from China. Daniel's Mandarin proficiency was clearly declining, despite his parents' efforts: They sent Daniel to a Chinese heritage language school for three hours each Saturday. Moreover, it was clear that Daniel was not interested in Mandarin.

Daniel was recently enrolled in a 4-week summer Mandarin program in San Francisco aimed at foreign language students of Mandarin who had had several years of Mandarin instruction in school and heritage language speakers such as Daniel. Daniel was among those with the highest proficiency in Mandarin in the class, having completed the fourth grade in China.

Daniel was clearly not enthusiastic about the summer program, and did not participate in class discussion and other activities. He told his teacher that he found the entire program boring, far below his level, and that he couldn't learn anything new.  The summer program included a great deal of free reading time, and the classroom had a book collection, but Daniel did not find any of the selections of great interest, with the exception of Old Master Q, a series with about 150 titles that are simple and easy to read, with many wordless volumes.

Daniel's teacher was very frustrated with him and asked him to consider leaving the program, and Daniel, in fact, was eager to do so.

When program administrators learned about this, they asked Daniel to come to the Program office. Instead of lecturing Daniel and urging him to stay, the program director gave him a few books to take home from the collection in her office.

Among the books Daniel took was an illustrated chapter book titled "The Stories of A Fan Ti" (this is the English translation). The next day, Daniel’s mother told the program director that Daniel loved the book. The book was a bit beyond his level, but thanks to the illustrations and his ability to understand some of the text, Daniel was very interested in the story, and begged his mother to read it to him.

The program director then loaned Daniel more books from the "A Fan Ti" series, in comic book format. Daniel found the stories tremendously entertaining and begged his mother to read more, from two books to five stories everyday.

Daniel’s mother found that it took her a lot of time to read the stories so she asked Daniel to help with chores while she read to him. This is a reversal of the usual practice of rewarding children to read; in this case, the reward for doing chores is being read to. Both Daniel and his mother were quite happy with this arrangement.

Daniel was not aware that his Mandarin was improving again. He was, of course, only interested in the stories. 

"A Fan Ti" was Daniel's "home run book" (Trelease, 2006), a reading experience that re-stimulated his interest in reading in Mandarin in general.  This case suggests that the answer to encouraging heritage language development is not to exhort children to study the language, not to send them to dull classes, but simply to find some interesting stories. Their focus will be on the stories and heritage language development will be the incidental result.

Post-script: One month later.

According to Daniel's mother, he is now reading less in Chinese. Daniel has now heard and read nearly all of the A Fan Ti stories available, and has no easy access to the Old Master Q series. Although he is a comic book reader in English, he has not found any Chinese comic series he is interested in. Clearly, one home run book is not enough.  It needs to be followed with a steady and easy supply of compelling and comprehensible reading material. We know of no heritage language program that is taking this requirement seriously.

References

Krashen, S. 1998. Language shyness and heritage language development. In S. Krashen, L. Tse, & J. McQuillan (Eds.) Heritage Language Development. Culver City: Language Education Associates. pp. 15-29..

Trelease, J. 2006. The Read-Aloud handbook. New York: Penguin. Sixth Edition.

Tse, L. 1998. Ethnic identity formation and Its Implications for Heritage Language Development. In S. Krashen, L. Tse, & J. McQuillan (Eds.) Heritage Language Development. Culver City: Language

Education Associates. pp. 41-49.