Effectiveness of Read-aloud Instruction on Motivation and Learning Strategy among Japanese College EFL Students

Poor English performance among Japanese college EFL students has often been explained by grammar-translation and lecture-memorization instruction. This study investigated the effectiveness of a recently designed teaching method, namely, “The read-aloud instruction package,†which consists of four major activities- Slash/chunked reading practice (S/CRP), repeated read-aloud practice (RRAP), cloze test, and simultaneous read-aloud and write-out practice (SRAWOP). The study also examined how EFL college students’ motivation to learn English and their choice of EFL learning strategies changed after intensive three-month’ instruction using these methods. Thirty-two participants with an elementary level of English proficiency completed a pretest and posttest using the TOEIC Bridge®, Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) and a motivation survey. Results indicated that the participants’ score on the posttests on the TOEIC Bridge® improved significantly, but no change was found in their motivation. As to EFL learning strategy, the study found that the participants used more mental processes but less learning with others strategy after the instruction. The article discusses some possible explanations of the effectiveness of the read-aloud instruction package from cognitive and neuro-linguistic perspectives.