English Language Proficiency Gains

Not many English major programs in Japanese universities are centrally managed.1a Vague course titles2 are determined by administrators (教務課)、teachers assigned(教務課)、 and the choice of text and course content left up to the individual instructor, who rarely coordinates with other instructors in the department or even knows what they are doing.1a The results are well known but little documented.1b&c This paper considers a two-year college English Department in which the core language program consisted of six classes a week managed by a team of instructors who coordinated small groups (3-5 students each) who worked in pairs at their own pace, revising material as necessary, and one class a week of extensive reading and/or storytelling audition. The students were extensively pre- and post- tested with standard proficiency testing instruments. Test results are presented in detail. Key Words: language learning, self-access, SAPL, extensive reading, proficiency testing, t-test, effect size Introduction (How do we know what “works?”) Recently, in an article in the New York Times, columnist Gina Kolata raised som