Japanese EFL Reading Texts: How Readable Are They?

In the Japanese education system there is enormous pressure to study for and get high marks on the college entrance examinations. According to Brown & Yamashita (1995), Japanese families devote a surprising proportion of their financial and time resources toward helping their children to prepare for the exams. Many have pointed out that one result of the huge number of applicants competing for a very small number of spots at the top private and public universities is an undue emphasis on teaching material that is too difficult for students to master (Law, 1994; Takahashi, Midorikawa & Wada, 1994; Cummings, 1980). With high school English teachers forced to spend their time teaching obscure ' grammar points, difficult vocabulary, and reading material far above the level of their students, many classes are conducted almost entirely in Japanese (Browne & Evans, 1994). Unfortunately, this results in a situation where even after 6 years of instruction in English, most university bound high school students graduate with only a minimal ability to use English. Over the past 11 years of teaching English, writing textbooks, and doing teacher training in Japan I have noticed that although there is a lot of discussion of improving th