The effect of passage analysis on building English sentences

Authors

  • Rachid Bezzazi National Taiwan Normal University

Keywords:

monitored extensive reading, intensive reading, sentence building, explicit attention, complex sentences, EFL, ESL, Taiwan

Abstract

This study investigates the extent to which Monitored Extensive Reading (MER) can enhance L2/FL learners’ sentence building. Sixty-nine Taiwanese students forming two intact classes participated in the study. One class comprised the experimental group and the other the control group. Both classes followed the MER programme, which required the learners to read one book per week outside the classroom and complete the related follow-up activities designed by the teacher. In addition, the experimental group were assigned an extra task to select a passage of four to five sentences to analyze and make five original sentences using the self-selected vocabulary words. Participants’ sentence building was measured pre- and post-test, revealing positive gains for the experimental group, who outperformed the control group in building correct, simple, longer sentences. These findings suggest learners need to pay deliberate attention to the language and structure of reading material if they are to produce their target language, in this case English.

Author Biography

  • Rachid Bezzazi, National Taiwan Normal University
    Rachid Bezzazi is a language instructor at Yuan-Ze University and a PhD applicant in TESOL at National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan. His research and instructional interests include Extensive Reading, Monitored Extensive Reading, Cooperative Learning, and Cooperative Teaching. He is also interested in the effect of CLIL in Taiwan.
The Asian Journal of Applied Linguistics. Volume 5, Issue 2.. October 2018

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Published

2018-11-06

Issue

Vol. 5 No. 2 (2018)

Section

Articles

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How to Cite

The effect of passage analysis on building English sentences. (2018). The Asian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 5(2), 230-239. https://caes.hku.hk/ajal/index.php/ajal/article/view/560