Sessions

TOEIC Bridge and ER in remote classes 

The purpose of this presentation is to show the effect of ER on English proficiency in remote classes. First, the presenter will show how English proficiency influenced the result of ER. Then the effect of ER on English proficiency will be discussed. The participants in the study were 57 Japanese university-level engineering students who studied remotely in one semester and face-to-face in another semester. The study employed a method of dividing samples into three groups: low (less than 60,000words/yr), middle (60,000-150,000), and high (more than 150,000) amount of reading.  The presenter examined the relationships and interactions of the two variables (ER and proficiency test scores) over a one-year treatment, using ANOVA. The number of words students read was counted with MReader, and TOEIC Bridge tests as pre-test/post-test were administered. The results of a one-way ANOVA revealed significant differences. In the result of the pretest, the low group and the middle group were significantly different. This result suggests that initial English proficiency was the cause of the difference in the amount of reading. On the other hand, ANOVA revealed no differences in the result of the posttest. It is suggested that the gap between the middle group and the low group disappeared and that ER was effective for the improvement of English proficiency.