Free Voluntary Reading and Autonomy in Second Language Acquisition:
Improving TOEFL Scores from Reading Alone
Beniko Mason

Originally published in International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching, 2(1), 2-5. Minor corrections have been made.

It is reasonable to propose that a goal of language programs is to make students "autonomous," that is, able to improve their competence in their second language on their own. An obvious way to do this is to introduce students to free voluntary reading, a pleasurable activity that students can certainly do on their own, and that has been shown to have powerful payoffs in increased proficiency in all aspects of literacy (Krashen, 2004). This paper reports an attempt to do this: Students who had completed classes in which they were involved in free voluntary reading of graded readers were encouraged to continue reading on their own in preparation for the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL).

Previous research strongly suggests that reading would be good preparation for the TOEFL. One case study (Constantino, 1995) and two multivariate correlational studies (Gradman and Hanania, 1991; Constantino, SY Lee, KS Cho, and Krashen, 1997) have shown that the amount of recreational reading students do is a strong predictor of TOEFL performance.

Showing that just engaging in independent reading improves scores on the TOEFL examination would have strong implications for both theory and practice. On the level of theory, it would confirm that language acquisition is possible from comprehensible input (in this case reading) alone. On the level of practice, it would tell us whether independent study is a viable and practical means of preparing for the TOEFL examination, especially if we can compare students' progress with those who prepare for the TOEFL examination in more traditional ways.

PROCEDURE

Subjects were six university level students of English as a foreign language (EFL) in Japan. All had taken EFL courses that had emphasized extensive reading of graded readers, books written especially for EFL students. The classes the readers took before starting the independent reading program included presentation of the theory underlying extensive reading, some of the actual research supporting extensive reading, and a great deal of reading experience.

All reading in the EFL classes was selected by the students, who had access to a library of about 4000 graded readers (about 700 different titles). Students were advised to begin with very easy graded readers, and read about 70 to 100 pages per week. Accountability was minimal: No book report or summary was required and students were only asked to keep a record of the books they had read. Students were encouraged to read those books that were interesting to them, and were not required to finish every book they started. Class-time also included listening to stories.

All subjects volunteered to continue reading on their own, three during their summer vacation, two during the spring break, and one during the academic year (an Arabic major who was taking no English classes at the time). The readers were entirely on their own during this time; they did not meet with the researcher to discuss progress, problems, book selection, etc.. All were highly motivated to improve on the TOEFL and were told that reading was an excellent way to do this.

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