The Use of Comic Book Style Reading Material in an EFL Extensive Reading Program: A Look at the Changes in Attitude and Motivation to Read in English in a Japanese University

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Many educators in the EFL field have faced a recurring problem of unmotivated participants unwilling to tackle the difficult task of acquiring reading proficiency in a foreign language (Day & Bamford, 1998; Hitosugi & Day, 2004). Many intensive reading programs involve assigning participants reading material that is thought to be of a suitable level and engaging to the student. Little thought is given to participants choosing their own reading material relevant to their own interests. Extensive reading programs attempt to address this issue by giving a choice of material. This report looks at the results of an extensive reading program in a Japanese women’s university that incorporated comic book style reading materials into its extensive reading program. Changes in attitude and motivation of the participants are discussed, as well as possible future directions for this area of research. Proficient reading in English is a crucial skill in today’s modern world. The proliferation of the Internet and the spread of English as a lingua franca have meant that the development of reading skills can be a stepping stone for non-English speakers in terms of employment, cultural enrichment or integration into new cultures. Anecdotal evidence based on the researcher’s 12 years of teaching experience in Japan, at both the high school and university level, indicates that many participants lack motivation or confidence to acquire English reading skills. Many of the reading programs offered in these contexts focus on intensive reading programs. Students are not generally intrinsically motivated to read the materials used in such programs. In the researcher’s experience, it has often been difficult to engage the participants in English reading in the classroom and even more difficult to motivate them to read outside the classroom. In an attempt to increase Japanese participants’ positive attitudes and motivation toward reading in English, the author developed an Extensive Reading (ER) program for first year participants at an all women’s university in Japan. As the name suggests, ER is a reading program whereby participants read a wide variety of texts. However, in the researcher’s experience with ER programs in Japanese universities, while there was some evidence of increased student attitudes and motivation, ER was certainly not a panacea in itself. Participants, particularly those with lower English abilities, would often complain of the tedium of reading graded readers and the need to constantly refer to Language Education in Asia, 2010, 1(1), 228-241. http://dx.doi.org/10.5746/LEiA/10/V1/A19/Jones Language Education in Asia, Volume 1, 2010 Jones Page 229 dictionaries to confirm the meaning of new vocabulary. For this reason, the researcher decided to take a new approach by introducing comic book style graded readers into the ER program.