L2 Japanese learners’ responses to translation, speed reading, and ‘pleasure reading’ as a form of extensive reading

Abstract

Fluency development instruction lacks in reading in Japanese as a foreign language instruction. This study examined how 34 upper-intermediate level learners of Japanese responded when they first experienced pleasure reading and speed reading. The participants also engaged in intensive reading, the main component of which was translation. Survey results indicated that the two novel approaches were more welcomed than translation. There was a positive correlation between the participants’ favorable ratings of pleasure reading and speed reading. The participants exhibited flexibility toward the two novel approaches in that they were willing to be meaningfully engaged in pleasure reading, whereas they put complete understanding before fluent reading when speed reading. The latter phenomenon may be explained by their predominantly-accuracy-oriented attitudes, fostered by long-term exposure to the grammar-translation method. The study’s results imply that a key to successful fluency development is an early start that nurtures well-rounded attitudes toward the target language reading.