Free Volutary Reading
English Teaching, Vol. 58, No.1 Spring 2003
Free Voluntary Reading: Cross-linguistic Impact of
Parental Reading Behavior on Children’s English*
University of Southern California, Paul Kang
(지도교수, Stephen Krashen)
Many studies have shown that 1) the benefits of
reading, especially free voluntary reading (FVR)
include enabling children to acquire academic
language regardless of whether they are learning
their first language (L1) or a second language (L2);
and 2) children’s attitudes toward FVR are
strongly influenced by home environmental factors.
However, hardly any of the latter studies have dealt with cross-linguistic situations.
This paper reports the results of two empirical studies: the first study measures the extent to which the reading habits of Korean-born parents influence the reading
habits of their American-born children, and the second measures the effect of
the amount of reading done by the children on their acquisition of academic
English. The results of the first study show that the L1 reading habits of Korean
parents are a strong indicator of their children’s L2 reading habits, where the
amount of reading done in each case was measured by scores on title recognition
tests: titles of modern Korean literature for the parents, and titles of English
literature for their children. The results of the second study show that
the children’s FVR habits, as measured by their title recognition scores, are
a strong predictor of their scores on the language portion of a Stanford 9 exam.
Thus, these results jointly imply that the culture of literacy fostered by the parents’
modeling of reading behavior at home has an important, albeit indirect, impact
on their children’s academic English achievement.
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