Development of EFL reading rate in adolescents in Japan

Abstract

Abstract This longitudinal study employed latent growth curve modeling to investigate the development of EFL reading rate in a sample of L1-Japanese adolescents from Grade 9 to 11. It also examined the contributions of four components (word recognition, phonological processing, orthographic processing and vocabulary breadth) to the reading rate with word recognition as a mediator. The growth trajectory was non-linear with steeper gains between Grades 9 and 10 than Grades 10 and 11. The components contributed to the reading rate in complex ways, either directly or through the mediation of word recognition. Although some catching up by slower readers was observed, the advantage the faster readers had at the outset remained after two years, indicating the importance of the achievement levels at early stages for later development.