Abstract
This exploratory study represents an attempt to investigate the factors that may affect the reading comprehension abilities of English as an additional language (EAL) learners. For this study, we examined a participant group of 31 (25 EAL and 6 first language English) learners studying at an international school in Japan. We assessed the participants according to four factors shown to influence reading comprehension: vocabulary knowledge, word decoding skills, reading fluency, and general linguistic ability. Our results show that differences in vocabulary knowledge show more variance in reading comprehension scores than the other factors examined in this study, highlighting the importance of vocabulary knowledge for reading comprehension. However, other factors such as reading fluency and general linguistic knowledge are also shown to be moderate to strong predictors of reading comprehension. Based on these results, we suggest that EAL learners need targeted language support to enhance academic text comprehension.
Highlights
In recent years, pressure has been rising worldwide to provide support for learners without English as their first language (Murphy, 2014)
Our two research questions are: 1. To what degree does vocabulary knowledge correlate with reading comprehension, and how does this relationship compare with the way reading comprehension correlates with other factors such as the learners’ word decoding skills, fluency, and general language ability?
In order to address the first research question (To what degree does vocabulary knowledge correlate with reading comprehension, and how does this relationship compare with the way reading comprehension correlates with other factors such as the learners’ word decoding skills, fluency, and general language ability?), bivariate correlational analyses were conducted using the scores on the assessments in relation to the learners’ reading comprehension scores
Summary
Pressure has been rising worldwide to provide support for learners without English as their first language (Murphy, 2014). To support education in light of such increases, a better understanding of the needs of these English as an additional language (EAL) learners is an essential and urgent requirement (Hawkins, 2005). EAL learners start their educational careers with significantly lower levels of vocabulary knowledge compared to their first language English (FLE) counterparts (NALDIC, 2015). While previous research (e.g., August et al, 2005; Coxhead & Boutorwick, 2018) supports the assertion that EAL learners likely have less developed vocabularies than their FLE counterparts, what remains unclear is how such discrepancies impact their ability to function in English as a medium of instruction (EMI) classrooms
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