New literacies in theory and practice: What are the implications for language in education?

Abstract

Past second language (L2) reading research has widely discussed reading strategies and developed measures within traditional reading contexts. However, few have included technology and its novel features to cope with changes in reading contexts. Even fewer were developed for use by adult and tertiary-level L2 readers. This paper describes the development and validation of a new self-report instrument, the Second Language Online Reading Strategies Inventory (SLORSI), which is designed to measure adult and tertiary-level readers' use of online reading strategies when reading academic or study-related materials in a L2 learning context. Validation was carried out by means of exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). A second-order modeling approach was adopted to capture the underlying structures of online reading strategies. Results of EFA and CFA suggest a 29 item, four-factor scale which comprises two second-order factors, ‘new strategies’ and ‘traditional strategies’ and two first-order factors, ‘evaluating strategies’ and ‘communicative strategies’. The new strategies encompass four first-order factors, namely, locating, synthesizing, saving and navigating strategies while the traditional strategies include three first-order factors, inferring, skimming and translating strategies. The instrument meets validity and reliability criteria. Applications of the instrument are discussed, as are the implications for teaching, learning and research.