Recall of Text: Differences between First and Second Language Readers

Abstract

This article examines the differences between first and second language readers' recall of a written English passage. First, the hierarchical content-structure analysis developed by Meyer (1975a) is presented and then discussed in terms of the selected English expository prose text. Next, the results of a reading experiment are presented. In this experiment, adult students from three different language backgrounds, English, Japanese, and Spanish, read the passage and wrote immediate recalls. The comparison of the students' recall protocols with the hierarchical content-structure analysis of the passage revealed that the native English speakers in the sample outperformed the students of English as a second language (ESL) in terms of total recall. Yet, unexpectedly, there was no significant difference between these groups in the recall of the high-level ideas of the text. Finally, the article discusses discourse features in the recall protocols, such as “perspective” and “pragmatic condition,” which are not included in Meyer's system. Recommendations for future research are suggested, and implications for reading instruction are presented.