Textual Cohesion and Second‐Language Comprehension*

Abstract

Two cloze tests were administered to native (n=199) and nonnative (n = 230) speakers of English at three universities in northeastern Texas. One test was based on an analysis of the lexical and referential cohesion in the passage while the other was a standard fixed‐ratio test. Prior to the administration of the tests, half the subjects were allowed to read the whole text from which the cloze tests were derived. Nonnative scores on the fixed‐ratio format reflect approximately the same effect as native scores from having had prior access to the whole context. Scores on the cohesion‐based test, however, demonstrate that nonnatives are far less capable of coping with the loss of redundant cohesive data than are natives. When these data are available, however, nonnatives employ them in comprehension to a comparatively greater extent than do native speakers. Nonnative speakers appear to be far more reliant on text in comprehension processes (text‐bound) than are native speakers.