L2 Reading Research Articles

Algorithmic versus teacher‐led sequencing in a digital serious game and the development of second language reading fluency and accuracy

AbstractRecent years have seen a surge of calls for personalization of education. Automatised adaptivity in serious games has been advocated as a potential instantiation of such calls. Yet little is known about the extent to which personalised learning through automatised adaptivity poses an advantage for language learning over generalised teacher‐led sequencing in digital, game‐based learning environments. The goal of this paper is to address this question by comparing the learning outcomes in reading accuracy and fluency of didactic sequences designed by EFL teachers or by an adaptive algorithm. A total of 67 participants completed several proficiency and reading skills pretest and posttest and used the iRead system for 6 months. Results showed that all learners made progress in reading skills, but no significant differences were found between the two sequences in relation to the development of reading skills. It was also shown that adaptivity works best if it leads to increase in the number of games per feature. Results are discussed in the context of previous findings, and the role of adaptivity and sequencing is critically assessed. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic? Serious games have the potential to aid learning but empirical research is needed. Findings about the efficiency of serious games are mixed. Current and reviewed versions of the Simple View of Reading constitute a suitable framework to measure reading acquisition. What this paper adds? It contributes to the growing corpus of research on digital serious games. It provides empirical evidence on the use of an adaptive system in formal education. Comparing a teacher‐led sequence to an algorithmic adaptive sequence on the same digital serious game has never been done before. The paper shows the need to obtain both system‐internal and system‐external data in order to capture the impact of gameplay on the development of L2 reading skills. Implications for practise and/or policy It sheds some light on how certain game designs may actually help practise with different degrees of intervention by teachers. It is interesting for teachers to use an adaptive sequence that they can check and intervene in if needed.

Establishing a computer-assisted interactive reading model

Drawing on the nonlinearity and dynamicity of second language (L2) motivation and individual differences, the present study introduced and examined the computer-assisted interactive reading model (CAIRM) incorporating computer-assisted language learning (CALL) tools and affordances to assist reading comprehension in blended and distance learning contexts. The CAIRM aims at incorporating CALL tools and affordances to move L2 readers from strategic (conscious, deliberate, intentional) to automatized (reading without employing conscious strategies) processing to develop L2 reading proficiency. The model arranges emerging digital reading features to facilitate restructuring and checking content comprehension as a way to alter between bottom-up and top-down processing. To investigate CAIRM effectiveness at three levels of implementation, a between-subject design was used in a sample of 278 Iranian learners. Results indicated significant improvement on the measure of reading performance, favoring all three experimental groups (d = 2.34, d = 2.49, and d = 3.82 for bottom-up, top-down, and both processing approaches conditions, respectively). The combination of bottom-up and top-down processing strategies emerged as the most effective level of CAIRM implementation. Results also documented positive perceptions of the proposed model efficacy among participants. This suggests that offering a variety of strategies under the CAIRM—or similar models—teachers can move away from static traditional approaches based on just one particular data processing mode towards more flexible uses of the CALL tools and strategies that fit their unique teaching and their students’ unique learning styles best while supporting positive attitudes towards learning among L2 students in blended and distance learning contexts.

In a bilingual state of mind: Investigating the continuous relationship between bilingual language experience and mentalizing

AbstractMentalizing, a dynamic form of social cognition, is strengthened by language experience. Past research has found that bilingual children and adults outperform monolinguals on mentalizing tasks. However, bilingual experiences are multidimensional and diverse, and it is unclear how continuous individual differences in bilingual language experience relate to mentalizing. Here, we examine whether individual differences in bilingual language diversity, measured through language entropy, continuously pattern with mentalizing judgments among bilingual adults, and whether this relationship is constrained by first vs. second language reading. We tested sixty-one bilingual adults on a reading and inference task that compared mental state and logical inferences. We found that greater language diversity patterned with higher mentalizing judgments of mental state inferences across all readers, and that L2 readers attributed more mentalizing to logical inferences compared to L1 readers. Together, we found evidence of a positive relationship between continuous individual differences in bilingual language diversity and mentalizing.

Mindfulness, Reading Anxiety, and Self-Efficacy of Korean EFL College Students

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the state of mindfulness exhibited by Korean EFL college students had an effect on the level of anxiety and self-efficacy they experienced during their L2 reading. The following research questions were constructed. First, is there a relationship between mindfulness and anxiety in L2 reading? Second, is there a relationship between mindfulness and self-efficacy in L2 reading? A total of 108 male and female students attending a University in Daejeon, Korea participated in the study at the end of the 2020 spring semester. Data collected from a self-report questionnaire were analyzed using SPSS. Regression analyses revealed two findings. First, the participants with higher states of mindfulness tended to read English with less anxiety. Second, the students who exhibited higher states of mindfulness had greater self-efficacy than those with lower states of mindfulness. Hence, EFL college students’ state of mindfulness can affect their reading anxiety and self-efficacy related to L2 reading. Pedagogical implications as well as directions for future research are provided.

Reading Rate of Academic English Texts: Comparing L1 and Advanced L2 Users in Different Language Environments

Slower reading in a second language (L2) has been attributed to lower proficiency and/or to slower language processing. This study investigates the role of linguistic context in L1 and L2 academic reading speed among 295 undergraduate Psychology students who all read English language texts at university. The aim was to compare academic reading among students in a predominantly English-speaking environment (the UK) with those in a parallel language context where both English and the local language are used in teaching (Norway). Three groups were tested: Norwegian students in Norway, and both L1 and L2 English-users in the UK. Participants completed a timed academic reading task, followed by comprehension questions. Although all three groups achieved similar mean scores on the comprehension questions, the L1 and L2 English-speaking students in the UK read the text significantly faster than the Norwegian students. There was no significant difference between reading times for the L1 and L2 readers in the UK, indicating that the difference was not simply a consequence of L2 reading. Additionally, in contrast to previous research on groups with lower L2 proficiency, this study found no significant association between reported extramural English exposure and reading speed in either L2 group. The results indicate that advanced L2 readers in a parallel language environment may need more time to read academic texts in L2 compared to L1 readers and L2 readers in an immersion context, which has implications for the time and support needed by these students.

Contributions of Motivation to Read in L2, Proficiency and L1 Reading Strategy Awareness to L2 Reading

L2 learners, when reading in L2 have access to their L1 literacy as a repertoire of reading strategy in L1. The main purpose of this study was to investigate to what extent awareness of reading strategies in L1 (strategy) and general proficiency in L2 (proficiency) contribute to reading comprehension ability in L2 (reading) and how it would differ among Iranian EFL learners with different degrees of motivation to read in L2 (motivation). To this purpose, a reading strategy inventory assessing strategic reading behavior in L1, a test of general English proficiency, a reading comprehension test in L2, and a motivation to read questionnaire in L2 were distributed among 289 university students selected conveniently at a Teacher Education University. To gain a deeper insight into the issue, a structured interview was also devised with thirty purposively selected participants subsequent to quantitative analysis of the data. Pearson correlation and Regression analysis as well as a two-way ANOVA were used to analyze the collected data. The results showed that proficiency accounted much more strongly for the participants' reading score variance than strategy and motivation. Additionally, it was found that strategy and motivation contributed nearly similarly to reading, showing that motivation is fairly as important as strategy in predicting reading. It was also found that the role of proficiency in the participants with low and high levels of motivation was significant. When motivation is high or low, proficiency has strong effects on reading. When strategy is low, motivation has strong effect on reading and when proficiency is medium, strategy has a strong effect on reading. This study has implications for EFL classroom practitioners and L2 pedagogy to adjust instruction to individual learner profiles.

Becoming Native-Like for Good or Ill: Online and Offline Processing of Case Forms in L2 Russian.

One of the central questions in second language processing studies is whether native (L1) and second language (L2) readers process sentences relying on the same mechanisms or there are qualitative differences. As their proficiency grows, L2 readers become more efficient, but it is difficult to determine whether they develop native-like mechanisms or rely on different strategies. Our study contributes to this debate by focusing on constructions that were demonstrated to cause characteristic problems in L1 processing: a particular type of case errors in Russian was taken as an example. We investigated how beginner and intermediate learners of Russian process such errors, measuring reading times and grammaticality judgment accuracy. At the beginner level, we found non-native-like patterns both in online and in offline measures. But at the intermediate level, native-like problems emerged in offline measures. In our view, this is a strong indication that these readers are using the same underlying mechanisms as in L1 processing. In online measures, L2 readers at both levels were, in general, much slower than native participants and exhibited characteristic non-native-like patterns, which we explained by delayed morphosyntactic processing. We conclude that our results are compatible with approaches, assuming that the mechanisms for L1 and advanced L2 processing are the same, but L2 processing is more cognitively demanding and therefore slower.

Exploring the relationships among cognitive and linguistic resources, writing processes, and written products in second language writing

Writing is a function of cognitive and linguistic resources and the writing processes. However, links between cognitive and linguistic resources and the writing process in second language (L2) writing are not well understood nor are their interactions with written products. This study examines the relationships among cognitive and linguistic resources (e.g., attention, working memory, L2 vocabulary knowledge, general knowledge, and L2 reading skills), writing processes (e.g., mean P-burst lengths [mean characters produced between pauses] and mean pause times), and written products (e.g., words per minute, text length, and text quality) in L2 writing. Participants were 100 L2 English learners in a US university. Path analyses showed that greater L2-literacy-related resources (vocabulary, reading, and general knowledge) were positively related to longer essays and high-rated essays. Findings also showed that greater attentional capacity and L2-literacy-related resources predicted shorter mean pause times, which in turn predicted longer essays and higher scoring essays. Furthermore, working memory had positive effects on L2-literacy-related resources, which in turn predicted longer and higher-rated essays. Lastly, P-burst length was related only to the number of words per minute. Overall, this study revealed more nuanced relationships among cognitive and linguistic resources, writing processes, and writing products in undergraduate L2 writing.

The Important Role of Extensive Reading Strategy in Indonesian EFL Learning Contexts

Abstract
 
 Academic literacy is one of the paramount global competencies that should be mastered by worldwide university academicians including Indonesian EFL learners. To fully fulfill this holistic educational objectivity, extensive reading plays a key role in fostering overarching Indonesian EFL learners’ target language proficiency due to the inducement of pleasurable, continual, and stress-free L2 reading learning dynamics proffered by this student-centered learning approach. Furthermore, the researcher attempted to delve more profoundly regarding the important role of extensive reading strategy in Indonesian EFL learning contexts. This present qualitative study harnessed a document analysis approach to yield renewable insights for Indonesian EFL experts, practitioners, researchers, and educators concerning the influential impacts potentially promoted by extensive reading strategy implementations. The research results indicated that the inducement of contextual and continual extensive reading activities had successfully improved EFL learners’ L2 reading interest and competencies. Future researchers are advocated to conduct a more exhaustive document analysis on the contrary beliefs and perilous effects generated by extensive reading approach to better impart more appropriate extensive reading programs applicable for Indonesian EFL learners’ reading needs, interests, and levels. 
 
 Keywords: document analysis, extensive reading strategy, Indonesian EFL learning contexts

Eye-tracking in Second Language Reading

In this study eye tracking software was used to analyse the ways in which university students, adult competent speakers of English at C1 level, process information when reading texts in the target language, and which strategies they use in order to summarise a given text. Research results point to four different reading techniques used by the participants in the study: partly selective fast linear, partly selective slow linear, selective structural and nonselective reading strategies. In comparison with previous research with reading tasks in L1, results show that readers take more time when reading in L2. In addition, there is a need for skill enhancement for the purpose of improved text structuring in reading tasks in the English language.

Identification and Characteristics of Strong, Average, and Weak Foreign Language Readers: The Simple View of Reading Model

AbstractThe simple view of reading (SVR) model proposes that reading comprehension is the product of cognitive domain skills, word decoding, and oral language (linguistic) comprehension, and that decoding and language comprehension make separate, independent contributions to reading comprehension. The SVR has been supported in both first (L1) and second language (L2) reading research as a viable model to explain more and less successful reading acquisition and to recommend instructional intervention. This article reviews L1 and L2 reading research that supports the SVR and explains how the model can be used to assess foreign language (FL) reading skills, identify strong and weak FL readers, and identify FL readers’ strengths and weaknesses. Specific examples of standardized cognitive and linguistic measures for English and Spanish used to assess word decoding and language comprehension skills are cited. Implications of the SVR model for assessment and pedagogy are discussed.

The missing-VP effect in readers of English as a second language

English sentences with double center-embedded clauses are read faster when they are made ungrammatical by removing one of the required verb phrases. This phenomenon is known as the missing-VP effect. German and Dutch speakers do not experience the missing-VP effect when reading their native language, but they do when reading English as a second language (L2). We investigate whether the missing-VP effect when reading L2 English occurs in native Dutch speakers because their knowledge of English is similar to that of native English speakers (the high exposure account), or because of the difficulty of L2 reading (the low proficiency account). In an eye-tracking study, we compare the size of the missing-VP effect between native Dutch and native English participants, and across native Dutch participants with varying L2 English proficiency and exposure. Results provide evidence for both accounts, suggesting that both native-like knowledge of English and L2 reading difficulty play a role.

Eye-tracking as a window into assembled phonology in native and non-native reading

Abstract The past 30 years of reading research has confirmed the importance of bottom-up processing. Rather than a psycholinguistic guessing game (Goodman, 1967), reading is dependent on rapid, accurate recognition of written forms. In fluent first language (L1) readers, this is seen in the automatic activation of a word’s phonological form, impacting lexical processing (Perfetti & Bell, 1991; Rayner, Sereno, Lesch & Pollatsek, 1995). Although the influence of phonological form is well established, less clear is the extent to which readers are sensitive to the possible pronunciations of a word (Lesch & Pollatsek, 1998), derived from the varying consistency of grapheme-to-phoneme correspondences (GPCs) (e.g., although ‘great’ has only one pronunciation, [ɡɹeɪt], the grapheme <ea> within it has multiple possible pronunciations: [i] in [plit] ‘pleat’, [ɛ] in [bɹɛθ] ‘breath’; Parkin, 1982). Further, little is known about non-native readers’ sensitivity to such characteristics. Non-native readers process text differently from L1 readers (Koda & Zehler, 2008; McBride-Chang, Bialystok, Chong & Li, 2004), with implications for understanding L2 reading comprehension (Rayner, Chace, Slattery & Ashby, 2006). The goal of this study was thus to determine whether native and non-native readers are sensitive to the consistency of a word’s component GPCs during lexical processing and to compare this sensitivity among readers from different L1s.

Improving second language reading comprehension through reading strategies

AbstractEffective readers consciously or unconsciously use reading strategies to help them process information on what they read. All readers can benefit from reading strategy instruction but, empirical research on which strategies are effective is lacking. Less is known about reading strategy effectiveness in a second language (L2). This meta-analysis of 46 L2 reading strategy studies analysed ten reading strategies, also in combination with a range of pedagogical approaches, and found an overall mean effect size of0.91,underscoring the benefits of multi strategy teaching. Effect sizes were calculated for each strategy, as well as the combination of strategy with approach, instructor type, intervention duration and type of test used. Some strategies were more effective than others. Also, differences in effect sizes are dependent on the approach used. Some pedagogical approaches are effective for some strategies but not with all. We recommend further research in L2 reading strategy interventions and instruction.

The Role of Meta-cognitive Strategy in L2 Reading

The Role of Meta-cognitive Strategy in L2 Reading

Effects of L1 Single and Multiple-Choice Glosses in L2 Reading on Incidental Vocabulary Learning

Effects of L1 Single and Multiple-Choice Glosses in L2 Reading on Incidental Vocabulary Learning

The Role of Accessibility of Word Knowledge in L2 Reading Comprehension

Researchers have investigated that different dimensions of word knowledge may play distinct roles in second language reading comprehension. Yet, little research has addressed how learners’ efficiency of accessing those dimensions of knowledge functions in their comprehension. To fill the gap, the present study conceptualized accessibility of word knowledge (the efficiency of activating word knowledge) and examined its role in reading comprehension in relation to availability of word knowledge (having the knowledge itself) in Korean EFL context. A total of 115 11th grade students in a girls’ high-school participated in the study, and their different dimensions of word knowledge and reading comprehension were measured. A series of hierarchical multiple regressions were performed for the analyses. The key findings indicated that accessibility of word knowledge made a unique significant contribution to reading comprehension over and above availability of knowledge and self-reported English proficiency. In addition, participants’ accessibility of knowledge of word meaning relations had stronger predictive power than accessibility of knowledge of word meanings in explaining reading comprehension. Theoretical and pedagogical implications are discussed in relation to the findings.

The Contribution of Syntactic and Lexical Knowledge to Foreign Language Reading Comprehension

The current study was designed to identify the relative significance of syntactic and lexical knowledge in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) reading comprehension of 254 adult Turkish university students. The role of two dimensions of lexical knowledge, lexical depth and breadth in L2 reading comprehension were also examined in the current study. A Syntactic Knowledge Test (SKT), Reading Comprehension Test (RCT) composed of TOEFL, Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT) and Word Associates Test (WAT) were used in the data collection process. Correlation and multiple regression analyses were utilized to analyze the data. The data analyses showed that all variables of the study positively and significantly correlated with each other. Moreover, all independent variables together significantly predicted RCT scores of the participants. However, when each variable was examined separately, syntactic knowledge was the most contributive variable to L2 reading comprehension. Lexical breadth also significantly explained L2 reading comprehension of EFL learners. The unique contribution of lexical depth to L2 reading comprehension was very low and not significant. Moreover, the independent variables were also correlated with each other. The findings of the current study were compared with the previous findings, discussed and justified in accordance with them. Pedagogical implications were offered.

Verb bias and semantic persistence effects in L2 ambiguity resolution

To pinpoint difficulties in the second language (L2) processing of temporarily ambiguous sentences, this study investigates first language (L1) effects and effects of verb bias, i.e. frequency information about preferential verb complements, on semantic persistence effects in L2 sentence comprehension. We tested 32 L1 German and 32 L1 Turkish intermediate-to-advanced learners of L2 English as well as 17 English natives in eye-tracking during reading and off-line comprehension. In off-line comprehension, neither natives nor L2 learners show verb bias effects, suggesting that semantic persistence of initial misinterpretations arises independently of lexical preferences. In contrast, reading times show that all groups are immediately sensitive to verb bias on-line, with L1 differences in how strongly verb bias affects garden-pathing. Unlike natives, however, L2 learners do not use verb bias to overcome semantic persistence to complete reanalysis in later segments of the sentence. We argue that, in spite of their initial sensitivity to verb bias in modulating garden paths, L2 readers suffer from processing limitations that constrain their ability to retrieve and integrate multiple sources of information for reanalysis. Our study confirms that reanalysis constitutes a key area of native versus non-native differences in L2 sentence processing.

Tertiary Level Saudi EFL Learners’ Reading Strategies in Relation to Gender and Proficiency

This research addressed some current issues in L2 reading strategy research (the nature of any gender effect, and the use of multiple data gathering instruments) as well as an important problem at tertiary level in Saudi Arabia (low English reading proficiency). It examined which reading strategies were most widely reported by 120 Saudi EFL intensive English course students in a Saudi state university. Two different methods were used to collect data. First a 5-point Likert-scale questionnaire composed of 30 items, chosen based on a preliminary study, was administered to the students. Think-Aloud Protocols (TAP) were then elicited from 14 of the male students while they performed a reading rask. Reading strategies from both sources were analyzed over three phases – pre-reading, while-reading, and post-reading. The results of the TAP analysis revealed that 19 different strategies were used, mostly by more proficient readers. The students’ questionnaire responses showed that there were many significant differences based on student proficiency level, where more proficient students reported using more strategies than less proficient ones, especially top own ones, but few by gender, where females significantly outdid males in a few instances only. There was some evidence for an unanticipated reading purpose effect associated with the two instruments. The implication for contexts like that in Saudi Arabia is that more student training in carefully selected reading strategies is needed.