The practice of extensive reading (ER) is widely recognised as an effective approach to language acquisition, facilitating vocabulary expansion, text comprehension, and reading fluency. This study examines the role of ER in enhancing these aspects, offering a structured analysis of its impact on language learning. Drawing upon Krashen's Input…

Anaphoric expressions such as repeated names, overt pronouns, and null pronouns serve a major role in the creation and maintenance of discourse coherence. The felicitous use of an anaphoric expression is highly dependent on the discourse salience of the entity introduced by the antecedent. Gordon et al. ("Cogn Sci" 17:311-347, 1993)…

Reviews recent trends in composition research. Suggests that the apparently divergent directions of study reflect a new interest in writing as a process rather than as a product, and in reading as a response to or re-creation of the text rather than a passive acceptance of textual information. (MM)

Readers cannot profitably be studied without some assessment of the texts they read. Analyses of texts, however, are of doubtful value unless tested against readers' behavior. Despite the relative neglect of text in research on reading, numerous approaches to the analysis of text have been proposed. The developments within linguistics and the…

Summarizes Huey's and Vygotsky's characterization of inner speech and posits that Vygotsky's description of the inner speech process is optimal for explaining the role of oral language in the reading process despite objections from psycholinguists regarding the disparity of speech between silent and oral reading. (FL)

Reviews the notion of communicative competence in light of its relevance for issues in literacy and the teaching of reading. Defines four components of communicative competence, i.e., grammatical, sociolinguistic, discourse, and strategic competence. Discusses their role in the reading process in light of linguistic theory and classroom research.…

Recent research on Chinese orthography is reviewed in a discussion of the relationship between orthographic symbols and reading processes. Specifically, these issues are addressed with relation to research findings: the difficulty of learning Chinese logographs, particularly with regard to learning disabilities and biliteracy; whether reading in…

An approach to reading instruction based on a socio-psycholinguistic theory of the language learning process is presented in this book. Chapter 1 provides an overview of oral and written language development; identifies language processes, language systems, and cultural setting; and describes a socio-psycholinguistic model of language learning and…

Reading is a multileveled, interactive, and hypothesis-generating process in which readers construct a meaningful representation of text by using their knowledge of the world and of language. Reviewing research on the reading process, it is clear that context, script (a form of general event representation derived from and applied to social…

Concerned with what can be done to help produce more thoughtful, critical readers, this report first presents an historical overview of theories on the origin of language, referring to B. F. Skinner, Noam Chomsky, and Jean Piaget, among others. It then discusses biological reasons for the evolution of language and the impact of verbal language on…