The constructive feedback on the author's article has helped him to expand his knowledge on the topic. He would like to clarify here that the purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of extensive reading on the development of Japanese high school learners' linguistic knowledge and reading abilities. The findings revealed that the…

Second language (L2) learners comprehend more when they are prepared for novel vocabulary that they encounter in a text. Input-based incremental (IBI) vocabulary instruction (Barcroft, 2012) provides L2 instructors and learners with a means of achieving this goal by (a) presenting optimal input to learners at the right time during a…

The paper "The influence of translation on reading amount, proficiency, and speed in extensive reading" (Sakurai, 2015) outlined the first six years of the official English education system and policy in Japan. It then discussed the efficacy of extensive reading (ER) followed by a distinction between reading and translation. Previous…

An adaptation of the traditional literary concept of close reading was developed for use in a largely multilingual classroom in which both first language (L1) and second language (L2) students were struggling to comprehend theoretical, lexically dense texts in English. This simplified method of reading a text iteratively and critically is proving…

This feature offers an archive of articles and books published in other venues during the past year and serves as a valuable tool to readers of "Reading in a Foreign Language" ("RFL"). It treats any topic within the scope of "RFL" and second language reading. The articles are listed in alphabetical order by author,…

Paul Nation's talents and interests extend well beyond vocabulary to include research on speaking, writing, classroom learning and teaching, reading, and fluency. In keeping with Nation's interests in fluency, extensive reading, and reading instruction, I outline current perspectives on reading fluency and its role as a key component of reading…

Describes how the use of the dialogue journal, a long-term written conversation between student and teacher, can improve cultural understanding on the part of English-as-a-Second-Language students who are reading English texts that require knowledge of American cultural norms. (Author/CB)

Argues that second-language reading comprehension and its assessment can be usefully divided into two aspects: (1) comprehensions (different levels of comprehension the reader adopts to suit different purposes of reading); and (2) interpretations (different readings of the same text resulting from different background knowledge or preoccupations…

Discusses the role of Finnish in the learning/reading process for English as a second language, focusing on the problems that the learning of nonfinite and verbless clauses pose to Finnish speakers. (Author/CB)

Describes exploratory classroom research with a group of Italian university students to gain insight into the effect of metadiscourse on English for specific purposes reading comprehension. Findings suggest that a more pronounced use of metadiscourse may be associated with improved comprehension in some cases. (Author/VWL)

Describes an exploratory study which examines the differences and similarities in the way native and nonnative speakers of English process complete texts and also examines the possible uses of a macro-textual approach in the teaching of foreign language reading. (SL)

Reports on research which analyzes writers' lexical familiarization devices, as well as the teaching of specialist vocabulary recognition and recognition strategies. Argues that current views of foreign language teaching do not take sufficient account of the development/recognition distinction in the field of specialist terminology. (SL)

Describes an experiment in which rhetorically different texts, with identical subject matter were read by 490 Hong Kong Chinese school children, studying in English as a Second Language. Comprehension was measured by a cloze procedure and by recall protocols. Results showed a clear difference in comprehension between the text types and suggests…

Discusses the need for reader orientation to the text and procedures for working through discourse to encourage selection and organization of main ideas. Students can summarize more effectively if they process and reformulate the text first. Sample text and student summmaries are appended. (Author/LMO)