Determines that the complexity of syntax does not significantly affect reading comprehension of native and non-native English speakers when reading technical writing. Finds no significant differences between subgroups reading an authentic computer science text and those reading a syntactically adapted text, either in comprehension or in speed. (MG)

Forty-eight American (L1) and 48 Dutch students (L2), half of whom had computer science backgrounds and half of whom did not, were tested for their use of either scientific text (ST) syntactic structures or the less difficult common syntax when writing technical discourse (in Appendix). Results indicate that both L1 and L2 technical writers wrote…