In this study, two alternative theoretical models were compared, in order to analyze which of them best explains primary school children's text comprehension skills. The first one was based on the distinction between two types of answers requested by the comprehension test: local or global. The second model involved texts' input modality: written…

Questions the plausibility of the unitary competence hypothesis, which assumes a universal structure of second language competence. New evidence, showing divergent structures in language ability subgroups and different influences of teaching styles on different language components, better supports a multidimensional model of foreign language…