Orthographic knowledge (i.e., the knowledge of conventions of a written language) has been identified as a predictor of both basic and higher-level reading processes, however, mostly examined in a cross-sectional design. It remains unclear, whether and how orthographic knowledge contributes uniquely in explaining differences in the acquisition of…

Background: German is exceptional in its use of noun capitalisation. It has been suggested that sentence-internal capitalisation as in German may benefit processing by specifically marking a noun and thus a noun phrase (NP). However, other cues, such as a determiner, can also indicate an NP. The influence of capitalisation on processing may thus…

Despite the preponderance of research on extensive reading (ER), the research field still suffers from a lack of common understanding of what ER is and how it should be implemented. From the perspective of Day and Bamford's (2002) seminal ten principles for teaching ER, the present methodological synthesis aimed to systematically review and…

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…

A discussion of second language reading instruction to develop language proficiency examines the concept of reading proficiency, the reading processes used by native speakers and language learners, the importance of top-down and bottom-up reading, activating predicting and projecting skills, the difference between reading at the peak of one's…