This evaluation report examines extensive reading (ER) speed and words read by students at a Japanese university using a digital ER platform called Xreading and compares them to standardized test reading performance using the International English Language Testing System (IELTS). The study focuses on first- and second-year students who…

This study investigated college Chinese a second language learners' word segmentation error patterns in reading instructional-level Chinese sentences, the relationship between word segmentation errors and reading comprehension, and learners' perspectives on the role of word segmentation in reading comprehension. The results showed that the…

This study used eye-tracking to investigate the real-time processing of phonetic and semantic radicals (components of Chinese characters that give clues to their pronunciation and meaning) by intermediate-level university Chinese foreign language (CFL) learners. Additionally, the study examined how knowledge and awareness of radicals affect…

Academic reading in English requires processing of challenging advanced texts for comprehension. Highly proficient second language (L2) readers, such as graduate students, are expected to interpret complex texts fluently and efficiently for academic success, yet the field has little evidence on how these readers process texts. Through two…

Background/purpose: This study aims to examine the implementation of structured reading strategies through the Reader Response Approach (RRA) in an online EFL reading class to enhance students' reading comprehension and critical engagement with literary texts. Responding to a text allows readers to deepen their understanding, articulate personal…

The present study used a repetition priming paradigm to investigate the basic morphological units stored in mental lexicon for Chinese as second language learners (L2) and Chinese native speakers (L1). Meanwhile, the modulation of Chinese morpheme property (bound or free) in lexical processing was examined. The results revealed that for…

With the aim of investigating effective approaches to extensive reading in Thailand, this study examined the vocabulary uptake and retention rate from reading 350 headwords graded reader. To determine the effects of reading a graded reader on students' vocabulary knowledge and retention, 20 words within four bands of different frequencies of…

This study examined how Chinese native speakers (NSs) and second language (L2) learners process compound words. The findings showed that they used the hybrid model of coexistence for whole word and morphemes; and were influenced by word frequency, semantic transparency, and word structure. The results revealed that two groups of participants used…

Research shows that meaning-focused reading offers opportunities for incidental grammar acquisition. However, the number of such studies remains limited and none have examined the role of both in-text encounters with grammar structures and reading comprehension in this learning. The present study filled these gaps. Employing a between-group,…

This study uses a cognitive diagnosis model (CDM) approach to investigate the associations among specific L2 reading subskills. Participants include 1,203 Year-4 English major college students randomly selected from the nationwide test takers of Band 8 of Test for English Majors (TEM8), a large-scale English proficiency test for senior English…

With the growing interest in integrating information and communication technology in the EFL classroom, the present study investigated the impact of electronic first language (L1) translations and second language (L2) definition glosses on incidental vocabulary learning and retention among Moroccan EFL learners. In total, 172 first-year university…

Past work has suggested that L1 readers retrieve idioms (i.e., "spill the tea") directly vs. matched literal controls ("drink the tea") following unbiased contexts, whereas L2 readers process idioms more compositionally. However, it is unclear whether this occurs when a figuratively or literally biased context…

Previous research has documented that students' reading comprehension performance in learning English as a foreign language (EFL) differs greatly between mobile-assisted and paper-based reading. The present study extends previous work by investigating whether reading cognitive load differs between mobile-assisted and paper-based EFL reading…

Readers should construct a coherent discourse during reading comprehension. The ability to build coherence has been examined using coherence and cohesion judgment tasks. Although eye-tracking studies have been conducted on building coherence or processing cohesion among native language users, few such studies have been conducted with second…

Learning new words is fundamental in both first and second-language reading. There are, however, divided opinions on the best instructional approaches. Two widely used approaches across languages are whole-word focus and word-constituent focus. The appropriateness of each approach has varied historically, even within a single language (e.g., the…