This study considers the relative benefits for vocabulary learning of exposure to two types of texts--literary or nonliterary--used with two teaching approaches. These approaches were termed "functional and creative", respectively. In the former, learners' attention was drawn to factual information and linguistic features in order to…

Comprehension of many types of texts involves constructing meaning from text and pictures. However, research examining how second language (L2) learners process text and pictures and the relationship with comprehension is scarce. Thus, while verbal input is often presented in written and auditory modes simultaneously (i.e., audio of text with…

This study examined the relationship between lexical coverage (i.e., the percentage of known word tokens in a text) and second language (L2) reading comprehension. Several studies have suggested that adequate comprehension occurs between 95% and 98% coverage, but no study has investigated beginning-level learners reading under the conditions of…

In studying the relationship between word recognition and reading development, a distinction is made between analytic and holistic processing of words. These strategies are often assessed in a length effect in an alphabetic language or in a stroke-number effect in a logographic language. Analytical processing is associated with a robust length or…

The present study investigated the role of Arabic diacritics in word recognition and their impact on Arabic L2 learners' reading speed, accuracy, and comprehension at different stages of Arabic L2 acquisition. Fifty-four English L2 learners of Arabic from 3 proficiency levels (beginner, intermediate, and advanced) participated in the study. They…

Reading in a foreign language has value for learners as a potentially rich source of input as well as enjoyment. It requires persistence, however. Within models of self-regulated learning, persistence relates to learners' self-efficacy and use of strategies to aid task completion and regulation of engagement. Yet the relationship between…

The article introduces triangulation to converge evidence from corpus and experimental data, by means of two case studies in second language (L2) learners of Greek. The first case study investigates the acquisition of gender agreement, while the second probes the development of relative clauses. In both studies, findings from the corpus are tested…

The adjustment of syntactic and phraseological complexity is a key consideration in text adaptation. However, research on this topic in the context of Chinese as a second language (CSL) remains limited. Using 700 CSL reading texts graded following the newly issued Chinese Proficiency Grading Standards for International Chinese Language Education,…

This study examined how mode of input affects the learning of pronunciation and form-meaning connection of second language (L2) words. Seventy-five Japanese learners of English were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 conditions (reading while listening, reading only, listening only), studied 40 low-frequency words while viewing their corresponding…

Although most children learn to communicate in their first language (L1), there is normal and expected variation in their rate of acquisition across all components of the language system. Until recently, most second language acquisition and second language (L2) researchers have assumed that individual differences (IDs) in L1 acquisition are small…

An extensive body of research has investigated the role of syntactic complexity in gauging the linguistic complexity of reading texts, particularly for the purpose of determining their grade appropriateness. However, little such research has focused on adapted teaching materials for English as a foreign language (EFL) contexts, and to date there…

This study aimed to examine how second language (L2) readers process and comprehend paired sentences based on the causal and semantic relatedness of the sentences. Causal relatedness refers to the cause-and-effect relations between the events described, whereas semantic relatedness refers to the similarity of meaning conveyed by the sentences. In…

This study examined the similarities and differences in the functioning of component processes underlying first language (L1) and second language (L2) word reading in Chinese. Fourth-grade Chinese children in Singapore were divided into L1 and L2 reader groups based on whether they used Mandarin or English as their home language. Both groups were…

Over the past decade, second language (L2) humor has attracted scholarly attention as both a means and a goal of L2 development. Much of this research, however, has focused on oral communication, whereas virtually no studies address humor as an aspect of reading comprehension. This exploratory study combines these two areas of inquiry, examining…

This study examined the contributions of morphological awareness (MA) to second language (L2) word meaning inferencing in English-speaking adult learners of Chinese (N = 50). Three research questions were posed: Are L2 learners sensitive to the morphological structure of unknown multi-character words? Does first language (L1) MA contribute to L2…