Challenges in reading Chinese as a foreign language involve the large proportion of two-character compound words which have complex intra-word morphological structures and scriptal distance between learner's native language (L1) and Chinese as a second or foreign language. This study extended a previous investigation on the processing of Chinese…

This study investigated preschoolers' knowledge of Chinese characters by testing character structures on four levels: radical (character components), whole characters, characters in words and characters in sentences. A total of 107 preschool children between the ages of three and six from four nursery schools in Taiwan participated in the study.…

This paper investigates the cognitive processes involved in English word recognition among young EFL learners using eye-tracking methodology. A quasi-experimental mixed method design was used to investigate how young L2 learners engage with basic words, with or without pictorial cues. A total of seventeen 6th-grade pupils from two schools…

Eye-tracking is primarily used as a tool to capture attentional processes in second language (L2) research. However, it is feasible to design visual displays that can react to and interact with eye-movements in technology-mediated contexts. We explored whether gaze-contingency can foster L2 development by drawing attention to novel words…

A fundamental skill required for vocabulary development is word recognition ability. According to Perfetti (1985), word recognition ability relies on low-level cognitive processing skill to be automatic and efficient in order for cognitive resources to be allocated to high-level processes such as inferencing and schemata activation needed for…

Recent studies have proposed developments to the Simple View of Reading to reflect reading development across age groups and differences among learner profiles and account for additional factors that explain reading comprehension performance beyond word recognition and language comprehension. One of these proposals is the inclusion of cognitive…

Research suggests that morphological awareness facilitates word decoding, improves lexical knowledge, and helps reading comprehension (Carlisle, 2010; Nagy et al., 2014; Verhoeven & Perfetti, 2011). The present study examined the relationship among morphological awareness, word recognition and reading comprehension in 153 second- and…

The current study investigated the effects of three forms of output activity on EFL learners' recognition and recall of second language (L2) vocabulary. To this end, three groups of learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) were instructed to employ the following three output activities after reading two narrative texts: (1) summarizing the…

This study compares the impact of second language (L2) reading and listening on the incidental acquisition and retention of five dimensions of vocabulary knowledge--spoken form, written form, part of speech, syntagmatic association, and form-meaning connection--at the level of recognition (form-meaning connection was measured also at the level of…

Because reading for meaning only can lead to low rates of second language (L2) vocabulary learning and because previous research has demonstrated the benefits of word retrieval opportunities for intentional L2 vocabulary learning (Barcroft, 2007; McNamara & Healy, 1995a, Experiment 2; Royer, 1973), the present study assessed the effect of…

The present study aims to investigate the role of extensive reading in the acquisition of implicit phonological knowledge. Through extensive exposure to print, L2 learners can improve their phonological processing skills, and this could contribute to their word recognition fluency. On the basis of the Oxford Placement Test, 30 9th graders and 30…

The present study investigated second language (L2) learners' acquisition of automatic word recognition and the development of L2 orthographic representation in the mental lexicon. Participants in the study were Japanese university students enrolled in a compulsory course involving a weekly 30-minute sustained silent reading (SSR) activity with…

The present study investigated the effect of form-focused and non-form-focused tasks on EFL learners' vocabulary learning through written input. The form-focused task aimed to draw students' attention to the word itself through word recognition activities. Non-form-focused tasks were divided into (a) the comprehension question task, which required…

Using a study of 30 Danish freshman college students' vocabularies as a springboard, this paper explores and discusses a number of current assumptions about vocabularies in the mother tongue and in foreign language pedagogics. The paper contends that it is logical to assume that vocabularies in reading are fluid and depend on the text read, on the…

Twenty English-Japanese bilingual subjects were given the following reading tasks: timed, silent reading of passages in English and Japanese followed by comprehension tests and recognition of tachistoscopic presentations of twenty words in each language. The amount of reading the subjects had done in English and Japanese was assessed in an…