Facilitating anxiety in second language (L2) learning research has not been thoroughly discussed for both methodological and conceptual reasons. This trend is also evident in the field of L2 reading, where reading anxiety has been viewed as a negative force. This study takes the initial step to explore the nature of facilitating anxiety in L2…

This study explored the diverse responses of Japanese university-level learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) to lexically easy short poems. These participants had attained a high level of English proficiency and were able to grasp the literal meaning of the poems. The investigation employed confidence level and reading time as…

The current study was set to explore the influence of the first (L1) and second (L2) language group discussions on L2 reading comprehension. It also explored two sub-elements that were considered vital to L2 reading comprehension: (a) text genre recognition and (b) character and author's intention and perspective. Participants were 21 college…

While the effect of reading strategies on L2 test performance has been extensively researched, the effect of test-taking strategies remains underexplored, with mixed results due to varying contextual factors. This study, therefore, investigated the latent structure of test-taking strategies and the relationships among test-taking strategies,…

Strategic reading is an important consideration in the L2 reading classroom. This study investigated the effects of a Chinese as a Second Language (CSL) strategies-based reading instruction program, in which participants were explicitly taught ten top-down reading strategies. Thirty-four students enrolled in an advanced-level Chinese class…

Studies of lexical coverage are valuable because they reveal the importance of vocabulary knowledge to comprehension. Lexical profiling research is also extremely useful because it indicates the vocabulary knowledge necessary to understand different text types such as novels, newspapers, academic lectures, television programs, and movies.…

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…

The undeniable importance of reading in higher education prompted this investigation into the reading skills of a group often overlooked in previous research: master's level students studying in English-medium instruction (EMI) environments. Participants (148 master's-level students of engineering) completed the Nelson-Denny Reading Test (Form G),…

This research compared the contributions of lexical inferencing, decoding, and listening comprehension to reading comprehension in Chinese-speaking learners of English as a second language (ESL) enrolled in university bridging programs in the U.S. and Chinese-speaking university learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) in mainland China.…

This study explored the lexical coverage of corpus-based vocabulary lists (general, academic, and content-specific) across several million tokens gathered from digital science resources (DSR) for middle school (6-8 grade) students in the United States. The goal was to estimate the extent to which a combination of well-known word lists, mostly…

High-stakes reading tests significantly influence one's future success, leading many second language learners to engage in intensive test preparation. This study examines nine TOEFL reading preparation lectures from two popular cram schools, or [foreign characters omitted] "hagwons," in Korea, with a total duration of five hours and…

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 research presents a novel reading fluency (rf) measurement formula that accounts for both reading rate and comprehension. Possible formulas were investigated with 68 participants in a strategic reading course in an IEP at a small Pacific Island university. The selected formula's scores demonstrated concurrent validity through strong…

L2 extensive reading (ER) research primarily studies intermediate and upper-intermediate learners, but few studies investigate beginners. This study addresses this gap by reporting on beginner Japanese as Foreign Language (JFL) learners' attempts to do ER according to Waring and McLean's (2015) ER principles. In this study, 13 second-semester…

The effects of extensive, timed, and repeated oral reading on 101 lower-intermediate Japanese university L2 English learners' reading rates and comprehension were investigated over one academic year. The participants were divided into four quasiexperimental groups: (a) Group 1 did extensive, timed, and repeated oral reading with prosody and…