A study investigated whether adult anglophone readers of French could be taught to use the organizational patterns (top-level structures, or TLSs) in expository text and whether they could then use this knowledge (the structure strategy) to facilitate reading comprehension as measured quantitatively through immediate free recall. Subjects were 43…

A guide for teachers of second language reading offers ideas for using authentic texts as instructional materials. The guide focuses on how to teach students to become strategic readers and use their background knowledge to enhance comprehension. Schema theory is proposed as a framework for approaching reading tasks, by providing relevant pre- and…

A semantic-relatedness test and a cloze-type/sentence-completion test compared meanings ascribed to spatial prepositions by adult native English and advanced English-as-a-second-language speakers. Non-native speakers differed from native speakers in the semantic boundaries ascribed to the words, with the differences deriving from weighting…

Study of the reading achievement of nonnative speakers of English enrolled in a basic skills college reading course indicated that those students receiving computer-assisted instruction (CAI) made higher reading achievement gains than students not receiving CAI. An annotated list of CAI reading software is included. (CB)

Investigation of the relevance of student background discipline (185 college students studying science and technology, biology, and humanities and social science) on tests of reading comprehension in English as a foreign language found that content area passages do affect student performance on reading comprehension tests but not as greatly as…

Considers current research on reading in a second language from five points of view: (1) the reader's role in light of new models of language and textual meaning; (2) revised definitions of textual meaning and reader processing; (3) reader processing of schemata; (4) relationship between second-language competency and reader strategies; and (5)…

Shows that native-speaking Arabic readers produce search functions that are radically different from the search functions of readers whose script uses the Roman alphabet (RAs). The processes used by Arabic readers are more akin to the processes used by RAs when searching arrays of shapes. (Author/LMO)

Addresses questions concerning reading in a foreign language, including: (1) Do reading strategies transfer from native language to second language?; (2) Can reading strategies be successfully taught?; and (3) If a strategies-oriented approach to reading were to be developed, what basic considerations should be included in the approach? (44…

Illustrates the comprehension-monitoring process used by first (L1) and second (L2) language readers of English as they read expository prose and compares the comprehension-monitoring strategies of L1 and L2 readers with respect to two problems: locating a referent and defining a vocabulary item. (59 references) (GLR)

Describes how to use a language-processing model to develop holistic reading strategies for college-level English-as-a-Second-Language students. The paper explains how to use an English reading processor, develop a supplementary reading program, access students' background knowledge, and find methods that work, noting that this model will nurture…

Reports on an attempt to compare two data-collecting instruments, Think-aloud Protocols and strategies questionnaires, applied to capture reading/writing strategies. Subjects were immigrant speakers of linguistically different heritage languages, Russian and Amharic first languages, and thus represented two ethnic groups, who went through the…

Scaffolded reading experiences provide a practical, research-based framework that teachers can use to support their English language learners. The Scaffolded Reading Experience framework consists of a set of Prue-, during-, and postreading activities to use with any genre of texts. Prereading strategies include building background knowledge,…

This article outlines an approach to explicit grammar instruction that uses literary texts as comprehensible, meaning-bearing input. In this approach, which employs strategies from the teaching of grammar and the teaching of reading, literary texts serve as the basis of the inductive presentation of new grammatical forms and as a springboard for…

Reading and understanding a text presents a variety of processing problems for L2 learners. The organizational pattern of a text has been considered by some researchers to have an important influence in this process. This article describes an experimental study of a group of Hong Kong schoolchildren and presents evidence that learners reading in…

In this article, the author talks about guided reading which she incorporated to second-language learners. First, she gives a brief description about guided reading and current myths about second-language learners. Then, she presents her goals whether she could integrate second-language learners into guided reading. She discusses what reading…