Lower-intermediate learners of English as a second language improve reading recall through use of text structure strategy (original) (raw)
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The Language Learning Journal, 2013
The goal of the present study was to examine the efficacy of learning a text structure strategy (TSS) for improving reading comprehension and recall for second language (L2) learners, as well as to test for transfer of the strategy to the native language (L1). University L2 learners of English completed a five-session course on using the TSS to improve recall and comprehension of expository texts. All instructions and materials were in English, the L2. As part of learning the structure strategy, participants practiced identifying key words that signal the structure of text being read (called 'signal words'). At no point were these signal words ever translated into Spanish (L1) for the participants. At pre-test and post-test participants read and recalled two texts, one in Spanish and the other in English, while underlining areas of text that they deemed important. After completing strategy instruction, participants made significant gains in their ability to recall information from text in both English and Spanish, despite the fact that all instructions and practice were in English only. Analyses of underlining revealed an overall decrease in use of underlining at post-test for both English and Spanish texts, coupled with an increased tendency to underline signal words in both texts. Together the increases in recall and detection of signal words across languages indicate automatic transfer of the strategy across the learners' two languages.
This study examined the effect of reading goal, topic-familiarity, and language proficiency on text comprehension and learning. English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) students with high and low topic-familiarity read and recalled a text. Some were told in advance to expect a recall task in a particular language—the first language (L1) or second language (L2)—and recalled in the same language (the L1-L1 condition and the L2-L2 condition). Others were told of the L1 recall before reading and later recalled in the L2 (the L1-L2 condition). It was found that content recall was enhanced in the L1-L1 condition whereas incidental vocabulary learning benefited from the L2-L2 condition. Language proficiency affected overall content recall while topic-familiarity facilitated processing of specific content information. These findings suggest that reading goal affects resource allocation during text processing, with topic-familiarity and language proficiency intervening additively. Reading a text ...
Language Learning, 1993
This study assessed the role that structural properties of texts play in the mental representations of second-language (L2) readers. In particular, we investigated the extent to which 47 L2 readers of English used structural properties of a text (causal factors, story-grammar category, and hierarchical level) to "fill in" gaps in their mental representations. L2 readers' recall protocols of narrative texts were analyzed and compared with those of 72 L1 readers of English using two scoring criteria: meaning-preserving and structure-preserving. The first credits information that is either verbatim or a close paraphrase of the original textual information; the second credits information that fulfills the same structural function as the original text unit. We found that L2 readers'
Sentence Reading and Writing for Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition
This study compares the relative effectiveness of reading and writing sentences for the incidental acquisition of new vocabulary in a second language. It also examines if recall varies according to the concreteness of target words. Participants were 203 French-speaking intermediate and advanced English as second language (ESL) learners, tested for incidental acquisition of 16 rare concrete, or abstract L2 words. Immediate and delayed cued recall was used to assess acquisition. Results from immediate recall show superior recall for writing tasks over reading tasks, and for concrete words over abstract words. However, delayed recall scores suggest that this superiority disappears over time.
Reading Strategies and Reading Fluency: A Case Study of Reading in First or Second Language
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The ability to read in second or foreign language (L2/FL) is a vital skill for academic and autonomous language learning. This study investigates the reading performance of two TEFL students from different language backgrounds on two English texts and their equivalent Persian translations comparing their reading rate and comprehension in L1 and L2. A combination of think-aloud protocol, interview and observation methods was used in order to figure out the reading strategies used by each participant in the process of reading and comprehending each text. First, participants were asked to model the steps of their thinking when reading the same text and to discuss what strategies and process they went through while interacting with the passage. Then, they were asked to respond some questions at the end of each reading passage. Last, an interview about their reading experiences and strategies is conducted. Findings of collected data from multiple sources were examined in the sense that t...
Improving L2 reading and summarizing skills through explicit instruction in text structure
Vial Vigo International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 2006
This study investigates whether teaching text structure as a post-reading and pre-writing strategy results in improved reading comprehension. First-year college students (n=41) from two intact English One classes participated in the study, with the experimental group receiving strategy training exercises. Independent raters rated the students' summaries and the scores of the two groups were compared by means of t-tests. The results show that the post-test summaries of the experimental group were rated significantly higher, while no change was observed in those of the control group. This suggests that teaching outlining and raising L2 learners' awareness of text structure results in improved comprehension and more detailed and organized summaries.