Reading Comprehension and Second Language Development in a Comprehension-Based ESL Program

The Role of First Language Literacy and Second Language Proficiency in Second Language Reading Comprehension

This study examined the interrelationships of first language (L1) literacy, second language (L2) proficiency, and L2 reading comprehension with 246 Chinese college students learning English. L1 literacy and L2 proficiency were measured with college admission exams in Chinese and English. L2 reading comprehension was measured with the reading comprehension section of a TOEFL and a researcher-dev...

Second Language Comprehension:

Screening reading comprehension in adults : development and initial evaluation of a reading comprehension measure

Reading comprehension in adults is a rather neglected variable in the practice of psychological assessment. We propose a new screening instrument for adult reading comprehension based on a pragmatic definition of reading comprehension as the textual understanding of the text read. Using data from a calibration sample (n = 266) and a replication sample (n = 148) for cross-validation, we tested t...

Facilitating second language listening comprehension

This paper presents arguments for an emphasis on listening comprehension in language learning/teaching. An explanation of how listeners can use strategies to enhance the learning process is presented, with a review of the existing research base on how second language listening is taught. The major part of the paper presents and discusses pedagogical recommendations, as well as examples of perfo...

Cognitive Strategy Training: Improving Reading Comprehension in the Language Classroom

This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of cognitive strategy instruction on English reading comprehension of Iranian advanced students. A total of 60 participants took part in the present study. The participants (n=20) in one experimental group were provided with the cognitive training condition only, while the participants (n=20) in the other experimental group were exposed to both a...