Connections between L1 and L2 Readings: Reading Strategies Used by Four Chinese Adult Readers

This paper examines the reading strategies that four Chinese adult readers use in reading both Chinese and English texts. Their strategies they used are analyzed into two broad categories: the text-initiated strategies and the reader-initiated strategies. All participants demonstrated more strategy use in reading the English texts than in reading the Chinese text. In general, participants were more critical in evaluating the author’s opinions with the Chinese than the English texts. Those who had a moderate to high L2 proficiency level showed more transfer of strategy use from reading the Chinese to reading the English than the one who had a low L2 proficiency level. However, L2 proficiency level does not seem to predict the readers’ use of higher level thinking strategies. The readers’ prior experiences with L1 reading and L2 learning as well as their exposure to the L2 culture all seem to contribute to affect the readers’ strategy use in L2. ____________