This study used a think-aloud approach to compare reading strategy use in the first language (L1) and non-native language (L2) among 36 English as a foreign language (EFL) college students at different reading levels. The participants took an English proficiency test and participated in two individual sessions in which a reading test and a think-aloud task were administered separately in Chinese and English. Cross-language transfer theory and the linguistic threshold hypothesis were used to conceptualise the similarities and differences in L1 and L2 reading strategies. This study found more frequent and diverse strategy use in English than in Chinese. Similar patterns of meta-cognitive strategy use were evident in both languages. The applications of certain meta-cognitive and support strategies served as indicators that differentiated more-proficient from less-proficient readers. The present study extended previous questionnaire studies and suggested that English reading instruction should be informed by this line of research to provide instruction on effective reading strategy use for EFL learners.Among the central issues in the field of second or foreign language reading is whether the reading process in the non-native language (L2) fundamentally differs from the reading process in the first language (L1) (Davis & Bistodeau, 1993) as well as whether proficient readers differ from less-proficient ones in their use of reading strategies. Several theories have been proposed to address these two fundamental inquiries. The cross-language transfer theory has commonly been used to conceptualise the former inquiry and establish an important basis for discussing the interactions between L1 and L2 reading processing (Koda, 2005). Two theoretical frameworks have emerged from the pertinent empirical research on cross-language transfer: the universal language system theory and the language-specific processing theory. The universal language system theory suggests a common underlying cognitive and familiar word, or by analysing a word in itself (prefix, root and suffix) Support reading strategies
This study used a quasi-experimental design to determine the effects of teachers' story read-aloud on EFL elementary school students' word learning outcomes. It specifically examined whether the word learning was enhanced by teachers' repeated story read-aloud and word-meaning explanations and further determined whether the learning outcomes were related to children's English proficiency. Two native English-speaking teachers read a story to their fourth-grade classes four times. The results showed that increasing frequency of story read-aloud yielded greater word-learning gains across time. The EFL children, on average, learned approximately half of the target words by the third read-aloud. While both high-and low-proficiency groups showed significant vocabulary gains with the frequency of teachers' read-aloud, the high-proficiency children consistently outperformed their low-proficiency peers, especially on the L1 meaning-matching vocabulary test. The overall findings were quite encouraging and showed empirical evidence that teachers' repeated story read-aloud can be an effective way to facilitate elementary school children's word learning in a context where English is a foreign language.
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