Comprehension and Knowledge Components That Predict L2 Reading: A Latent-Trait Approach

Yamashita, Junko; Shiotsu, Toshihiko

doi:10.1093/applin/amu079

Cited by 23 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…Research examining the role of language proficiency has revealed its robust effect on first-and secondlanguage (L2) reading (Apel, Wilson-Fowler, Brimo, & Perrin, 2012;Yamashita & Shiotsu, 2015). Comparisons of the relationship between language proficiency and reading have suggested that there may be different relationships between the two for bilingual (in their L2) and monolingual readers (Butler & Hakuta, 2009;Saunders & O'Brien, 2006).…”

Section: Language Proficiency As a Correlate Of Reading Comprehensionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Making Sense of Science Texts: A Mixed‐Methods Examination of Predictors and Processes of Multiple‐Text Comprehension

Davis

Huang

2016

Reading Research Quarterly

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Previous research has identified various factors that contribute to readers’ comprehension of expository texts, including strategy expertise, language proficiency, prior knowledge, and more recently, readers’ beliefs about knowledge. This study addresses the need to understand the relative contributions of these predictors to readers’ comprehension of multiple texts and the processes used by readers to make sense of texts. Eighty‐three students (grades 5–7) participated in this mixed‐methods study. The sample consisted of monolingual students and emergent and proficient bilingual students who completed measures of expository comprehension, strategic knowledge and awareness, English‐language proficiency, prior content knowledge, and epistemic beliefs. Ten bilingual students from this sample also completed a think‐aloud protocol to allow for close examination of their meaning‐making processes. In a multiple regression analysis, English‐language proficiency was the strongest predictor of comprehension, followed by content knowledge. Strategy knowledge and awareness and epistemic beliefs were not related to multiple‐text comprehension in the model. The relationship between English‐language proficiency and comprehension was stronger for bilingual students than for monolingual students. Students in the think‐aloud sample demonstrated emergent knowledge of processes of disciplinary reading of multiple texts, including metacognitive monitoring, theorizing authorial identity, and intertextual integration, while also displaying a tendency to defer to institutionalized authority when evaluating credibility of the texts. The findings provide directions for future research on the way young adolescents comprehend and learn from expository texts in the discipline of science.

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Section: Language Proficiency As a Correlate Of Reading Comprehensionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Making Sense of Science Texts: A Mixed‐Methods Examination of Predictors and Processes of Multiple‐Text Comprehension

Davis

Huang

2016

Reading Research Quarterly

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“…For example, lexical knowledge facilitates the retrieval of word meanings, grammatical knowledge aids sentence structure analysis, and background knowledge forms the whole comprehension of a text. Second language (L2) reading research has demonstrated that these cognitive processes are constrained by various linguistic variables in a text, which interact with learners' L2 knowledge (e.g., Jeon & Yamashita, 2014;Koda, 2005;Yamashita & Shiotsu, 2015).…”

Section: Literature Review 21 Linguistic Variables That Affect Text mentioning

confidence: 99%

Linguistic Variables Determining the Difficulty of Eiken Reading Passages

Hamada

2015

JLTA Journal

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This study examined what linguistic variables affecting the cognitive process in reading comprehension determine the difficulty of Eiken reading passages. Using Coh-Metrix, a corpus analysis of Eiken first-grade to third-grade passages was run to compute lexical (word frequency and lexical diversity), syntactic (syntactic similarity), and meaning construction indices (argument overlap and occurrence of causal connectives and verbs). A stepwise discriminant function analysis showed that surface-level linguistic variables (i.e., lexical and syntactic indices) were stronger predictors in the discrimination of Eiken test grades than the linguistic variables affecting higher-level language processing. To verify whether these results corresponded with Japanese EFL learners' reading performance, Japanese university students completed recall tasks after reading second-grade and third-grade passages. A stepwise multiple regression analysis found that word frequency, lexical diversity, and syntactic similarity indices explained their recall productions. Consistent with the corpus analysis, the meaning construction indices did not explain the recall performances. These findings suggest that the difficulty of Eiken reading passages have probably been designed to measure learners' lower-level language processing abilities, such as word recognition and syntactic parsing.

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“…Yamashita and Shiotsu (2015) found that L2 listening was the strongest predictor of L2 reading among the 325 Japanese university student participants, and 94% of L2 reading variance was explained by the predictors. However, L1 reading did not contribute significantly to the variance in the whole sample.…”

Section: The Predictive Power Of L1 Literacy and L2 Knowledgementioning

confidence: 95%

“…Measures of L2 grammar and vocabulary are generally included as indicators of L2 knowledge in the research literature (Brisbois, 1995;Park, 2013;Yamashita & Shiotsu, 2015). Although the intention of Cummins's (1979) threshold hypothesis has often been misinterpreted, and some researchers have even discussed it as an alternative to the interdependence hypothesis (Lee & Schallert, 1997;Jiang, 2011), research has confirmed that familiarity with grammar and vocabulary in a L2 greatly enhances understanding of L2 texts; in fact, findings have generally confirmed that at higher levels of L2 knowledge L2 readers are more successful in transferring L1 reading ability (Burt, Peyton, & Adams, 2003;Yamashita, 2002) although the reliance of L1 reading skills might decrease as L2 proficiency increases (Park, 2013;Upton & Lee-Thompson, 2001).…”

Section: Second Language Knowledgementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Regression analysis is often utilized to determine the variance in L2 reading comprehension scores that is attributable to L1 literacy and L2 language knowledge among other predictors (Bernhardt & Kamil, 1995;Brisbois, 1995;Carson, Carrell, Silberstein, Kroll, & Kuehn, 1990;Carrell, 1991;Chuang, Joshi, & Dixon, 2011;Jiang, 2011;Lee & Schallert, 1997;Park, 2013;Pichette, Segalowitz, & Connors, 2003;Yamashita & Shiotsu, 2015). These studies, as Yamashita (2002) pointed out, focused on the product rather than the process of reading comprehension.…”

Section: The Predictive Power Of L1 Literacy and L2 Knowledgementioning

confidence: 99%

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Predictors of English Reading Comprehension and Performance in College-level Composition among Generation 1.5 Students

Barsony¹

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Comprehension and Knowledge Components That Predict L2 Reading: A Latent-Trait Approach

Cited by 23 publications

References 48 publications

Making Sense of Science Texts: A Mixed‐Methods Examination of Predictors and Processes of Multiple‐Text Comprehension

Making Sense of Science Texts: A Mixed‐Methods Examination of Predictors and Processes of Multiple‐Text Comprehension

Linguistic Variables Determining the Difficulty of Eiken Reading Passages

Predictors of English Reading Comprehension and Performance in College-level Composition among Generation 1.5 Students

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