Second-Language Reading

The field of second-language reading holds important connections to both reading and literacy scholarship focused on first language and to the field of second language acquisition. Each must be considered in researching second-language reading because reading in a second language is both a language process and a literacy process. Second-language reading distinguishes itself from bilingual reading in that it focuses on readers who are already literate in a first language while bilingual often refers to a simultaneous acquisition. As a language process, second-language reading interfaces with languages that realize themselves in an array of alphabets as well as character systems that may or may not be identical or even like a first language. The phonology attached to each of these systems is also critical and whether a second-language reader needs a relatively accurate sound system to reach automaticity in word recognition and syntactic processing is paramount. A section of the field concerns itself with these differences in processing, reminding researchers of micro-level, text-based features that must be acknowledged in understanding the second-language reading process. As a literacy process, second-language reading involves how a reader uses knowledge from first-language literacy to understand and interpret second language. The nature of conventions such as size and type of print as well as how texts are physically configured with directional devices such as subheadings are cultural practices that can be misinterpreted and misused. Literacy processes also include understandings of how readers develop interpretations of what they read. Often referred to as strategic processes, these processes, such as suspending interpretation until the later stages of a passage or a belief in understanding every word in a passage or a willingness to skip certain words, are learned processes from first-language literacy. The key research questions about strategies is whether there are strategies unique to reading in a second language and how readers do or do not impose these strategies on the second-language processes. Another level of literacy processing centers on world knowledge. Indeed, world knowledge is often acquired through reading, but also through non-print modalities. The second-language reader carries this knowledge into the second-language text and includes it in the interpretive arsenal achieving successful and unsuccessful results. The most important feature of recognizing language, literacy, and knowledge processes in second-language reading is that they do not function independently of one another or in a sequential fashion. They operate simultaneously during reading, interacting with and buttressing each other. Known as interactive, compensatory processing, a central question is whether and how second-language readers learn or can be taught to use these processes; how these can be measured as part of the comprehension process; and how proficiency in comprehension evolves over time.