APPLIED LINGUISTICS

CHAPTER 15:
READING

GROUP 14:
1. TRẦN NGUYÊN BÌNH
2. NGUYỄN THỊ PHƯƠNG
4. KEY ISSUES IN L2 READING
4.1. Word recognition

4.2. Vocabulary knowledge

4.3. Morphology, syntax, and discourse

structure knowledge

4.4. The Language Threshold

4.5. Implications for instruction

 4.1. WORD RECOGNITION
 Word recognition is one of the most important processes contributing to L2
reading comprehension.
phonological semantic

Fluent word
orthographic recognition syntactic

 The automatization of grapheme–sound relations is the foundation of all reading.

 4.1. WORD RECOGNITION
 Students at beginning and low intermediate levels need to be able to use grapheme–
sound correspondences easily and recognize frequent words rapidly and accurately.

 Most L2 students will have reasonable control over these basic skills, but checking
how quickly and accurately students can read a word list.

 Students who have difficulty with grapheme–sound correspondences should be given

training in more consistent associations between graphemes and sounds.

 Many students should get the needed practice in word recognition skills through
vocabulary development, fluency practice and extensive reading.
 4.2. VOCABULARY KNOWLEDGE
 Fluent readers have very large recognition-vocabulary knowledge resources that
vocabulary knowledge is highly correlated with reading ability. (L1 research)

Vocabulary knowledge is the most fundamental component skills for reading

comprehension.

 The ‘Lexical Quality Hypothesis’ (Andrews, 2015; Perfetti, 2007, and Stafura, 2014)
does not say that only depth of word knowledge is important; it also says that the
more words of high lexical quality a reader has, the more proficient that reader
will be.
 4.2. VOCABULARY KNOWLEDGE

 The Lexical Quality Hypothesis argues that both breadth or depth of word
knowledge are important, and both need to grow together, incrementally over
time.

 Extensive reading is not the only goal for advanced reading development;
instruction also counts.

 However, one cannot become a skilled reader without reading a lot.

 4.2. VOCABULARY KNOWLEDGE

 In L1 research, extended exposure to print (reading extensively) over years leads to

major differences in both vocabulary knowledge and comprehension abilities.

 Research on L2 vocabulary knowledge has also shown that vocabulary is strongly

correlated with L2 reading comprehension.

 Extensive reading and large amount of print exposure have been found to be a
powerful support for reading and vocabulary development

 At the same time, reading experience by itself is not sufficient for L2 vocabulary
development.
 4.3. MORPHOLOGY, SYNTAX, AND DISCOURSE
STRUCTURE KNOWLEDGE
4.3.1. Morphology
 L1 morphological, syntactic and discourse knowledge all have strong, direct impacts on
reading comprehension.

 Morphological knowledge contributes directly to reading comprehension, especially at more

advanced levels of reading proficiency.

 Morphological awareness has been found to be an important component skill for reading
(direct contribution  reading comprehension, indirect contribution  other critical
component skills.)
 4.3. MORPHOLOGY, SYNTAX, AND DISCOURSE
STRUCTURE KNOWLEDGE
4.3.2. Syntax
 Grammatical knowledge plays an important role in both L1 and L2 reading
comprehension.

syntactic syntactic syntactic sentence syntactic

awareness knowledge processing processing parsing

 Syntax is a powerful predictor of reading comprehension abilities (Schoonen, Hulstijn and

Bossers, 1998).
 Syntactic awareness is a strong predictor of reading abilities (Brimo, Apel and Fountain,
2017; Deacon and Kieffer, 2018).
 In Jeon and Yamashita’s (2014) meta-analysis, the overall mean correlation between L2
grammatical knowledge and L2 reading comprehension was strong and statistically
significant.
4.3. MORPHOLOGY, SYNTAX, AND DISCOURSE
STRUCTURE KNOWLEDGE
4.3.3. Discourse
 Discourse structures are patterns of organization that are used to convey
information in a coherent manner. These structures include cause–effect,
chronology, classification, comparison–contrast, definition, description, for–
against, problem–solution and procedure (sequence).

 The finite number of recurring patterns (especially in expository texts) make it

possible to raise students’ awareness of these patterns.

These discourse structures can be explicitly taught and they support reading
comprehension.
1. Sequence:
https://www.ieltsjacky.com/ielts-reading-table-completion.html

2. Cause- effect:
https://takeielts.britishcouncil.org/take-ielts/prepare/free-ielts-practice-tests/rea
ding-academic/section-3
 1. Sequence

21

22

23

25 24

26

27
2. Cause- effect
 4.4. THE LANGUAGE THRESHOLD
 The Language Threshold is a hypothesis about L1 reading and L2 reading
relationships.
 It focuses on the extent to which L2 language proficiency is needed as a support
for L2 reading before L1 strategies and higher-level skills can be used effectively in
an L2 context.

 It was first discussed in reading research contexts in which top-down models of

reading were still popular, including the linguistic interdependence hypothesis.

 In contrast, the Language Threshold Hypothesis stated that L1 reading skills are
not going to be useful for L2 reading comprehension until L2 language skills were
sufficiently developed to some threshold.
Gough, P. B. (1972). One second of reading. In J. F. Kavanagh, & I. G. Mattingly (Eds.),
Language by ear and by eye. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
 4.4. THE LANGUAGE THRESHOLD

the variance in L2 reading

• General cognitive skills can influence L2 component linguistic skills to some extent, but
they are not going to displace those key L2 skills that support reading.

The bottom line is that L2 linguistic component skills are critical for L2 reading
development.
 4.5. EXTENDED EXPOSURE TO PRINT
/EXTENSIVE READING
 L1 research on extended exposure to print has demonstrated a strong
relationship between amount of reading (over long periods of time) and
improved reading comprehension.

 In L2 reading, second or foreign language readers at various ages and

proficiency levels can benefit from extensive reading.

 Suk (2017) explains that that reading extensively provides large amounts of
comprehensible input and promotes implicit language learning as a support for
reading goals.
 4.5. EXTENDED EXPOSURE TO PRINT
/EXTENSIVE READING
• Extensive reading, to be reasonably successful, generally requires a significant
curriculum planning effort.
The goals for working on extensive reading.
The benefits of extensive reading
Many excellent extensive reading resources
A consistent program over an extended period of time if it is to have a major
impact on fluency, vocabulary and reading comprehension development.
There is no way to get around the fact that students only become good readers
by reading a lot.
 4.6. READING STRATEGIES
 Three core elements can be extracted to characterize reading strategies, which
are ‘deliberate, goal/ problem-oriented, and reader-initiated/controlled’ (Koda,
2005: 205).

 Reading strategies are defined as ‘deliberate, goal-directed attempts to control

and modify the reader’s efforts to decode text, understand word, and construct
meanings out of text’ - Afflerbach, Pearson and Paris (2008: 15)

 Trabasso and Bouchard (2002: 177) defined reading strategies as ‘specific, learned
procedures that foster active, competent, self-regulated, and intentional reading’.
 4.6. READING STRATEGIES
 Good readers tend to plan, monitor and evaluate their reading behaviour
effectively and possess a number of flexible, adaptable strategies that they use
before, during, and after reading to maximize their comprehension.

 Common strategies that can be usefully incorporated into reading instruction

include previewing, predicting, checking predictions, posing questions, finding
answers to posed questions, connecting text to background knowledge,
summarizing, making inferences, etc.
 5. IMPLICATIONS FOR INSTRUCTION

Ten implications for L2 reading instruction, at least as a starting point for curriculum planning:

2. develop a 3. discourse structure

1. reading fluency and
large and graphic 4. language awareness and attention
word-recognition
recognition representations of to language and genre form
automaticity
vocabulary. discourse structure.

6. specific reading 8. integrated

5. meta-cognitive strategies skills instruction
awareness, students
 word learning, 7. motivation and content-
become strategic
reading to learn based
readers.
goals instruction

9. a supportive 10. read as much as possible

environment and as often as possible.
HANDS-ON ACTIVITY
Text: Select a substantial text (two to three pages) excerpt from a textbook or other
reading resource in the social sciences (for example, psychology, economics,
sociology).
Students: Imagine a group of high-intermediate or low-advanced students of
English from either heterogeneous or homogeneous L1 backgrounds (you decide
which), whose language requirements include reading skills in the social sciences.
Activity: The activity focuses on reading strategies to comprehend the text and to
use the information for other tasks. These strategies may include setting a purpose
for reading, previewing the text, predicting key information, skimming the text to
determine main ideas, note-taking, summarizing, clarifying difficult concepts,
identifying supporting ideas and evidence.

Schmitt, N. (2019). An Introduction to Applied Linguistics (3rd ed.), p.278.

Routledge.
REFERENCES:
 Graves, M.F. (2016) The Vocabulary Book: Learning and Instruction (second edition).
New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
 Schwanenflugel, P. and Knapp, N. (eds.) (2016) The Psychology Of Reading: Theory
And Applications. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
 Schmitt, N. (2019). An Introduction to Applied Linguistics (3rd ed.). Routledge.
 Baddeley, A. (2015) Working memory in second language learning. In Wen, Z., Mota,
M. and McNeil, A. (eds.) Working Memory In Second Language Acquisition And
Processing. Buffalo, NY: Multilingual Matters, pp. 17–28.
 Cowan, N. (2015) Second language use, theories of working memory and the Vennian
mind. In Wen, Z., Mota, M. and McNeilA. (eds,) Working Memory In Second
Language Acquisition And Processing. Buffalo, NY: Multilingual Matters, pp. 29–40.
 Eysenck, M.W. and Keane, M. (2015) Cognitive Psychology: A Student’s Handbook
(seventh edition). New York, NY: Psychology Press.