Standards of coherence in second language reading: Sentence connectivity and reading proficiency

Standards of coherence are one of the major factors that influence reading comprehension. This study investigated the standards of coherence that second language (L2) learners employ when reading. In a pair of experiments, Japanese learners of English read two-sentence texts with varying causal and semantic relatedness between sentences and then judged the coherence of the texts on a 5-point scale. Analysis of the judgment ratings indicated that both causal and semantic relatedness affected readers’ perceived text coherence. The texts high in causal or semantic relatedness were judged as more coherent. Furthermore, when making judgments, lower proficiency readers were likely to place greater emphasis on semantic relatedness, whereas higher proficiency readers were likely to place greater emphasis on causal relatedness. These results suggest that L2 readers generally base standards of coherence on causal and semantic relatedness between sentences; however, readers of varying L2 skill levels may adopt different standards of coherence

Strategic processing and predictive inference generation in L2 reading

Predictive inference is the anticipation of the likely consequences of events described in a text. This study investigated predictive inference generation during second language (L2) reading, with a focus on the effects of strategy instructions. In this experiment, Japanese university students read several short narrative passages designed to elicit predictive inferences under instructions either to understand the passage or to anticipate the outcome of the events described. Each passage was followed by a lexical-decision probe word that was related to the expected inference. In addition, a cued recall task was conducted after reading all the passages. Analysis of lexical decision times revealed that inferences were generated during reading only when instructions encouraged predictions. Furthermore, the facilitation effect of instructions was prominent among higher L2 proficiency readers. The results of the recall task showed that readers’ comprehension of explicit text information was not impaired by focusing attention on implicit predictive information

Causal and Semantic Relations in L2 Text Processing: An Eye-Tracking Study

This study is an extension of Nahatame’s (2018) research that demonstrated the effects of causal and semantic relations between sentences on second language (L2) text processing. Employing eye tracking, this study aimed to examine whether these effects appear during more natural, uninterrupted reading processes and to identify the time course of the effects. In the experiment, Japanese learners of English read two-sentence texts that varied in their causal and semantic relatedness, as evaluated by crowdsourced human judgments and via a computational approach (latent semantic analysis), respectively. Two eye-movement measures were collected and analyzed: first-pass reading times for the second sentence and lookbacks from the second to the first sentence. The results indicated that causal relatedness had a robust impact on both reading times and lookbacks. However, semantic relatedness impacted only reading times, and its effects were modulated by causal relatedness. Theoretical, pedagogical, and methodological implications of this finding were discussed

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本研究は,教育学部2 年次に属する124 名の学生を対象として,小学校外国語活動の指導に対する学生の意識の構造と個人差を明らかにしようとしたものである。外国語活動の指導における様々な要因の必要性を5 段階で評価する質問紙調査を行い,その回答データについて探索的因子分析を行った。その結果,「教員の英語力」と「異文化理解と外的要因との協力」の2 つの因子が抽出された。また,英語や外国語活動への態度によって学生を3 つのグループに分類し,先の分析で得られた因子得点を比較したところ,「異文化理解と外的要因との協力」についてグループ間にその必要性の認識の違いが見られた。これらの結果に基づき,外国語活動指導の観点から小学校教員養成課程に対する示唆を述べた。This study explored the factors comprising pre-service teachers\u27 perception of teachingEnglish at elementary school. A total of 124 university students from the education departmentresponded to the questionnaire asking them to rate on a five-point scale the necessityof several factors for teaching English at elementary school. An exploratory factoranalysis revealed that two factors summarized the questionnaire items, which were labeledas "Teachers\u27 English skills" and "Understanding of different culture and support by externalsources." Additionally, the students were classified into three clusters according totheir attitudes toward English learning and teaching English at elementary school. Thecomparison of factor scores for each retained factor indicated a significant difference inthe perceived necessity of the second factor (i.e., understanding of different culture andsupport by external sources) among these clusters. Based on these results, this study provided suggestions for training pre-service elementary school teachers