This study investigated the effects of first language word-level reading skills on the development of English as a second language (ESL) word-level reading skills. A crosslinguistic analysis indicates that native Arabic and Japanese speakers are likely to encounter different types of ESL word-level reading difficulties. Specifically, native Arab speakers are likely to exhibit difficulties with prelexical ESL word recognition processes, whereas native Japanese speakers are likely to exhibit difficulties with on-line ESL word integration processes that integrate words into phrase/clause structures for comprehension. Results from a lexical decision task showed that a group of Japanese ESL learners had significantly faster and more accurate word recognition skills compared to a proficiency-matched Arab ESL group. In contrast, both groups read words within sentences in a sentence reading task at the same speed, though the Arab ESL group was significantly more accurate in integrating words into larger phrase and clause units and comprehending them than the Japanese ESL group. These results indicate that Arab and Japanese ESL students have different word-level reading difficulties, implicating different learning needs and pedagogical interventions for developing ESL reading proficiency.

This article examines the nature and development of fluent L2/ESL word integration skills involved in lowerlevel text processing. Four theoretical approaches to word integration and sentence processing in the L1 and L2/ESL literature are discussed in conjunction with a review of the relevant research. The research indicates that L1 and fluent L2/ESL speakers utilize similar processing procedures to integrate words into larger phrase and sentence structures. The research also indicates that the development of fluent and accurate L2/ESL word integration skills depends to a substantial degree on the development of L2/ESL syntactic structure-building skills.

This study examines the emergence of lower-level ESL sentence processing skills involved in integrating English words into predicate structures on-line. The aim of the present study is to examine how the L1 phrase structure and corresponding L1 word integration skills of ESL learners influence their corresponding ESL sentence processing skills in an on-line English sentence reading task. The study examined the English predicate and verb phrase processing skills of a group of Chinese ESL learners whose language has right-branching L1 verb phrase structures (head-complement word order) and a group of proficiency-matched Korean ESL learners whose native language only allows left-branching L1 verb phrase structures (i.e., complement-head word order). The Chinese ESL group (n = 20) was significantly faster than the Korean ESL group (n = 18) in reading and integrating direct object nouns into English predicate phrase structures, though there were no significant differences comprehending the sentences. In addition, the Chinese ESL group was significantly more accurate in reading and comprehending transitive sentences in which the direct objects had an embedded relative clause. The results suggest that L1 word integration skills influence and shape the emergence of on-line ESL word integration skills.

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