Academic Reading

Abstract

Academic reading involves more challenging vocabulary, sentence structures, and abstract concepts than reading other types of texts. English learners confronted with academic texts need high‐quality instruction to help them surmount the challenges. This entry explains the challenges of academic reading for English learners and proposes techniques to build capacity for it and reduce cognitive load. The latter is achieved by applying two principles: (1) recognizing and building on what students already know; and (2) adjusting pedagogy to make reading tasks comprehensible.