English word recognition and word integration skills of native Arabic- and Japanese-speaking learners of English as a second language

Abstract

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.

Reading Comprehension Models of Saudi Non-native Speakers of English

“…The three participants showed some degree of an interactive model of reading with overt dominance of a top-down approach. Fender (2003) supports the findings of the present study. He found that Arab ESL learners would comprehend their reading by means of relating and integrating the meaning of words into the bigger picture.…”

“…Perry claimed adherence to the framework prescribed by Stanovich (1980) and Carrell (1984), which views reading as an interactive-compensatory process. Abbott (2006) andFender (2003) conducted two comparative studies about Arab ESL learners and their Chinese and Japanese learners' counterparts. They both assert that Arab ESL learners employed a top-down reading approach.…”

An Introspective Study of Arabic and Mandarin-Speakers’ Reading Comprehension Strategies

“…Research has also suggested that language-specific differences are related to differences in processing skills and strategies in reading (Akamatsu, 2003;Bang & Zhao, 2007;Chen, 1992;Fender, 2003;Hayes-Harb, 2006;Koda, 1988Koda, , 1989Koda, , 2005Wang & Koda, 2007;Wang, Koda, & Perfetti, 2003). For example, when Koda (1988Koda ( , 1989) compared the cognitive strategies of ESL readers from four L1 orthographic backgrounds, she found that when reading in English, the readers used cognitive strategies developed in their L1.…”

“…Despite conflicting results regarding which of these two categories contributes most to reading comprehension, the common conclusion from studies of the relationship between strategy use and reading ability is that reading comprehension is more likely to occur when people use strategies both actively and flexibly during reading given the nature of the context (Anderson; Barnett, 1988;Block, 1986Block, , 1992Phakiti;Purpura;Sarig, 1987;Schueller;Young & Oxford). Nonetheless, a clearer understanding of reading strategy use is necessary to help language-learners discover when, where, and how to use strategies effectively.Although some reading strategy training studies (Barnett, 1988;Schueller, 2004) suggest that strategy training improves comprehension, most strategy training programs are generic in nature in the sense that they do not address research that suggests that learners from diverse cultural, linguistic, and educational backgrounds tend to rely on varied reading strategies and/or varied word recognition strategies when attempting English academic reading tasks (Akamatsu, 2003;Bang & Zhao, 2007;Chen, 1992;Fender, 2003;Koda, 1988Koda, , 2005Koda, , 2007Parry, 1996). Before successful reading strategy training programs specifically designed for language-learners from a variety of linguistic/cultural groups can be developed, researchers need to explore the differences in strategy use that exist between linguistic/cultural groups.…”

Visual processing skill barriers in students with Arabic as a first language

“…Abbot (2004) found Arabic L1 students tended to score higher on questions requiring contextual, global 'top-down' strategies than Chinese readers, who outdid the Arabic readers on word analysis strategies. Similarly, Fender (2003) found Arabic learners used meaning and context more than Japanese learners. One theory as to why top-down processing seems to be so heavily relied on by Arabic L1 readers is that when Arabic is written in its usual, de-vowelled form, the large number of identical-looking words cannot be discriminated without referring to sentence context to know which word is intended (Abu- Rabia, 1997Rabia, , 2001).…”