Syntactic and Lexical/Semantic Skill in Foreign Language Reading: Importance and Interaction

The Relationship between Knowledge of Icraab, Lexical Knowledge, and Reading Comprehension of Nonnative Readers of Arabic

“…This finding runs counter to some published research in L2. For example, Barnett (1986) concluded that L2 learners of French whose knowledge of syntax was deficient were poor readers; their lexical knowledge and comprehension were negatively affected. This may be due to the fact that syntactic features in Roman-based languages are integral to both the form and the meaning of words, whereas in Arabic, i c raab is not an integral part of the shapes of most words and, hence, of no importance to their meaning.…”

“…With the intent of increasing the understanding of how second language (L2) readers construct meaning while reading an authentic text, many L2 studies have investigated the role of text factors such as syntax and vocabulary (Barnett, 1986;Demel, 1990;McNamara, 1967). The findings in these studies have indicated that comprehension difficulties are mainly attributable to a deficiency in linguistic knowledge.…”

First‐ to second‐language reading comprehension: not transfer, but access1

“…Another response to Alderson's question has focused on research into the relative contributions to L2 comprehension of L2 language proficiency and L1 reading comprehension ability. Bernhardt and Kamil (1995), in their own studies and by reviewing Markham (1985), Barnett (1986), and Shohamy (1984), established that upwards of 20% of the variance in L2 reading skill was accounted for by L1 reading skill, and upwards of 30% of the variance was accounted for by L2 proficiency. They also supported Carrell's (1991) finding that these proportions were not stable, with more variance accounted for by L1 reading ability and less by L2 proficiency as L2 proficiency increased.…”

Computers and L2 Reading: Student Performance, Student Attitudes1

“…3 Second, researchers and practitioners have also attempted to facilitate L2 reading comprehension by emphasizing "the so-called lower levels of processing, those concerned with basic word recognition" (Segalowitz, Poulsen, and Komeda 1991,26). The powerful relationship between a reader's context-free word knowledge and comprehension is supported by both native language (Ll) and L2 investigations (e.g., Barnett 1986;Davis 1968;Spearritt 1972). Yet the hours required for teaching and learning the estimated 40,000 words necessary for advanced reading in the L2 (Nagy and Herman 1987) are beyond those available to most foreign-language instructors and students.…”