Читать книгу The Concise Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics - Carol A. Chapelle - Страница 139

The study of second language reading encompasses a broad range of learners, including those of different ages, with diverse linguistic backgrounds, and with varying educational experiences. This entry focuses on cognitively mature readers who have completed formal literacy education in their first language when they begin to receive reading instruction in a second language. The basic assumption underlying the investigation of reading development in these learners is that second language reading ability evolves through complex crosslinguistic interaction between well‐established cognitive and conceptual resources in the first language and emerging knowledge of the target language (Koda, 2007). Under this assumption, three factors have been identified as the key determinants that explain individual differences in reading development in a second language (Koda, 2016, 2017). These include first language reading ability, linguistic distance between two languages, and second language linguistic knowledge.

The contributions of first language reading ability have been examined in crosslinguistic transfer studies (Reddy & Koda, 2012; Zhang & Koda, 2013; Ke & Koda, 2019). By isolating word meaning retrieval subskills, results from those studies have shown (a) that first language morphological awareness makes a unique contribution to word meaning inference in a second language (Zhang & Koda, 2013); (b) that variations in word form analysis are systematically related to distinct first language orthographic properties (Zhang & Koda, 2017; Ke & Koda, 2019); and (c) that higher proficiency learners draw on their first language resources, such as prior knowledge and metalinguistic awareness, to a greater extent than their lower proficiency counterparts, during reading (Koda & Ke, 2018; Koda & Miller, 2018). Collectively, these findings provide solid evidence suggesting that first language reading subskills are used in second language reading; that transferred subskills differentially affect distinct reading operations among linguistically diverse learners; and that insufficient linguistic knowledge constrains the learner's access to the resources available in her first language.

Linguistic distance is another factor uniquely associated with second language reading, in general, and word meaning retrieval, in particular (Muljani, Koda, & Moates, 1998; Koda, 2007; Hamada & Koda, 2010). Linguistic distance refers to the degree of structural similarity between two languages. Given the significant role that orthographic knowledge plays in word meaning retrieval, we can predict that the degree of similarity between two writing systems directly affects the ease with which the graphic form of a word is segmented into its phonological and morphological constituents. When the two writing systems are closely related, first language word form analysis skills function in the new language without any modifications. Conversely, when the two systems are typologically diverse, transferred skills must undergo substantial refinement through repeated exposure and experience with the printed form of specific words in the target language. Although all subskills, in principle, are transferrable from one language to another (Koda, 2007), facilitation benefits bought about through first language subskills vary across learner groups with diverse first language backgrounds.

Insufficient linguistic knowledge also generates unique variance in second language reading. Besides its obvious contributions to word meaning retrieval and word meaning integration, linguistic knowledge plays a role in the process of personalizing text meanings for deeper text understanding. Although personalization in itself does not entail linguistic information processing, sufficient linguistic knowledge is necessary for gaining access to nonlanguage‐specific information acquired through real‐life experiences. As Clarke (1980) put it almost four decades ago, “limited control over the language ‘short circuits’ the good reader's system causing him/her to revert to poor reader strategies when confronted with a difficult or confusing task in the second language” (p. 206).

In sum, the involvement of two languages is a fundamental characteristic that separates second language reading from general learning and first language reading. From a crosslinguistic perspective, knowledge of the target language (grammar and vocabulary, in particular) is essential for making links between text information in a second language and the reader's knowledge stored in her first language. The significance of personalization should be understood as the core mechanism through which externally presented information is internalized to become part of the reader's knowledge bases.