PROGRESS AND PROCRASTINATION IN SECOND LANGUAGE READING

Abstract

This chapter presents a model of second language reading that illustrates the evolution of research and thought from the 1970s and 1980s, characterized as being influenced extensively by schema theory and psycholinguistics, and from 1990s thought and research that investigated the interdependence of language and literacy hypothesis versus the threshold hypothesis. The chapter then synthesizes the perspectives by acknowledging the necessary components of a contemporary L2 reading model, including L1 literacy level, L2 knowledge level, recognizing the interactions of background knowledge, processing strategies, vocabulary level, relationships between and among various cognate and non-cognate L1s and L2s, as well as the need to examine emerging L1/L2 readers in addition to adult L2 readers. The review argues for a compensatory processing conceptualization: one that recognizes that knowledge sources act in an interactive, synergistic fashion, not an additive one. Finally, the chapter notes a set of impediments to conducting research in the field: assessing subjects in languages unknown to researchers and the assessment of L1 literacy in an array of languages, and concludes with the recognition that second language reading is a critical area for research and scholarship well beyond the borders of applied linguistics.