Article published In: Current State of Second Language Studies in Japan
Edited by John Matthews and Shigenori Wakabayashi
[Journal of Second Language Studies 6:2] 2023
► pp. 238–265
Development of EFL reading rate in adolescents in Japan
A longitudinal study
Published online: 27 February 2024
https://doi.org/10.1075/jsls.22005.yam
https://doi.org/10.1075/jsls.22005.yam
Abstract
This longitudinal study employed latent growth curve modeling to investigate the development of EFL reading rate in a sample of L1-Japanese adolescents from Grade 9 to 11. It also examined the contributions of four components (word recognition, phonological processing, orthographic processing and vocabulary breadth) to the reading rate with word recognition as a mediator. The growth trajectory was non-linear with steeper gains between Grades 9 and 10 than Grades 10 and 11. The components contributed to the reading rate in complex ways, either directly or through the mediation of word recognition. Although some catching up by slower readers was observed, the advantage the faster readers had at the outset remained after two years, indicating the importance of the achievement levels at early stages for later development.
Article outline
- Introduction
- Reading rate
- Developmental patterns of reading ability
- Components of reading rate
- Longitudinal, component approaches to the acquisition of L2 reading
- The present study
- Method
- Participants
- Materials
- Reading rate
- Vocabulary breadth
- Word recognition, phonological processing, and orthographic processing
- Procedure
- Analysis
- Results
- Discussion
- Conclusion
References
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