The relationship between adult second language readers' metacognitive awareness of reading and their reading processes in a second language

Prior research in L2 reading has shown that adult ESL readers tend to lack in the use of reading strategies, failing to utilize contextual clues or their background knowledge base. In addition, studies demonstrated that when the adult readers who are highly competent in L1 reading read in L2, they become inefficient, "text-bound" readers, failing to utilize their effective reading strategies in L1. The present study investigated adult L2 readers' processes of reading in relation to their perceived view of L2 reading, in an attempt to explore the underlying factors related to "text-bound" processing in L2 reading. Two specific research questions were raised for investigation: (1) what is the relationship between an L2 reader's perceptions about L2 reading and his or her reading processes in L2?; (2) what is the relationship between an L2 reader's perceptions about reading (both in L1 and L2) and his or her transfer of reading strategies from L1 to L2 reading? A significant correlation between the perception and actual processing pattern was hypothesized for both questions within the three theories of reading: the metacognitive, the psycholinguistic, and the schema/interactive theory. These three theories of reading provided the theoretical bases for the study. The study consisted of two phases. In the first phase, a survey was conducted with 139 adult ESL readers who responded to a questionnaire developed to tap L2 readers' perceptions about reading and their actual processes while reading magazines in English. Their responses were statistically analyzed to test the research hypotheses. In the second phase, a case study method was utilized for further exploration with six readers chosen from the survey's respondents. Two meetings with the researcher were held with each of the six subjects to further probe their perceptions about L2 reading, and their actual reading processes while they read an article from a chosen magazine. The results indicated that the more linguistic perceptions an adult L2 reader has, the more text-based processing he or she employs. It was also found that the greater the difference perceived by the reader between L2 and L1 reading, the greater the difference between his or her interaction and transaction with L2 text compared to L1 text