A component skills approach to adult ESL reading, evidence from native speakers of Farsi

grantor: University of TorontoThe role of basic language processing components, in general, and that of lower-level phonological and orthographic processing skills, in particular, is not well understood in second language reading. Most research in second and foreign language (L2) reading has followed top-down models, focusing almost exclusively on the role of higher-level processes such as background knowledge and the knowledge of syntactic and semantic structures in processing text. Therefore, the lower-level dimensions of text, particularly phonological and orthographic processes, have not received attention relative to more top-down processes. The present study addressed this gap in current knowledge by investigating basic language processing skills in adult English as a second language (ESL) readers who were native speakers of Farsi. Measures of lower-level phonological and orthographic processing skills in conjunction with higher-level syntactic and semantic processing skills were used while controlling for aspects of cognitive ability relevant to reading such as working memory and speed of lexical access. Participants were 60 advanced ESL readers (all adult native speakers of Farsi residing in Canada). Three measures of reading were criterion variables: reading comprehension, silent reading rate, and the ability to recognize individual words out of context. Data were analyzed using correlations and hierarchical multiple regressions. Correlational analyses revealed that both speed and accuracy on second language phonological, orthographic, syntactic, and semantic measures correlated significantly with each other and with various indices of ESL reading proficiency. Hierarchical multiple regressions revealed that efficiency in phonological and orthographic processing contributed to the prediction of individual differences on the reading measures. In particular, efficiency in orthographic processing contributed unique variance to the reading measures over and above the variance contributed by higher level syntactic and semantic skills. The results challenge the common assumption in L2 that the availability of higher-level processes in L2 reading comprehension reduces significantly the contribution of lower-level processes. They also challenge the idea that proficient L2 readers, that is, those with a basic command of L2 vocabulary, syntax, and discourse markers, move away from using lower-level skills and rely instead on higher-level semantic and syntactic skins. Rather, the results indicate that in addition to more general language proficiency indices such as semantic and syntactic knowledge, individual differences In ESL reading need to be understood in respect to individual differences in lower-level processes, particularly, the efficiency with which readers process phonological and orthographic information. The role of these processes should not be overlooked in ESL reading even when readers are proficient adult L2 readers.Ph.D