Characteristics of Weak and Strong Readers in a Foreign Language

2016/12/01 by J. Charles Alderson, Ari Huhta, Lea Nieminen · 1 citation
Psychology · Arts and Humanities · #Reading and Literacy Development #Second Language Acquisition and Learning #EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning

paper · doi:10.1111/modl.12367

openalex publication_date 2016/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/02

Abstract

This study investigated the cognitive (first language [L1] and foreign language [FL]), linguistic (L1 and FL), and motivational characteristics of weak FL readers in contrast to strong readers in 3 groups of L1 Finnish‐speaking learners of English, aged 10, 14, and 17 years. This cross‐sectional study covered a wide range of potential correlates, and therefore predictors, of FL reading based on previous research on reading in first, second (L2), and foreign languages. The weakest and strongest FL readers (1 standard deviation below or above the mean reading score) in each age group were selected for the comparisons reported in this article. The FL (English) skills other than reading were found to be the clearest distinguishing feature between weak and strong FL readers. However, L1 and cognitive skills in L1 and FL, as well as certain dimensions of motivation to use and learn the FL, were also found to separate the 2 reading groups. The implications of the findings for 2 different hypotheses about the nature of FL reading—the Threshold Hypothesis and the Linguistic Coding Differences Hypothesis—are discussed, as well as the implications for the diagnosis of strengths and weaknesses in reading in an FL.

Citations

• L2 Reading Comprehension and Its Correlates: A Meta‐Analysis
• Language Anxiety: Its Relationship to Other Anxieties and to Processing in Native and Second Languages*
• Toward an Interactive-Compensatory Model of Individual Differences in the Development of Reading Fluency
• Age‐Related Differences in the Motivation of Learning English as a Foreign Language: Attitudes, Selves, and Motivated Learning Behavior
• The simple view of reading
• Matthew Effects in Reading: Some Consequences of Individual Differences in the Acquisition of Literacy
• The Subtle Effects of Language Anxiety on Cognitive Processing in the Second Language
• Growth in Reading and How Children Spend Their Time Outside of School

Cited by

• Charles Alderson [wikipedia]

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