An Introduction to Applied Linguistics

Strategies, and Motivation for more on strategies). It has been a long-standing tenet 
of first-language reading research that expert readers use a variety of reading 
strategies to aid comprehension (Block and Pressley, 2002; Pressley, 2006), and 
that ‘strategic reading is a prime characteristic of expert readers’ (Paris, Wasik 
and Turner, 1991). Block (1986), in a study of generally non-proficient L1 and 
L2 English readers, found that four characteristics seem to differentiate the more 
successful from the less successful:
• Ability to integrate information.
• Ability to recognize aspects of text structure.
• Ability to use general knowledge, personal experiences and associations.
• Ability to address information in the text rather than respond personally.
It may be the skilful use of clusters of strategies that is most important: Anderson 
(1991) found that subjects who utilized more strategies tended to score higher on 
reading comprehension tasks. He concluded that successful strategic reading was 
not only ‘a matter of knowing what strategy to use, but also ... know[ing] how 

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to use a strategy successfully and [to] orchestrate its use with other strategies’ 
(Anderson, 1991: 468–469).
In addition, it seems that L2 readers can be successfully trained in strategy use. 
Learners who were taught mapping strategies to recognize and use the rhetorical 
structure of texts (Carrell, 1985; Raymond, 1993), strategies for word, sentence 
and discourse analysis (Kern, 1989) and strategies relating to Experience–Text–
Relationship (ETR) and semantic mapping (Carrell, Pharis and Liberto, 1989) 
all improved their reading skills. Moreover, the improvements may prove to 
be durable; Carrell (1985) still found evidence of the training three weeks later. 
Strategy training may be especially helpful for weaker students, as Kern’s (1989) 
study showed that the strategy instruction benefited low-proficiency students to a 
greater extent than middle and high proficiency students.
Implications: Better learners actively control their reading and strategy use. 
Fortunately, it seems that these meta-cognitive skills can be taught, with lower 
proficiency students gaining the most. Therefore, reading instruction should include 
some training in these ‘management’ skills.
Implications: Teaching appropriate reading strategies directly and consistently is 
likely to lead to improved reading abilities for students.
In a recent meta-analysis, Taylor, Stevens and Asher (2006) reviewed 10 published 
journal articles, 9 dissertations and 4 other studies that involved controlled 
training studies. Their analysis of effect-size outcomes demonstrated a moderate 
effect of explicit strategy training on improved reading comprehension. 
Overall, more recent studies have shown a more complex situation, where 
the use of certain reading strategies does not always lead to successful reading 
comprehension, whereas other strategies do not always result in unsuccessful 
reading comprehension (see Anderson, 2005; Grabe, 2009; Hudson, 2007). There 
are no simple answers. Nonetheless, strategy instruction, when done well is an 
important part of effective reading instruction.
Extensive Reading/Impact of Exposure to Print
Day and Bamford (1998) and Krashen (2004) provide extended overviews of a 
number of studies that have investigated the impact of extensive reading on second 
language reading. What seems clear from the reviewed research is that second or 
foreign language readers at various ages and proficiency levels can benefit from 
extensive reading (Elley, 2000, Horst, 2009; Nation 2009). For example, Hafiz and 
Tudor (1989) found that a three-month extensive reading programme yielded 
significant improvement in secondary school ESL students’ reading and writing, 
whereas two control groups failed to show significant improvement over the same 
three-month period. In addition, groups of Japanese EFL learners using extensive 
reading performed better than similar traditionally instructed control groups 
(Mason and Krashen, 1997).

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In the past decade, additional studies have strengthened the argument for 
incorporating extensive reading into L2 reading instruction. Elley (2000) 
described multiple large-scale training studies of book-flood and extensive reading 
programmes that have proven to be much more successful than comparison L2 
curricula. Pichette (2005) reported that French-speaking ESL students in Canada 
showed a correlation between amount of reading and reading comprehension of 
r=0.55. Tanaka and Stapleton (2007) carried out a training study with 96 Japanese 
high school students. They showed that students in the extensive reading group 
outperformed a control group in reading rate and reading comprehension. Horst 
(2009) demonstrated that students who read extensively over a five-week period 
increased their vocabulary knowledge significantly more than students who did 
not engage in extensive reading. Moreover, the number of words learned in the 
study indicated that students who read extensively (on average three graded 
readers in five weeks) actually learned a considerable percentage of low-frequency 
unknown words assessed (approximately a 50 per cent gain for extensive readers).
Implications: Extensive reading provides many benefits for fluency, comprehension 
and vocabulary learning. It should be a component of almost any reading 
programme.
Further Issues
This review of specific areas of second language research does not purport to 
exhaust the many other studies that have contributed important insights into 
L2 reading. Moreover, due to space limitations, there are other areas that have 
not been covered but which deserve important attention and much continued 
research. Some of these other areas include: the interplay between higher and 
lower level processes, motivation in L2 reading, reading and writing relations, 
social context factors influencing L2 reading, assessment practices in L2 reading, 
the increasing role of fluency in reading instruction, neurolinguistics and reading, 
reading with new multimedia and computer technologies, teacher training for 
reading instruction, and the increasing similarities of L2 reading processes across 
languages as students reach advanced levels. Many of these issues can be explored 
in a number of sources: Grabe (2009), Han and Anderson (2009), Hudson (2007), 
Kamil (2009), Kamil and Chou (2009), Khalifa and Weir (2009), Koda (2005), 
Nation (2009), Wolf (2007). There are assuredly other issues that also deserve 
further attention.
Implications of L2 Research for Instruction
L2 reading research findings, when combined with appropriate L1 reading 
research, highlight important implications for instructional practices. While it 
is true that each instructional context has local factors that make it unique, and 
therefore not fully amenable to a generalized set of recommendations, it is also 
true that the research to date suggests general implications and guidelines as a 
starting point for planning L2 reading curricula. Based on the research reported 
in this chapter, we would like to propose the following ten implications for L2 
reading instruction, at least as a starting point for curriculum planning.

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Reading
• The need to develop reading fluency and word-recognition automaticity.
• The need to develop a large recognition vocabulary.
• The importance of discourse structure and the instructional benefits of using 
graphic representations.
• The need for language awareness and attention to language (structure) and 
genre form (meta-linguistic knowledge).
• The importance of meta-cognitive awareness and strategic reading.
• The importance of specific reading strategies to support word learning and 
reading to learn goals.
• The need for extensive reading.
• The importance of motivation.
• The benefits of integrated skills instruction and content-based instruction.
• The need for a supportive (classroom and institutional) environment for 
reading.
Suggesting implications for reading instruction represents part of the bridge to an 
effective reading curriculum. A second part is a needs analysis for each instructional 
context. Issues that a needs analysis might address include: What are the reading 
goals and why? Do the goals fit with institutional expectations? Are the goals 
achievable given students’ L2 proficiency levels? Are there sufficient resources and 
sufficient time to achieve instructional goals? These and other questions need to 
be considered to establish viable goals for instruction and determine the extent to 
which L2 reading abilities can be developed.
A third part, once a curriculum plan and customized goals are established, is to 
determine priorities for specific instructional practices to achieve these goals. It is 
beyond the scope of this chapter to comment on the numerous specific practices 
themselves, though there are many sources that provide useful suggestions for 
instruction (Anderson, 1999, 2008; Calderón, 2007; Carrell et al., 1989; Grabe, 
2009; Grabe and Stoller, 2002; Hedgcock and Ferris, 2009; Nation, 2009; Silberstein, 
1994). There are also many excellent and appropriate ideas for instruction that can 
be drawn from L1 resources (Blachowicz and Ogle, 2008; Block and Parris, 2008; 
Dymock and Nicholson, 2007; Gambrell, Morrow and Pressley, 2007; Pressley, 
2006; Rasinski, 2003; Wilhelm, 2001).
Further Reading
Anderson, N. (1999) Exploring Second Language Reading. Boston, MA: Heinle & 
Heinle. The volume offers a concise and coherent interpretation of reading research for 
L2 reading instruction. The book is very accessible, but covers a wider range of key 
topics than other books devoted specifically to reading instruction.
Anderson, N. (2008) Reading. New York: McGraw-Hill. This volume shifts the focus 
of translating L2 reading research into instructional practices and options from his 
earlier volume. Organized in terms of beginning, intermediate and advanced students, 
it addresses many instructional activities and provides many resources for practicing 
teachers.
Calderón, M. (2007) Teaching Reading to English Language Learners. Thousand Oaks, 
CA: Corwin Press. This volume addresses academic reading instruction for ESL students 
in grades 6–12 in North American contexts. It offers many practical suggestions for 

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reading instruction that is supported by evidence-based research. It also addresses ways 
to combine reading instruction with content-area instruction.
Grabe, W. (2009) Reading in a Second Language: Moving from Theory to Practice. 
New York: Cambridge University Press. This volume provides an overview of both L1 
and L2 reading theory as well as implications for instruction. The sub-title, ‘moving from 
theory to practice’, identifies the goal of the book. Many instructional implications are 
suggested from the research reviewed.
Grabe, W., Stoller, F. (2002) Teaching and Researching Reading. New York: Longman. 
This volume addresses current reading research from both L1 and L2 contexts and 
develops a set of general principles for reading instruction and action research inquiry. 
The book presents an explanation for how reading comprehension works, how L2 reading 
is different from L1 reading, and the issues for instruction that are created by these 
differences. It also outlines 30 possible action research projects on a range of reading 
instruction topics.
Hudson, T. (2007) Teaching Second Language Reading. New York: Oxford University 
Press. This volume provides a comprehensive review of existing L2 reading research, 
focusing strongly on issues of background knowledge, reading strategies, vocabulary 
and reading/writing relationships.
Kamil, M. (ed). (2009) Handbook of Reading Research. Volume IV. New York: Routledge. 
This major edited collection summarizes current thinking by leading reading and education 
researchers in English L1 contexts. Although the chapters in this volume focus less on 
the cognitive aspects of reading, in comparison to Volume II (1991), there are many 
important chapters that anyone seeking greater knowledge about reading would need 
to review.
Koda, K. (2005) Insights into Second Language Reading. New York: Cambridge 
University Press. This volume provides an authoritative overview of L2 reading theory 
and research, focusing especially on issues of component skills development and cross-
linguistic issues in L2 reading development.
Pressley, M. (2006) Reading Instruction that Works, 
(third edition). New York: Guilford. 
This is the best L1 reading volume on issues in translating reading research into 
implications for reading instruction. It is both authoritative and very accessible. It presents 
a coherent balanced perspective on English L1 reading issues and instructional practices.
Hands-on Activity
Text: Select a substantial text (two to three pages) excerpt from a textbook or 
other reading resource in the social sciences (for example, psychology, economics, 
sociology).