Reading and learning from L2 text: Effects of reading goal, topic familiarity, and language proficiency

Abstract

This study examined the effect of reading goal, topic-familiarity, and language proficiency on text comprehension and learning. English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) students with high and low topic-familiarity read and recalled a text. Some were told in advance to expect a recall task in a particular language—the first language (L1) or second language (L2)—and recalled in the same language (the L1-L1 condition and the L2-L2 condition). Others were told of the L1 recall before reading and later recalled in the L2 (the L1-L2 condition). It was found that content recall was enhanced in the L1-L1 condition whereas incidental vocabulary learning benefited from the L2-L2 condition. Language proficiency affected overall content recall while topic-familiarity facilitated processing of specific content information. These findings suggest that reading goal affects resource allocation during text processing, with topic-familiarity and language proficiency intervening additively.