Mortimer Adler and Charles van Doren wisely remind in "How to Read a Book" (1972) that readers must come to terms with an author "before" beginning the interpretation process. Following this logic, the first question that should be posed about "Foreign Languages and Higher Education: New Structures for a Changed World" by MLA Ad Hoc Committee on…

One powerful entry into the new world that is available to language educators is the use of collaboration. Collaboration is defined as: "a recursive process where two or more people or organizations work together in an intersection of common goals--for example, an intellectual endeavor that is creative in nature--by sharing knowledge, learning and…

Describes exploratory classroom research with a group of Italian university students to gain insight into the effect of metadiscourse on English for specific purposes reading comprehension. Findings suggest that a more pronounced use of metadiscourse may be associated with improved comprehension in some cases. (Author/VWL)

Investigates how accurately learners can assess their understanding of words and whether this accuracy is influenced by the learners' culture, gender, and lexical knowledge. Subjects were university students of English in China, Israel, and Japan. A mismatch between the objective and perceived understanding of a reading task was related to the…

Reports an empirical investigation into the influence of purpose for reading on performance in reading in English as a Second Language for academic purposes. High intermediate and advanced level university students of ESL read an academic procedural text for one of two purposes. Results showed a significant interaction between purpose and task, as…

Discusses the claim that reading without thinking is not possible. Presents critical discourse analysis, which is considered a pedagogically useful instrument enabling the practice of thinking skills necessary for reading efficiently. Considers the teachability of reading and thinking skills, and describes a critical reading course. (Author/VWL)

Makes a case for introducing specialized texts in the English for specific purposes classroom earlier in the reading process. Addresses the question of whether an engineering word list might be a short cut to reading fluency for engineering students, and if so, which words might appropriately be listed. (Author/VWL)

Uses student essays to examine the difficulties Taiwanese university freshmen have in their English reading. Discusses students' previous learning of English reading in secondary classrooms and its effect on present reading, and examines students' attitudes toward English speaking culture compared to their own Taiwanese culture. (Author/VWL)

Explores the application of a process-based methodology in reading of recent fictional text, Ishiguro's "The Remains of the Day," with international undergraduates. Illustrated by practical tasks on narrative voice designed to build awareness of metadiscursive markers and their functions, this article makes a case for a methodology that is…

Argues that second-language learners should be encouraged to establish experiential reading as their norm and sufficient comprehension as their goal, thus achieving a multidimensional representation of literature that can facilitate language acquisition and reading comprehension. Demonstrates four approaches that can help ensure that reading…

Analyzed whether variations in amount and type of linguistic simplification would create differences in the comprehension levels of Jordanian college students studying English. Students read different versions of a text and completed an achievement test. Simplification positively affected students' reading comprehension. The type, not amount, of…

This replication study demonstrated that Jordanian college students studying English recognized the meanings of new words and built associations between them after comprehension-focused extensive reading. Controlled book-length reading generated more incidental word learning and a higher pickup rate than shorter tasks. Word frequency did not make…

Investigated Jordanian college students' evaluation of the impact learning and using five reading strategies in their English-language course had on performing academic tasks required in English for subject courses. Students believed formal instruction in these strategies helped them perform academic tasks required in English in their subject…

Compared "read schema activation," in which one group of Japanese women college students of English as a Second Language read a whole text related to the target text; and "written schema activation," in which a second group wrote about the topic of the target text. A control group read the target text twice. There were no significant differences…

Investigates the effects of repeated readings of a passage in a foreign language (English) on the ability of slow beginning readers at a Japanese university to increase their oral and silent reading rates. Results indicate that, for practice passages, silent reading rates increased significantly. This transfer of practice effects to a new passage…