Berhardt advocates more principled research and instruction in second language literacy. This book is a personal statement based on her own theory and research as well as that of others. It provides a comprehensive review of what is known about the second language reading process based on principles drawn from the synthesis of empirical data. The discussion is set forth from four main perspectives: an examination of theoretical models of the reading process and their application to second language contexts; a synthesis of empirical data of second language reading research from 1973 to 1989; descriptions of reader-based interactions with second language texts; and curriculum, instruction, and assessment.

eading Development in a Second Language attempts to provide a thorough account of what is known about the acquisition of reading abilities in a second language. Its aim is to foster more principled research and instruction in second language literacy. In order to teach the aim discussion is set forth from a variety of perspectives: first; through examinations of theoretical models of the reading process and their application to a second language context; second, through a synthesis of the empirical data base from 1973 to the present; third, by means of descriptions of reader-based interactions with second language texts; and finally, through concepts of curriculum, instruction, and assessment.

Abstract:

What distinguishes this book is its broad, yet thorough, view of theory, process, and research on adult second-language reading. Offering extensive discussions of upper-register second-language texts (both expository and narrative) that adult second-language readers encounter daily across the globe, it also presents an assessment schema for second-language text comprehension as well as for the assessment of teaching. Understanding Advanced Second-Language Reading: includes languages other than English in the discussion of second language reading is firmly anchored in a theory of second language reading ─ the concept of compensatory processing emphasizes the multi-dimensionality and dynamic nature of L2 reading development focuses on comprehension of upper-register literary texts balances theory and instructional practices. Filling the need for a coherent, theoretically consistent, and research-based portrait of how literate adolescents and adults comprehend, and learn to comprehend, at greater levels of sophistication and whether that ability can be enhanced by instruction, this is a must-have resource for reading and second-language researchers, students, and teachers.

Reading in a Second Language offers a comprehensive survey of the phenomenon and process of reading in a second language, with graduate and upper-level undergraduate students in second language acquisition, psycholinguistics, and applied psychology as its primary audience. The book explores reading processes from a number of complementary standpoints, integrating perspectives from fields such as first and second language reading, second language acquisition, linguistics, psycholinguistics, and cognitive neuroscience. The first half examines major factors in second language reading: types of scripts, the cognitive and neural substrates of reading; metalinguistic awareness, word recognition, language transfer, and lexical knowledge. The second part of the book discusses the social and educational contexts in which reading development occurs, including issues related to pedagogy, the use of technology in the classroom, reading disorders, and policy making. Reading in a Second Language provides students with a full, logically organized overview of the primary factors that shape reading development and processes in a second language.

Reporting the findings of the National Literacy Panel on Language-Minority Children and Youth, this book concisely summarises what is known from empirical research about the development of literacy in language-minority children and youth, including development, environment, instruction, and assessment.

This book systematically examines how learning to read occurs in diverse languages, and in so doing, explores how literacy is learned in a second language by learners who have achieved at least basic reading skills in their first language. As a consequence of rapid globalization, such learners are a large and growing segment of the school population worldwide, and an increasing number of schools are challenged by learners from a wide variety of languages, and with distinct prior literacy experiences. To succeed academically these learners must develop second-language literacy skills, yet little is known about the ways in which they learn to read in their first languages, and even less about how the specific nature and level of their first-language literacy affects second-language reading development. This volume provides detailed descriptions of five typologically diverse languages and their writing systems, and offers comparisons of learning-to-read experiences in these languages. Specifically, it addresses the requisite competencies in learning to read in each of the languages, how language and writing system properties affect the way children learn to read, and the extent and ways in which literacy learning experience in one language can play a role in subsequent reading development in another. Both common and distinct aspects of literacy learning experiences across languages are identified, thus establishing a basis for determining which skills are available for transfer in second-language reading development. Learning to Read Across Languages is intended for researchers and advanced students in the areas of second-language learning, psycholinguistics, literacy, bilingualism, and cross-linguistic issues in language processing.