This study aimed to explore the role of inference making in the relation between vocabulary knowledge (breadth and depth) and reading comprehension for 487 ninthgrade Chinese EFL students who were categorized as either struggling or adequate. Path analysis was used to examine both direct and mediated effects. The results indicated a statistically significant indirect effect of vocabulary knowledge on reading comprehension, mediated by inference making, for the entire participant group. However, there were notable differences between the struggling and adequate readers, as evidenced by distinct path diagrams. For struggling readers, the indirect effect of vocabulary breadth on reading comprehension through inference making was significant, while that of vocabulary depth was not significant. For adequate readers, both vocabulary breadth and depth directly explained reading comprehension. These results are discussed in the EFL context, encompassing assessment and instructional implications for EFL readers with varying levels of reading abilities.

This paper presents a case study of developing a blended reading program for Korean EFL middle school students using a process drama methodology to generate intrinsic motivation to read, improve reading comprehension and language fluency, and foster twenty-first-century skills such as creativity, communication, and cooperation. For the development of the reading program, a needs analysis was conducted using student questionnaires and diagnostic tests. From results of the needs analysis, sample lessons were designed based on the process drama methodology following its planning principles and strategies. Based on feedback from teachers and students after piloting the sample lessons, the blended reading program was finalized. The proposed blended reading program is expected to help Korean EFL middle school students build a positive attitude toward reading English books and develop reading comprehension, language fluency, and 21st-century core competencies. It will also encourage English teachers to use innovative teaching methods in English education.

The current study examined the potential contribution of advanced Korean EFL learners’ writing abilities to their reading comprehension abilities. A total of 191 college students participated in this study and were tested on writing and reading comprehension abilities as well as other literacy-related measures including listening comprehension, textreading fluency, and knowledge of vocabulary to control for their effects. In order to account for different aspects of writing and reading comprehension abilities, multiple measures of reading and writing abilities were adopted. The Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analyses demonstrated that the advanced Korean EFL learners’ English writing abilities had a significant effect on their reading comprehension abilities when other relevant literacy skills were controlled for. Furthermore, their writing abilities mediated the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension abilities. These results highlight the important pedagogical implications on the critical role of writing abilities in enhancing the reading comprehension abilities of L2 learners.

This paper explores a college EFL course designed to practice reading for pleasure during the pandemic. Sixty EFL college learners in a required English course read Mark Haddon’s (2004) [The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time] within the structure of a regular reading and writing focused academic English course. Reading for pleasure is often considered unfit for inclusion in regular curriculum. Nevertheless, for digital natives, the act of pleasurable reading especially in L2, should be actively implemented into classroom activities. This study follows a case study which practices reading for pleasure by utilizing weekly quizzes, discussion questions and response paper. Students’ feedback was collected and analyzed in order to share students’ experiences in completing the tasks. The feedback shows how weekly quizzes and class discussions have encouraged them to continue reading the text, influenced their attitude on reading English books and how they were able to empathize with the characters. This paper invokes the need to include reading young adult literature into general English courses for college learners to make them lifelong readers of L2.

In today’s digital era, tablets are gaining popularity as reading devices. However, few studies have compared reading e-books on tablets with reading printed books and regular classroom instruction for language learning. To evaluate the role of tablets in reading and analyze the possibilities, the current study examined 97 elementary school students learning English as a foreign language in South Korea. These students were taught English once or twice a week for 11 weeks based on extensive reading using tablets (n = 42), printed books (n = 32), or regular textbook-based instruction as control (n = 23). The results indicate that literal level reading comprehension was improved the largest in the tablet group compared with the other groups. By contrast, improvements in inferential reading comprehension and grammatical knowledge were greater in those reading printed books than in the tablet group. The findings suggest that the print medium was superior for deep reading and digital texts were better for quick and shallow learning.

Numerous studies have supported the simple view of reading by showing the significant predictive roles of oral language comprehension ability and decoding skills in the reading comprehension of monolinguals and second language learners. However, little is known about its applicability to young foreign language learners who do not have much access to the target language and literacy input outside the school and especially those whose first and second languages are typologically different. This study was designed to examine the contribution of English oral language comprehension ability and decoding skills to the reading comprehension of fifth-grade Korean EFL learners. In doing so, the indirect effects of oral language ability and phonological awareness were also considered, and English reading fluency and Korean reading comprehension abilities were controlled for. The findings not only support the simple view of reading but also highlight the indirect effects of oral language comprehension ability and phonological awareness on reading comprehension abilities via the effects of decoding skills.

From a conversation analytic perspective, this paper undertakes the sequential analysis of students' oral reading initiated by teachers during teacher-student interaction. Extracted from 14 Korean elementary school EFL lessons collected on video, the sequences that contain teachers' initiation and students' reading and the surrounding talk were closely examined. The major finding is that students' oral reading serves a range of instructional purposes: practicing through repetition, marking closure, preparing for what is about to unfold, collaborating in knowledge presentation, rendering key linguistic information, and presenting and checking students' written work. Based on this observation, this paper argues that students' oral reading predominantly occurs as part of or in conjunction with a larger instructional activity, rather than with an exclusive instructional focus.

This study examined the effects of an intervention using audiobooks for the development of reading fluency, in terms of reading speed, reading comprehension, and motivation to read among Kazakhstani English as a foreign language (EFL) ninth-grade learners in the K–11 system. Silent reading with audiobooks (experimental group) and silent reading only (control group) were compared with a mixed-method study design, a reading motivation questionnaire, and a semi-structured interview. Quantitative data analysis was conducted using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). The experimental group was found to significantly outperform the control group in reading speed while preserving substantial comprehension of the texts. The results further revealed that, while both groups’ motivation level increased, no statistically significant difference was found between the experimental and control groups, suggesting that the use of audiobooks was not superior to silent reading for motivation enhancement. Nevertheless, a qualitative analysis of data obtained from the interviews revealed that the use of audiobooks had an overall positive effect on students’ attitudes toward the use of audiobooks and reading comprehension. The study concludes with a discussion of limitations and suggestions for future research.

This case study aimed to examine ways Korean university students in an English critical reading class participated in educational action projects. For this purpose, the reading class was designed to enhance students’ critical thinking skills and global citizenship as readers. Eighteen students in the class were taught by the teacher how to read texts in English using a critical perspective. The reading class was managed in a flexible mode with comprehension check-ups, critical dialoguing, and student-initiated action. Students were invited to connect what they discussed to action outcomes as a group project. Students in groups presented their understanding of readings and what they discussed in critical dialogues of the readings. They then reported what they did outside the classroom to foster themselves as truly active citizens in their local circumstances. Their group reports and project products were collected and analyzed into themes using qualitative methods. It was revealed that critical dialogue activities could help students come up with action-provoking questions on the readings, bring about a variety of action outcomes resulting from collaborations in groups, and help students become more active readers and citizens. Educational implications are also discussed.

During reading instruction, sustaining learners’ reading motivation (RM) may be a challenge but a requisite when the goal is to keep learners reading. In the context of the present study, it was examined as to how RM may be sustained in a reading course. For this purpose, information on learners’ RM was collected in a semester-long university reading course with 118 Korean learners of English at the pre- and post-instructional stages of reading. RM was assessed with Motivations for Reading Questionnaire before and after reading instruction. Results indicated that reading involvement had decreased for all learners whereas the less skilled learners demonstrated an increase of reading efficacy and a drop in reading for grades. A linear multiple regression further indicated that reading efficacy was a significant predictor of reading proficiency only for the skilled learners. Implications are presented on how reading needs to be conducted by allowing learners to choose their own materials, which in turn may have an effect on developing more robust forms of RM.

As research evidence for the facilitative effects of reading strategies on reading comprehension has been accumulating, research and pedagogical interests in prereading strategies such as prediction and schema activation are increasing. Yet, little research evidence of how actual performance on such tasks may be related to reading comprehension is sparse. This study explores whether prediction abilities and content schema are related to Korean middle school EFL learners’ reading comprehension abilities in English, and whether such potential relations may differ for factual and inferential comprehension. The study participants were one hundred thirty-seven Korean seventh grade students, and their performance on schema activation, prediction, and reading comprehension abilities was investigated, while controlling for their overall language proficiency and literacy skills. The findings indicated that although both prediction abilities and content schema facilitated reading comprehension, prediction abilities were a relatively stronger predictor of both factual and inferential comprehension. The results further suggest the need to provide effective trainings on pre-reading strategies.

The study aims to investigate the effect of post-reading question-generation activities on Korean middle school students’ English reading abilities with respect to cooperative learning. Two groups of students read the same reading materials; however, one group as an experimental group generated questions of three types, literal, inferential, and evaluative questions, while the other group as a control group answered comprehension questions. Each group was further divided into two sub-groups by cooperative and individual learning. A statistical analysis of the recall test scores reveals a positive effect of post-reading question-generation activities and cooperative learning on English reading abilities. The reading test scores by the three question types further illustrated variations across the question types: the experimental group outperformed the control group in the inferential and evaluative questions and individual learning was detected to be more effective than cooperative learning in the evaluative questions. Interactional effects were observed between post-reading activities and cooperative learning in the literal and evaluative questions. The findings suggest question-generation activities as a beneficial post-reading task, though their effectiveness can vary by question types and learning context.

By examining two low-proficiency EFL students’ experiences of reading literature, and of writing about what they have read during a semester-long reading/writing course, we investigate literature’s place in EFL writing classes. We also observe whether using literature in EFL writing classes lead to successful synergies among LW (learning-to-write), WLL (writing-to-learn language), and WLC (writing-tolearn content). We adopt a case study methodology. The participants, Mia and Sun, are first-year students who attend a private university in Seoul. Both students favor the inclusion of literature in the reading-writing classroom. Mia experiences the literature-reading-writing connection mainly as language knowledge, with the strong appreciation for WLL perspective. By comparison, Sun concerns for LW dimensions of writing, together with the WLL perspective. This study provides evidence that literature-reading-writing connection serves as a vehicle not only for a rich reading experience but also for the synergistic learning of writing, content, and language.

The purpose of this study is to examine how reading motivation varies in its prediction of reading comprehension in Korean (L1) and English (L2) (with parental involvement being controlled for), and how reading motivation in each language is associated with language proficiency. Participants consisted of 289 EFL middle school students in South Korea. Three questionnaires and four language tests were employed to measure learners' reading motivation, parental involvement, language proficiency, and reading comprehension in their L1 and L2. Results indicated that L2 reading performance was positively predicted by both intrinsic motivation and grades/utility, whereas the only positive predictor of L1 reading comprehension was intrinsic motivation. Moreover, in both L1 and L2, the high-proficiency group was found to exhibit significantly stronger intrinsic and extrinsic motivation than the low group; the high group's intrinsic motivation was significantly stronger than the middle group; and the middle and low groups differed significantly in extrinsic motivation.

The purpose of the study was to investigate the causal relationships among factors affecting L2 reading achievement using a structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis. A total of 327 Korean EFL high school students completed a questionnaire on L2 reading motivation and strategies. The students’ L2 listening and reading comprehension abilities were measured by scores on the practice test for Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT) and self-assessed listening and reading proficiency. The study results showed that the students’ L2 reading efficacy, L2 reading strategy use, and L2 listening skills were significant predictors of their L2 reading achievement, while L2 reading motivation showed no significant relation with reading achievement. The nonsignificant path loading between reading motivation and reading achievement implies that reading motivation alone is not sufficient to promote students’ L2 reading proficiency. The final SEM model indicated a relatively strongest contribution of L2 listening ability over L2 reading efficacy and strategy use to L2 reading achievement. Pedagogical implications based on the findings are discussed.

The present study explored a reading-based speaking task for its potential to develop EFL students' fluency. Based on an L1 speaking model by Levelt (1989, 1993), the task was developed in a way that students can maximize their fluency in a scaffolding-rich condition: one in the stage of message generation and the other in linguistic encoding. The use of reading texts for the development of speaking fluency was also hypothesized to induce authentic interaction among interlocutors. How the reading-based speaking task functions as hypothesized was tested with five Korean college students who participated in a 4-week reading-based speaking program. The analysis of the group activity transcripts and interviews revealed that scaffolding in message generation took place in three types of language episode: a personal experience episode, a vocabulary-related episode, and a contentclarification/ elaboration episode. Linguistic encoding in L2 speaking was scaffolded via shared context, which enabled the participants to develop and utilize a paraphrasing skill. Finally, the participants’ engagement in speaking activities increased, affecting their willingness to communicate and their motivation to improve speaking.

The aim of this study is to explore the relationships between EFL learners’ reading motivation, proficiency, and strategy use. Fifty-seven students at a Korean university participated in the study. Two self-report questionnaires and a reading comprehension test were used to measure the learners’ motivation to for reading in English, reading proficiency, and reading strategy use. No significant correlation was found between reading motivation and reading strategy use or between reading motivation and reading proficiency. However, students’ performance on the test was positively related to their reported reading strategy use, showing a moderate correlation. In addition, the study found that although proficient students and less proficient students used almost the same kinds of strategies to support their reading comprehension, more proficient students used strategies more frequently than less proficient students.

Despite the general understanding of the prominent role of basic reading sub-skills, such as decoding abilities and reading fluency, in the reading comprehension of younger and proficient first and second language readers, little is known about the role of these skills in older and less skilled readers in foreign language contexts. The present study was designed to investigate how decoding skills and reading fluency relate to the reading comprehension of such readers, and to identify the relative strengths between the two. Two hundred twenty two Korean high school students participated, and their performance on decoding, reading fluency, and reading comprehension tasks was analyzed. The results showed that both decoding skills and reading fluency were strongly correlated to reading comprehension. Moreover, between the two fundamental reading sub-skills, decoding skills outperformed reading fluency in explaining reading comprehension, making a unique contribution beyond the effects of reading fluency. These findings suggest that a basic skill like word decoding still deserves instructional attention even at the secondary schools in EFL contexts.