Vocabulary is an important foundation for reading skills. Dual-route cascaded model believes that when form-sound correspondence is irregular, phonetic decoding is a necessary but not sufficient condition for word acquisition. Lexical access in syllabic scripts involves a morphological-phonetic-semantic approach, where phonological decoding is…

The literature has revealed the impact of personal factors on feedback-seeking behavior (FSB) in second language (L2) writing. However, little is known about how teacher academic support influences FSB in L2 writing and whether this relationship is mediated by L2 writing self (ideal and ought-to L2 writing selves). To address the lacunae, this…

Reading and writing are enormously valuable, influencing every area of life beyond school. However, reading and writing difficulties are on the rise, especially among second-language students. The primary objective of this study is to design a classroom intervention that simultaneously promotes reading and writing and is easy to implement. In a…

Foreign language anxiety has influenced reading achievement in English as a second language learning (ESL). However, less is known about how foreign language anxiety affects Chinese students learning English as L2 and the interplay between foreign language anxiety and cognitive-linguistic factors on L2 reading performance. This longitudinal study…

It has been suggested that the reading acceleration program (RAP) (Breznitz et al. in Nature Communications 4: 1486, 2013), in which participants are forced to read at a rate faster than their normal reading fluency rate, improves reading fluency and comprehension in alphabetic languages. However, its effectiveness has never been examined in…

While it has been shown that socioeconomic status (SES) is important for children's literacy development in their first language (L1), less is known about its association with reading in a second language (L2). The present study examined the different effects of SES on the acquisition of reading in Chinese as L1 and English as L2 from ages 7 to…

While there is some evidence of a gap in English writing achievement between children with English as an additional language (EAL) compared to their monolingual English-speaking (EL1) peers, the source of this gap remains unclear. This study examines whether writing presents a specific challenge for children with EAL beyond their oral language and…

Evidence of sensitivity to graphotactic and morphological patterns in English spelling has been extensively examined in monolinguals. Comparatively few studies have examined bilinguals' sensitivity to spelling regularities. The present study compared late Chinese-English bilinguals and English monolinguals on their sensitivity to systematic…

Typical print formatting provides no information regarding the linguistic features of a text, although texts vary considerably with respect to grammatical complexity and readability. Complex texts may be particularly challenging for individuals with weak language knowledge, such as English language learners. This paper investigates the usefulness…

This study assessed the effect of adjectives and noun premodifiers on L2 noun phrase comprehension and error types among English Language Learners. We also examined the correlation between L2 noun phrase comprehension and L2 reading comprehension, as well as the contribution of L2 noun phrase comprehension to L2 reading comprehension. One hundred…

Foundational literacy is a key lever for achieving higher levels of learning and societal wellbeing. However, with an enrolment of over 250 million children in schools, India is currently challenged by learning deprivation. Growing uptake of English-medium education along with less-than-optimal English literacy instruction practices present an…