One of the main goals of the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) course is to facilitate the development of learners' reading comprehension and reflective skills in English, which can be developed with appropriate instruction. However, in EFL courses, many students are inactive in reflecting on their reading and are disengaged from learning. To…

Launched in late November 2022, ChatGPT, a large language model chatbot, has garnered considerable attention. However, ongoing questions remain regarding its capabilities. In this study, ChatGPT was used to complete national high school exams in the Netherlands on the topic of English reading comprehension. In late December 2022, we submitted the…

This study explored the diverse responses of Japanese university-level learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) to lexically easy short poems. These participants had attained a high level of English proficiency and were able to grasp the literal meaning of the poems. The investigation employed confidence level and reading time as…

It is often observed that many learners prefer reading texts with background music (BGM), which may enhance engagement and mood in reading. However, the impact of BGM on reading comprehension performance or process remains heterogeneous. This study examined how learners' self-provided preferred BGM affected reading comprehension accuracy and…

The current study was set to explore the influence of the first (L1) and second (L2) language group discussions on L2 reading comprehension. It also explored two sub-elements that were considered vital to L2 reading comprehension: (a) text genre recognition and (b) character and author's intention and perspective. Participants were 21 college…

The current study examines the role of gender, socioeconomic status, and region in predicting the reading comprehension of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners. Based on the relevant literature, three hypotheses have been formulated, which entail three independent variables (gender, socioeconomic status, and region) and the dependent…

Reading comprehension constitutes an important part of the Chinese National Matriculation English Test (NMET) which influences English teaching practice greatly. Despite the focus of many studies on NMET reforms, content validity, and washback effects, there remains a notable gap in research regarding the genre of reading texts in NMET. Drawing on…

Neural machine translators (NMTs), such as "Google Translate," may assist second language (L2) readers with general comprehension. However, previous empirical studies show mixed results regarding their effectiveness. In this study, 145 Korean English learners from a girls' high school were asked to solve three types of reading…

The concern about learners' use of reading strategies during the reading process for better reading comprehension prompted this investigation, especially at the research site where reading skills play a pivotal role in the student's overall learning process. The main aims of the study included examinations of (1) the frequency of metacognitive…

A growing number of studies have focused on uncovering linguistic and cognitive skills predictive of reading comprehension. Vocabulary knowledge (VK) and morphological awareness (MA) are two important linguistic variables for reading comprehension. In contrast, working memory (WM) is an essential cognitive variable for reading comprehension. The…

Background: The high number of poor-performing learners in reading comprehension in South African schools is a concerning factor that calls for studies to mitigate this problem. The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) of 2021 indicates that about 81% of South African Grade 4 learners who participated, failed to reach the…

Background: Second language (L2) reading is a complex process in which two languages constantly interact. L1 reading and L2 proficiency are two well-acknowledged factors contributing to L2 reading comprehension. Other factors, such as strategy use and anxiety, might also predict L2 reading comprehension, but their roles have not been examined in…

The aim of the study is to investigate trends in academic L1 Swedish and L2 English reading comprehension ability among Swedish adolescents, with a specific focus on 18- to 20-year-olds in the period 2012-2018. The material consists of results from regular tests and anchor tests in the spring administrations of the Swedish Scholastic Assessment…

Translation has been one of the most commonly used strategies in learning an additional language. Although there is not a consensus on the usefulness of translation as a language learning strategy, the relevant literature indicated that it could contribute to the learning process when used purposefully and meaningfully. The present study aimed to…

Gamification is one of the innovative teaching approaches implemented in English classrooms nowadays. However, using gamification to enhance reading engagement and reading comprehension in language classrooms at the university level has not been much explored. This present study investigated gamification's effects on enhancing reading engagement,…