This article examines findings from an umbrella review of 95 systematic reviews and meta-analyses on effective reading instruction. The analysis highlights that reading is a multifaceted process, requiring the integration of key components such as decoding, comprehension, fluency, and motivation. The review underscores the importance of early…

Previous meta-analyses of reading strategy (RS) instruction in second and foreign language (L2) contexts have consistently shown that RS instruction has a positive impact on reading comprehension. However, whether RS instruction can promote both the use of RS "and" reading comprehension among English L2 learners is unclear. The effect of…

The practice of extensive reading (ER) is widely recognised as an effective approach to language acquisition, facilitating vocabulary expansion, text comprehension, and reading fluency. This study examines the role of ER in enhancing these aspects, offering a structured analysis of its impact on language learning. Drawing upon Krashen's Input…

Despite the preponderance of research on extensive reading (ER), the research field still suffers from a lack of common understanding of what ER is and how it should be implemented. From the perspective of Day and Bamford's (2002) seminal ten principles for teaching ER, the present methodological synthesis aimed to systematically review and…

Research on extensive reading (ER) has quite consistently highlighted its impact on second/foreign language learning. However, it remains unclear what the exact components of ER are that make it profitable. In practice, there appears to be variation in the application of key elements of ER, and programs vary in the kinds of additions they make to…

This survey of recent research on extensive reading (ER) for language learners focuses on ER in the classroom. While early adopters of ER imagined the quick emergence of an intrinsically motivated independent reader, the reality of much classroom-based language learning is that without considerable teacher guidance and supportive transitional…

Besides explicit inference of word meanings, associating words with diverse contexts may be a key mechanism underlying vocabulary learning through reading. Drawing from distributional semantic theory, we developed a text modification method called reflash to facilitate both word-context association and explicit inference. Using a set of left and…

Glossing is a widely used and examined vocabulary learning tool, and one of the major branches of glossing research has compared the relative effects of first language (L1) and second language (L2) glosses on reading comprehension and vocabulary learning. However, the findings in this literature have not been consistent, calling for a…

Engagement in extensive reading (ER) on the internet provides learners with unparalleled access to diverse digital resources, positioning online extensive reading (OER) as a transformative extension of traditional ER practices. OER combines the principles of ER with the affordances of modern technology, offering interactivity, multimedia features,…

Reading fluency is a skill, which is closely linked to reading comprehension. Learners' struggle with fluency in reading can be a significant hurdle to proficiency in their overall reading comprehension and competency. This paper, based on the thematic analysis approach, presents some theoretically pedagogical strategies discovered for developing…

Saudi EFL students experience similar difficulties as other language learners do when learning English. One of the most crucial disciplines of foreign language (FL) method study is the employment of reading strategies by speakers of EFL. Students who actively employ their reading comprehension techniques are able to comprehend and remember more of…

Purpose: The present study aimed to systemically summarize the structural relationships among correlated components of second language (L2) reading comprehension to investigate the extent to which the two major components -- language comprehension abilities and decoding skills -- could account for reading comprehension in L2 contexts in accordance…

This systematic review aims to synthesize the literature on the effects of cross-linguistic transfer on Spanish/English bilinguals' reading comprehension skills. The search yielded at least 90 studies in which participants were Spanish/English bilinguals aged birth to Grade 12. Researchers assessed participants' decoding and/or linguistic…

Reading in English is an essential skill that emergent bilingual students in the United States (U.S.) must master to be successful in school and to fully take advantage of the affordances reading in English offers. The current meta-analysis examined the extent to which reading instruction improved English reading outcomes for preschool to grade 12…

This meta-analysis comprehensively examined the effects of English language interventions on struggling elementary school learners in South Korea learning English as a foreign language. A total of 22 studies of experimental and quasi-experimental studies were separately analyzed by the study design using a random-effects model, and the mean effect…