Diagnostic Assessment in L2 Reading Based on Diagnostic Principles

In recent years, L2 reading becomes a hot research topic that most language teaching researchers concerned about in Second or Foreign Language (SFL) field. About L2 reading assessment, a new research perspective proposed by Alderson, Brunfaut and Harding (2014) stated that diagnosis could be practiced across a range of professions in order to develop a tentative framework for a theory of diagnosis in SFL assessment (Alderson et al., 2015). There remained a question to be discussed: how to implement a diagnostic assessment and diagnostic principles in L2 reading efficiently. This paper will illustrate the set of principles (Alderson et al.) by first outlining the stages of a diagnostic process built on these principles after analyzing L1 reading and L2 reading respectively. Then, it will discuss the implications of this process for the diagnostic assessment of reading in order to improve students’ L2 reading ability through diagnostic assessment.