See How They Read: Comprehension Monitoring of L1 and L2 Readers

This paper illustrates the comprehension-monitoring process used by first and second language readers of English as they read expository prose. The think-aloud protocols of 25 college freshmen were collected. Sixteen (8 L1 and 8 L2 readers) were classified as proficient, 9 as nonproficient (3 L1 and 6 L2 readers). The monitoring process is discussed with respect to two specific problems: one involving a search for a referent, the other, a vocabulary problem. Three phases and six specific steps are defined: evaluation phase (problem recognition and problem source identification), action phase (strategic plan and action/ solution attempt), and checking phase (check and revision). The responses indicated that monitoring was most thorough with the referent problem when the problem was explicitly signaled. The process was somewhat truncated with the vocabulary problem. Proficient L2 readers performed similarly to proficient L1 readers; less proficient L2 readers performed similarly to less proficient L1 readers. Although the general trends shown in L1 research were supported, there were some discrepancies in developmental trends. Caution is advised in applying the results of L1 research to L2 readers. Reading is such a hidden process that it often goes unnoticed in the language classroom. Still we know much more about reading in both a first and a second language than we did 15 years ago. We have ceased debating whether reading is a bottom-up, languagebased process or a top-down, knowledge-based process. Most people now accept that the two processes interact (Carrell, Devine, Grabe, 1991; Rumelhart, 1977; Stanovich, 1980). We now also appreciate the influence of background knowledge on both Li and L2 readers (e.g., Adams Anderson Carrell, 1983, 1988; Carrell Steffensen, Joag-dev, & Anderson, 1979). And, furthermore, we