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2.2 Two hypotheses concerning L2 reading
Alderson (1984) advocated systematic examinations of reading competencydifferences and posed the famous and significant question: “Is second languagereading a language problem or a reading problem?” He tested the followinghypotheses : (1) Poor reading in the L2 is due to poor ability in the L1; therefore, poorL1 readers will read poorly in the L2 and good L1 readers will read well in the L2. (2)Poor reading in the L2 is due to inadequate knowledge of the L2. Underlying thesehypotheses are two others: the Linguistic Threshold Hypothesis (LTH) and theLinguistic Interdependence Hypothesis (LIH). The speculation about the relationshipbetween L1 and L2 reading has been discussed under the framework of these twohypotheses. The Linguistic Threshold Hypothesis posits that in order to read in a L2, a level ofL2 linguistic ability must first be achieved (Cziko, 1980).It is also called as theshort-circuit hypothesis, because L1 reading ability is “short-circuited” if the readerdoes not have an adequate level of L2 knowledge (Clarke, 1979, 1980; Hudson, 1982).Similar to Alderson’s (1984) second hypothesis, the LTH posits that L2 knowledge isthe key factor in L2 reading.
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CHAPTER THREE METHODOLOGY..... 21
3.1 Research Questions.....213.2 Subjects.....21
3.3 Instruments..... 22
3.3.1 Chinese Reading Skill Test..... 22
3.3.2 Chinese Reading Strategy Questionnaire........22
3.3.3 English Reading Test.........23
3.3.4 English Proficiency Test....23
3.4 Data collection...... 23
3.5 Data analysis.........24
CHAPTER FOUR RESULTS and DISCUSSION........25
4.1 Results.......25
4.2 Discussion.......36
CHAPTER FIVE CONCLUSION....40
5.1 Major Findings......40
5.2 Implications.... 41
5.3 Limitations and Suggestions........ 43
CHAPTER FOURRESULTS AND DISCUSSION
4.1 Results
The scores of Chinese reading skill test, Chinese reading strategy questionnaire,English reading test and English proficiency test were input in the screen of SPSS13.0 for processing data. The central tendency of the scores is presented by the meansand the dispersion of the scores is shown by the std. deviation of the data for eachvariable. Table 4.1 displays the number of subjects, minimum score, maximum score,mean value and standard deviation of the four tests. To be more comparable, the totalscores of English proficiency test and English reading test are changed based on atotal score of 30 points, which is the same as that of Chinese reading skill test. Thetotal mean scores of Chinese reading strategy questionnaire are the mean scores ofcognitive strategies plus the mean scores of metacognitive strategies, and plus themean scores of social /affective strategies.
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Conclusion
The purpose of this chapter is to summarize the main findings of the currentresearch and to present the pedagogical implications pertaining to English reading.Limitations
