Second Language Text Comprehension: Processing within a Multilayered System

Abstract

The results of a within-subject cross-language study of text comprehension in adult second language (L2) learners are presented. Text comprehension and sentence reading time measures were obtained for matched narrative and procedural texts in English and French from adult learners of French as a second language (FSL) at two levels of French proficiency. The language of the text and readers' L2 proficiency affected reading times, while text type did not. The recall data, however, were more complex. In general, the participants recalled more information from the texts they read in English and more information from the descriptive narrative texts than from the procedural texts. Analyses of the recall performance suggest that, while linguistic proficiency may limit the representation that an individual can construct of a text, the constructed representation reflects the individual's conceptual base as well as strategic processing. These results are consistent with a multilevel model of text comprehension.