From the Editors

This issue of Reading in a Foreign Language marks the start of its 7^th year as a free scholarly online journal at the University of Hawai‘i. We are able to maintain the journal at no cost to subscribers, thanks to the support of the National Foreign Language Resource Center (NFLRC), the  University of Hawai‘i  College of Languages, Linguistics and Literature, and the University of Hawai‘i Department of Second Language Studies. Their continued funding is deeply appreciated.

As usual, we request that readers of RFL become subscribers. All subscribers have the option of being notified through e-mail as soon as each new issue is released. We ask you to subscribe because it will assist us in continuing to obtain institutional support for the journal, keeping it free of charge. We keep all subscriber information confidential. So, please fill out the brief subscription form for Reading in a Foreign Language.

We would also like to acknowledge and thank the following external reviewers who have provided valuable comments on submitted manuscripts through March 2008:

Jo Ann Aebersold, Nobuhiko Akamatsu, Steven Brown, Beatrice Dupuy, Mary Lee Field, Diana Frantzen, Yao Hill, Joy Janzen, Xiangying Jiang, Keiko Koda, Angelia Lu, Marianne, Kouider Mokhtari, Hossein Nassaji, Diana Pulido, Victoria Rodrigo, Norbert Schmitt, Ravi Sheorey, Etsuo Taguchi, and Atsuko Takase.

We would also like to thank the following copy editors: 

Elisabeth L. Chan, Yue Guo, Nathan Johnson, Ann Johnstun, Myeong-hyeon Kim, Treela McKamey, Mar Galindo Merino, Ju Young Min, Samantha Ng, Elizabeth Pfaff, Castle Sinicrope, and Caroline Torres.

We would like to have your feedback to the articles; please feel free to contact us with your reactions, comments and suggestions. 

In this issue

Articles

• Jixian Pang reviews research on good and poor reader characteristics and discusses the implications for L2 reading research in China. abstract | article | pdf
• Michael Fender presents a study investigating the relationship between spelling knowledge and reading development in the light of some insights from Arab ESL learners. abstract | article | pdf
• Udorn Wan-a-rom compares the vocabulary of different graded-reading schemes. abstract | article | pdf
• Yurika Iwahori reports on a study examining the effectiveness of extensive reading on reading rates of high school students in Japan. abstract | article | pdf
• Dee Gardner presents a corpus-based study on narrow reading from the perspective of vocabulary recycling in children’s authentic reading materials. abstract | article | pdf

Reviews

• Teresa Castineira reviews Cultural Practices of Literacy: Case Studies of Language, Literacy, Social Practice and Power, edited by Victoria Purcell-Gates. review | pdf
• Helen de Silva Joyce reviews Reading Work: Literacies in the New Workplace, by Mary Ellen Belfiore, Tracey A. Defoe, Sue Folinsbee, Judy Hunter, and Nancy S. Jackson (The In-Sites Research Group). review | pdf
• Zhijun Wen reviews Reading Skills for College Students (7^th ed.), by Ophelia H. Hancock. review | pdf