Reading in a Foreign Language

Special issue of Reading in a Foreign Language (RFL)-Second Call: Honoring Richard R. Day’s Contributions to Extensive Reading: Theories and Practices in the AI Era

Jing Zhou; Mark Feng Teng

Call for Co-Editor, Reading in a Foreign Language

Call for abstracts on a special issue honoring Richard R. Day’s contributions to extensive reading: Theories and practices in the AI era

2025 Call for Special Issue Proposals

Regular Articles

Task-oriented reading instruction in a foreign language context: Adoption, challenges, and opportunities

Kardi Nurhadi; Utami Widiati; Nunung Suryati; Siti Muniroh

Over the past decade, numerous studies have explored students’ reading practices in the EFL context. However, we lack evidence on …

Dec 15

Gender Representation in Graded Readers: A Comparative Content Analysis

Darren Elliott; Thomas E. Bieri

While Extensive Reading (ER) has emerged as an effective approach to developing language skills, ER research has largely focused on …

Dec 2

Developing a checklist to support learners’ choice of graded readers in extensive reading

Yuya Arai

Many extensive reading (ER) programs encourage second/foreign language learners to choose reading materials by themselves. However, given the difficulty of …

Nov 24

Reading differently with ChatGPT: EFL learners’ use of Question-Answer Relationship strategy

Lu Zhang; Meixia Xu; Yuhan Huang; Yi Huang; Guoxiu Wang; Xuantong Shen

This study explores how university English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners developed reading comprehension through the integration of the …

Oct 20

The effect of text modification on comprehension and the exploration of perceptions

Muhammed Eren Uygur; Hasan Hüseyin Mutlu; Enes Çinpolat

This study examines the impact of authentic versus modified text on L2 Turkish learners’ reading comprehension. A total of 230 …

Oct 13

Lexical coverage and reading comprehension revisited

Stuart Webb; Ana Pellicer-Sánchez; Andi Wang

The present study is a partial replication of the most widely cited study of lexical coverage and reading comprehension by …

Sep 22

Impact of curiosity-based reading on summary writing in Sri Lankan ESL universities

Ruwan Gunawardane; Joshua Matthews

This study examined Sri Lankan English as a Second Language (ESL) undergraduate learners’ reading-to-write task performance over six weeks. The …

Aug 25

Japanese extensive reading: Responses of an intact university cohort of beginner learners

Kimberley Rothville

Increasingly, research attention has turned to the benefits of extensive reading (ER) in languages other than English, such as Japanese. …

Aug 8

Blended extensive reading program for EFL classes: Insights and reflections from learners

Zeynep Yadigar Tosun; S. İpek Kuru Gönen

This study investigates the impact of a seven-week extensive reading (ER) program integrated with a blended learning modality (face-to-face and …

Jul 15

L2 reading in healthcare contexts: Informed research methods with language diverse patients

Cindy Brantmeier; Dorothy Pokua Agyepong; Amanda Dube; Michael Strube; Jacaranda Van Rheenen; Jessie Wills; Uma Paithankar; Rachel G.A. Thompson; Lisbeth M. Brevik; Greta Björk Gudmundsdottir; Christi Smith; Thammatat Vorawandthanachai; Fred Ssewamala; Proscovia Nabunya

This study is a renewed effort for applying theory and research in Applied Linguistics (ApL) to today’s healthcare needs. Previously, …

Jun 23

Online extensive reading: Japanese EFL university students’ attitudes, perceptions, and outcomes

Jesse R. Elam; Dax Thomas; Dawn Grimes-MacLellan

During the COVID-19 pandemic, an exploratory mixed-methods study was conducted on the reading attitudes, perceptions, and outcomes of 50 first-year …

Jun 23

Morphological awareness and affix knowledge in EFL reading via vocabulary breadth

Mitsuhiro Morita; Junko Yamashita

Morphological knowledge is a complex construct integral to vocabulary breadth and reading comprehension. To understand its complexity, researchers examine its …

Jun 11

Finding the sweet spot: Strategic reading for fill-in-the-blank items

Jieun Kim; Byungmin Lee

While it has been observed that second language learners selectively read information to answer comprehension questions, the amount of textual …

Jun 11

Choosing lexically appropriate texts: Vocabulary mastery level or text-range vocabulary size?

Hung Tan Ha; Duyen Thi Bich Nguyen; Stuart McLean; Joshua Matthews

Ensuring classroom reading materials align with learners’ lexical knowledge is crucial, often requiring teachers to infer vocabulary knowledge from vocabulary …

May 19

Day and Bamford’s (2002) Ten Principles for Teaching Extensive Reading Revisited: A Methodological Synthesis of Research Practice

Yuya Arai; Kotaro Takizawa

Despite the preponderance of research on extensive reading (ER), the research field still suffers from a lack of common understanding …

May 12

Evaluating extensive reading speed and words read with IELTS reading scores

Hanon Junn

This evaluation report examines extensive reading (ER) speed and words read by students at a Japanese university using a digital …

Mar 10

Reading Short Stories to Enhance Beginning Chinese Learners’ Reading Skills

Wenying Zhou; Xiaoshi Li

Extensive reading (ER) has been found to have an assortment of positive effects on various aspects of second/foreign language learning. …

Feb 24

The role of morphological knowledge and vocabulary knowledge in L2 reading comprehension

Miki Satori

This study investigated the relative contributions of English morphological and vocabulary knowledge to second language (L2) reading comprehension among 100 …

Feb 17

Examining the relationship between self-regulated learning strategies and reading comprehension in Chinese and English among primary school students in mainland China: An extension of Tse, Lin, & Ng (2022)

Ji Qi; Barry Lee Reynolds; Xiaoke Bai

This extension study investigates the relationship between self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies and first language (L1) Chinese and second language (L2) …

Jan 20

The Role of Vocabulary Knowledge, Morphological Awareness, and Working Memory in Reading Comprehension

Mark Feng Teng; Yachong Cui

A growing number of studies have focused on uncovering linguistic and cognitive skills predictive of reading comprehension. Vocabulary knowledge (VK) …

Jan 20

Encouraging EFL Students’ Extensive Reading Through LMS-Based Reading Logs

Cao Thi Xuan Lien

This research explores the perspectives of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students about using Learning Management System (LMS)-based reading …

Jan 8

Perceptions of Extensive Reading Practitioners in Four Asian Countries

Rob Waring; Mintra Puripunyavanich

This study reports the perceptions and understanding of extensive reading (ER) of 259 ER practitioners in Japan, Thailand, Mongolia, and …

Jan 8

Discussions

Expanding insights of vocabulary knowledge, metacognitive knowledge, and reading in Teng (2025)

Weili Xing

Responding to Teng’s (2025a) longitudinal research on metacognitive knowledge (MCK), breadth of vocabulary knowledge (BVK), and reading proficiency in young …

Sep 3

Expanding understanding of reading anxiety: A new research agenda to Zhou’s (2017) “Foreign language reading anxiety in a Chinese as a Foreign Language Context”

Shiyao Zhou; Mark Feng Teng

Foreign language reading anxiety (FLRA) remains a significant challenge for learners of Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL), affecting their …

Mar 17