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The Role of Causal Reasoning and Language Competence in Narrative Comprehension

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2008

Yukie Horiba
Yukie Horiba
Affiliation:
University of Massachusetts
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Abstract

The study investigates the role of causal reasoning in second language (L2) narrative comprehension. Subjects read and recalled texts that were either high or low in causal coherence. This read-and-recall procedure was repeated. Half of the subjects reported their thoughts during reading. The major finding was that first language (L1) readers recalled the high coherence texts better than the low coherence texts. Advanced L2 readers showed a similar advantage for thehigh coherence texts, but only in their second reading. Intermediate readers' recall was lower and showed no advantage for highly coherent texts. The verbal report data generally supported these patterns. These results indicate that L2 readers have difficulty detecting the higher order causal structure in texts. This structure is a central component of L1 readers' mental representation of the information in a text. As L2 readers' skills improve, their ability to detect causal relations increases, although even advanced L2 readers may need a second reading to do so.

Type
Articles
Information
Studies in Second Language Acquisition , Volume 15 , Issue 1 , March 1993 , pp. 49 - 81
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

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