[Japanling] RFL 33(1) is now online

[National Foreign Language Resource Center]

The April 2021 issue (Volume 33, Number 1) of our electronic journal *Reading
in a Foreign Language *(RFL) is now online and can be read at:


https://nflrc.hawaii.edu/rfl/


In this issue of *RFL *we have five regular articles. Two of these report
studies of online extensive reading, a mode of reading that is likely to
increase over time. In the first of these, Tuan Bui and John Macalister
report on its use with university students in Vietnam, with a focus on
fluency changes and perceptions. In the second, Jing Zhou and Richard R.
Day report on how EAP students in an American university experienced online
extensive reading. Both studies point to the feasibility and acceptability
of this approach, though not without some caveats.



Extensive reading is also the focus of the article by Ya-Han Yang, Hsi-Chin
Chu and Wen‑Ta Tseng. They look at the effects of the text difficulty on
the reading comprehension and reading motivation of English as a foreign
language (EFL) vocational high school students in Taiwan. They situate
their study within Krashen’s input theory and Samuels’ automaticity
principle and contribute to our understanding of both.



In his article, Ethan M. Lynn explores unassisted repeated reading with
attention to intensity, treatment duration, background knowledge, and
individual and text variations on reading rate. This is the first study
looking at the use of unassisted repeated reading in a post-secondary ESL
setting, and the results in terms of reading rate gains may surprise some
readers.



In the fifth article, Say Phonekeo and John Macalister look at the effect
of implementing a ‘culture of thinking’ approach in reading instruction in
a teacher education programme in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic; in
another first, we believe this is the first time the Lao PDR has featured
in *RFL*. The authors find that principled changes to the format and
presentation of coursebook material can significantly affect student
learning.



In this issue we also continue with the new feature we began a year ago, *New
Directions in Reading Research. *In this feature, Stuart McLean raises
important questions about the ways in which researchers address text
difficulty in what he calls the Coverage Comprehension Model. McLean
examines two major assumptions: the threshold for mastery that is applied
when using a levels test, and the nature of the word counting unit. One
possible conclusion readers may draw from this is a questioning of the
existing research literature


RFL is sponsored by the National Foreign Language Resource Center (NFLRC)
and the Center for Language & Technology <https://clt.manoa.hawaii.edu/> at
the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. There is no subscription fee to readers
of the journal. It is published twice a year, in April and October.
Detailed information about subscription to Reading in a Foreign Language
can be found at https://nflrc.hawaii.edu/rfl/subscribe/.


Best wishes


Wenyi Ling & Khiet Chau

Assistant Editors

Reading in a Foreign Language

https://nflrc.hawaii.edu/rfl


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