Short Circuits and Reading
Though one would assume that good readers would use larger chunks of text, and rely on semantic (meaning) cues rather than syntactical (grammar) ones, and that these differences would hold for L1 and L2 reading, some surprising evidence has been found. Strong L1 readers did rely more on semantic cues, and weak readers more on syntactical, however, both used syntactic cues equally in L2. During oral reading miscue tests, differences between strong and weak readers also diminished, though the types of mistakes made were different, with strong readers making more semantically acceptable miscues. What this means is that good L1 readers appeared less able to use their reading strategies in L2. It is hypothesised that “limited control over the language ‘short circuits’ the good reader’s system causing him/her to revert to poor reader strategies” (Clarke, 1980), in difficult L2 tasks. This creates short circuits (gaps in reading understanding) in the following situations:
• good L1 strategies + poor L2 competency = poor L2 reading
• good L1 strategies + good L2 competency = good L2 reading
Thus, it appears that strategies and behaviours, not necessarily knowledge, have a large effect on reading abilities. Strategies that Clarke indicates as being useful are: ‘concentration on passage-level semantic cues; the formulation of hypotheses about the text before reading, then reading to confirm, refine, or reject those hypotheses; the de-emphasis of graphophonic and syntactic accuracy, that is, developing a tolerance for inexactness, a willingness to take chances and make mistakes’. This being said, the importance of language skills for effective reading should not be undermined. Especially for weaker L1 readers, explicit teaching of strategies, as well as language, would be appropriate, whereas stronger L1 readers may only need reminders of effective reading strategies.
Short Circuit – any reading that does not end with meaning
• letter naming – spelling out words
• recoding – print is matched to another code (ie: sound) with no meaning
• syntactic nonsense – approximating understanding when the load is too great
• partial structures – alternating periods of productive reading creating partial understanding
(Goodman, 1984)