ABSTRACT
Reading in a second language has led an interestingly schizophrenic existence over the centuries as both universe and as subset. For example, European and American history underline that reading was at one time the only purpose for learning a foreign language. Howatt (1991) reminds us that reading in 19thcentury Europe was “a more practical and useful objective than learning to speak” (p. 154). The same view held in American education circles in the early 20th century when the National Education Association’s Committee of Ten declared that “foreign language instruction in American schools should be for reading only” (Bernhardt, 1998, p. 48) and that only the most gifted students should pursue it and pursue it to the level of “approximating reading in the mother tongue” (Coleman & Fife, 1949, p. 167). This declaration was not merely reflective of what educators felt was important in the American school curriculum; it also underlined the social status linked to being able to read another language. Huey (1908), in fact, refers to reading in another language as the “acme of scholarship” (p. 4), underlining what I referred to as the “stigma of elitism” with which American foreign language instruction still struggles (Bernhardt, 1998, p. 49). After the Second World War, when the oral approach to language learning was seen to be of value, reading then became a subset of the language learning curriculum, a supporting character in the project. In that role, it buttressed language learning dimensions, in particular the learning of grammatical form. Reading Development in a Second Language noted the importance of reading within the field of language teaching because of the durability of reading skills as juxtaposed to speaking skills that attrite rapidly. Unquestionably, reading affords the second-language learner the luxury of time that is inconceivable with online spoken discourse and it provides an arena for linguistic explorations that cannot be approached through aural channels. With time, learners accompanied by grammars and dictionaries can, in theory, “decode” a passage; in speaking or in listening there is no time available to use ancillaries. Given the time factor, reading is often used in instructional settings as practice material. In fact, texts are often used to illustrate particular grammatical features that learners are meant to acquire. Or texts are written “around” particular semantic fields to ease the learners’ vocabulary burden. In fact, much of beginning language
instruction focuses on the instrumentality of written texts for language learning purposes or as material for “translation practice, grammatical analysis, vocabulary study and, finally, test questions” (Bergethon & Braun, 1963, p. ix). Any exploration of second-language reading should surely acknowledge the multiplicity of variables and conceptualizations at play in any discussion of it in order to provide credible insight into the process. This has rarely been the case within the research area of second-language reading.
