Text and Instruction Necessary for the Facilitation of EFL Reader’s Predictive Inference Generation

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.35307/saltel.v6i2.102

Keywords:

Reading English, Textbook, Instruction, predictive inference, free-recall

Abstract

Inference generation is necessary for reading to understand stories. However, it may be difficult for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) readers to generate inferences owing to their limited cognitive resources that are mostly used in lower-level processing such as lexical and syntactical analysis. Predictive inference, which facilitates readers’ context processing and construction of a situational model, can be challenging for EFL readers to produce during reading. This study focuses on textual conditions and teacher’s task instructions to suggest the appropriate text choices and task instructions to help EFL readers produce predictive inferences. Two story versions (High-predictability Target vs. Control) and two different instructions (Predict the end of the story vs. Memorize the names of characters) were compared using recall rates. The findings indicated that the combination of a high-predictability target story with instructions to predict the end of the story would be the most effective pair for predictive inference.

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Author Biography

Masahiro MAEDA, Kanazawa Seiryo University, Japan & University of Tsukuba, Japan

An Associate Professor in the Faculty of Humanities at Kanazawa Seiryo University, Ishikawa, Japan. While working, his doctoral coursework is progressing at the University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan graduate school. His speciality is English teaching methodology, especially for L2 learners' reading processes. Email: maedam@seiryo-u.ac.jp.

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Weingartner, K. M., Guzm

060223-03

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Published

2023-07-30

How to Cite

MAEDA, M. (2023). Text and Instruction Necessary for the Facilitation of EFL Reader’s Predictive Inference Generation. SALTeL Journal (Southeast Asia Language Teaching and Learning), 6(2), 17–26. https://doi.org/10.35307/saltel.v6i2.102

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