ESL Reading Strategies: Differences in Arabic and Mandarin Speaker Test Performance Export

@article{citeulike:928164, abstract = {This study was undertaken to test the hypothesis that reading comprehension items, which elicit specific bottom-up and top-down strategies, favor certain linguistic/cultural groups. Verbal report data were collected from Arabic- and Mandarin-speaking English as a second language (ESL) learners to identify the reading strategies involved in carrying out 32 reading questions. Then a confirmatory approach to differential item functioning was used to determine whether bottom-up and top-down items functioned differentially for equal-ability Arabic and Mandarin ESL learners. Results revealed systematic group performance differences in four bottom-up and three top-down strategy categories. Items involving breaking a word into smaller parts, scanning, paraphrasing, and matching were found to favor Mandarin speakers, whereas items involving skimming, connecting, and inferring were found to favor Arabic speakers.}, author = {Abbott and Marilyn, L.}, citeulike-article-id = {928164}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9922.2006.00391.x}, citeulike-linkout-1 = {http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bpl/lang/2006/00000056/00000004/art00004}, doi = {10.1111/j.1467-9922.2006.00391.x}, issn = {0023-8333}, journal = {Language Learning}, keywords = {arabic, language-learning, reading-comprehension}, month = {December}, number = {4}, pages = {633--670}, posted-at = {2009-04-30 18:54:33}, priority = {0}, publisher = {Blackwell Publishing}, title = {ESL Reading Strategies: Differences in Arabic and Mandarin Speaker Test Performance}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9922.2006.00391.x}, volume = {56}, year = {2006} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:928164 L3 - citeulike-article-id:928164 N2 - This study was undertaken to test the hypothesis that reading comprehension items, which elicit specific bottom-up and top-down strategies, favor certain linguistic/cultural groups. Verbal report data were collected from Arabic- and Mandarin-speaking English as a second language (ESL) learners to identify the reading strategies involved in carrying out 32 reading questions. Then a confirmatory approach to differential item functioning was used to determine whether bottom-up and top-down items functioned differentially for equal-ability Arabic and Mandarin ESL learners. Results revealed systematic group performance differences in four bottom-up and three top-down strategy categories. Items involving breaking a word into smaller parts, scanning, paraphrasing, and matching were found to favor Mandarin speakers, whereas items involving skimming, connecting, and inferring were found to favor Arabic speakers. IS - 4 JF - Language Learning SN - 0023-8333 EP - 670 TI - ESL Reading Strategies: Differences in Arabic and Mandarin Speaker Test Performance PB - Blackwell Publishing VL - 56 SP - 633 KW - arabic KW - language-learning KW - reading-comprehension AU - Abbott AU - Marilyn, L PY - 2006/12// UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9922.2006.00391.x ER -