Investigating the Relationship between L2 Parsing Skills and L2 Reading Fluency

Abstract

The goal of this study was to examine two research questions: First, would Korean EFL undergraduates use L2 parsing skills during L2 reading performance? If so, what L2 linguistic/non-linguistic knowledge would they utilize for the skills? Second, was there any relationship between L2 parsing skills and L2 reading fluency? For the first question, the participants, 52 undergraduates, were asked to answer the survey questions concerning their L2 reading behaviors in regard to L2 parsing. To collect data for the second question, the participants’ L2 parsing skills and L2 reading fluency were measured with an L2 text and a TOEIC test, respectively. The results indicated that the participants recognized the importance of L2 parsing skills and would try to use and practice the skills. They seemed to rely their L2 parsing skills on L2 lexical and syntactic knowledge. The results further indicated that there was a moderate and significant relationship between L2 parsing skills and L2 reading accuracy (r = .389, p < .01), but there was no relationship between L2 parsing skills and L2 reading speed (r = -.202, p > .05). The researcher discussed limitations of the current study and offered suggestions for future studies on L2 parsing skills in L2 reading.