THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN OVERALL READING-COMPREHENSION AND COMPREHENSION OF COREFERENTIAL TIES FOR 2ND LANGUAGE READERS OF ENGLISH

The study reported here investigates the relationship between overall comprehension and the comprehension of coreferential pronouns for second language readers of English. In the first phase of the study. L2 students at The Ohio State University read a passage of contemporary U.S. literature. Overall comprehension was measured by an immediate recall protocol, and coreferent comprehension was measured by a coreferent‐identification task. In the second phase of the study, both L1 and L2 subjects were observed. Discriminant function analysis, along with information from interviews, provided insight into' the types of errors made by L1 and L2 readers. The results suggest that misunderstanding of coreferential ties reflects a misunderstanding of the descriptive phrases to which the pronouns refer. 1990 TESOL International Association