Conducting Second-language Reading Research: A Methodological Guide

This is the first hands-on methods guide for second-language (L2) reading research. The authors expertly and critically situate L2 reading and literacy as a multivariate, interactive process and define terms, concepts, and research tools in connection with theory and a rich body of past empirical work, with lessons to learn and pitfalls to avoid. They concretely detail how to design empirical studies, collect data, and analyze findings in this important area.

Authored by world experts on first-language (L1) and L2 reading, this book provides a comprehensive, critical, theory-driven review of methods in L2 reading research, offering a step-by-step guide from research design to study execution and data analysis.

With useful pedagogical features and a unique database of L2 reading studies from around the world over three decades, this will be an invaluable resource to students and researchers of second-language acquisition, applied linguistics, education, and related areas.

Elizabeth B. Bernhardt is Professor and Director of the Language Center at Stanford University. Her book Reading Development in a Second Language (1991) earned awards from the Modern Language Association and from the National Reading Conference as an outstanding contribution to literacy research. She is also the author of Understanding Advanced Second-Language Reading (2011) from Routledge.

Michael L. Kamil is Professor Emeritus at Stanford University. He is an editor of each of the four volumes of the Handbook of Reading Research (1984, 1991, 2000, 2011), was an editor of Reading Research Quarterly (1991–1995), and was a member of the National Reading Panel and the National Literacy Panel. He was given the Oscar Causey Award for outstanding contributions to reading research.