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Cultural familiarity in inferential

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Article in System December 2006
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SYSTEM
System 34 (2006) 494508
www.elsevier.com/locate/system

Cultural familiarity in inferential and

literal comprehension in L2 reading
Cem Alptekin

Bahcesehir University, Ciragan Caddesi, Besiktas, Istanbul, Turkey

Received 12 January 2006; received in revised form 27 April 2006; accepted 15 May 2006

Abstract
This study explores the role of culturally familiar background knowledge in inferential and literal
comprehension in L2 reading. Ninety-eight Turkish EFL (English as a Foreign Language) university
students were divided into two groups of equivalent English prociency. They read either the original
of an American short story or a nativized version, textually and contextually modied to reect the
learners own culture. They then answered multiple-choice comprehension questions aimed at checking inferential and literal comprehension independently across the two versions of the story. The
results demonstrate that the nativization of a short story from the target language culture facilitates
L2 readers inferential comprehension signicantly, yet does not aect their literal understanding. As
such, the results point to a non-interface between inferential comprehension and literal understanding, contrary to the commonly held assumption that an interface exists.
2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Inferential comprehension; Literal comprehension; Schemas; Nativization; Foreign language culture

1. Introduction
Reading is viewed as an interaction of the readers text-based and knowledge-based
processes. In processing texts, readers combine literal comprehension, based on lower-level
cognitive processes of reading such as lexical access and syntactic parsing, with inferential
comprehension, based on higher-level cognitive processes such as the textbase of
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C. Alptekin / System 34 (2006) 494508

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comprehension (to understand what the text says) and the situation model of interpretation (to understand what it is about). Both lexical access and syntactic parsing are characterised by a high degree of text-boundedness in that they are data-driven processes.
In the former, words in the text are assigned meaning; in the latter, they are connected
to form semantic propositions.
In inferential comprehension, on the other hand, readers go beyond the literal meaning
of the text to understand what the text says and what it is about through knowledge-driven
processes such as synthesising, summarising, generalising, and extrapolating. Hence, inferencing, by its very nature, involves reasoning beyond the text.
Text-based inferencing takes place when readers link textual propositions derived from
surface forms in what are called semantically shallow channels. In contrast, the situation
model is said to be semantically deep, involving situation-specic meanings that generate
rich inferences (Perfetti, 1999, p.188). It follows that inferencing, whether it is of a textbased or situation-specic nature, plays an important role in reading comprehension
(Van Den Broek, 1990; Van Den Broek et al., 1993; Cornoldi and Oakhill, 1996; Perfetti
et al., 2001). It essentially serves to extend or rene the text with a view to constructing a
mental model of the situation it describes.
Pearson and Johnson (1978), who approach reading comprehension from the perspective of assessment, describe three basic types of questions. Textually explicit questions are
those requiring answers that come directly from the text. Textually implicit questions, on
the other hand, call for answers that involve a combination of textual data and the readers
prior knowledge of the topic. These normally require the readers use of connective inferences (Singer, 1994), often of a logical or bridging nature (Garnham, 1985). Finally, scriptally implicit questions are those whose answers rely almost exclusively on readers prior
knowledge. In this case, readers are expected to use elaborative inferences (Singer, 1994),
which extend and enrich the information in the text.
In sum, it is clear that whereas in literal understanding readers pay attention to explicitly stated information and rely heavily on their linguistic resources, they tend to reduce
their reliance on the text in inferential comprehension, and relate textual content to their
reasoning and pragmatic knowledge in order to be able to form a coherent mental representation of what the text is about. Hence, it can be said that the readers dependence on
the text itself decreases as inferencing becomes richer and deeper.
It is in this context that the role of schema theory in reading comprehension comes into
the picture. As inferences are driven by schemas, or background knowledge, a satisfactory
understanding of inferential comprehension would not be possible without delving into
schema theory, which accounts for the role of inferencing in comprehension based on
the readers prior knowledge of the topic (Fincher-Kiefer, 1992).
2. Schema theory and L2 reading comprehension
According to schema theory, comprehension rests on readers activation of their prior
knowledge to create meaning. The signicance given to the role of prior knowledge in comprehension has been conrmed in a number of studies in the L2 reading literature. Classifying schemas as either content schemas (the readers background knowledge of the
conceptual content of the text) or formal schemas (the readers background knowledge of
the rhetorical structure of the text), these studies reported that L2 readers abilities to use
appropriate schemas and engage in interactive processing with texts result in satisfactory

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reading performance (Hudson, 1982; Carrell and Eisterhold, 1983; Carrell, 1987; Carrell
et al., 1988; Swaar, 1988; Chen and Donin, 1997; Barry and Lazarte, 1998). One outcome
of this focus on higher-level reading skills, at times at the expense of lower-level skills
(Eskey, 1988), has been the recognition of the important contribution of cultural knowledge
to the readers construction of meaning (Steensen et al., 1979), specically in the areas of
content and formal schemas. Schema-theoretic studies in L2 reading have generally shown
that the more the content and/or formal data of a text interact with the readers culture-specic background knowledge, the better the quality of comprehension.
It is signicant to note, however, that comprehension, especially with reference to inferencing, is not solely conned to the activation of content and/or formal schemas. More
powerful than either of these two is the presence of a third one, namely, an abstract
schema, which is a logical and general embodiment of the two (Oller, 1995). Commonly
referred to as a story schema (Mandler, 1984, p. 18), this cognitive structure enables readers to recreate the writers message by predicting the way in which texts proceed. The
story schema is non-syntacticized, that is, not dependent on the syntactic arrangement
of the surface forms in the text. As such, it is conducive to rich inferencing skills involving
both scriptally implicit and textually implicit elements.
If a text happens to be a coherent narrative with a well-developed story line, then the
signicance of the story schema in textual comprehension is enhanced, for readers are provided with episodes of signicant experience involving real material persons, events,
places, and sociocultural relations with which [they] can identify and nd some common
ground (Oller, 1995, p. 299). This interaction takes place, Oller argues, even when certain
words in the original text are changed into ones more familiar to the readers (e.g., Terry to
Ali) because a name recognized as pertaining to a male referent generates expectancies
that will be absent if the name is not recognized as having any gender bias (p. 297).
Yet it is often quite a challenge for L2 learners to identify and associate themselves with
the characters and content of short stories from the target language culture. Almost all
such texts take for granted the cultural assumptions of native speakers of that language.
What is needed for genuine comprehension to take place is some sort of cultural membership which, as Fish (1980) indicates, leads to the development of interpretive communities, through which readers interpret the meaning of a text by virtually rewriting it in
their minds based on shared values, customs, and assumptions.
2.1. Problems with schema-theoretic research
When analysing the role of culture-specic background knowledge in L2 reading,
schema-theoretic research has generally paid little attention to text-based and instrument-based factors, giving rise to serious validity issues in measurement. For one thing,
the selection of authentic and full-scale stories that would allow for familiar life-like representations of discourse has been ignored. Instead, texts have been linguistically and,
inevitably, conceptually simplied often selected or written specically for research purposes (Steensen et al., 1979; Johnson, 1981; Gagne et al., 1984; Gagne et al., 1984; Sasaki,
2000). Thus, no opportunity has been oered to the readers to activate their abstract schemas in order to generate rich inferences.
Furthermore, the eect of culture-specic knowledge has normally been examined
through the use of two texts which have been assumed to be linguistically and rhetorically
equivalent (e.g., Carrell, 1988, p. 104), based on readability formulas if not subjective

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497

judgments.Yet determining text equivalency in this way leaves much to be desired from the
perspective of validity in measurement. Readability formulas used in L1 reading contexts
are said to disregard such factors as levels of abstraction, conceptual density and complexity, or variability of meanings within the general, technical, and scientic vocabulary (Herber and Herber, 1993, p. 69) or to ignore taking into account the experience and
knowledge readers bring to content material from a cognitive, linguistic, and emotional
perspective (Vacca et al., 1991, pp. 391392).
It follows that the role of cultural background knowledge in L2 inferential comprehension needs to be investigated not necessarily in the framework of two texts that are thought
to be syntactically, lexically, and rhetorically equivalent, but in the context of the same text
used in two dierent ways, one being the original and the other a culturally nativized version. Nativization refers to the pragmatic and semantic adaptation of the textual and contextual clues of the original story into the learners own culture, while keeping its linguistic
and rhetorical content essentially intact (see Appendix A for an example). As such, nativization maintains natural comprehension components such as textual patterns of redundancy, unlike textual simplication for research purposes. Moreover, the low-level
processing of an original text and its nativized version will be virtually identical, as
opposed to the low-level processing of presumably equivalent texts.
Another problem has been the seemingly unquestioned use of recall procedures to measure reader-text interaction in L2 reading, notwithstanding their several serious shortcomings concerning inferential comprehension (e.g., Steensen et al., 1979; Johnson, 1981;
Carrell, 1983; Floyd and Carrell, 1987; Bernhardt, 1990; Sasaki, 2000). It is true that a
recall task, particularly one conducted in the readers L1, provides indirect evidence for
the reader-text interaction as part of the process of meaning construction without this
being conditioned by questions, prompts and cues (Fecteau, 1999). In fact, the main reason recall tasks are used for probing reading comprehension is that they allow readers to
respond openly and freely to the text (Wolf, 1993) while preventing tester interference
(Bernhardt, 1991). However, when a recall task is carried out in the L2, particularly with
readers who have limited L2 prociency, it may become an intervening and cumbersome
factor itself due to problems of comprehension-production interference, correction time
exigencies, and scorer reliability.
Secondly, in view of the fact that comprehending is only one of the cognitive processes
used in reading, the other two being storage and retrieval, research aiming at measuring
comprehension ought to focus more on what is being understood than what is retained
and retrieved. By their very nature, recall tasks call more for retrieval of stored data from
explicit memory rather than delving into implicit memory. That is, they tap what readers
remember rather than what they comprehend based on their general world knowledge. Yet
explicit memory, which refers to conscious recall of information, is often not part of our
memory for texts and stories, as the information we acquire from such written material is
acquired incidentally. Cohen (1996) points to the discrepancy between our reading a newspaper for information and laboratory experiments testing reading of short texts or stories
from the viewpoint of retention. He notes that while in the former case we do not memorise the text as if preparing to be tested, in the latter a short interval follows the reading
process with readers expecting a recall test measuring how much they remember it. He thus
questions the representativeness of recall procedures (p. 260).
Furthermore, when textual comprehension is tested by recall procedures, it is often the
salient information in the text, linked to explicit memory, which is measured, while the less

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obvious data, which are more dependent on implicit memory, are ignored. The focus on
salient points at the expense of enriching incidental information hinders an ecient encoding stage in that there is no active schema which guides the selection of relevant information, inuences the interpretation, or integrates the new data with pre-existing knowledge.
As such, no opportunity exists for proper inferencing to occur.
3. Research questions
Limitations of previous research were taken into consideration in designing the present
study. The rst aim of the study was to examine the role of culturally familiar background
knowledge in inferential comprehension in L2 reading. To this end, the same short story
was used in two dierent versions the original and its corresponding nativized version. It
was thought that in instances of schema activation due to the cultural familiarity of the
nativized version, L2 learners beyond the threshold level of L2 prociency would perform
signicantly better on the nativized version in terms of generating rich inferences.
The second aim of the study was to assess the role of cultural familiarity in L2 reading
in relation to literal comprehension. More specically, the study investigated whether the
cultural familiarity of the story would facilitate the readers extracting explicit information
from it. It was assumed that there would be an improvement in the readers literal understanding of the story in the case of culturally familiar aspects of the text, but not to the
extent achieved in inferential comprehension, due to the data-driven nature of literal
understanding itself.
Reading was measured through a multiple-choice recognition/comprehension-based
(versus recall) test involving textually explicit, textually implicit, and scriptally implicit
comprehension questions.
The test was administered to participants who were at an advanced level of L2 prociency so that concerns about the linguistic threshold, which focuses on the relationship
between inferencing skills and the readers degree of L2 prociency (Clarke, 1980), were
not an issue. The L2 in question was English, the participants L1 being Turkish.
Finally, unlike previous studies which have typically examined inferential and literal
text comprehension as a whole, this study analysed the two elements separately, with a
view to getting a better understanding of the role played by culture-specic background
knowledge in dierent reading processes.
The specic research questions were as follows:
1. Does nativization of an original American short story aect L2 learners inferential
comprehension in reading?
2. Does nativization of an original American short story aect L2 learners literal comprehension in reading?

4. Method
4.1. Participants
Ninety-eight students (38 female, 60 male) participated in the study. The age of the
participants ranged from 18 to 20, with an average of 18.5 years. The participants were

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499

Table 1
The t-test mean dierences on the TOEFL
Group

SD

df

Sig. (2 tailed)

Experimental
Control

49
49

565.14
565.10

20.74
17.91

.010

96

.99

Turkish university students enrolled in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) program
of the English Language Centre at a private English-medium university in Istanbul. As
native speakers of Turkish, they had been in intensive English courses for seven months
and had scored an average of 565 on the TOEFL (see Table 1).
On the basis of their TOEFL scores, the participants were divided into two roughly
equivalent prociency groups, each comprising 49 students. The experimental group consisted of 20 females and 29 males; the control group consisted of 18 females and 31 males.
Neither of the groups was dierent from the other with respect to age and the duration of
EFL instruction.
4.2. Instruments
4.2.1. Reading text
Both the experimental and control groups were given an American short story by Delmore Schwartz (Schwartz, 1978). The story, In Dreams Begin Responsibilities, is autobiographical in nature and takes place in New York City in the early 1900s, when
immigrants were struggling to nd their way in the New World. One of the underlying
themes is success in business and worldly accomplishment; another concerns the kind of
social problems brought about by quick nancial gains in a new culture.
Schwartzs story was selected for having a universally comprehensible theme on one
hand (a man with nouveau riche tendencies about to marry the daughter of a well established yet not particularly wealthy family) and a culturally unfamiliar social context which
lends itself to adaptation for the Turkish readership on the other (an immigrant enclave in
New York). As such, it would enable the Turkish readers to activate their abstract schemas
in reference to a coherent and well-developed narration of a universal theme. Furthermore,
the adaptability of the theme to the readers own context through a nativization process
would signicantly improve the contribution of the narrative-based abstract schemas to
comprehension by making it possible for the readers to form conceptual links between their
culture-based reality and that of the story writer, as they are more likely to associate themselves with the characters, events, places, customs, and social relations in the story.
4.2.2. Nativized text
As pointed out earlier, nativization refers to the sociological, semantic, and pragmatic
adaptation of the textual and contextual cues of the original story into the language learners own culture, while keeping its linguistic and rhetorical content essentially intact. In
this sense, Schwartzs story underwent a process of Turkication both textually and contextually. Textual cues that were nativized involved data having to do with settings and
locations on one hand, and characters and occupations on the other (see Table 2).
Contextual cues that were nativized involved culture-specic customs, rituals, notions,
structures, and values. Turkication was operationalized in relation to three of the four
dimensions of culture, as described by Adaskou et al. (1990). The aesthetic dimension,

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Table 2
Textually nativized cues
Settings/locations
New York City
Brooklyn
Coney Island
Ocean
Drugstore
Church

Istanbul
Taksim
Gulhane Park
Sea
Pastry shop
Mosque

Characters/occupationsa
Motorman
William Randolph Hearst
William Howard Taft
Organist
Bathers

Ticket collector
S
ukru Saracoglu
Ismet Inonu
Piano player
Fishermen

Hearst was a journalist and the publisher of The America in 1909; Taft was the US President in 1909.
Saracoglu was the Minister of Finance of Turkey in 1930; Inonu was the Prime Minister of Turkey in 1930.

which capitalises upon the literary aspects of culture, was bypassed, as this was not relevant to the present study. It was the sociological dimension which was nativized. This
included culture-specic contextual cues of customs and rituals such as religious conventions, courting patterns, social festivities, interpersonal relationships, and home and family
life. For example, the traditional American Sunday dinner was replaced by a Bayram (a
religious holiday for Turks) meal. Likewise, Sunday clothes were replaced by Bayram
clothes. On a more interesting note, catering to the more conservative Turkish mores of
the time, the protagonists who actually dated in the original story became an engaged couple in the nativized version.
Nativization through the semantic dimension embodied the adaptation of culture-specic notions and structures. The drive to become rich in the New World was replaced by
the ambition to become rich in the big city. Conceptual and lexical changes were also made
in several areas such as food, currency, clothes, drinks, and institutions.
Finally, nativization through the pragmatic dimension involved the substitution of
Turkish cultural values for American cultural values, as conceptualised by Dindi et al.
(1989). Accordingly, certain situations in the original story were modied to reect Turkish cultural values which dier from American ones. For instance, the sense of American
individualism seen in the protagonists actions in the original story was replaced by the
sense of Turkish group solidarity conveyed through the protagonists deeds in the nativized version. While in the original story the protagonist desires to expand his business
on his own to make more money, in the nativized version the protagonist wants to expand
his business with the support of his hometown friends (see Appendix A).
4.2.3. Reading comprehension test
The participants comprehension of the story was measured with a 24-item multiplechoice test in two versions, one based on the original text and the other on the nativized
version. Based on Pearson and Johnsons (1978) classication, the textually explicit questions were designed to measure the readers literal understanding of the story while the textually or scriptally implicit ones aimed at measuring their inferential comprehension. An
equal number of inferential and literal questions (12 of each type) were asked. These were

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501

identical in both versions except for particular phrases with culture-specic references.
Examples of test items appear in Appendix B.
4.3. Procedures
4.3.1. Pilot study
The multiple-choice comprehension test was piloted with a small but similar sample of
university students, also in an intensive program in an English-medium context, with
TOEFL scores in the same range as those of the participants. The aim was to identify test
items that were too easy or too dicult. The study revealed that one of the textually explicit items did not perform satisfactorily. This item was subsequently replaced on each version of the test.
4.3.2. Main study
The main study was conducted with 98 participants. Both the experimental and control
groups were tested separately under the same conditions. They were asked to read the
story and answer the questions in no more than 45 min. Questions concerning the content
were not allowed, nor was the use of dictionaries.
4.3.3. Data analysis
Independent samples t-tests were conducted to evaluate whether the control and experimental groups L2 competencies were equivalent in terms of their prociency levels and to
measure how readers familiarity with the cultural content of a text aected their comprehension. The reported t-test results were computed on the SPSS program. Homogeneity of
variance assumption, which requires the distribution of the dependent variable in both
groups to have the same variance, was checked using the Levenes test for equality of variances, and adjustments were made accordingly.
Dierences among the mean scores of the control and experimental groups were analysed in terms of both groups reading test scores in inferential questions (12 items) on
one hand, and literal questions (12 items) on the other.
5. Results
The t-test results regarding the participants inferential comprehension levels were in
tune with the generally accepted notion that readers global familiarity with the implicit
cultural content knowledge presupposed by a text signicantly facilitates reading comprehension. A Bonferroni adjustment was made and an alpha level of .01 was used accordingly in evaluating statistical signicance levels.
As shown in Table 3, the mean score (M = 6.49, SD = 1.56) of the experimental group,
which processed the nativized text, was signicantly higher than that of the control group
(M = 5.49, SD = 1.73), t (96) = 3.01, p = .003 in inferential reading as a whole. That is, in
spite of the fact that both the experimental and control groups had similar levels of English prociency, the participants who read the nativized version of the story drew more
inferences than those who read the original.
This result provides an armative answer to the rst research question. Namely, the
nativization of an authentic short story from the target-language culture facilitates L2
readers inferential comprehension of the story signicantly.

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Table 3
The t-test mean dierences on the reading test scores
Type of reading

Group

SD

df

Sig. (2 tailed)

Eect size

Inferential reading as a whole

Experimental
Control

49
49

6.49
5.49

1.56
1.73

3.01

96

.003

.61

Literal reading as a whole

Experimental
Control

49
49

8.12
7.98

1.87
1.75

.39

96

.70

The t-test results on items concerning literal understanding showed that the performance of the experimental group (M = 8.12, SD = 1.87) was slightly better than that of
the control group (M = 7.98, SD = 1.75), t (96) = .39, p = .70. As such, no signicant difference was observed between the two groups mean scores, indicating a lack of a meaningful relationship between nativization and literal comprehension in reading (see Table
3), and thus providing a negative answer to the second research question.
To sum up, the basic ndings of the present study can be summarised as follows:
1. A meaningful relationship exists between culturally familiar texts and the culture-specic background knowledge L2 readers bring to the reading task. The more topical
familiarity the text displays, the better it is inferentially comprehended in that L2 readers who are familiar with its cultural content are more successful in drawing inferences
and achieving global comprehension than those who are unfamiliar.
2. Literal comprehension in the L2 is not necessarily aected by the readers level of familiarity with the culture-specic content of the text.

6. Discussion
In general, the results described above point to the notion that readers culturally
bound background knowledge plays a facilitative role essentially in their inferential comprehension of the text rather than reading as a whole. Literal understanding, with its datadriven nature, remains unaected. As such, the intuitively appealing idea that increased
cultural familiarity of content might somewhat compensate for the readers L2 surfacelevel inadequacies in textual processing is not borne out by this research.
L2 readers, even when they reach a relatively high degree of prociency in the target
language, show more text reliance than L1 readers in order to comprehend texts, as indicated by research in the eld (Bernhardt and Kamil, 1995; Horiba, 2000). This tendency
does not disappear even when their L2 prociency increases (Taillefer, 1996). It is likely
that readers concern with surface-level features places so much demand on their cognitive
resources that not enough resources are left to operationalize the interaction between
higher-order and lower-order reading processes. Hence, the possible contribution of background knowledge to some aspects of literal understanding, such as lexical access (Aerbach, 1990), is not necessarily a factor contrary to what is observed in L1 reading.
Likewise, background knowledge intervention in local semantic analysis beyond lexical
items (Sanford, 2002) does not materialise. By way of implication one may thus speak
of a non-interface between inferential comprehension and literal understanding in L2 reading, even for learners who are well beyond the threshold level.

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503

In particular, the armative answer to the rst research question indicates that Turkish
EFL readers with a relatively advanced degree of L2 prociency are able to draw richer
and deeper inferences from a short story from the target language culture if it provides
a number of contextual and textual cues with which they are culturally familiar. For example, they appear to identify with the nativized protagonists view of developing personal
relationships to climb the social ladder, which is more in line with the Turkish context
rather than with the original protagonists belief in the American dream, which is quite
alien to the Turkish mind. In the same vein, they seem to empathise with the nativized protagonists wish to marry in order to live up to his familys expectations rather than the original protagonists identication of marriage with domestic pleasures. This feeling of being
at home with the plot is further reinforced by familiar textual cues such as Gulhane Park,
Bayram meal, candy shops with red candied apples in their display windows, as opposed
to conceptual voids concerning Coney Island, Sunday dinner, or drugstores with great
green balls in their windows. In sum, contextual and textual familiarity enables readers
to recreate the writers message by activating the relevant story schema that keeps both
the textbase and the narrative structure coherent. The fact that signicant ndings are
obtained when culture dependency is under investigation suggests that familiar situation-based information leads to readers story schema activation, which is necessary for
richer and deeper inferencing to take place.
The negative answer to the second research question suggests a lack of a signicant relationship between the readers cultural familiarity with the text and a noteworthy improvement in literal understanding.
7. Conclusions and implications
The results of this research suggest that L1 inferencing skills are utilised more frequently and eciently in the L2 when text content and prior knowledge are congruent.
In this respect, L2 readers perform more like L1 readers in using much of their attention
for higher-level cognitive processes. However, unlike in the case of L1 readers, the focus on
higher-level processes does not necessarily lead to a reduction of attention to lower-level
processes of comprehension (Horiba, 1996). This may be the outcome of the non-interface
between data-driven and knowledge-driven processes in reading texts with nativized contextual and textual cues.
The non-interface in question provides indirect support for those studies setting out the
existence of qualitative dierences between L1 and L2 reading processes (e.g., Bernhardt,
2003; Felser et al., 2003). It is also in tune with Kintschs (1998) construction-integration
model of discourse comprehension in that it points to L2 readers inability to utilise the
textbase knowledge eciently for inferential comprehension or to make use of relevant
knowledge structures for literal understanding.
It should be stressed that the ndings and implications of the present study should be
interpreted with caution for two important reasons. The rst is that the participants in the
study comprised a sample of advanced EFL learners with a TOEFL score of roughly 565.
Moreover, some of these participants had graduated from English-medium high schools in
Turkey where they had been familiarised to a degree with the cultures of English-speaking
countries. As such, the study needs to be replicated and the ndings need to be conrmed
by other studies with dierent learner proles. As a case in point, is it not conceivable that
if this study were replicated with participants who are less exposed to the target language

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and its culture, the results concerning inferential comprehension could actually reveal
more signicant relationships?
Finally, an important implication of this study for future research involves the nding
concerning the non-interface between inferential comprehension and literal understanding.
Fecteau (1999), who explored the possibility of a relationship between the two processes in
L2 reading, has not been able to nd a meaningful link. This, she argued, stemmed from
her use of recall tasks and multiple-choice questions, each of which measured dierent outcomes. The non-interface case still remains, however, despite the use of a single type of
instrumentation, namely, multiple-choice questions. Interestingly, similar cases have been
reported in L1 reading research on the performance of ecient and inecient readers.
Oakhill (1984), for example, has found that skilled and less-skilled child readers show
identical reading behaviours in literal understanding even though their inferential comprehension diers signicantly. Likewise, Phillips (1990) has shown that the eects of background knowledge which are detectable with ecient readers are not observed in novice
readers, the latter being decient in inferential understanding. In the same vein, Plummer
(1988) has suggested that cognitively not so mature university students appear to focus
more on literal understanding, often at the expense of inferential comprehension. Hence,
it can be said that L2 readers, even those with advanced levels of L2 prociency, seem to
behave more like inecient L1 readers, who are unable to reduce their reliance on the text
irrespective of their degree of familiarity with thematic content. To put it dierently, they
are incapable of doing what Stanovich (2000) calls compensatory processing, whereby it
is possible for a decit in a given knowledge source to result in a heavier reliance on other
sources of knowledge just as it is possible for a surplus in a given knowledge source to
result in a lighter reliance on other sources of knowledge. As such, one is tempted to
say that the aforementioned qualitative dierences between the L1 and L2 reading processes, including the non-interface between literal understanding and inferential comprehension, are more related to cognitive factors than linguistic ones.
Acknowledgements
zyaka for her valuable assistance on the research reported here. I
I thank S. Gaye O
thank the anonymous reviewer for insightful comments on an earlier version of this article.
Appendix A. Sample section from the original text
My father walks from street to street of trees, lawns, and houses, once in a while coming
to an avenue on which a streetcar skates and gnaws, progressing slowly. The motorman,
who has a handlebar moustache, helps a young lady wearing a hat like a feathered bowl
onto the car. He leisurely makes change and rings his bell as the passengers mount the car.
It is obviously Sunday, for everyone is wearing Sunday clothes and the streetcars noises
emphasize the quiet of the holiday (Brooklyn is said to be the city of churches). The shops
are closed and their shades drawn but for an occasional stationery store or drugstore with
great green balls in the window.
My father has chosen to take this long walk because he likes to walk and think. He
thinks about himself in the future and so arrives at the place he is to visit in a mild state
of exaltation. He pays no attention to the houses he is passing, in which the Sunday dinner
is being eaten, nor to the many trees which line each street. An occasional carriage passes,

C. Alptekin / System 34 (2006) 494508

505

the horses hooves falling like stones in the quiet afternoon, and once in a while an automobile, looking like an enormous upholstered sofa, pus and passes.
My father thinks of my mother, of how lady-like she is, and of the pride, which will be
his when he introduces her to his family. They are not yet engaged and he is not yet sure
that he loves my mother, so that, once in a while, he becomes panicky about the bond
already established. But then he reassures himself by thinking of the big men he admires
who are married: William Randolph Hearst and William Howard Taft, who has just
become the President of the United States.
Nativized version of the same section*
My father walks from street to street of shops, cafes, and cinemas, once in a while coming to an avenue on which a streetcar skates and gnaws, progressing slowly. The ticket collector, who has a long and curved moustache, helps a young lady wearing a hat like a
feathered bowl onto the car. He leisurely makes change and rings his bell as the passengers
mount the car. It is obviously Bayram, for everyone is wearing Bayram clothes and the
streetcars noises emphasize the quiet of the holiday (Istanbul is said to be the city of mosques). The shops are closed and their shades drawn but for an occasional candy store or
pastry shop with great red candied apples in the window.
My father has chosen to take this long walk because he likes to walk and think. He
thinks about himself and his visit, getting the utmost enjoyment out of this Bayram and
so arrives at the place he is to visit in a mild state of exaltation. He pays no attention
to the houses he is passing, in which the Bayram meal is being eaten, nor to the many
shops which line each street. An occasional carriage passes, the horses hooves falling like
stones in the quiet afternoon, and once in a while an automobile, looking like an enormous
upholstered sofa, pus and passes.
My father thinks of my mother, of how lady-like she is, and of the pride, which was his
when his family paid a visit to see her as a prospective bride. They are engaged, but he is
not yet sure that he loves my mother, so that, once in a while, he becomes panicky about
the bond already established. But then he reassures himself by thinking of the big men he
admires who are married: Ismet Inonu, the President of Turkey, and S
ukru Saracoglu, the
Minister of Finance.
*Nativized parts are underlined.
Appendix B. Examples of test items*
B.1. Sample textually explicit literal item*
. . . As their dinner goes on, my father tells of his plans for the future and my mother
shows with expressive face how interested she is, and how impressed. My father becomes
exultant, lifted up by the waltz/music that is being played, and his own future begins to
intoxicate him. My father tells my mother that he is going to expand his business, for there
is a great deal of money to be made.
What causes the narrators father to feel so exultant at the dinner table?
a. The waltz/The music
b. His present business

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C. Alptekin / System 34 (2006) 494508

c. The woman he is to marry

d. Money
B.2. Sample textually implicit inferential item*
. . . Overhead the suns lightning strikes and strikes, but neither of them are at all aware
of it. The boardwalk/bridge is full of people dressed in their Sunday clothes/Bayram
clothes and casually strolling. My father and mother lean on the rail of the boardwalk/
bridge and absently stare at the ocean/sea. But I stare at the terrible sun which breaks
up sight. I forget my parents. I stare fascinated, and nally, shocked by their indierence,
I burst out weeping once more.
What is the couples lack of interest in the terrible sun a sign of?
a.
b.
c.
d.

The
The
The
The

couples
couples
couples
couples

insensitivity to heat
awareness of each other
indierence to a terrifying future
inability to see what is in sight

B.3. Sample scriptally implicit inferential items*

Which of the following best describes the two protagonists in the story?
a.
b.
c.
d.

The
The
The
The

father
father
father
father

is
is
is
is

a
a
a
a

supercial character, whereas the mother is a romantic person.

realistic man, whereas the mother is a dreamer.
money-monger, whereas the mother is a rened lady.
family man, whereas the mother is a woman of the world.

What is implied as the fathers philosophy of life?

a.
b.
c.
d.

There is no time like the present.

The present is an indicator of what the future holds for us.
Life is a merry-go-round.
Success depends on the American dream/social relationships.

Which of the following best describes the narrators state of mind in the story?
a.
b.
c.
d.

Indierent
Obsessive
Escapist
Assertive

*Underlined

phrases indicate wording used in the nativized version.

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