Chapter 10: Advanced Foreign Language Readers’ Inferencing:

Reading comprehension is believed to be an active process involving building models of understanding in the mind of the reader. This study investigated whether successful foreign language readers at the advanced levels of university coursework are aware of their inferencing activity when attempting to recall accurately the writer’s original text. The differences in outcome when using a recall protocol and open-ended comprehension questions were also investigated using a case study qualitative analysis. Ten advanced students of French read an authentic French text. Their written recalls revealed few examples of inferencing, primarily within-text inferences that summarized segments of the original. The open-ended questions produced considerably more inferences, mostly elaborative inferences, from the readers’ own prior knowledge. Participants also reported their strategies for successful recall, which may be helpful models for less successful readers.