Chapter 2: The Effects of Input Frequency, Temporal Indicators, and Pre-Reading Questions On L2 Reading Comprehension

The present study examines the comprehension of Spanish future tense morphology while reading in a second language. The participants in the present study had no previous knowledge of future tense morphology such that, as they read the passage used in the study, they encountered the target form for the first time, which is an accented á on the end of the infinitive—for example, dependerá “he, she, or it will depend.” These subjects are a subgroup of those reported on in Lee (2000a). They were given multiple-choice comprehension questions as a pre-reading task in order to orient them toward the meaning of the passage. The independent variables manipulated were (a) the frequency with which the target form appeared in the input passage (6, 10, or 16 exposures), and (b) cues to meaning (the presence or absence of future-oriented adverbials). The dependant variable was the number of multiple-choice questions answered as future meanings. Because subjects performed the multiple-choice task twice, we used a repeated measures design. Comprehension was measured with a multiple-choice comprehension test, administered before and after reading the passage. In addition to the quantitative analyses, we performed qualitative analyses. The results indicate that all the variables have some effect on comprehension.