PROCESSING STRATEGIES OF FOREIGN-LANGUAGE READERS - AUTHENTIC AND EDITED INPUT

While there is increasing use of authentic texts in foreign language i nstruction and much has been written about using authentic texts in th e foreign language class, little empirical data have been collected re garding authentic materials. This study examines cognitive and affecti ve responses to one authentic and three edited texts. Four levels of l anguage learners (first through fourth year) at a major university in the United States were asked to read the same Spanish authentic passag e and an edited passage written for the level of their Spanish course. After each silent reading, they performed think-alouds in the native language to provide data on strategy-use, and recall protocols, also i n the native language, to provide reading comprehension scores. After the recall protocol task, subjects were interviewed to assess their af fective responses to each text. Results indicated that all students co mprehended significantly more from the authentic passage than from the edited ones. The majority of students also responded more favorably t o the authentic passage than to the edited ones. This research suggest s that students would benefit more from reading authentic texts, havin g cultural information written in English, or reading edited texts wri tten with the characteristics often found in authentic texts, such as bold headings, subheadings, pictures, obvious rhetorical organization, etc., than from reading edited texts that lack these characteristics and are typically found in first- and second-year language textbooks.1