AdvancedL2EnglishLearners.PDF

32 MSU Working Papers in SLS 2014, Vol. 5 Marked Theme in the Reading Comprehension Marked Theme in the Reading Comprehension of Advanced L2 English Learners David Martínez-Prieto MA TESOL Program Michigan State University mart1498@ Introduction: Yesterday I saw him him”), can be confusing to L2 learners. According to Barzegar (2013), the This is not only because of the syntactic way we arrange words in different positions order, but because sometimes it is difficult of the clause is essential to communicate in for learners to understand the reasons that any language. In other words, word order is have motivated a speaker or a writer to highly important when creating meaning. select a less common word order Second language learners usually aim to construction to communicate a specific have a clear understanding of how and message. where to place words, so they can achieve Thus, I believe that understanding successful communication in the target why native speakers choose to create language. Kessler (2004) found that native meaning by producing clauses with less speakers and advance language learners of usual patterns can help L2 learners develop English have a similar level of syntactical better discourse competence. Usó and knowledge, especially in terms of word Martínez Flor (2006) noted that discourse order. However, this word-order knowledge competence concerns all four types of does not seem equally applied to different communicative competence: linguistic structures and languages. In this regard, Jin competence (the ability to construct basic (2008) discovered that English speakers linguistic elements for communication, have much difficulty in learning marked such as morphological patterns or lexical structures in Chinese. Similarly, Solís sources), pragmatic competence