The impact of reading purposes on second language learners’ reading and recall processes

The present study explored how different reading purposes would affect L2 learners’ eye-movements during reading, keystrokes during summary writing, and text memory as shown in the written summaries. Seventy-two Korean speakers read an English text for two different purposes, i.e., reading to skim vs reading to learn, and wrote an unannounced summary of the text. The results showed that skimming led participants to engage in uninterrupted global text processing. Those who read the text for complete understanding, in contrast, demonstrated significantly shorter eye-movements accompanied with frequent pauses for local processing. Reading to learn further resulted in a greater number of pauses and revisions in summary writing process, recalling more idea units from the text. Copyright © 2021 Technology-Enhanced Language Learning and Teaching. All rights reserved.