Post-Secondary Reading Development and Print Exposure in L1 and L2 Speakers of English

Abstract

In this thesis, two studies are presented which examine reading development and proficiency in post-secondary education. The first study examines the utility of a common method for determining print exposure, the Author Recognition Test (ART), in populations less frequently examined—namely, college students (as opposed to university students), and individuals whose first language is not English. Item Response Theory analysis shows that ART is not informative for these populations, which suggests that the development of a novel test of print exposure for comparing different populations is necessary. The second study quantifies the impact of each year of post-secondary study on reading development, and the differential effects between native (L1) and non-native (L2) speakers of English. Findings show that each year of study itself is not a significant predictor of change, but rather improvement is explained by advancement in component skills of reading which develop over the course of the degree. Additionally, contrary to previous studies indicative of the Matthew Effect in college literacy development—which suggest that students improve by the end of their degree as a function of their ability at the beginning—this study demonstrates that L2 students generally benefit more from post-secondary education when compared to L1 peers, who start with a significant advantage. In this way, L2 students with sufficient mastery of component skills of reading emerge from post-secondary education with skills comparable to those of native English-speaking colleagues.