A Book Review of 'Reading and Language Learning'

A Book Review of 'Reading and Language Learning'

The relationship between reading and language learning is very close. The editor of Reading and Language Learning, Keiko Koda, states that “while reading necessitates linguistic knowledge, reading ability enhances linguistic knowledge expansion” (back cover). Koda aims to explore the “interdependent” and “reciprocal” relationship between reading and language learning (back cover). Here it is important to mention that Koda treats reading in a second language as a “multi-faceted” and “multi-lingual” activity which integrates different “sub-skills” (back cover). Included in this book are six papers that address different aspects of these reading sub-skills. The first three chapters are literature-based papers, while the last three are more empirical. Therefore the book offers us a nice balance of theory—the theoretical background of reading in a second language (L2)—and experimental evidence. Although the theoretical studies to be found here are not new, they provide a good introduction to the foundations of L2-reading cognitive processing, and may be valuable resources for further research in this field.