Reading process in L2 (English) and L1 (Persian): one system or two?

Reading process in L2 (English) and L1 (Persian): one system or two?

This study has been intended to determine whether there is one common processing system for strategic reading in L2 (English) and L1 (Persian) or one separate system for each. To this end, two groups of intermediate and advanced proficiency levels were put into control and experimental groups each of which took reading comprehension tests in English (L2) and Persian (L1) followed by a reading comprehension strategy questionnaire in each language to determine what strategies students employed while reading in the two languages. The experimental group received strategy instruction in L2 and after the treatment the posttests were given to the students. The obtained results showed that strategic reading in L2 and L1 is a unitary system since the experimental group outperformed the control group in both L2 and L1 tests as a result of reading strategy instruction in L2. Pedagogically, it is implied that since languages are linked in mind having effects on each other, we can compensate for areas of weakness in L1 reading as a result of transfer of higher order processing knowledge from L2 to L1.