Summary and Recall of Text in First and Second Languages: Some Factors Contributing to Performance Differences

Research has shown that people generally perform the same task less well in a second language than in a first. ‘First’ is used in the sense of ‘native’ or ‘dominant’. The phenomenon is referred to as the second language deficit. It has been demonstrated in simple tasks such as naming numbers, performing mental arithmetic (Marsh and Maki, 1976), remembering lists of nouns (McCormack and Novell, 1975) and counting rapid signals silently (Dornic, 1969). It has also been shown in more complex tasks, such as the reading aloud of text and its comprehension (Kolers, 1966).

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