The Effect of Recency on EFL Readers’ Validation During Reading Comprehension

Abstract

Outdated information influences readers’ validation process, which is the monitoring process to maintain information consistency during reading, and causes immediate comprehension difficulties. However, few studies have investigated the factors that directly govern the effect of outdated information on second-language (L2) readers’ validation. Thus, the present study investigated the effects of outdated information on English as a foreign language (EFL) readers’ validation by changing the order of information presentation. Thirty-one Japanese graduate and undergraduate students read 16 short narratives, each of which had one of four types of context sections: consistent, inconsistent, qualified-first, or qualified-second. The consistent context presented the protagonist’s information consistent with the target sentences. However, the inconsistent context proposed the protagonist’s traits inconsistent with the target sentences. In the qualified-first context, the protagonist’s current profile was presented first, and an outdated profile was introduced second. Then, the qualified-second context reversed the information-presentation order. The reading times for the target sentences revealed that the information-presentation order could influence EFL readers’validation of contextual information. It suggested that the most recently presented information among contextual information could strongly influence EFL readers’ validation.